Extending brands with new product concepts: The role of category attribute congruity, brand affect, and brand breadth

Brand extension decisions evolve from two distinct strategies: product category extensions or new product concept extensions. We examined new product concepts varying in degree of congruity with category schemata and matched them with brand names differing in affect and breadth. In addition, using new product concepts permitted a measurement of brand-equity transfer. High-affect-narrow-breadth brands were evaluated most positively when the concepts were moderately incongruous. However, low-affect-narrow- breadth brands exhibited declining evaluations as the concept became more incongruous. In contrast, broad-breadth brands were evaluated identically across the incongruity conditions. Additionally, positive brand equity was provided only by high-affect-broad-breadth brands in the extremely incongruous condition. Implications are discussed in terms of the appropriateness of a brand extension strategy.