브랜드확장에 관한 대부분의 기존 연구들이 모브랜드의 특성 및 모브랜드와 소비자의 관계에 중점을 두어 진행되어진 반면에 확장제품 자체에 초점을 맞춘 연구는 많지 않다. 또한 기업들이 브랜드확장을 시도할 때 단일제품라인으로 신제품을 출시하는 경우가 많지 않음에도 불구하고 기존연구는 단일제품라인을 가정한 확장제품의 가격수준 효과를 살펴보았다는 한계점이 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 브랜드확장제품에 대한 가격전략이 소비자들의 브랜드확장제품 평가에 미치는 영향에 초점을 두고 확장제품의 가격제시 형태(균등가격 vs. 차별화가격)에 따른 소비자의 확장제품 평가차이를 규명하고자 하였다. 이와 함께, 가격전략과 브랜드 친숙도 및 브랜드 적합성과의 상호적용 효과를 분석하였다. 실증분석 결과, 비록 부적합 브랜드확장을 시도하더라도 확장제품을 다양한 가격대(차별화가격)로 제시할 경우 확장제품에 대한 평가는 호의적인 것으로 나타났다. 또한 소비자들이 인식하는 확장제품에 대한 평가는 모브랜드와 확장제품 간의 적합성에 관계없이 모브랜드에 대한 친숙도가 높을수록 호의적이었으며, 가격제시 형태는 브랜드 친숙도에 따라서 브랜드확장제품의 평가에 상이한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 즉 모브랜드에 대한 친숙도가 낮은 경우에 가격제시 형태에 따른 효과가 더 크게 작용하였다. 마지막으로 모브랜드의 친숙도에 따른 가격제시 형태의 효과는 부적합 확장을 시도했을 경우에 더욱 강하게 나타났는데, 모브랜드에 대한 친숙도가 낮을 경우 차별화가격 제시는 소비자의 확장제품평가에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 분석 결과를 바탕으로 기업이 부적합 확장을 시도할 경우 소비자의 수용 가능성을 높이기 위하여 소비자가 지각하는 모브랜드와 확장제품간의 적합성 차원에 근거하여 확장제품의 가격제시 전략(균등가격 vs. 차별화가격)을 다양화할 필요성과 브랜드 친숙도 차원에서 브랜드 관리의 중요성을 제안하였다. 마지막으로 학문적․실무적 시사점, 그리고 본 연구의 한계점과 향후 연구방향에 대해 논의하였다.
Recently the importance of brand equity management has increased substantially because it became one of company’s core competencies. Many companies have attempted brand extension strategies in various decision making situations, but studies focusing on the effect of price cues on the evaluation of brand extension have been very limited. Price cues are regarded as extrinsic quality cues that affect consumers’ perceived value and product choice (Bearden and Shimp 1982; Rao and Monroe 1988; Tellis and Wernerfelt 1987). Most of extant research on pricing strategy of brand extension has focused on issues such as the effect of target price level of extension brand on the brand extension evaluation(Taylor 2002; Taylor and Bearden 2002) or factors influencing reference price of extension brand. In fact, many companies do not launch new products at single price level, but rather adopt differentiation pricing strategy. Despite the growing importance of diverse pricing issues, little research has been done on assortment pricing and in particular, the role of price differentiation and price parity on consumer extension product evaluation.
Based on the previous studies(Chernev 2006; Taylor 2002; Taylor and Bearden 2002), this research focuses on the relative effectiveness of two types of pricing strategy(parity vs. differentiation) on consumer’s brand extension evaluation. It is hypothesized that when perceived fit of brand extension is low, differentiation pricing strategy will lead to favorable brand extension evaluation than parity pricing strategy. In addition, the potential interaction effect of pricing strategy and two other key variables - perceived brand similarity between parent and extension product and brand familiarity toward parent brand - are examined. It is posited that the impact of pricing strategy on brand extension evaluation is function of brand familiarity toward parent brand and the degree to which parent and extension brand are perceived to be fit. Six hypotheses are derived based on the previous findings.
To test hypotheses, we use between subject design experiment examining the effect of pricing strategy(price parity vs. price differentiation), perceived brand fit(fit vs. unfit), and brand familiarity(familiar vs. unfamiliar) on brand extension evaluation. Brand familiarity level is manipulated by dividing participants into low and high groups based on median value of brand familiarity. In this study "Canon" is selected for parent brand and we choose mobile phone as appropriate extension product and MP3 player as inappropriate extension product based on pretest results. Two hundred twenty two students in C university in Seoul, Korea are recruited to participate in an experiment. For differentiation pricing, seven MP3 players priced between 79,000~370,000 won and mobile phone priced between 170,000~ 610,000 won are presented. In addition, seven MP3 players priced between 178,000~23,4000 won and mobile phone priced between 310,000~379,0000 won are provided in parity pricing scenarios. The authors test proposed hypotheses with t-test and ANOVA.
The results of this study are as follows. At first, as we expected, the influence of pricing strategy on brand extension evaluation is significantly different depending on perceived fit of brand extension. That is, consumers evaluate the extension brand favorably if it is presented with big price range(differentiation pricing strategy) only when perceived fit is considered low. This implies that differentiation pricing functioning as quality cues decreases consumers’ price uncertainty, which affects consumers’ perceived quality of extension brand. This, in turn, can contribute to positive attitude formation toward extension brand.
Second, consumers’ brand extension evaluations are favorable when they have high familiarity with parent brand regardless of perceived fit level between parent brand and extension brand. The influence of pricing strategy on the evaluation of extension brand leads to different results depending on the level of brand familiarity. Only main effect of perceived fit is statistically significant for high brand familiarity group while signifiant interaction effect of perceived fit and pricing strategy is found to be statistically significant for low brand familiarity group. That is, the effect of pricing strategy on the extension product evaluation is stronger when the familiarity to parent brand was lower. This finding is consistent with previous studies arguing utilization of price information is broadened when consumers lack product knowledge or experience(Gerstner 1985; Rao and Monroe 1988) and it is verified that previous findings can be applied to the brand extension evaluation.
Third, three way(pricing strategy x brand familiarity x brand fit) interaction effect is found to be statistically significant(F=(1,210)=4.43. p<.05). Interaction effect of familiarity and pricing strategy(parity vs. differentiation) is statistically significant when perceived fit of brand extension is low. When brand familiarity to the parent brand is low, pricing strategy causes significant difference in extension product evaluation. This suggests that the role of price cues decreases when consumers can infer information about brand based on high brand familarity and high perceived fit. This finding recommends that differentiation pricing strategy needs to be actively utilized when companies try unfit extension in which consumers lack product information or brand familiarity.
In summary, the results of this research argue that the effect of differentiation pricing is more prominent for inappropriate extensions than fit extensions and consumers evaluate extension brand more favorably when they have high familiarity with parent brand regardless of perceived fit level. In addition, the results indicate that the interaction between pricing type and brand familiarity is affected by the level of perceived fit. From the theoretical perspective, this study contributes to predict and evaluate consumer behavior by empirically testing mechanism of pricing strategy in decreasing consumer's decision uncertainty. This study also provides several managerial implications for pricing of new extension product. Diversification of extension product pricing strategy based on consumers’ perceived brand fit between parent brand and extended product and brand familiarity need to be fully utilized. Finally, important topics for future research based on the limitation of this research are suggested as well.
