The malleable brand: The role of implicit theories in evaluating brand extensions

Abstract

This research documents how implicit theories regarding personality traits (whether they are deemed fixed or malleable) affect consumer inferences about the malleability of a brand’s personality traits and thus its ability to extend into new categories. In Study 1, we document how consumers who believe traits are malleable (incremental theorists) are more accepting of brand extensions than consumers who believe traits are fixed (entity theorists). These results hold whether implicit theories are measured or manipulated. In Study 2, we show how implicit theories affect consumers ’ perceptions regarding the flexibility of a brand’s personality traits and not its physical traits. Study 3 reveals how consumers primed with different implicit theory orientations respond differently to varying degrees of change within a single trait. This study tests the limits of the effect as well as demonstrates the impact of utilizing primes embedded within standard marketing communication