Extending the Fit Hypothesis in Brand Extensions: Effects of Situational Involvement, Consumer Innovativeness and Extension Incongruity on Evaluation of Brand Extensions

Abstract

This study examines the effects of congruity between a parent brand and its extensions with consumers' brand extension evaluations. Two alternative predictions on brand extension evaluations, the fit hypothesis and an inverted U-shaped hypothesis based on Mandler's model, (1982) are contrasted. An attempt to explain this contradiction is made by identifying two moderating factors, a situational variable (i.e., task involvement) and a consumer personality variable (i.e., consumer innovativeness). It is found that while subjects show a pattern suggested by the inverted U-shaped hypothesis in their extension evaluations under the high involvement condition, subjects in other conditions show a pattern suggested by the fit hypothesis.