The introduction of innovations can be more successful when launched under an established brand name, e.g. as a brand extension. However, the role of the appearance of the design is often underexposed, whereas the visual appearance of products is known as a critical determinant of consumer response and product success. Based on current literature, designers and design managers only know what to design, but suffer from a lack of knowledge how to design more successful brand extensions. When designing the visual appearance of these extensions we can rely on the strong and recognizable identity of the brand (typicality), but also have to create a completely new product (novelty) referring to the much-debated MAYA Principle (Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable). In this paper we recognize the limitations of the MAYA principle and claim that the success of brand extensions cannot be explained by a simple negative linear equation of opposites as typicality versus novelty. The results of two design case studies about speakers and headphones show that at least three determinants play an important role when designing the appearance of brand extensions; product typicality (does the design look like the archetype product), novelty (how novel is the design) and brand fit (does the design refer to the brand characteristics). Besides that we argue that the optimal balance between those three actors will also be determined by the type of product (archetype or multitype). The results indicate a higher importance of a novel visual styling for speakers and a stronger connection between typicality and brand fit for headphones. To support the design process even further, we will present our findings with the aid of the Triangular Designers space that helps designers and design managers to strategically make decisions to launch successful brand extensions.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.