A Study On The Effect Of Brand Commmunity On Brand Extension

There is a growing trend that offline is gradually replaced by online with thedevelopment of the Internet. Rise of online bookstores and decline of physicalbookshops is one of the typical examples. As the era of Big Data is quietly emerging,more and more netizens and virtual online world which stands for realism exert animportant impact on human life. When we shift our sight to the wonderful term brand,Those two forces we just mentioned produce a new noun: Brand Community. Forinstance, the U.S. Harley Owners Club is a brand community forethoughtfullyestablished by Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company. The success of this brandcommunity has active and significant influence on Harley-Davidson.In the academia, brand community and brand extension acting as importantindependent areas, has been the focus of research scholars at home and abroad.However, the combination of these two areas is seldom founded in the current literature.It can be imagined that if Harley conducts a brand extension pre-test on their brandcommunity, consumers’ acceptance and participation of the community will more orless, affect brand extension.Therefore, this paper constructs a structural equation model containing fourvariables, two of which belong to the field of brand community, the standard for brandcommunity cultivation, and the rest two belong to the field of brand extension, theimportant reference for brand extension. Next, this paper analyzes the sample datastemmed from members of interactive entertainment industry community, anddiscusses the functional mechanism of brand community identification and brandcommunity participation, to perceived fit and brand extension evaluation, which are thetwo main constructs of brand extension. The results confirm the hypotheses that thebrand community identification and community participation make positive forces onbrand extension evaluation. The conclusions not only enrich the theory of brandcommunity mechanism, but also provide a strong guidance for company brandconstruction, brand community cultivation and brand extension.