How advertising slogans can prime evaluations of brand extensions: further empirical results
| Published date | 01 December 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/10610429810244666 |
| Pages | 497-508 |
| Date | 01 December 1998 |
| Author | Kevin Pryor,Roderick J. Brodie |
| Subject Matter | Marketing |
JOURNAL OF PRODUCT & BRAND MANAGEMENT, VOL. 7 NO. 6 1998, pp. 497-508 © MCB UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1061-0421 497
Introduction
The investigation of the conditions which lead to successful brand extensions
has received considerable attention in the literature (e.g. Aaker and Keller,
1990; Boush and Loken, 1991; Herr et al., 1990; Keller and Aaker, 1992;
Park et al., 1989; Rangaswamy et al., 1993; Sunde and Brodie, 1993). More
recently the subject has been the focus of special issues of journals including
the International Journal of Research in Marketing(Barwise, 1993), the
Journal of Marketing Research (Shocker et al., 1994) and Marketing
Intelligence & Planning (Uncles, 1996). One area of particular interest has
been to understand the conditions under which priming a brand, with such
things as advertising slogans, can influence the evaluation of extensions.
Priming exists when “recently and frequently activated ideas come to mind
more easily than ideas that are not recently or frequently activated” (Fiske
and Taylor, 1984). It has been used by psychologists to aid the naming of
objects (Higgins et al., 1985), evaluating people (Herr, 1986) and solving
problems (Higgins and Chaires, 1980). While in the area of advertising it has
been used to improve the efficiency of recall and information processing
(Biehal and Chakravarti, 1986; Hamer and Kahle, 1986; Herr et al., 1983;
Keller, 1991; MacInnis et al., 1991; Smith 1992; Smith and Park, 1992).
In the context of brand evaluations, priming has been shown to influence the
process by which consumers categorise products (Barsalou, 1983). For
example Fazio et al. (1989) examined the conditions under which cognitive
categories of price may be primed and the resulting effects this has on product
judgement. He demonstrated that priming affects the way consumers both
categorise and judge products. In another study, Roth and Shoben (1983)
demonstrated that priming can alter consumers’ typicality judgements by
making some brands more accessible in memory. Further studies by
Chakravarti et al. (1990); and Johnson (1986) show priming can activate
“dormant” attributes which the parent and extension category have in common.
More recently an experimental study by Boush (1993) investigated the
influence that priming advertising slogans has on the attitudes and
perceptions of consumers towards brand extensions. The results suggest that
advertising slogans can play an important role in either supporting or
undermining a brand extension strategy. This is achieved by drawing
attention to attributes that the brand extension either has in common or
conflicts with the brand being extended.
This paper reports the results of a replication of Boush’s exploratory study.
The Boush study was chosen to replicate because it investigates an area
How advertising slogans can
prime evaluations of brand
extensions: further empirical
results
Kevin Pryor
Faculty of Commerce, Auckland Institute of Technology, Auckland,
New Zealand
Roderick J. Brodie
Professor of Marketing, Department of Marketing, University of
Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Successful brand
extensions
Priming advertising
slogans
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