Stretching a luxury brand down: An experimental study of core brand dilution effects

Cahiers de recherche du CERAG n° 2011-06 E3This paper analyzes the effects that the step-down line extension of a luxury brand has on attitudes toward the core brand. This before-and-after quasi-experimental study shows that the step-down line extension of the Armani brand negatively influences the affective component of the core brand attitude for customers and non-customers. However, the conative component of this core brand attitude decreases for the brand customers and increases for non-customers. Other factors that affect core brand dilution are similarity in quality, branding strategy, distribution channel and self-brand connections