Towards a better understanding of factors affecting transfer of brand associations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test and model the effect of parent brand salience, branding strategy and extension innovativeness positioning on the extent of transfer of associations from the parent brand to a brand extension. Design/methodology/approach – A field experiment based on a 2×2×2 between‐subjects completely randomized factorial design involving 808 consumers was conducted. Three factors were manipulated: parent brand salience, product innovativeness, and the branding strategy. Findings – The paper finds that, in addition to the main effects of salience and the branding strategy, all three factors jointly influence the extent of transfer of associations from a parent brand to an extension. Research limitations/implications – Despite the external validity of a natural experiment, some uncontrolled factors may have influenced the results. Also, transfer was assessed within time constraints (i.e. the time to complete the survey). The “duration” of any transfer effect is likely to be related to the ad exposure, which could be tested in future research. Practical implications – The findings are important for line extension development since they suggest that the launch of an extension can be designed to maximize or minimize transfer of brand associations from the parent brand to a new line extension, depending on the specific marketing objectives for the parent brand and/or extension. Originality/value – This paper fills an important gap in the literature in terms of identifying product innovativeness, parent brand salience and the branding strategy as synergistic factors affecting transfer of brand associations for parent brands to their extensions.