Investigating the current position of brand extensions in recent literature

Abstract

Human beings seek variety in different kinds of matters. It is seen that throughout the years of human evolution, there is not a static behavior rather a dynamic behavior is observed. From a consumer’s perspective, a similar behavioral pattern can be seen. In general, consumers seek variety. Regardless of the product category, customers want to have different kinds of options to consider regarding consumer decision making process. Because of this, brands offer different kinds of new products and services. If this new product and services include name of the parent brand, this is called a brand extension. In fact a brand can introduce a new product or service by creating a completely new brand or using the current brand name. If the current brand name is used when introducing a new product or service to the market, it means that the brand want to use the current brand equity of the brand and thus introduce the product or service with a brand extension. Brand extension is an important topic for both the marketers and literature. Considering the new products and services offered to the market, most of the new products and services are brand extensions meaning marketers are continuously working on brand extensions. Moreover, there are lots of recent articles regarding brand extensions topic in highly respected journals. Therefore the main aim of this study is to investigate the current position of the brand extension topic by analyzing recent articles. Based on the aim of the study, ten recent articles were chosen from WoS database. Most of the articles were from 2022 including one from 2023. When selecting the articles, keyword search method were used searching brand extensions as the keyword under the topic selection. After that, the articles were sorted by date and newest first, then the first ten empirical articles that can be reached are selected for the purposes of the study. The results showed that there is interest on brand extensions topic across different continents. Most of the studies are quantitative studies having only one qualitative study for brand extensions. This shows that brand extension is mostly explored from a cause and effect relationship view. Several product categories were used such as service industries (hotels, quick-service restaurant), FMCGs, fashion retail, and also multiple product categories in single studies. Brand extension topic has been investigated with several different topics such as masstige brands, upward line extensions, downward line extensions, intention to purchase brand extensions, green brand extensions where some of the topics were analyzed in multiple studies. To conclude, brand extensions is an important topic receiving attention from academicians across the world that is studied with multiple different topics, creating insights for the literature and marketing practitioners.