Abstract
This study intends to shed some light on understanding how consumers evaluate and accept global brands’ apparel extension in the world largest consumer market to provide practical directions for apparel manufactures to make licensing decisions. Specifically, this study applied the brand concept mapping (BCM) approach to evaluate an auto brand’s fashion clothing extension. Snowball sampling was used to collect data in major cities in China. Sixty participants were recruited and divided into four groups to collect responses toward two auto brands and the two auto brands’ apparel extensions, respectively. Consensus maps were generated based on individual maps. The comparison of BCMs showed that strong brand associations from the parent brand transferred well to the apparel extension, even when the “fit” between the parent brand and its apparel extension was poor. In the category of apparel, country of origin can be leveraged for manufacture licensees to compete for a market share. However, brand personality plays a more important role in consumers’ acceptance of such a long-distance brand stretching. In addition, the level of individual consumer’s brand engagement can be a good indicator for identifying target customer segment.
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Liu, C., Wei, Y., Zhang, L. (2018). Licensing or not Licensing? A Pilot Study on Examining the Apparel Extension of Auto Brands Ford and Jeep in China Market. In: Xu, Y., Chi, T., Su, J. (eds) Chinese Consumers and the Fashion Market. Springer Series in Fashion Business. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8429-4_7
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