The Eyes Have It: How a Car's Face Influences Consumer Categorization and Evaluation of Product Line Extensions

This research focuses on a previously unexamined risk associated with the widely used new product development strategy of line extensions. Specifically, it explores consumer reactions when line extensions become too visually similar and examines both short-term and longer term strategies for solving the problem. Examined in the context of consumer durables, specifically, automobiles, the results show that consumers who make categorization mistakes when trying to distinguish between two visually similar product lines have more negative attitudes not only toward the product but also toward the parent brand. The results of Study 1 confirm that providing a design vocabulary that articulates the car's design features is effective in reducing consumer's categorization mistakes. In addition, results of Study 2 indicate that changes to the car's “eyes” (headlights) are more effective than changes to the car's “mouth” (grille) in helping consumers to differentiate among cars in the line.

[1]  Deborah Roedder John,et al.  What Makes Brands Elastic? The Influence of Brand Concept and Styles of Thinking on Brand Extension Evaluation , 2010 .

[2]  Michel Wedel,et al.  Brand Extension Strategy Planning: Empirical Estimation of Brand–Category Personality Fit and Atypicality , 2010 .

[3]  Ian Clark Sinapuelas,et al.  Do line extensions influence parent brand equity? An investigation of supermarket packaged goods , 2010 .

[4]  Andreas Herrmann,et al.  The influence of stimulus ambiguity on category and attitude formation , 2010 .

[5]  A. Chernev,et al.  The Impact of Product Line Extensions and Consumer Goalson the Formation of Price Image , 2010 .

[6]  Sharon Ng.  Cultural Orientation and Brand Dilution: Impact of Motivation Level and Extension Typicality: , 2010 .

[7]  Joseph C. Nunes,et al.  The Malleable Brand: The Role of Implicit Theories in Evaluating Brand Extensions , 2010 .

[8]  Gavan J. Fitzsimons,et al.  AUTOMATIC EFFECTS OF ANTHROPOMORPHIZED OBJECTS ON BEHAVIOR , 2008 .

[9]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Anthropomorphic Interactions with a Robot and Robot–like Agent , 2008 .

[10]  P. Aggarwal,et al.  Is That Car Smiling at Me? Schema Congruity as a Basis for Evaluating Anthropomorphized Products , 2007 .

[11]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  On seeing human: a three-factor theory of anthropomorphism. , 2007, Psychological review.

[12]  I. Phau,et al.  Extending symbolic brands using their personality: examining antecedents and implications towards brand image fit and brand dilution , 2007 .

[13]  Xiaoli Nan.  Affective cues and brand-extension evaluation: Exploring the influence of attitude toward the parent brand and attitude toward the extension ad , 2006 .

[14]  Huifang Mao,et al.  Effects of Prototype and Exemplar Fit on Brand Extension Evaluations: A Two-Process Contingency Model , 2006 .

[15]  Vicki R. Lane,et al.  The negative effects of expecting to evaluate: Reexamination and extension in the context of service failure , 2005 .

[16]  Jonathan D. Nelson,et al.  What a speaker’s choice of frame reveals: Reference points, frame selection, and framing effects , 2003, Psychonomic bulletin & review.

[17]  I. Gauthier,et al.  Perceptual interference supports a non-modular account of face processing , 2003, Nature Neuroscience.

[18]  Kevin Lane Keller.  Brand Synthesis: The Multidimensionality of Brand Knowledge , 2003 .

[19]  Kai Lung Hui,et al.  Product Variety Under Brand Influence: An Empirical Investigation of Personal Computer Demand , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[20]  Sanjay Sood,et al.  “Deep” and “Surface” Cues: Brand Extension Evaluations by Children and Adults , 2002 .

[21]  P. Bottomley,et al.  Do We Really Know how Consumers Evaluate Brand Extensions? Empirical Generalizations Based on Secondary Analysis of Eight Studies , 2001 .

[22]  Srinivas K. Reddy,et al.  The impact of parent brand attribute associations and affect on brand extension evaluation , 2001 .

[23]  I. Gauthier,et al.  Expertise for cars and birds recruits brain areas involved in face recognition , 2000, Nature Neuroscience.

[24]  L. Flynn,et al.  A Short, Reliable Measure of Subjective Knowledge , 1999 .

[25]  Nick Donnelly,et al.  The mental representations of faces and houses: Issues concerning parts and wholes , 1999 .

