Using Brand Concept Maps to Examine the Extension of Ford and Jeep Brands

Abstract

The intense competition in marketing today has led to excessive financial risks when a new brand enters the market. To avoid the extremely high costs and difficulties associated with this process, many firms choose to take advantage of established brands to launch new product lines or categories. The purpose of this study was to explore the evaluation of brand extension in fashion using brand concept mapping (BCM). Specifically, the first objective was to identify consumers’ associations with Ford and Jeep apparel using BCM, while the second objective was to categorize those associations using Korchia’s (1999) brand association categories to compare brand associations and images of Ford and Jeep apparel in the Chinese market. Snowball sampling was used to collect data in such major cities as Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Tianjin. Sixty Participants were recruited and divided into four groups: Ford automobile, Jeep automobile, Ford Men’s Wear and Jeep Men’s Wear. Each group consisted of 15 participants. Each participant created a brand concept map and answered a questionnaire. Consensus maps were generated based on individual maps according to aggregation rules. By comparing BCMs for Jeep and Ford automobiles with the maps of Ford and Jeep Men’s Wear, I demonstrated that the BCM can be a powerful tool to evaluate brand extension. Mapping results suggested that strong brand associations (both positive and negative) with the parent brand transferred well to the extension, even when the “fit” between the two was poor. In the category of fashion, brand personality and country of origin played important roles, particularly in emerging markets. Also, the level of brand engagement can be a good indicator of consumers’ buying power.