Sense hardness: Effect of haptic perception on consumer attitudes towards brand extension

Abstract

AbstractEstablished brands endeavor to extend their products into new categories to grab market share and benefit from the positive spillover effect. The “fit” between extension products and their parent brands is a critical challenge companies face when launching a new product in a new product category, which is very different from the category served by the parent brand. A potential clue influencing consumers' perceived fit and attitudes towards extension products is the nondiagnostic haptic cues in touch environments. Thus, this study predicts that soft perception elicits more favorable attitudes towards extension product through attitude certainty and perceived fit than hard haptic perception. It develops a conceptual framework to anticipate that not all extension product judgements are equally affected by nondiagnostic haptic cues. Consumers' attitudes are less affected by nondiagnostic haptic cues when the extension product is from a close brand extension. The study examined the conceptual framework of four studies. Results of this work have many implications for package and offline stores design while contributing to the research in brand extension, cognition, and embodiment.