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TO WHAT EXTENT BRAND EXTENSIONS MIGHT INCREASE BRAND LOYALTY? APPLICATION TO LUXURY WOMEN'S WEAR AND ACCESSORIES MARKET: THE TOD'S CASE

INTRODUCTION

 This article has the aim to explore the impact of brand extensions on brand loyalty towards luxury brands in order to evaluate if the benefits of the first ones might be useful to strengthen the link between the Brand and the Customers. The first section is a concise presentation of brand extensions through some articles and followed by a brief description of models and concepts. The second part defines the topic of brand loyalty thanks to some recent articles and some abstracts taken from the wide existing literature. The next section starts with a short introduction on the main features of the Luxury Market and follows with the research that has addressed Consumers of luxury brands in order to understand their attitudes and perceived benefits towards luxury brands extensions. This article finishes off with a description of the obtained results, discussion and conclusion.

I. Brand Extensions

I.1 Main Features and Articles

Nowadays, Companies look more and more for brand extensions in order to get several advantages, both financial and marketing ones. Indeed they allow Companies to reduce risks and costs of launching new products and the investments in communication, increase incomes and market shares, strengthen the brand awareness.

Brand extensions increase the consumer perceived value of the brand. For successful brand extensions, consumers have to be able to perceive high fit between the extended product and the core brand. Thanks to this determinant the evaluation of the extension results credible and very likely to be based on the parent brand beliefs and the Customers will immediately infer the quality of the new offer. Aaker & Keller propose an attitude-based model in which describe fit as a key factor with attitude toward the original brand and perceived difficulty of making the extension. Other variables are involved in leveraging brand image in brand extensions as communication policy (Pina and Montaner 2009), brand type and cultural differences (Buil, De Chernatony and Hem 2009). In addition, Kapferer's model based on brand types demonstrates the importance for the brand to have a high brand meaning more adaptable and reliable into other categories. Finally Davidson and Taylor confirm this tendency, creating two models in order to prove the importance of a strong core in order to evolve successfully in to a broader brand.

 

Most brand extensions occur as line extensions, which use the existing brand names and products and extend them remaining in the existing product category. These extensions are seen as very low risk to both company and consumers due to low introduction costs and the target market product familiarity. Category extensions involve higher risks and costs, as both actual and potential consumers are motivated to buy very different products, which have been created from existing brand names and extended to new-product categories, then there are intermediaries and consumers unfamiliarity with the product.

Following some useful articles will be proposed for a better understanding of the issue.

A very interesting one which moves in brand extensions field is "Extending the brand: controllable drivers of feedback effects" by Montaner and Pina (2009). This paper seeks to analyse the influence of three variables: communication policy, brand breadth and extension-brand fit. The results show that brand extensions far from the current markets damage the brand associations, although the use of advertising focused on the new product can reduce this negative effect. Moreover, feedback effects are less negative when the brand has not been over-extended in the past. The results suggest how to manage the launching of brand extensions in order to protect the extended brand image. It shows what kind of advertising is more appropriate for marketing extensions as well as role of brand breadth and perceived fit.
moreover, Buil, de Chernatony and Hem with "Brand extension strategies: perceived fit, brand type, and culture influences" (2009) examined the impact of perceived fit, brand type and country's culture on the consumers' attitude towards brand extensions and on the parent brand equity. Brand extensions with high fit receive more favourable consumer evaluations and decrease the negative feedback effects of extensions on parent brand equity. Results also reveal that parent brand equity dilution is higher when the brand used to launch the extension has high equity. Finally, this study reveals that the country where an extension takes place may condition its results, mainly due to cultural differences. Managers should launch extensions with high perceived fit. In addition, greater effort is needed to extend high equity brands, due to their greater dilution. Finally, managers need to understand that consumer evaluations and feedback effects of the same brand extensions can vary due to cultural differences between consumers. Therefore, standardised brand extension strategies should be carefully considered.

II. Brand Loyalty

II. 1 Main Features and Articles

Since retaining an existing consumer is often more profitable than finding a new one and dealing with economic downturn is more and more difficult, brand loyalty is becoming an important objective for Marketers, as long as it has direct impact on long-term sustainability of a brand. There are several advantages, indeed Brand Loyalty: reduces marketing costs, attracts new consumers and increases brand awareness thanks to word of mouth, reduces the sensitiveness to price and gives the Company more time to respond to Competitors' new challenges.

