This research focuses on how negative information on brand extensions impact customers’ attitude towards the parent brand. It attempts to clarify the previously mixed findings on reciprocal effects of brand extension. More importantly, it endeavors to investigate such effects over several moderators: brand extension fit, information negativity, and association set size with parent brand. Two studies (using student samples and non-student samples) both confirmed that brand extension’s negative information has a dilution effect on the parent brand. In addition, information negativity and association set size were shown to be two important moderators while brand extension fit did not have a significant moderating effect. These results were consistently observed in both of low-involvement and high-involvement products treatments.
Zhang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.