Research On Dimensions Of Perceived Fit And Influence Mechanism To Service Brand Extension

Brand extension strategy has become an important strategic choice of manyenterprises. In terms of theoretical research, brand extension theories have beenrelatively mature and widely used in the practice of enterprise management after30years development. However, these brand extension researches are mainlyconcentrated in the field of physical product while service brand extension is lessinvolved. Because of the significant differences between service and physical product,the rules and results of physical product brand extension may do not apply to servicebrand extension.Based on the relevant theories of entity products’ brand extension, this researchfocuses on the dimensions of perceived fit of services brand extension and establishesservice brand extension evaluation model from the factor of perceived fit. Thenmethods of questionnaire and statistical analysis are used to verify the effectivenessand hierarchy of the model, and to explore the influence mechanism. On this basis,the paper takes advantage of the express industry to further verify the model and toexplore the diversified development paths with the theory of brand extension.Through experimental analysis, we draw the following conclusions:1. The personnel, physical evidence and consumer similarity can be applied tomeasure the perceived fit of service brand extension. Personnel similarity includesmental outlook and service skills of staff. Physical evidence similarity includesphysical environment and equipment, and consumer similarity includes groupcharacteristics and service experience of consumers.2. Perceived fit, including personnel, physical evidence and consumer similarity,has a significant positive impact to the evaluation of service brand extension. And thisconclusion also applies to the express industry.3. Considering the express industry, consumers are more likely to accept extensions thatrelated to express industry, followed by the extension of the chain. And accepting alow degree of similarity with some around product and service is not easy toconsumers.4. Consumer similarity has the most important influence to the extension evaluationof express industry, followed by the personnel similarity, and physical evidence hasthe minimum effect in the three dimensions.