Bridging the gap between design and behavioral research: (Re)searching the optimum design strategy for brands and new product innovations

Innovation, branding, and design are known to affect corporate success, but their interplay is not yet well understood. Companies need to take risks in developing new product innovations, whereas an established brand can serve as a familiar base to create recognition. However, designers are facing a serious challenge. Researchers in both fields study the existing world through abstract theories and “rules”, instead of showing how to use these theories in practice. This study focuses on the relation between brands and innovations from a design perspective to create successful brand extensions. Gaining knowledge about the level of newness (novelty), level of familiarity (typicality), fit with the parent brand (brand fit), and expected market success (EM success), will support designers to create successful brand extensions. The study discusses 81 designs of snow scooters designed by students and evaluated by 47 experts by means of a quantitative and qualitative analysis. A multiple linear regression analysis is performed to show if brand fit, typicality, novelty, and (typicality × novelty) has an impact on the expected market success. The analyses demonstrate a significantly positive effect of brand fit on the expected market success (p <.01). While the single effects of typicality and novelty were non-significant, the interaction between typicality and novelty showed a significant linear relationship on the expected market success (p <.05). The results show the importance of the much-investigated balance between typicality and novelty, where brand fit seems to act as the suppressor for novelty and may be called brand typicality.