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This study aims to investigate the interaction between branding strategies, levels of perceived fit and consumer innovativeness on the evaluation of new products from the perspective of situational strength.

Two experiments were conducted to empirically test the hypotheses.

A significant three-way interaction of branding strategy, perceived fit and consumer innovativeness on the evaluation of the new products was found. A significant two-way interaction of branding strategy and perceived fit was also found. Situational clarity fully mediates the relationship between branding strategy and consumer product evaluations at various fit levels.

The theory of situational strength may shed light on the selection of target market when managers launch new products. Innovative consumers are the target market for the new products under new branding or low fit sub-branding; under brand extension or high fit sub-branding, consumers are the target for the new products regardless of their degree of innovativeness.

This is the first work to apply situational strength theory to a new product evaluation context. The theory provides a unified framework for explaining the cognitive processes involved when consumers use and combine marketing cues (i.e. branding strategies and fit levels) to evaluate new products; it also facilitates evaluating how the effects of consumer innovativeness are accentuated or attenuated based on various combinations of marketing cues. Most research on the evaluation of new products has examined the influence of consumer innovativeness, perceived fit or branding strategies as distinct entities. This study simultaneously examined the three.

Extensions as forms of new product development strategy have been discussed to a great extent during the last decade, however, there have been limited reviews of the literature. This article reassesses the work on brand and line extensions and integrates it into a conceptual framework. The latter shows that extension and core brand evaluations are affected by consumer perceptions of fit. Moderating factors that influence the relationship between fit and consumer evaluations of the extension and the core brand are also identified. The framework is subsequently used to develop concrete research propositions to guide further research in the area.

This paper seeks to examine whether the follower extensions with superior alignable differences can overcome the pioneer extensions with regard to brands.

Three laboratory experiments were conducted to test hypotheses.

Findings suggest that the effect of superior alignable differences on consumer evaluations of followers vs pioneers is moderated by two factors – the perceived fit between the parent brand and extensions, and order of market entry. High fit followers with superior alignable differences easily overcome pioneers; however, such alignable differences do not help low fit followers to overcome pioneers. Although the low fit followers with better quality and superior alignable differences can overcome the low fit pioneer, they cannot overcome the high fit pioneer.

The limitation of the study is that it does not explore how low fit followers can overcome high fit pioneers.

Managers can better determine whether and how to introduce brand extensions as a pioneer or follower.

The originality and value lie in first examining whether follower extensions can overcome pioneer extensions.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the effect of age, gender and educational level on customer evaluations of the design characteristics of fitting rooms/dressing rooms, such as size, levels of illumination, number of hangers, materials and opening types of doors in retail clothing stores. In the light of these results, the study aims to increase the satisfaction of the customers in retail stores.

These evaluations were analysed according to the demographic characteristics of consumers, such as age, gender and educational level. Since activities in fitting rooms require a certain level of privacy, the features that affected privacy were also considered in this study. The analysis was carried out with research designed for users of fitting rooms in Ankara, Turkey.

Results indicated that demographic characteristics of the customers affected their evaluation of fitting rooms. The statistically significant results between evaluations of customers and their demographic backgrounds were determined. In these analyses, problems emerged due to usage of fitting rooms. Most of the problems complained about were an insufficient number of hangers, lack of mirrors, lack of sitting units, small-sized rooms and poorly illuminated rooms. Moreover, the results showed that customers preferred a totally closed panel door for privacy.

This paper reveals a significant relationship between design characteristics of fitting rooms and customer evaluations of fitting rooms. The results of the study suggest that retailers and designers may be able to easily make stores more attractive for customers when installing fitting rooms.

The purpose of this study was to explore participants’ fit perceptions of customized garments and investigate the factors that affected the customized fit.

Because different patternmaking methods generate varied fit results, eight customized dresses were developed for four fit models aged 18–25 using two different made-to-measure (MTM) systems (Gerber AccuMark and Telestia Creator). The authors designed a questionnaire to assess the fit of the final garments on each of the four models. A total of 12 participants (four fit models and eight experts) attended a live evaluation meeting and completed the questionnaire. The quantitative and qualitative data of the participants’ fit perceptions were collected and analyzed.

The authors compared the fit outputs of the two MTM systems and determined the fit issues from the participants’ perceptions. The results showed that the participants evaluated the customized fit mainly according to the ease, seam placement and wrinkle occurrence. The majority of fit models and experts preferred Dress B created using Telestia Creator to Dress A developed using Gerber AccuMark. The participants’ fit perceptions also revealed that many factors, such as the MTM systems, participants’ fit preferences, models’ body characteristics, fabric and ease, impacted the fit results. In addition, the experts perceived more fit issues than the models.