The simpler definition for brand loyalty is the "repeated purchase" factor, but we should take into account several variables in order to understand this issue. High brand loyalty could be identified in the case of high purchase frequency, high penetration rate, when the price is higher than average in the category, when it refers to a leader brand. In addition to this, brand loyalty starts with the product in an initial stage and meet the brand in a mature stage (Torres-Moraga, Vasquez-Parraga, Zamora-Gonzalez 2008), it means that satisfaction is very important too, and it is used as a predictor of future consumer purchase. Recent studies consider the contextual factors able to impact the degree of brand loyalty and the purchase decision (Shukla 2009), because they in turn influences self image, lifestyle and consumption pattern. Furthermore, several models have been created in order to identify how likely a customer switches to another brand as the one named Aaker's Brand Loyalty Pyramid which measures 5 kinds of behaviours in the loyalty scale or the Hofmeyr & Rice Brand conversion model, which segments the Market on the basis of two variable: Consumer's Attitude and Behaviour. Very interesting for my research is Kapferer's Brand Loyalty model, which introduces as dimension of brand loyalty the trial of brand extensions next to brand presence and single product repeated purchase.

 

Some articles will be mentioned in order to enter better in the topic.

"Customer satisfaction and loyalty: start with the product, culminate with the brand" written by Torres-Moraga, Vasquez-Parraga and Zamora-Gonzalez (2008) enhances that studies on customer satisfaction and loyalty have focused on brand rather than product. It is not that brand is not important, but the process of loving a brand starts with a product. Customers appreciate products by themselves, independent of the brand, as shown in their pursuit of satisfaction and development of loyalty. Such appreciation seems to be prominent regarding innovative products when compared to traditional products. Their results show that the relationship satisfaction-loyalty is significantly present when evaluating products alone and has a weaker presence than when evaluating brand alone. The relationship satisfaction-loyalty is also present when evaluating product and brand combined, indicating that there is an intermediate position between product and brand. There are practical consequences of applying the typology and examining the findings, the relationship satisfaction-loyalty starts with the product, includes the product-brand, and culminates with the brand.
This study introduces a typology underscoring the pursuit of satisfaction and development of loyalty in three conditions of product presence versus brand presence, that is, product alone, brand alone, and product and brand combined.

Moreover, "Impact of contextual factors, brand loyalty and brand switching on purchase decisions" by Paurav Shukl (2009) starts from the concept the consumer culture in recent times has evolved into one of the most powerful ingredients shaping individuals and societies. Although the behavioural intentions and purchase decisions related models continue to dominate research and managerial practice, a deeper look indicates that most studies do not take the complete picture in account and study parts of the above mentioned phenomena. Furthermore, consumers operate in a dynamic and ever-changing environment which in itself demands a re-examination of their behavioural intentions and purchase decision influences from time to time. The findings suggest that contextual factors have the strongest influence on purchase decisions as long as thy influence the brand loyalty and switching behaviour.

III. To what extent Brand Extensions might increase Brand Loyalty?

         The TOD'S case

III.1 A quick look to the Luxury Market

The luxury industry is experiencing unprecedented upheaval. During the last five years a new environment has demanded a real reinvention, so that many brands are in rapid transition mode and others continue to resist the inevitable change. In addition, the rugged luxury context has to deal with the economic down turn, as the most of the markets, and it is more an more difficult to survive and thrive.

The old fashion enterprise could be described as "a castle with high walls ruled by elites", it is a closed system whose leaders believe that their success depends on their creativity and the knowledge of what is best for luxury consumers. It is closed to continuous consumer feedback.

The trend is changing and it is no more the brand who validates the Consumer but the Consumer who validates the brand. It is now easy to see the simple reality that most luxury business interactions are optimized by cooperation and collaboration with your customers.

 

It was showed how many factors push Companies to adopt brand extensions and to improve brand loyalty and these concepts are more and more relevant, especially in tough times like the ones we are living in. In order to understand the issue a lot of studies were carried out evaluating the benefits and the constraints of the two topics, however rarely they were referred to Luxury products.

