Relationship Between Brand Personification of Parent Brand and Brand Extension

Abstract

1. IntroductionThe last 30 years has seen the publication of numerous research papers on topics such as brand image, brand equity, and brand personification. There has however been limited research examining the relationship between the brand personifications of the parent brand and the extended brand. To the best of the author's knowledge, only one comprehensive study on this issue has been carried out by Jarlhem & Mihailescue (2003) in which the authors have selected ethnic food industry as the stimulus, and their analysis is qualitative in nature. This study differs significantly from that of Jarlehem and Mihailescue (2003) on two counts. (1) The stimulus used in this study consists of sets of three fast moving consumer goods (F'MCGs), each representing varied degree of synergy (2) This study is quantitative in nature. It involves an attempt to derive and empirically test six different hypotheses for addressing the following questions: (a) is there any relationship between the company's perceptions and consumer's perception about the parent brand personification? (b) is there any relationship between the consumer perception of the brand personification of the parent's brand and the extended brand?