가격제시형태가 소비자의 브랜드확장제품 평가에 미치는 영향: 브랜드 친숙도와 브랜드 적합성과의 상호작용

Abstract

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.