Abstract

This research addresses “Janus fit” brand extensions: extensions that are perceived to have both “fitting” and “unfitting” associations vis-a-vis the parent brand. One pre-experiment and three main experiments show that when a brand introduces a Janus fit brand extension, it is perceived to be more innovative than when it introduces either a traditional high fit extension or a low fit extension. The effects are mediated by surprise feelings. Specifically, the high brand innovativeness ratings obtained by the Janus fit extensions are explained by the fact that they elicit moderately high surprise feelings in consumers, instead of low surprise feelings (as high fit extensions) or excessively high surprise feelings (as low fit extensions). The Janus fit extensions can also be seen to evoke a “Eureka surprise experience”: an initial feeling of surprise, followed by a sudden realization that the brand extension after all makes sense for the brand in question.

Introduction

Brand extensions (i.e., new products introduced by an existing brand in a product category that is new for the brand) impact brand image, since brand image refers to consumers’ knowledge about a given brand and since brand extensions constitute new information about the brand (Michel and Donthu, 2014, Milberg et al., 2023, Salinas and Pérez, 2009).

One brand image-related goal that companies typically have when launching brand extensions is to reinforce the brand’s image as an innovative or pioneering brand, in particular (Aaker, 1996, Brown, 1998, Gürhan-Canli and Batra, 2004, Keller, 2003). A smartly executed brand extension can indeed reinforce the brand’s innovativeness or pioneering image1 among consumers, even if the brand extension product itself was not—objectively speaking—highly innovative, let alone “new to the world” (cf. Garcia & Calantone, 2002). For instance, by launching the e-book reader Nook in 2010, the book retailer brand Barnes & Noble was able to reinvigorate itself as an innovative brand—even though Barnes & Noble was objectively a late-mover in the market, coming after Amazon’s Kindle (2007) and Sony’s Reader (2009). Likewise, Apple has been able to maintain its image as an extremely innovative, pioneering brand through regular brand extensions, even if its brand extension products per se have not always been pioneering or highly innovative in their respective markets. For instance, Apple did not introduce its smartwatch Apple Watch until 2015, when Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, and others had already had similar smartwatches in the market for years.2

General discussion

۸٫۱٫ Contributions to research
The present research mainly contributes to three streams of literature. First, the findings contribute to the literature on the spillover effects of brand extensions on parent brand evaluations. Prior research has explored a variety of spillover effects of brand extensions, ranging from the influence of extensions on parent brand evaluations in general (Chun et al., 2015, Martinez et al., 2009, Martinez and Pina, 2010, Milberg et al., 2023, Parker et al., 2018, Salinas and Pérez, 2009, Sood and Keller, 2012, Yuen et al., 2021), to their influence on a parent brand’s perceived personality (Diamantopoulos et al., 2005, Mathur et al., 2012). However, before the present research, brand extensions’ spillover effects on perceived innovativeness of the parent brand, in particular, had not been examined. Yet, the present results suggest that brand extensions do impact perceived brand innovativeness as well. Specifically, the results show that Janus fit brand extensions make consumers perceive the parent brand as more innovative than the more traditional and unsurprising high fit extensions or the excessively surprising low fit extensions.

Second, the present research contributes to the literature addressing the perceived fit of brand extensions. In particular, the present framework adds to the recent research by Deng and Messinger (2022), which suggested that perceived fit should be understood as a multidimensional construct rather than as a unidimensional concept. Like Deng and Messinger (2022), the present results imply that consumers’ fit perceptions may involve an assessment of the fit (or similarity/match) between a parent brand and brand extension product on multiple dimensions. At the same time, the present framework extends Deng and Messinger’s (2022) framework by addressing perceived fit as a dual measure of degree of “fit” and degree of “unfit” across the multiple dimensions. This dual measure of fit/unfit allowed us to identify the new type of brand extension—Janus fit extension—which the traditional additive measures of overall fit have overlooked. Whereas the Janus fit vs. the high fit brand extensions may not significantly differ on a traditional overall fit measure (as used by Chun et al., 2015), they differ significantly on the presently-applied dual, count-based fit scores and unfit scores.