The authors investigate the empirical generalizability of Aaker and Keller's model of how consumers evaluate brand extensions. Various replications have reported different results. Using a comprehensive data set containing the data from the original study and seven replications conducted around the world, the authors undertake a secondary analysis to understand what generalizations emerge. The study has implications for the understanding of how brand extensions are evaluated and how empirical generalizations are made. For brand extensions, Aaker and Keller's model hypothesizes that evaluations of brand extensions are based on the quality of the original brand, the fit between the parent and extension categories, and the interaction of the two. The authors find support for this full model despite published results, including Aaker and Keller's own, that support only some of the hypotheses. The authors find evidence that the level of contribution of each of these components varies by brand and culture. With respect to empirical generalizations, the key implication is that it is premature to make firm conclusions about theory on the basis of only one study.

Food marketing is facing increasing challenges in using portion size (e.g., “supersizing”) as a marketing tool. Marketers have used portion size to attract customers and encourage purchase, but social agencies are expressing concern that larger portion sizes encourage greater consumption, which can cause excessive consumption and obesity. This article addresses two questions that are central to this debate: (1) How much effect does portion size have on consumption? and (2) Are there limits to this effect? A meta-analytic review reveals that, for a doubling of portion size, consumption increases by 35% on average. However, the effect has limits. An extended analysis shows that the effect of portion size is curvilinear: as portions become increasingly larger, the effect diminishes. In addition, although the portion-size effect is widespread and robust across a range of individual and environmental factors, the analysis shows that it is weaker among children, women, and overweight individuals, as well as for nonsnack food items and in contexts in which more attention is given to the food being eaten.

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An investigation is conducted into attitudes towards cause-related marketing (CRM

This research shows that a single auditory exposure to fictitious brand names may create the impression, one day later, that these brand names actually exist. It appears that the judgment that the brands are known is based on brand familiarity coupled with a failure to remember the exposure context. This demonstration, inspired by the false fame effect, is interpreted as the product of an implicit memory process. The result implies that measurement of explicit memory of an ad or other marketing communication may misrepresent (in this case, understate) the influence of that communication. However, the effect was obtained only when attention to the fictitious brand names was deliberate (as opposed to incidental). This suggests that there are lower attentional limits to the influence of one exposure to a brand name on creating familiarity without memory of the exposure context.