THE EFFECTS OF ADDING PRODUCTS TO A BRAND ON CONSUMERS EVALUATIONS OF NEW BRAND EXTENSIONS

In this study, we examine whether increasing the number of products associated with a brand decreases or increases that brand's strength. We develop and test hypotheses related to both positions. The main conclusion of our study is that when products affiliated with a brand have relatively little variance in terms of their perceived attribute performance, consumers' confidence in using the brand to evaluate a new extension (i.e., brand strength) seems to increase as the number of products affiliated with the brand increases. This finding holds even when the products affiliated with the brand are not perceived to be similar to each other.