Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

1989). But if the information available does not reduce uncertainty, consumer acceptance is low (Min, Kalwani and
Robinson, 2006). Since prototypical brands tend to be perceived as particularly trustworthy (Veryzer and Hutchinson,
1998; Nedungadi and Hutchinson, 1985; Ward and Loken, 1988), they provide consumers with information that helps
reduce perceived uncertainty about novel products – leading to increased acceptance. We conduct a second study to test
the uncertainty reduction hypothesis.
Study 2
A second online survey (n = 381; 56.5% male; 25-65 years) replicates the effect of prototypicality on fit, and extends it
to dependent variables more directly related to innovation acceptance (i.e., attitude towards the product, purchase
intentions of the product). A second goal was to investigate factors underlying the expected impact of prototypicality on
product acceptance: perceived fit and/or the risk-reducing nature of prototypical brands. The brand and innovation
stimuli of Study 1 were used. We ran a separate Structural Equation Model for each product category, modeling
purchase intention and new product attitude as the dependent variables. Attitude is a partial mediator of the effects on
Intention. The prototypicality manipulation (brand with low = -1, medium = 0, or high = 1 prototypicality) is the
independent variable that directly affects perceived brand prototypicality. Perceived brand prototypicality affects new
product attitude and purchase intention via two mediators: perceived brand-product fit and perceived risk. In the base
model, we assume only partial mediation by brand-product fit and perceived risk. This model shows acceptable fit to
the data for each of the four product categories (chi²(94) all below 179.9, p .05) in three product categories (SUVs,
chocolate and ketchup) and even negative in one case (beer). We verify that these regression weights are indeed
significantly different across groups by means of a Chi² difference test. This turns out to be the case (p < .001 for SUVs,
chocolate and beer, and p = .004 for ketchup).
Conclusion
Results from three studies demonstrate that there are at least two routes to the acceptance of prototypically branded
innovations. A category-fit route, which becomes stronger when novel products are perceived to be close to the core
category of the prototypical brand; and a risk-reduction route is active for both close and distant novel products. These
studies bridge a gap between the brand extension literature that focuses on factors affecting consumer acceptance of
extensions of existing brands, and the innovation literature that examines reasons for new product success and failure.
The results also nuance earlier claims that category congruence is crucial for successfully extending prototypical
brands. Finally, these results demonstrate that prototypicality transcends category anchoring effects, and positively
influences the acceptance of new products, even in distant product categories.
References
1. Aaker, D.A. (1990). Brand Extensions: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Sloan Management Review, 31 (4), 47-56.
2. Aaker, D.A., & Keller, K.L. (1990). Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions. Journal of Marketing, 54 (1), 27-41.
3. Boush, D.M., & Loken, B. (1991). A Process-Tracing Study of Brand Extension Evaluation. Journal of Marketing Research, 28 (1), 16-28.
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