Extensions of Broad Brands: The Role of Retrieval in Evaluations of Fit

Brand breadth is a function of not only the number and variability of products represented by the brand but also of the strength of association between the brand and the products it represents. The strength of association is reflected in the re‐trievability from memory of product associations. This, in turn, influences the evaluation of fit of brand extensions. Two types of brands were studied: those with a strong association to a single product (and weaker associations with other products) and those with strong associations to multiple products. Results from an experiment showed that for brands with a single product association, brand knowledge and context interact to influence evaluations of fit for extensions to products weakly associated with the brand. For brands strongly associated with more than 1 product, context influences evaluations of the fit of brand extensions.