Towards the late 1990s, world over, marketing professionals were witnessing some uncanny trends: their influence within the organizations had been decreasing; common marketing strategies earned decreasing returns; and companies were finding it increasingly difficult to retain talent in marketing jobs. India started witnessing drastic changes in lifestyles of large sections of the population. The Indian market today is teeming with different products that it has become necessary to customize products by the companies according to consumer demands. As introducing new brands has become a risky venture, brand extensions have become increasingly popular. The paper attempts to bring out a model of the factors influencing the formation of brand extension attitudes based on the dominant cognitive hypothesis. The key elements of the model are: 1) Characteristics of the parent brand; 2) Experience with the parent brand; 3) Characteristics of extension category; 4) Relationship between parent brand and its extension; and 5) Perception of fit. The variables that moderate and control the above-mentioned processes are identified and classified into three groups: 1) Individual factors; 2) External factors; and 3) Extension making strategy. This paper tries to bring out the loopholes of the past research, thus resulting in an integrative model which shall prove useful for future research.

A brand extension takes place when a company extends its brands into new product classes. Keller and Aaker (1992) have defined brand extension as the use of established brand names to enter new product categories or classes. Brand extension strategies are employed by companies with a motive to increase returns and to commandeer consumer mind space by entering new markets. The significance of brand extensions as a brand rejuvenator has gained impetus in the marketing discipline and has become crucial for examining the brand extension strategies in the global scenario. Various studies were conducted on the success determinants of brand extensions during the past 15 years by many researchers, such as Aaker and Keller, Dacin and Smith among others. The results of original studies were later scrutinized by repetition studies. A table outlining the various empirical studies on the success factors of brand extensions and their replication studies has been given. Brand extension research findings have also been extensively treated from an applied managerial perspective (e.g., Kapferer, 1997; and Keller, 1998). The success of a brand extension is largely determined by how customers evaluate the extension (Klink and Smith, 2001). Several factors contributing to attitude formation towards brand extensions, such as fit between the parent brand and its extension, fit between the core brand's quality associations, and reputation of the core brand, etc.,

All the studies cited above have helped in arriving at the factors leading to brand extension attitude formation. As it is impossible to give an exhaustive elucidation of all the studies, an attempt has been made to reiterate some of the studies which have helped in arriving at the factors leading to consumer attitude towards brand extensions. Aaker and Keller (1990) conducted a study on students to find out the importance of similarity and quality on FMCGs and services. The study revealed that with increasing similarity in product characteristics between the parent brand and its extensions, the perception of quality also increases. Likewise, Park et al. (1991) studied similarity and brand concepts on durable goods. The study concluded with the result proving that with increasing similarity, there is higher consistency in brand concepts such as fit perceptions, quality and so on. Keller and Aaker, in 1992, conducted a laboratory experiment on 430 university employees to find out the possibility of sequential introduction of brand extensions by using FMCGs as stimuli. The study made known that as perception of quality increases, extension to other product categories is possible. An attempt was made by Sheinin (2000) to find out the effects of experience with extensions on the original brand, and the study concluded with the result that experience with extensions does influence the evaluation of the original brand. Yet another study, which was conducted by Keller and Sood (2001 and 2002) to examine branding strategies and experience on FMCGs, revealed that dilution of brand image does occur at high degrees of similarity.

Brand Management Journal, Brand Extension, Brand Awareness, Consumer Attitude, Brand Equity, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, FMCG, Hindustan Unilever Limited, HUL, Global Scenario, Extension Strategies , Information Technology, IT.