As a matter of fact, many leading luxury goods companies have been applying extension strategies such as new product lines, product categories, and brand names. For example, Companies originally known for luxury products due to their long history of "Haute Couture" have extended their brands widely, examples are Christian Dior (prêt-a-porter fashion, perfumes, cosmetics, skin care products, jewellery), Hermes (prêt-a-porter fashion, watches), Tiffany & Co. (known for the "Haute jewellery" since some years creates silver jewellery), Louis Vuitton (prêt-a-porter fashion, jewellery, agendas and several other products have been introduced during his life, as for instance the eyewear collection in 2005). The examples are various and involve most of the Luxury Company existing, this demonstrates the important role that Brand extensions are assuming in the field. More recent ones could be Tods' (initially famous for moccasins shoes, now offers a wide range of luxury products), Montblanc (one of the most luxury Company known for writing instruments and leather goods) or Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney (both are Luxury Textile and accessories Company, they are expanding year after year their product range).

After having seen the context of this research it is time to go thru the methodology.

 

III.2 Research methodology: the TOD'S case

 As shown, the examples of brand extensions given by Luxury Companies are several but in order to simplify this research and the following analysis which will be carried out, it will be taken in consideration one of the latest example of brand extensions given by the Luxury Women's wear and accessories market: the Tod's new Sunglasses line. Eyewear collections are becoming a real trend in Luxury Brand extensions as it happened in the last years for Louis Vuitton, Montblanc, Miu Miu, Dsquared, Hogan, Marc Jacobs and finally Tod's.

In the late ‘70s, Mr. Della Valle launched the signature shoe, a luxury moccasin - "gommino" - with 133 rubber pebbles on the sole as a trademark. It was the epitome of an ideal: that of casual, handmade shoe, perfect for every occasion. In 1997, Diego Della Valle expanded his vision to bags, creating a collection in touch with the spirit of the brand: quality-minded and attentive to design.

 "TODS is Luxury, Art and Craftsmanship"

 Researches on non-luxury brands have shown that a major contribution of extensions is the enhancement of brand awareness. The same outcome is true for luxury brands, but there is an added risk, that is to lose their prestigious character in the case over diffusion is too high (Dubois and Paternault 1995). It means that brand extensions could damage the brand image of luxury brands, as these brands may be seen as widely available and accessible to the majority of people. For the actual Customers Brand Extensions for Luxury Brands improves Brand Awareness, however the Brand Loyalty could be damaged, since the brand lose his prestigious.

To avoid the risk of brand dilution due to over-extended products and to reach the satisfaction of the Clients (antecedent of Brand Loyalty - Torres-Moraga, Vasquez-Parraga, Zamora-Gonzalez 2008), the variable fit becomes a fundamental variable to be considered since amongst the multiple factors that may condition the result of an extension, two are of a particular interest:

(1) the perceived fit between the parent brand and the extension; and

(2) the characteristics of the parent brand used for the extension.

Perceived fit is one of the most relevant variables that can influence the result of an extension. In general, a higher perceived fit involves a better evaluation of extensions (Aaker and Keller, 1990) since the new product gains credibility amongst consumers. Similarly, an extension with good fit may reinforce parent brand equity dimensions such as brand image (Zimmer and Bhat, 2004). When the firm launches a new product consistent with the parent brand, consumers perceive higher fit between the products associated to the brand and the extension. In this context, consumers regard the new products as credible, which in turn make them more willingness to buy them. Furthermore if the extension presents a high fit, consumers transfer their quality perceptions and other associations to the new product. This contributes to improving the level of perceived quality and image of the parent brand (Martı´nez and de Chernatony, 2004) since the pre-existing associations will be reinforced (Aaker, 1990). Likewise, high fit extensions may result in consumers buying more products of the brand (Swaminathan et al., 2001), facilitate parent brand categorisation (Morrin, 1999), and strengthen the awareness of the original brand through the brand extensions increasing the brand's visibility (Aaker, 1991). On the contrary, an extension with poor fit may lead to the loss of differentiation and credibility of the firm, weakening associations with the parent brand (Aaker, 1992; Keller and Aaker, 1992). In addition, distant extensions are generally regarded as questionable by consumers, which increase the risk of failure. Therefore, consumers' attitude towards brand extensions and parent brand equity after the extension depends on the level of similarity or congruence between the original brand and the extension.

Considering what has been said until know and the objective of this paper, that is finding a possible answer to the main question "to what extent brand extensions might influence brand loyalty", a proposition will be suggested, in order to arrive step by step to a result.

