Expansion strategies for online brands going offline

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to examine expansions of online brands into the offline market via brand extensions and via brand alliances. Specifically, it aims to compare the formation of reciprocal spillover effects for both strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

Empirical survey data are analyzed through a series of standard and hierarchical multiple regressions. Different combinations of online brands, product categories and offline brands are studied.

Findings

The main results indicate that: the attitude towards the new product is determined by fit and by the functional offline brand image for alliances, while it is determined by fit and by the emotional and commitment dimensions of online brand image for extensions. Moreover, the online brand image is more vulnerable in brand alliances than in extensions.

Research limitations/implications

This work shows the applicability of commonly used theories in brand extensions and alliances to the online‐offline market expansion. Moreover, these theories allow differences across marketing strategies and across distinct brand image dimensions to be explained.

Practical implications

The results obtained may guide the management of these market expansion strategies. Particularly, the present findings are useful to predict the contribution of each brand image dimension on the attitude towards the new product and upon the feedback effects swaying the online brand image.

Originality/value

This study addresses “a hot topic” in branding by comparing two expansion strategies: brand extensions and brand alliances. This comparison is made within the under‐researched area of online branding, and in a novel scenario that is the online‐offline expansion.

Citation

Bravo, R., Iversen, N.M. and Pina, J.M. (2011), "Expansion strategies for online brands going offline", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 195-213. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634501111117629