The Empricial Study Of The Impact Of Brand Extension On Brand Trust

In recent years, Chinese companies are experiencing fierce market competition, fast technology evolving and imitation. It becomes more difficult to compete only on the product level. Profitable business models and new operation methods are possible ways out. One way found is brand level competition. How can they occupy and expand the market share? And how can they keep the long term relationship with consumers? Those become the key issues to the firms. As a results, brand extension and brand trust provide a possible way to tackle this obstacle.Brand extension is a way to help the new product to enter the market quickly, but it is also a double-edged sword; brand trust eventually will affect the degree of consumer's price tolerance and lead to repeat purchase. However, given the extensive studies of brand extension, the linkage of the two fields is relatively rare. Our study is to explore this field and hope to attract more practitioners and academia to deep study in this field.Previous researches have adopted many methods to measure the success of brand extension, for example:the impact on brand equity, the impact on consumer's acceptance, the impact on brand personality and brand loyalty etc., but no research was found has established a model to systematically research the impact of brand extension on brand trust, as well as it's reciprocal effect on parent brand. Our studies established a theoretical model of the impact of brand extension on brand trust, studied the mediator variable and moderator variables which influenced the relationship between the extension and brand trust.The study shows:(1)When a parent brand and extension product have good fit with each other, consumer will present higher trust on the extension product than those with poor fit.(2) When a parent brand has higher quality, consumer will present higher trust on the extension product than that has lower quality. (3)Perceived fit moderates the relationship between parent brand quality and the extension brand trust, when a high- quality parent brand with a high-fit extension product present, consumer would show higher trust on the extension product. (4) When a parent brand has higher trust, consumer will present higher trust on the extension product than that has lower trust. (5) Perceived fit moderates the relationship between parent brand trust and the extension brand trust, when a high-trust parent brand with a high-fit extension product present, consumer would show higher trust on the extension product. (6) When a parent brand and extension product have good fit with each other, consumer will perceive lower risk on the extension product than those with poor fit. (7)When consumer perceived higher risk on the extension product, they will present lower trust.(8)Perceived risk is the mediation variable of the relationship between extension fit and extension brand trust, the partial mediation effect is significant. (9)Product involvement is moderation variable of the relationship between extension fit and perceived risk, when a high-fit extension product with high product involvement present, consumer will perceive lower risk on the extension product.(10)Consumer innovation is moderation variable of the relationship between extension fit and perceived risk, when high consumer innovation with high-fit extension product present, consumer will perceive lower risk on the extension product.(11)Parent brand familiarity is moderation variable of the relationship between extension fit and perceived risk, when a high parent brand familiarity with high-fit extension product present, consumer will perceive lower risk on the extension product.(12)Extension product with good (poor) fit doesn't have significant influence on consumer's trust towards the parent brand.(13) Children didn't show significant different perception on the extension product with high or low fit.High(low) extension fit doesn't significantly impact on Children's trust towards extension product.The results shows brand extension pillar theories such as category theory can also be used to explain the impact of brand extension on consumer's brand trust. The study shows fit is the key factor influencing consumer's brand trust, perceived risk is the mediation variable; product involvement, parent brand quality, parent brand trust, parent brand familiarity, consumer innovation are moderation variables. The study on Chirdren's perception of fit and brand trust brings new thoughts to researchers. Our study enriched the research of the linkage of brand extension and brand trust. The researchers hope this study will attract more practitioners and academia to deep study in this field.