Proposition: Brand extensions for Luxury Brands improves the Brand Loyalty if the perceived fit of the extended category is high.

 On the other hand it is true that if the Customer doesn't accept the new brand extension, he  will dangerously switch to other Brands (Paurav Shukla, 2009) and reminding that the research  moves in the luxury field the price sensitivity has not to be considered. It means that the Consumer will look for that product category but within the range offered by one of the Brands he already likes and he is loyal to, accepting the new trend of Loyalty to more than one brands.

In order to obtain a concrete idea about the potential interaction between brand loyalty and brand extension and how the Customer perceives it, the author found useful to have face-to-face interviews with Luxury Customers.

In a secondary time also the contents and the discussions on some Luxury blogs it will be observed, so that it could be understood what are the expectations of Customers towards Luxury brand, and as well what are the real feelings and experiences towards some brand extensions.

 

III.3 Interviews

 

The research for this paper was conducted in Florence, in the most famous streets for fashion, during the month of May. Florence is the biggest city of Tuscany, where you can find luxury stores (multi and mono brand ones) such as Chanel, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Emilio Pucci, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Dolce e Gabbana, Tod's, Hogan, Cartier, Montblanc and several others.

Only respondents who satisfied the eliminatory criteria and proved themselves to be luxury consumers and Tod's Clients were interviewed and used in this study. A total of 116 respondents with the characteristics to be women and 25-55 years old were approached, of which 100 satisfied the set criteria and proved to be luxury consumers as defined by Dubois and Duquesne (1993) and Tod's Clients at the same time. As defined by Dubois and Duquesne, a luxury consumer is a person who had acquired at least three accessible products in the last two years and at least two exceptional products in the last three years. It was considered relevant to introduce this first step in order to find persons who will not consider the product purchase as a question of money, consequently the results would be more homogeneous.

 

Therefore, the total sample was represented by 100 women with ages between 25 and 55 with the double characteristic to be Luxury and Tod's Customers. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire composed of three parts:

The respondents have been approached with an introduction and explanation of the context of the questionnaire: "Thank you for agreeing to take part in this test on a new product by Tod's . I am going to ask you some questions and showing some images, please think before each answers you will give in order to be the more precise and convinced than you can".

 

1)  Eliminatory questions: Tod's purchase and luxury consumption – The questionnaire started with three eliminatory questions which determined whether respondents fitted our sample, whether they were Tod's Client and luxury consumers, thanks to the intensity of their luxury consumption (Dubois and Duquesne, 1993). It was considered Tod's Client a person who bought at least one Tod's product in his life, while The acquisition of luxury goods was measured over 14 products, classified into two groups, accessible and exceptional. The list of products provided by Dubois and Duquesne and their result referred to the 1993, that is why, for the purpose of this research, minor adjustments were necessary and the prices were increased at least of a  5-10 %, while considering the increasing purchasing power and products costs.

 

2) Questions concerning the knowledge of the Brand – The first question which has been considered interesting in this second part of the questionnaire was to check the brand loyalty using a multiple choice question, with the possibility to choose between three slots: between 0 and 1 Tod's products bought par year, between 2 and 4 and more than 5 par years. Thanks to this answers it was possible to assess the intensity of the consumption and with the following question the differentiation in the purchase. Since Tod's is universally known at first for his core product, shoes, the author wanted to know if the respondents were usual to buy the pre-existing brand extensions of the Brand of our interest, such as bags and other accessories. Following this logic, which should bring the author to measure the existing relationship between the Consumer and the Brand, it was put a question with the aim to individualize the main characteristics that the Brand has in Client's mind and perception and so that are able to motivate the Client to buy the products. Here multiple answers were possible, all of them related to the core value of Tod's and in general of Luxury Brand as: Easy chic style and design, Quality, Elegant and Classic mood, Comfort, Luxury Brand, "it is fashion".

