The Moderating Effect of Consumer Dynamics and Prior Experience on Brand Extension Evaluation

Most brand extension literature usually focus on consumers' evaluations of brand extensions from the perspective of the parent brand or the extensions product characteristics, or the interaction of the parent brand and the extensions. However, little brand extension research, as well as even consumer behavior research attempts to find the critical determinants as characteristics on the newly emerging consumers' behavior. Therefore, this research aims at examining on the distinctive consumers' traits of today as a moderator in the brand extension evaluation. More specifically, we investigate whether consumer dynamics (CD), named on the basis of two concepts, that is, innovativeness and variety seeking, and prior experience (PE) may moderate the relation of the attitude toward the parent brand (PBA) and the attitudes toward the extensions (EBA). The results show that the impact of PBA on EBA is greater when CD and PE, respectively, is high than when CD and PE is relatively low. Moreover, the sign of the interaction is negative, indicating the decreasing effect of PBA in high CD and PE situation, respectively. The research findings suggest many implications for marketers and researchers. Limitations and future research ideas are also discussed