The Impact of Advertising on the Success of Brand and Line Extensions

Previous research on brand and line extension required consumers to evaluate the extensions on the basis of product descriptions (Aaker and Keller 1990; Park, Milberg, and Lawson 1991). Such evaluations do not reflect actual market conditions where firms aggressively advertise the extension to ensure its success. Hence, previous results need to be modified to incorporate the effects of advertising on extension evaluation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of advertising on consumers’ evaluation of brand and line extensions and compare this with previous research in this area. Such a comparison will extend previous work on brand/line extensions and identify factors that make an extension successful in the market place.