 

3) Questions concerning the Knowledge, evaluation, perception and feedback on the new extension -  This final part was setted up in order to asses the new Brand extension awareness and their perception toward it and had the final aim to give some concrete points of reflection in order to define the possible relation between the extension and the brand loyalty. One of the question referred to the knowledge or ignorance about the existence of the Sunglasses line made by Tod's amongst Tod's Clients. It was forecasted that some of them could not know it and it was considered useful to show them (in the case) some pictures and advertisements in order to let them evaluate the brand extension even if they were not aware of it. Since the literature proves the importance of similar core values for the Brand and the brand extension (Davidson, 1987), a relevant question was the one asking which were the characteristics the respondents were able to recognize in the new product. In order to have coherent and easy-to-evaluate answers, the same possibilities of the question n. 4 were proposed, which showed the general features that Tod's Clients consider important in the brand in order to purchase it.

Thanks to the answers the respondents gave, it would be possible to check the affinity and similarity between the new product and the Brand. A following question asked very generically if the Customers think the new product responds and respects the Tod's main features, in this case it was proposed to reply yes, not or I don't know in order not to have forced choices.

After the questions moved to investigate if the extension was really appreciated and finally if this appreciation motivated them to buy the Tod's sunglasses. Since brand loyalty, as enhanced in the literature review, is evaluable, within several factors, thanks to repeated purchase it was asked to respondents if they bought it and in case of a negative answer, if they had the intention do buy the new product.

The two last questions: one asked if they knew someone who bought the product and the last one if they would suggest a friend to buy them. This last question has a high relevance, as the  one asking for their purchase of the product, since it is one of the characteristics of Brand Loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing also has always been recognized as one of the strongest tools of building brand loyalty or awareness in marketing, and it has been considered as a part of market reaction to marketing action and actual product performance.

 Thanks to the answers the respondents gave, it would be possible to check the affinity and similarity between the new product and the Brand. A following question asked very generically if the Customers think the new product responds and respects the Tod's main features, in this case it was proposed to reply yes, not or I don't know in order not to have forced choices.

After the questions moved to investigate if the extension was really appreciated and finally if this appreciation motivated them to buy the Tod's sunglasses. Since brand loyalty, as enhanced in the literature review, is evaluable, within several factors, thanks to repeated purchase it was asked to respondents if they bought it and in case of a negative answer, if they had the intention do buy the new product.

The two last questions: one asked if they knew someone who bought the product and the last one if they would suggest a friend to buy them. This last question has a high relevance, as the  one asking for their purchase of the product, since it is one of the characteristics of Brand Loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing also has always been recognized as one of the strongest tools of building brand loyalty or awareness in marketing, and it has been considered as a part of market reaction to marketing action and actual product performance.

III.3.a Blogs

 As anticipated, it was considered interesting and useful for this paper to observe discussions and opinions on various fashion blogs, such as Al Femminile, Purseblog and others. Thanks to this observation, it was found out that  luxury Customers are always waiting for new brand extensions from the Brand they like more and they are wondering about the reasons why these products are still not existing in "their" Brand's range of products. It gives the idea of Customers always demanding and looking for the newness on the Luxury Market, furthermore, they seemed to be conscious about what they can expect from a Brand and they want it. Many blogs speaks about Tod's sunglasses with appreciations and posts creating just for the product, they show pictures of Celebrities wearing Tod's sunglasses, increasing the product awareness. It is more and more clear that Luxury items are becoming a necessity, as Coco Chanel said: "Luxury is the necessity that begins where necessity ends".

III.4 Results

 

After a quick look at blogs, it is now time to list the results obtained with the interviews.

Thanks to the dimension of the sample that the questionnaire addressed, 100 respondents, it will be possible to have simple data and as well to have already a percentage corresponding to the frequency for the questions with one possibility of choice. For all the remaining ones it is proposed next to the answers column one for the percentage.

The sample used for this paper, as already said, is made for the 100% by Luxury Customer who have bought once a Tod's product, and among these the 65% declared to buy between 2 and 4 Tod's products par year. The respondents are usual to share their Brand purchase, within the range of offered products, dedicating a 61,5% to the core Tod's product that are shoes, but this product comes out from 96 answers out of 100 respondents, a very relevant value since this means that the oldest Tod's product is highly deep-rooted amongst Tod's client. On the contrary, only a 7% bought once brand extensions different from shoes and bags, such as belts, wallets, bracelets.

