Experimental Study Of Hotel Brand Extension Evaluation

Brand extension, not only to maintain the existing brand, but also avoid the huge costs and risks facing the establishment of a new brand. Research shows that: the proper brand extension can reduce advertisement cost, reduce market entry barriers, bring the brand equity leverage and risk reducing. In practice, the brand extension has long been applied in the food industry and electrical industry, and has achieved fruitful results, but its research and applications in the service sector is less. The arrival of the era of experience economy, on the one hand, makes the hotel industry of our country grows vigorously, on the other hand, has also increased competition in the hospitality industry. Therefore, to maintain the sustainable development of the hotel, we must improve and develop the pursuit of brand. The most widely used in brand development strategy is the brand extension.How hotel brand extension is in accord with the consumer expectations, can be accepted by consumers has been one of the hot issues that scholars study.This research is based on the classic A&K brand extension evaluation model, the research method of using event related potentials, no task related experimental paradigms are adopted to simulate the consumer hotel brand extension evaluation process. In the experiment, 18 participants were required to look at the stimuli-Si branded S2 on the computer screen. S1 consists of 10 well-known hotel brands; S2 consists of products in two categories: hotel(typical product of the brand), home appliance(atypical product of the brand). The experiment was observed in the brain’s forehead- Union Central and parietal regions evoked N200 and N400 components. The experimental results show that the S2 for the hotel products and home appliance, no significant difference of N200 amplitude. In addition, the hotel brand to extend home appliance products compares with the hotel brand extension to the international high-end hotel, the former evoked N400 amplitude is significantly smaller than the latter. Therefore, three conclusions were reached:(1)The classic A&K brand extension evaluation model does not apply to hotel brand extension evaluation. Hotel brand extension consists of similarity judgment.(2) When the domestic budget hotel brand and international high-end hotel brand during the brand extension, extension of home appliance products than the luxury hotel extensions more likely to be accepted by consumers.(3)The international high-end hotel brand to budget hotel product extension compare with the domestic budget hotel brand to the luxury hotel extension, the former is easier access to consumer recognition.