Can Atypicality in Product Design Benefit Brands? Trade-Offs in Product and Brand Typicality and the Mediating Role of Perceived Novelty

This study examined the joint effects of brand typicality (the typical design of a given brand) and product typicality (a typical exemplar of a product category) on consumer responses to a product’s design within the brand extension context. The mediating role of perceived novelty and the moderating roles of brand strength and consumer innovativeness were also examined. Two between-subjects experiments were conducted with large samples of young male and female consumers. Study 1 employed an online experiment with a 2 (brand typicality: high/low) × 2 (product typicality: high/low) × 2 (brand strength: strong/weak) design. Study 2 consisted of a quasi-experiment with a similar design, where brand strength was replaced with consumer innovativeness (high/low) as a moderator. Brand and product typicality demonstrated joint effects on consumer response, such that brand typicality elicited a more positive response when product typicality was high. This effect was more salient for strong brands and innovators. Consumer response was also more positive when the product was atypical (vs. typical), and this effect was mediated by perceived novelty. Weak brands benefited from product atypicality more than strong brands. This study uncovers novel implications for product design in brand extensions. Weak or unfamiliar brands may benefit from product atypicality since any adverse effect of atypicality on consumer response is largely offset by the positive influence of perceived novelty. In the case of strong brands, product typicality elicits a positive response in conjunction with brand typicality.