Within the characteristics that our sample attributes to Tod's products, that are as well the reasons why they buy them, 84 respondents out of 100 and 82 out of 100 say respectively to buy them because of the style and design and because of the quality. The "fashion" status seems not to be relevant for the majority when purchasing Tod's products, but they take in consideration the fact to buy  a Luxury Brand. Regarding the new product awareness, thanks to the results we can see the respondents are mainly aware about it, the 71%. The following question, investigating on the characteristics they could recognize in the new Tod's product, was asked to all the respondents even to the ones who were not aware, after having shown pictures and advertisings. In this question, the proposals referred to the same possibilities of the question proposed to identify the main features of Tod's products. In this way it would be easier to compare the answers and to find out if they think the new product his pertinent to the Tod's Brand. 64 samples out of 100 declared to recognize the Easy chic style and design in the new product line, and 53 out of 100 recognized the Quality element, these results are in line with the ones coming out from the question n. 6 because the same characteristic got the maximum of the preferences in both the questions. Meanwhile the factor "comfort" is totally not taken in consideration in the Tod's sunglasses evaluation, this answers received just 4 responses out of 100 respondents, on the other hand the status of "Luxury brand" and "To be fashion" get more and more consideration in the new product evaluation. Anyway we should underline the number of  answers given to this question, whom the frequency is 210 against a frequency of 308 for the question referred to the general Tod's products. It means the respondents have no the right knowledge of the new brand to give a real answer.

In order to check the consistency of the results and so to have a second feedback on this subject we can look at the following question asking if the Customers think the new product respects the quality they appreciate in Tod's products they have bought before. A 68 percent of the samples said "yes", they found the same characteristics, while a 28 percent didn't know and just 4 percent said no. With the most relevant question regarding the purchase of the new product it has been possible to check that the 5 percent of the respondents had already bought a pair of Tod's sunglasses and within the remaining 95 percent, the 20% declared to have the intention to buy them, the 37,9% said no and the 43,1% didn't know. Moreover, 19 respondents out of 100 knew someone who bought the new product and the 66% of the sample would suggest a friend to buy the new Tod's sunglasses. As enhanced in the explanation of the structure of the questionnaire this last answer is quite relevant as long as it reveals an important factor of brand loyalty.

III. 5 Discussions and Recommendations 

 

Before starting the discussions about the obtained results, it should be considered that since the respondents represent a limited sample and not the whole population, the outcome should be taken with a certain discretion.

 

Analysing the sample is immediately evident that one of the main reasons why Tod's Customers have bought Tod's products is because of its style-design and quality, that correspond to the core value that Tod's has developed during its long history. Mainly they associate these elements to the oldest Tod's product, that are shoes, since 96 respondents out of 100 declared to have bought once this product. This is an interesting point of reflection, because the outcome revels that more recent extended product are not very diffused amongst the sample, since just 11 out of 100 have purchased once the latest extensions such as belts, bracelets and wallets. It could be said that Customers have not really trusted in the new products and they need time to take familiarity with them and to understand if the new products fit to the main Tod's value.

This assumption seems to forecast a difficult diffusion for the new sunglasses line amongst Tod's Clients, first because they are very recently introduced and second because the product category appears quite far from the staple product.

Despite this consideration the respondents were ready to infer the style-design feature to the new product but they totally avoided the quality and comfort ones and this data confirm the existing distance between the sunglasses line and shoes. Anyway the respondents considered them fashion and attribute them a Luxe status mainly thanks to the Brand Tod's core values. These reasons were enough for 5 Customers out of 100 to buy the new product and for 18 out of 95 to consider the possibility to purchase them in the near future. It has to be taken in to account that the 68% find similarity and pertinence between the new Tod's product and the older products they have already bought.

This revels, on the Brand side, the importance to have a strengthen core that let the Brand evolve gradually in extended brand as said by Davidson (1987) and on the Customer side to find high level of similarity or congruence between the original brand and the extension. Advertisements and Celebrities shown wearing the new product were surely another good motivation since the respondents have demonstrated to be sensible to the "fashion" status of the product, confirming the theory of Montaner and Pina (2009).

It is possible to say that for different reasons the extended product seems to meet Tod's Clients expectation and this appreciation is reinforced by the fact that the 66% of the sample would suggest a friend to buy the new product, and this is an important aspect of brand loyalty that would signify the trust and confidence toward the Brand.

 

Overall this study gives some contributions to the body of knowledge in the area brand loyalty and brand extension since it reveals that amongst Customer who recognize significant core value as quality, comfort and style-design it could be easier to introduce a new extended product which should reflect as much as possible this value. Anyway since the Customers are satisfied by existing products and will find in the new one similar features they will have a positive attitude and more easily will try the new product or suggest someone to buy them.

