Study On Brand Familiarity Effect On Neural Mechanisms Of Brand Extension Evaluation

Brand extension refers to the use of the existing parent brand influence and radiation force to introduce new products to the market, so that can bring out reduction of the risk due to new product markets and marketing costs. Aaker&Keller proposed A&K model in their paper "consumer brand extension evaluation" in1990, forming the model of brand extension evaluation which considers the fit judgment as a core factor. Further research, some scholars proposed brand evaluation model based on similarity judgments from the perspective of consumer. As for the factors affecting consumer brand extension evaluation, some scholars have proposed that brand familiarity is an quite important influence factor for consumer’s brand evaluation attitude. However, all the studies are based on behavioral research, studies on the neural area are quite few.In this study, we simulate consumer brand extension evaluation process using key-related task experimental paradigm by means of event-related potentials research tools to collect data. The main innovations of the study are as followed. Firstly, this study select appliances brand as the extension brand, which differs from Ma’s study. Ma et al who studied the neural mechanisms of brand extension selected beverage brand as an extension brand; Furthermore, on the basis of category similarity factor, this study adds brand familiarity factor to explore the impact of those two factors effect on the process of brand extension evaluation.To investigate how the consumers evaluate the brand extension, ERPs were recorded form healthy college student volunteers. In the experiment,16participants were required to look at the stimuli S1-S2on the computer screen. S1consists of15high-familiarity and15low-familiarity appliance brands. S2consists of8products in two categories: beverage and home appliance products. Experimental data shows that when the S2stimuli are beverage products, N400amplitude is significantly larger than the condition which the S2stimuli are home appliance products. Meanwhile, when the S1stimuli is the low-familiarity parent brand, the evoked N400amplitude is significantly higher than when it is the high-familiarity brand. Also, high-familiarity brand induce higher LPP amplitude than low-familiarity brand. Further, we find that consumer decision-making reaction time is longer in the similar category condition which is different from Ma’s experiment finding. Therefore, four conclusions are as followed:(1) Brand extension evaluation process exists fit evaluation of the parent brand and the products, as for the event-related potentials show higher amplitude of N400when the extension brand and product are different categories of products.(2) Extension brand familiarity has impact on brand extension fit evaluation process, as for the neural mechanisms reveals the difference of N400component:low-familiarity parent brand will induce a higher N400amplitude than high-familiarity brand condition.(3) As for the N400component, there is no interaction between the brand familiarity and the category factors.(4) During the brand extension fit evaluation process, EEG component N400and acceptance rate are significantly correlated.(5) Parent brand familiarity will influence consumer brand extension evaluation attitude formation. High-familiarity brand will induce higher LPP amplitude compared to the low-familiarity brand condition.