• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.97-115
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• 2013

This paper was motivated by two gaps in the extant literature on brand portfolio planning. First, research has shown that, as the number of products connected to a brand increases, the extended product receives more favorable evaluations. However, this result was obtained by comparing two brands with different number of products while controlling the brands' breadths. Hence one may question if the above result would hold when the brand is narrow as well as broad. Second, the literature has investigated the effect of brand breadth on the perceived fit and evaluations of an extended product within a relatively limited range ("narrow vs. broad") and not considered the case of a "very broad" brand. To address these gaps, we propose two hypotheses: 1) the effects of the number of products associated with a brand on the perceived fit and evaluations of a moderately far brand extension are moderated by the brand's breadth (H1); and 2) the relationship between a brand's breadth and a moderately far extension's perceived fit and evaluations looks like an inverse-U shape (H2). Study 1 was conducted to test H1. Study 1 employed a 2 × 2 within-subjects design in which the first factor was the number of products (small (2) or large (5)), and the second factor was brand breadth (narrow or broad). We measured brand breadth as the perceived similarity among products associated with a brand. Participants provided the perceived fit and evaluations of an extended product. Study 2 was conducted to test H2 as well as to replicate Study 1 in a more general setting and with different products. It employed a 2 × 3 within-subjects design, in which the first factor was the number of products (small (2) or large (5)), and the second factor was brand breadth (narrow, broad, or very broad). The results from two experiments support both hypotheses. This paper contributes to the literature on brand extensions in two ways. First, it broadens our understanding of the effects of product number and brand breadth on extended product evaluations by considering the two factors jointly. Second, we believe this study to be the first to present evidence that brand breadth can exert an inverted U-shape effect on the perceived fit and evaluations of an extended product. The results also offer implications for marketers. First, marketers should heed the finding that adding similar products to a narrow brand does not help the brand's extension launch. Second, the finding that the relationship between brand breadth and extended product evaluations might not be linear provides practical implications. While a narrow brand should not keep launching close extensions, nor should a broad brand continue producing far extensions to broaden its breadth. A firm with a broad corporate or family brand might want to consider introducing a new brand instead of adding dissimilar products under the brand umbrella.

• Journal of the HCI Society of Korea
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 2016

Three Dimensional Printing (herein, 3D printing) not only gives novelty and interests to modern people but is also a spotlighted technology that could herald a new industrial revolution. The introduction of various 3D printing service platforms has enabled individuals to easily possess products designed through 3D printing. However, there are still many issues to consider until the era of new manufacturing, when 3D printing becomes available to the general public so that anyone can make and design products with 3D printing. For instance, there needs to be sufficient consideration and research on whether the current 3D printing services can prove their higher capability to produce products conventionally done by machines and hands through 3D printing, and on the meaning of selling a wide range of product families like those of most 3D printing service platforms to the consumers. This study, which was initiated in this context, aimed to gain insight on the directions that 3D printing services need to advance going forward by letting consumers have first-hand experience on 3D printing online service platforms with a wide range of product families and those with relatively limited services, and then asking them to answer multiple-choice and short-answer survey questions on the websites they wish to purchase from, diversity of designs, design satisfaction, perceived technical skills, perceived purchase satisfaction, perceived after-sales service(A/S). As a result, we were able to witness that consumers generally had a strong preference for services with a wide range of product families (e.g. Shapeways) compared to services with a narrow range (e.g. Digital Forming). We also verified that design diversity and the possibility of realizing the designs were the crucial aspects that need to be considered with 3D printing services. Moreover, we also carried out discussions on carrying out design consulting by securing a pool of designers from diverse fields, on providing web-based designing software that can be utilized even by beginners, and on operating shops both online and offline in order to provide more competitive 3D printing services.