When are broader brands stronger brands? An accessibility perspective on the success of brand extensions

Abstract

It is common for brands to extend into additional product categories. The most successful extensions involve brands that are associated with benefits that are valued in the extension category. We propose that brand extension success also depends on the accessibility of these benefit associations and that accessibility, in turn, depends on the amount of interference by competing brand associations (e.g., category associations). One implication of this proposition is that broad brands (i.e., brands offering a portfolio of diverse products) will tend to have more accessible benefit associations than narrow brands (i.e., brands offering a portfolio of similar products) and can therefore engage in more successful brand extensions than narrow brands, even when the narrow brands are more similar to the extension category. However, when benefit associations are equally accessible and diagnostic, the evaluation of brand extensions will instead be dictated by the similarity between brand and extension category associations.