Symbolic Value Transfer for Commodity Differentiation: New Brand Creation Versus Brand Extensions in the Context of Agricultural Products

Abstract

This article aims at exploring whether and how brand extensions are a suitable strategy for branding commodities. The extant literature has focused on line and brand extensions for differentiated products, without providing rewarding results on the use of brand extensions for commodities. The results of two empirical studies, conducted in the context of agricultural products, show that the creation of new brands is preferable in case of scarce category fit between the parent brand and the commodity product, and that brand extensions are appropriate to differentiate commodities only if the parent brand is originally from a commodity, distant product category.