On the Negative Consequences of Thinking About Häagen-Dazs Cottage Cheese: Low-Fit Brand Extensions and Self-Regulatory Depletion

Abstract:     
Many firms seek to leverage successful brands by introducing brand extensions. These extensions vary in the extent to which they fit with the original brand image, ranging from high-fit (e.g., BMW driving gloves) to low-fit (e.g., BMW skateboards) to, in some cases, extremely low-fit (e.g., BMW cosmetics bags). Where previous work has focused on how fit influences consumers’ evaluations of the extension, this paper explores the cognitive consequences that evaluating low-fit extensions have for consumers. Across four studies, we find that evaluating low-fit extensions depletes consumers’ cognitive resources relative to evaluating high-fit extensions, and explore some of the implications that this effect has for consumer choice. In support of our theoretical account, we show that low-fit extensions only deplete consumers who try to reconcile the extension with the brand and that relaxing the standard of what constitutes fit lowers the cognitive costs of evaluating low-fit extensions, thereby reducing depletion effects.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 36

Keywords: brand extension evaluations, self-regulation

working papers series