An Empirical Study of the Effects of Consumer Knowledge on Fit Perception in Brand Extension Success

The paper examines the impact of consumer knowledge on consumer fit perception at brand category and image level that may enhance brand extension success. The findings revealed that in evaluating brand extensions, consumers not only use both the knowledge about the brand as well as category-level similarity between the extension and the products already associated with the brand, but also the image uniformity between the brand and the extension. Very favorable reactions occur when brand extensions are made with high brand concept consistency and high product feature similarity for both category-oriented and image-oriented brand names. The results also validate the mediating effects of consumer knowledge on fit perception at brand category level and brand image level. Marketers need to be aware of whether the parent brand is mainly known for its brand category or image across its all product areas. An extension of an image-oriented brand should be promoted and positioned with more brand-related knowledge whereas the promotion of a category-related brand extension may include more category-related knowledge. This particular study is expected to contribute to the brand extension literature by studying this particular aspect and help marketers in promotional and marketing differentiation in case of positioning an extension