Centres Of Excellence

To focus on new and emerging areas of research and education, Centres of Excellence have been established within the Institute. These ‘virtual' centres draw on resources from its stakeholders, and interact with them to enhance core competencies

Read More >>

Faculty

Faculty members at IIMB generate knowledge through cutting-edge research in all functional areas of management that would benefit public and private sector companies, and government and society in general.

Read More >>

IIMB Management Review

Journal of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

IIM Bangalore offers Degree-Granting Programmes, a Diploma Programme, Certificate Programmes and Executive Education Programmes and specialised courses in areas such as entrepreneurship and public policy.

Read More >>

About IIMB

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) believes in building leaders through holistic, transformative and innovative education

Read More >>

Person Thing Orientation and Brand Extensions

Durairaj Maheswaran and Malika
2022
Working Paper No
671
Body

Emerging research has shown that consumers differ in their interaction with the environment. Person-oriented individuals selectively examine the environment and direct their attention towards people and relationships. Thing-oriented individuals primarily focus on objects and their functionality. Three studies document that person thing orientation (person vs. thing) influences how consumers evaluate brand extensions and feedback effects on the parent brand. For person-oriented (vs. thing-oriented) individuals, who are more likely to take the parent brand’s perspective and closely relate the parent brand with its extension, extension fit impacts extension evaluations as well as parent brand assessments. Specifically, for person-oriented individuals, extension evaluations, feedback effects on evaluations and inherently salient brand personality impressions are more (vs. less) favorable when extension fit is high (vs. low). In contrast, thing-oriented individuals only evaluate the extension (vs. parent brand) such that high fit extension is viewed more favorably than low fit extension. We identify conditions that lead thing-oriented individuals to pay attention to parent brand assessments. The theoretical contributions to individual difference literature and brand extension research are highlighted along with implications for managers.

Key words
individual differences, branding, persuasion, brand equity.
WP No. 671.pdf (534.48 KB)

Person Thing Orientation and Brand Extensions

Author(s) Name: Durairaj Maheswaran and Malika, 2022
Working Paper No : 671
Abstract:

Emerging research has shown that consumers differ in their interaction with the environment. Person-oriented individuals selectively examine the environment and direct their attention towards people and relationships. Thing-oriented individuals primarily focus on objects and their functionality. Three studies document that person thing orientation (person vs. thing) influences how consumers evaluate brand extensions and feedback effects on the parent brand. For person-oriented (vs. thing-oriented) individuals, who are more likely to take the parent brand’s perspective and closely relate the parent brand with its extension, extension fit impacts extension evaluations as well as parent brand assessments. Specifically, for person-oriented individuals, extension evaluations, feedback effects on evaluations and inherently salient brand personality impressions are more (vs. less) favorable when extension fit is high (vs. low). In contrast, thing-oriented individuals only evaluate the extension (vs. parent brand) such that high fit extension is viewed more favorably than low fit extension. We identify conditions that lead thing-oriented individuals to pay attention to parent brand assessments. The theoretical contributions to individual difference literature and brand extension research are highlighted along with implications for managers.

Keywords: individual differences, branding, persuasion, brand equity.
WP No. 671.pdf (534.48 KB)