Interesting Results
Strategic Benefits of Advertising Brand Extensions
Brand extensions (new products launched using a familiar brand name) are often introduced to capitalize on the popularity of established brands. However, a recent study suggests that advertising brand extensions can benefit the original brand too, at least for some consumer products. Advertising a brand extension increased the popularity of the original brand in the study, but there was no evidence that advertising the original brand influenced the popularity of the brand extension. The study’s authors speculate that the reason for this is that there is a stronger link between the brand name and original product than there is between the brand name and extension, therefore advertising for the brand extension might conjure up the original brand in the consumer’s mind more than the original brand’s advertising is likely to do for the extension.