Business-to-business brand extension into consumer markets: an investigation of consumer attitudes

Leveraging a brand name into a new product category through brand extension facilitates success of the new brand extended, and reduces the introduction costs. The impact of parent brand extension on consumer attitudes is well-documented in branding literature. However an under-investigated area is whether business-to-business (b2b) brand equity can be leveraged in consumer markets (b2c) through brand extension. In this study we investigate the impact of parent b2b brand specific factors influencing attitudes to b2c brand extensions. Specifically, we measure the overall attitude (extension acceptance) of the b2c extension through a set of parent brand-specific constructs, such as brand knowledge, quality perception, CSR perception, and the perceived difficulty in extending the brand. We create four hypothetical b2c extensions of two well-known b2b brands, employing a quasi-experimental design. The results show that quality perception of the parent brand is the only significant determinant of consumer evaluation of b2c brand extensions for all extensions. The results for other factors are either extension-specific or relate to the category extended into, and shed light on consumer perceptions of extensions of b2b brands. The findings should inform managers of b2b brands planning to extend into consumer markets.