Brand counter‐extensions for fight‐back and appeal strategies

Abstract

Purpose

Faced with the aggressive and invasive behavior of a competitor, it is necessary for a firm to adopt strategies to protect its market share. This study aims to examine brand counter‐extension strategy as a means of fighting back against strong competitors.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applies a measure of conditions among competitors, namely market position and extension outcome, as well a firm's own technological capability, in order to develop the fight‐back strategy of brand counter‐extensions.

Findings

The results verify that utilizing a competitor's market position does not help in the firm's brand counter‐extension, although the outcome of the competitor's previous successful extension could facilitate it.

Practical implications

Two practical implications could be addressed to enable firms to utilize their competitors' conditions: first, to utilize the competitor's market position to enter a new market at the introduction stage of a product's life cycle; second, to utilize the outcome of a competitor's brand extension to build support for a new product at the growth stage of its life cycle; a two‐step appeal strategy with the aim of learning the degree of support and purchase intention of consumers.

Originality/value

This study proposes that the strength of the firm's technological capability is critical for a successful counter‐extension. Moreover, the combination of successful experience and technological capability could enhance a customer's intention to purchase.

Citation

Chang, K. and Yang, H. (2013), "Brand counter‐extensions for fight‐back and appeal strategies", Management Decision, Vol. 51 No. 4, pp. 839-853. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741311326608