Nevertheless it is relevant to create a familiarity between the Customer and new product thanks to advertisement, blogs and  not least the experience of the product.

 

As already enhanced, rarely researches were conducted on brand extensions for Luxury Brand, this means that the field has already to be discovered with its several aspects. Indeed there are different points of reflection to go further in the topic.

Much research can be done in the areas of both brand extensions and brand loyalty for luxury brands, as research in this area has only scratched the surface so far. It could be very interesting to enlarge this research to other products and other categories in order to know which are different factors influencing the success of a brand extension and what could be its role in increasing brand loyalty. So that it would be possible to identify further factors that facilitate successful brand extensions and that improve brand loyalty.

As already said, brand extension for luxury brands could present an added risk, that is to lose their prestigious character in the case over diffusion is too high so these brands may be seen as widely available and accessible to the majority of people. It could be relevant to carry out new researches in order to consider this interesting relation.

   

 IV. Conclusion

 

Actually, Companies look more and more for brand extensions in order to get several advantages, both financial and marketing ones. On the other hand, since retaining an existing consumer is more profitable than finding a new one, brand loyalty is becoming an important objective for Marketers.

Moving in this context, the research have shown the relevance of two variables in order to reinforce the link between brand extensions and brand loyalty: a high fit which always refers to the degree of proximity between parent brand and the extension that consumers perceive; and the importance for the Brand to have a strengthened and broad core that let the Brand evolve gradually in extended brand.

Overall this study gives some contributions to the body of knowledge in the area brand loyalty and brand extension since it reveals that amongst Customer who recognize significant core value as quality, comfort and style-design it could be easier to introduce a new extended product which should reflect as much as possible this value. Anyway since the Customers are satisfied by existing products and will find in the new one similar features they will have a positive attitude and more easily will try the new product or suggest someone to buy them.

Nevertheless it is relevant to create a familiarity between the Customer and new product thanks to advertisement, blogs and  not least the experience of the product.

V. References

 

V.1 Articles and Books

 

Aaker D.A. (1990), "Managing Brand equity, capitalizing ont the value of brand name", The         Free Press, NY.

Aaker D.A., Keller K.L. (1990), "Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions", Journal of     Marketing, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 27-41.

Barrett J., Lye A., Venkateswarlu P. (1999), "Consumer Perceptions of Brand Extensions:   Generalising Aaker & Keller's Model", Journal of Empirical Generalisations in Marketing     Science.

Brandon L.,Forney J.C. and Park E.J. (2005), "Effects of evaluative criteria on fashion brand        extension", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management,Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 156-165.

Buil I., De Chernatony L. and Hem L.E. (2009), "Brand extension strategies: perceived fit, brand   type and cultural influences", European Journal of Marketing Vol. 43 No. 11/12, pp. 1300-1324.

Davidson J.H. (1987), "Offensive Marketing: Or, How to Make Your Competitors Followers",         Penguin Books Ltd.

Dubois B. and Duquesne P. (1993), "The market for luxury goods: income versus culture",          European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 35-44.

Dubois B. and Paternault C. (1995), "Understanding the World of International Luxury        Brands: The Dream Formula", Journal of Advertising Research, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 69-76.

Hofmeyr J , Rice B., (2000), "Commitment-led Marketing", Chichester, John Willey and Sons.

Kapferer J.N. (1995), "Strategic brand Management", Kogan Page Ltd.

Kapferer J.N. (2004), "The new Strategic brand Management (creating ans sustaining brand        equity long term)", Kogan Page Ltd.

Keller K.L. (2007), "Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand         Equity", 3rd ed., Prentice-Hall, New York.

Luxury Institute (2009), "12 Rules for the 21st Century Luxury Enterprise", Luxury Institute, NY.

Luxury Institute (2009), "Wealth and Luxury Trends 2010 And Beyond", Luxury Institute, NY. 

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Melika Husic, Muris Cicic (2009), "Luxury consumption factors", Journal of Fashion Marketing        and Management Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 231-245.

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About the Author

Sara Ricci

Master Marketing Management and Communication

Ecole Superiore de Commerce de Toulouse (ESC Toulouse)

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