Brand extension evaluation: real world and virtual world

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to help marketing scholars view virtual worlds as new product–markets and trigger serious investigations on consumer evaluation of brand extensions when a brand is extended from the real world to a virtual world and vice versa. Design/methodology/approach – The paper makes an extensive review of studies on virtual world. Further, it amalgamates understanding from well-established literature on consumer evaluation of brand extensions into the emerging virtual world understanding to conceptualize moderating influence of contexts – the real world context and a virtual world context – on how consumers evaluate brand extensions. Findings – Through logical arguments supported by existing literature, the paper provides 14 well-conceptualized propositions that argue that the real world and virtual world contexts moderate the well-established relationships in brand extension literature. It broadly proposes that the relationships between the consumer evaluations of brand extension and its known determinants are stronger in case of within-the-world extensions and weaker in case of across-the-world extensions. Research limitations/implications – The paper introduces to the marketing scholars an entirely new area of enquiry as it challenges the known brand extension knowledge when a brand is extended across the worlds. Practical implications – Marketers considering launching new offerings across the contexts of real or virtual world would have implications on whether to extend the brand or not. Originality/value – Virtual worlds have largely been construed in marketing literature as fictional worlds. There is not much explored in terms of virtual worlds as new product–markets. The study offers unique value in conceptualizing differences among within-the-world brand extensions and across-the-world brand extensions.

The evolution of brand management thinking over the last 25 years as recorded in the Journal of Product and Brand Management

“…Specific technologies allow individuals to express themselves in different manners using the functions they offer (Tafesse, 2016). Currently, brand use often transitions from the real to the virtual world and vice versa (Ramanathan and Purani, 2014). Consumers have grown to expect a seamless experience of a brand and its extensions in both contexts, forcing managers to learn how to support the brands and secure their success in this new reality.…”

Detangling consumer attitudes to better explain co-branding success

“…A high degree of fit results in a positive assessment of co-branded products (Aaker and Keller, 1990; Boush and Loken, 1991; Bhat and Reddy, 1998; Ramanathan and Purani, 2014; Xiao and Lee, 2014) and increases the likelihood of success of co-branded products (Park et al , 1996; Simonin and Ruth, 1998; Menon and Kahn, 2003; Helmig et al , 2007; Monga and Lau-Gesk, 2007). By contrast, if product fit and brand fit of two constituent brands are inconsistent, the co-branded product might create incompatible beliefs and judgments in consumers’ minds.…”

Service Delivery and Branding Management in Digital Platforms: Innovation through Brand Extension

“…In the digital world, the effects of e-service innovations on customer satisfaction and loyalty are empirically investigated in telecommunication services [15,16], portal sites [17,18], and internet-based games [19]. In the platform context, researchers have already investigated the adoption of line extensions in services, such as the car-sharing service of DiDi from the trust [20,21] and risk [22] perspectives and Uber from reputation, risk, and electronic word of mouth (E-WOM) viewpoints [23].…”