Narrow, powerful, and public: the influence of brand breadth in the luxury market

Abstract

Although the current literature in brand extensions is replete with studies in both line and category extensions, the effect of brand breadth (magnitude of the category extensions) is still yet to be thoroughly examined. Few researchers have focused on brand breadth, to suggest when to choose a narrow (vs. broad) brand extension strategy. Accordingly, no theoretical explanations support the coexistence of both narrow brands (i.e., brands with extensions in similar categories) and broad brands (i.e., brands with extensions in dissimilar categories), particularly in the luxury market. In order to provide guidelines for luxury marketers to enhance overall brand equity, we investigate conditions under which narrow brands are more strongly preferred to broad brands in the luxury market, using a total of 389 respondents recruited via Amazon M-turks and 230 university volunteers in four experiments. Findings demonstrate that narrow brands are liked more than broad brands only with consumers who feel powerful and desire status, and especially when the consumption occurs in public. Highlighting the importance of brand breadth, the current research contributes to the literature in brand extensions and luxury branding by supplying theoretical guidelines to formulate successful brand extension strategies for luxury marketers.