The fit output comparison of the two MTM systems could be valuable for pattern makers to use the systems. The research results would also be useful for apparel companies to conduct a fit evaluation and improve their customization processes.

The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of perceived fit, brand type and country's culture on the consumers' attitude towards brand extensions and on the parent brand equity.

Data were collected in three European countries: Spain, UK, and Norway. A series of analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to test the hypotheses.

Brand extensions with high fit receive more favourable consumer evaluations and decrease the negative feedback effects of extensions on parent brand equity. Results also reveal that parent brand equity dilution is higher when the brand used to launch the extension has high equity. Finally, findings indicate different consumers' responses to extensions and effects on parent brand equity across countries.

Important directions for future research would be to include other countries and carry out a more in‐depth analysis to understand the effect of culture.

Managers should launch extensions with high perceived fit. In addition, greater effort is needed to extend high equity brands, due to their greater dilution. Finally, managers need to understand that consumer evaluations and feedback effects of the same brand extensions can vary due to cultural differences between consumers. Therefore, standardised brand extension strategies should be carefully considered.

The study focuses, not only on consumer evaluations of extensions, but also on the effects of extensions on the parent brand equity. Furthermore, this paper is one of the first to empirically examine and show that consumer evaluations of extensions and feedback effects on parent brand equity differ across countries.

This study aims to automate the process of converting grading patterns into parametric patterns using artificial intelligence and to objectively evaluate the fitness of the converted patterns.

The developed system consists of a user interface that defines input data by importing multi-size grading patterns, an artificial neural network that learns the relationship between human body size and pattern geometry, and a module that converts training results into parametric patterns. In order to evaluate the fitness of the generated pattern, an objective fitting evaluation method using drape simulation was developed.

The body sizes of the wearer were input to the converted parametric pattern to generate a customized pattern. Resulting pattern showed a better fit than the grading pattern on the off-average body model.

In this study, a method has been developed that enables the users with minimal pattern drafting knowledge to convert grading patterns into parametric patterns using artificial intelligence and drape simulation. The human body's symmetry and the physical properties of fabric were not considered.

The system developed in this study requires less data compared to existing methods that attempt to design clothing patterns with machine learning. In addition, it was possible to evaluate pattern fitness on various body models through drape simulation based fit evaluation process for the first time.

Low-fit brand extensions offer several potential benefits, yet their success is challenging. Building on construal level theory, this study aims to investigate how different advertising appeals can improve the evaluations of low-fit brand extensions through two different processes (cognitive and affective).

Two experiments were conducted with US consumers. Study 1 used a 2 (extension fit: high, low) × 2 (ad appeal: abstract, concrete) between-subjects design. Study 2 applied a 2 (brand associations: promotion, prevention) × 2 (ad appeal: promotion, prevention) between-subjects design. Multivariate analyses and follow-up means comparisons were used to analyse data.

Study 1 found that an abstract ad appeal is more effective for promoting low-fit brand extension because it improves the perception of fit. Study 2 showed promotion vs prevention ad appeals lead to better evaluation of low-fit brand extensions when matched with parent brand associations (promotion vs prevention) in terms of construal level. This matching effect is underpinned by processing fluency.

Ad appeals can influence low-fit brand extension evaluation by influencing the perception of fit (cognitive process) or processing fluency (affective process). Future research could consider different ad appeals and other construal related factors to generalise these findings.

Marketers can design different ad appeals to effectively advertise low-fit brand extensions. These findings can guide managers in the development of effective advertising strategies.

This research offers a new perspective on how ad appeals can enhance low-fit brand extension evaluation.

Previous research suggests that firms should articulate incongruent sponsorships to provide a rationale for the relationship between sponsor and sponsorship object. Fit articulation is a strategy that communicates shared associations between sponsor and object. Based on conclusion explicitness theory, this paper aims to conceptualize and tests two fit articulation strategies in sponsorships: open-ended and closed-ended.

Research hypotheses were tested in two experiments.

Only open-ended fit articulation improved brand attitudes. Mediation analyses show that while open-ended articulation influenced brand attitudes through brand image (Study 1 and Study 2) and altruistic motive attributions (Study 2), there was an indirect effect of closed-ended articulation on brand attitudes through global fit perceptions (Study 2).

The results from two experiments suggest that incongruent sponsors should use open-ended conclusions about a shared image dimension. Although explicit arguments may increase global perceptions of fit, they may impede a positive impact on the articulated brand image dimension and generation of altruistic motive attribution. Therefore, sponsorship managers should be careful in terms of using explicit arguments for fit when the sponsorship is incongruent because such arguments may hinder articulation from generating goodwill and a positive brand image.

This is the first paper to develop and test different types of fit articulation strategies in sponsorships.