10.1177/0092070304271197 ARTICLE JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF MARKETING SCIENCE SUMMER 2005 Martin et al. / TRANSFERING BRAND MEANING Branding Strategies, Marketing Communication, and Perceived Brand Meaning: The Transfer of Purposive, Goal–Oriented Brand Meaning to Brand Extensions Ingrid M. Martin California State University–Long Beach David W. Stewart Shashi Matta University of Southern California This article develops and tests a conceptual model of the transfer process whereby perceived similarity organized around shared goals facilitates the transfer of knowledge and affect from a parent brand to an extension of that brand. Empirical results, based on two well-known brands and two hypothetical product extensions for each brand, demonstrate that the availability of well-formed, goal- derived categories associated with a parent brand estab- lishes an organizing framework for consumers’ assess- ments of similarity that facilitates the transfer of consumer knowledge and attitude from the parent brand to a brand extension in another product category. This facilitating ef- fect of similarity does not occur in the absence of goal- derived categories. The results also reveal how marketing communication can be used to facilitate the transfer pro- cess by framing similarity in terms of common goals. Im- plications are discussed for the organization of consumer knowledge and affect across product categories and for understanding prior research findings on brand extension. Keywords: branding strategies; communication strate- gies; goals; attitudes A brand name is among the most fundamental and long-lasting assets of a firm. Marketing managers seek ways to enhance the value of brands by leveraging this value through brand extensions and other means. Two sets of factors can potentially affect the leveraging of a brand’s meaning: (1) awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and behav- ioral intentions associated with the parent brand are trans- ferred to a new brand extension and (2) when such transfer occurs, the costs of introducing an extension may be lower than launching a completely new brand. Critical to the realization of such leverage is the degree to which, at a given cost, transfer occurs from the parent brand to a brand extension. That such transfer may occur is well estab- lished, and prior research makes clear that perceived simi- larity between a parent brand and an extension of that brand plays a role in facilitating transfer. However, previ- ous research also suggests that there are a variety of differ- ent measures of similarity, and empirical results have not consistently shown that similarity facilitates transfer even when the same measures of similarity are examined. These mixed results and the varieties of measures of perceived similarity that have been suggested in prior research sug- gest a need to examine the cognitive and affective pro- cess(es) that mediate perceived similarity and facilitate or impede the transfer of cognitive and affective associations from a parent brand to an extension. From the perspective Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Volume 33, No. 3, pages 275-294. DOI: 10.1177/0092070304271197 Copyright © 2005 by Academy of Marketing Science. by guest on February 9, 2016 jam.sagepub.com Downloaded from