Brand Rejuvenation: The Effects of Hypothetical Brand Extensions on Existing Brands

The dwindling competition for shelf space in retail stores added with high advertising costs gave FMCG sectors an opportunity for brand extensions and maximizing their profits. In such a scenario, though the value of brand could not be undermined from a consumer perspective, the complexities of its management determining the various contributing factors for new extension success, and the attitude of retailers and consumers towards new products or extensions based on various variables need to be pragmatically considered. The data were collected from 360 retailers and 360 consumers from the four major cities of South India. Review of the literature on management of brands pointed to several important variables. In this context, discriminant analysis was applied to assess the responsiveness of retailers and consumers towards the various factors affecting the success of brand extensions. Nevertheless, the present study may throw light on the effect of hypothetical brand extensions on their core brands of FMCGs in India.