[26]  Amna Kirmani,et al.  The Ownership Effect in Consumer Responses to Brand Line Stretches , 1999 .

[27]  Richard Speed,et al.  Choosing between line extensions and second brands: the case of the Australian and New Zealand wine industries , 1998 .

[28]  H. Leder,et al.  Your eyes only? A test of interactive influence in the processing of facial features. , 1998, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[29]  S. Ratneshwar,et al.  The Effect of Cultural Orientation on Persuasion , 1997 .

[30]  Harold W. Berkman,et al.  Assessing the predictive validity of two methods of measuring self-image congruence , 1997 .

[31]  Kathy Hammond,et al.  The measurement of cannibalization , 1996 .

[32]  Stephen J. Hoch,et al.  Consumption Vocabulary and Preference Formation , 1996 .

[33]  Steven M. Shugan,et al.  Branded Variants: A Retail Perspective , 1996 .

[34]  Michael A. Kamins,et al.  An Empirical Investigation of Consumer Memory, Attitude, and Perceptions toward Pioneer and Follower Brands , 1995 .

[35]  K. Hunt,et al.  A process model of the effects of price promotions on brand image , 1994 .

[36]  Srinivas K. Reddy,et al.  To Extend or Not to Extend: Success Determinants of Line Extensions , 1994 .

[37]  M. Farah,et al.  Parts and Wholes in Face Recognition , 1993, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[38]  K. Hunt,et al.  Sales Promotion Wars , 1992 .

[39]  Karen H. Smith,et al.  Some Effects of Schematic Processing on Consumer Expectations and Disconfirmation Judgments , 1992 .

[40]  Kenneth A. Hunt,et al.  Conceptualization and operationalization of retail store image: A case of rival middle-level theories , 1992 .

[41]  A. Tversky,et al.  Loss Aversion in Riskless Choice: A Reference-Dependent Model , 1991 .

[42]  B. Ratchford,et al.  An Empirical Test of a Model of External Search for Automobiles , 1991 .

[43]  Sandra J. Milberg,et al.  Evaluation of Brand Extensions: The Role of Product Feature Similarity and Brand Concept Consistency , 1991 .

[44]  E. Hunt,et al.  The Whorfian Hypothesis: A Cognitive Psychology Perspective , 1991 .

[45]  David M. Boush,et al.  A Process-Tracing Study of Brand Extension Evaluation , 1991 .

[46]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Evaluating service encounters: The effects of physical surroundings and employee responses. , 1990 .

[47]  Kevin Lane Keller,et al.  Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions , 1990 .

[48]  Alice M. Tybout,et al.  Schema Congruity as a Basis for Product Evaluation , 1989 .

[49]  M. Sujan,et al.  Product Categorization and Inference Making: Some Implications for Comparative Advertising , 1987 .

[50]  Joel B. Cohen,et al.  Alternative Models of Categorization: Toward a Contingent Processing Framework , 1987 .

[51]  V. Folkes,et al.  Buyers' and Sellers' Explanations for Product Failure: Who Done It? , 1986 .

[52]  P. Kay,et al.  What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? , 1983 .

[53]  Girish N. Punj.  The formulation, empirical specification and testing of a model of consumer information search behavior for new automobiles , 1983 .

[54]  E. Hunt.  Mechanics of Verbal Ability. , 1978 .

[55]  Jan R. Landwehr,et al.  Consumer and product face-to-face : antecedents and consequences of spontaneous - face-schema activation , 2010 .

[56]  Kostas Axarloglou.  Product line extensions: causes and effects , 2008 .

[57]  Gianfranco Walsh,et al.  Towards a Conceptual Model of Consumer Confusion , 2005 .

[58]  Kunal Basu,et al.  Consumers' categorization processes: An examination with two alternative methodological paradigms , 1993 .

[59]  David M. Boush.  How advertising slogans can prime evaluations of brand extensions , 1993 .

[60]  Wayne D. Hoyer,et al.  Line Extensions: a Categorization and an Information Processing Perspective , 1993 .

[61]  M. Banaji,et al.  THE WHORFIAN HYPOTHESIS REVISITED: A COGNITIVE SCIENCE VIEW OF LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL EFFECTS ON THOUGHT , 1988 .

[62]  L. Caporael.  Anthropomorphism and mechanomorphism: two faces of the human machine , 1986 .

[63]  H. Kelley.  The processes of causal attribution. , 1973 .