| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄科技大學 === 應用日語系 === 107 === Normally products and services have their own brand names. The brand extension is an approach which companies attach the same brand name to different categories of products or services on the market.
According to Keller (2015), there are two methods of brand extension: line extension and category extension. In addition, in order to succeed in brand extension, the concept of fitness is so important. An early dissertation on fitness is Aaker, D. A. and K. L. Keller (1990), and their study reveals that fitness is viewed in three dimensions (substitutability, complementarity, transferability).
In the study by Monga, AB, DR John (2007; 2010), people in the Eastern cultural area tend to think holistically, but those in the western culture area tend to think analytically. People who are thinking holistically are more receptive to new products for expansion than those of analytical thinking.
Susan Fournier’s study which about the concept of brand relationship (1998) has identified 15 types of relationships between people and brands. Through detailed question interviews with consumers, she identified the factors that measure the brand relationship quality (BRQ). Therefore, assuming that acceptance to new product expansion is not only due to fitness, but also brand relationships.
Furthermore, Kubota (2010a) described the limitations of brand relationships in the fitness approach, and advocated the formation of brand relationships by the identification approach. Kubota (2010b) 's study has revealed that the formation factor of brand relationship by the identification approach have three elements (cognitive element, emotional element, evaluation element).
This study assumed that the target of brand expansion which is family branding or category expansion. The influence of acceptance factors on category expansion on each factors that form brand relationship is examined by the identification approach. This study selected Sony for verification because Sony is developing in various businesses and in the “Brand Asia 2018” survey by Nikkei BP Consulting, Sony is ranked 8th in the overall brand average ranking of 80 global brands in Asia.
This study used covariance structure analysis and all the questionnaire surveys via the Internet. 218 questionnaires for people in the Eastern cultural areas are collected. The analysis results revealed that cognitive and emotional factors had no positive effect on the acceptance for category expansion, and the only evaluation factor had a positive effect on the acceptance for category expansion.
For future studies, it is necessary to investigate the influence on the category expansion by the group psychology. In addition, it is necessary to consider whether other brands will produce the same result, and to consider whether the brand relationship weakens the defect after the brand expansion or not.
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