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Brand extensions in the platform countries of Asia – Effects of fit, order of market entry and involvement

Journal of Brand Management volume 20, pages 424–443 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

More and more Western companies understand that Asian markets offer great opportunities to export goods and services. In addition many investment approaches made to Asian markets take place by entering such markets via so-called platform countries (for example Hong Kong and Singapore), as they serve as a bridge to the Asian market and offer an interesting learning base, with consumers cultural behavior being essentially Asian but with strong Westernized influences. As brand extension research has proved to be of major importance for international companies, we examine the effects of fit, order of market entry and involvement on brand extension evaluations in these platform countries. Although some of our knowledge from Western research can be generalized in an Asian context, the psychological triggers are rather different, as collectivistic societies foster the need for status and admiration instead of personal satisfaction. Our study contributes to the literature by taking the concept of self-construal as a theoretical basis for these differences. Results show that in low involvement situations an ordered market entry is required to make multiple brand extensions possible. Against this background, implications for brand extensions in platform countries are drawn and compared with previous studies conducted in Western markets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marketing I, Johannes Gutenberg-University (JGU) Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg-University (JGU) Mainz, Jakob Welder-Weg 9, Mainz, D-55128, Germany

    Frank Huber & Michael Lenzen

Authors
  1. Frank Huber
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  2. Michael Lenzen
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  3. Frederik Meyer
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  4. Andrea Weihrauch
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Additional information

1received his PhD from the University of Mannheim, Germany, and a Habilitation from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He is Chair of Marketing I at the University of Mainz and has published in leading international and national journals. He is interested in product and management, as well as in innovation networks and management.

3received his PhD from the University of Mainz, Germany and is Assistant Professor at the Chair of Marketing I, University of Mainz. His research interests lie in business ethics, branding, consumption emotions and decision theory.

Appendices

Appendix A

Single items for measuring affective, cognitive and conative evaluation

How much would you say that you would like or dislike this new Tempo product?

(1) do not like it at all – (7) like it extraordinarily.

What do you think about the quality of this new Tempo product?

(1) low quality – (7) high quality.

How do you feel about buying this new Tempo product if it were available where you usually shop for a reasonable price?

(1) definitely not buy – (7) definitely buy.

Appendix B

Results of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and Levene test

Table B1

Table B1 Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (KG) and Levene test
Full size table

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Huber, F., Lenzen, M., Meyer, F. et al. Brand extensions in the platform countries of Asia – Effects of fit, order of market entry and involvement. J Brand Manag 20, 424–443 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2012.50

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2012.50

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