Brand Extension Impact on Parent Brand Equity: A European Perspective : Cross-cultural Analysis of Extending a Football League Brand to eSports

This research explores whether the dimensions of parent brand equity affect brand extension success and on what scale. Furthermore, brand extension’s impact on parent brand equity is analysed. The analysis is done on European level, analysing three different European countries. The research questions of the study are RQ1: How does brand extension to eSports impact the brand equity of a football league in European context? RQ2: What factors affect brand extension evaluation in European context? RQ3: Do cultural differences affect the brand extension evaluation in Europe? Brand equity is examined as consumer-based, and it is considered to have an effect and be affected by brand extension. This research is quantitative in nature and follows a deductive approach. Data was collected through online survey and analysed via SPSS statistics software and its accessory AMOS 26.0. A sample of 408 respondents meeting the criteria was collected. Unlike previous studies, this research uses real consumer data. Findings of this research suggest that brand loyalty of parent brand and perceived fit between parent brand and brand extension have a significant positive impact on brand extension evaluation. In addition, it was shown that brand extension evaluation has an impact on parent brand equity, changing the equity in the same direction. Thus, it seems that a football league can increase its brand equity by launching a successful eSports brand extension. Moreover, cultural differences were shown to have an impact on brand extension evaluation based on the three different countries analysed. This research contributes to the existing literature by adding a cultural dimension to brand extension studies. Also, this research adds to cross-cultural consumer behaviour literature, to international brand extension research and to discussion of consumer-based brand equity. This research studied brand extensions in sports setting in an extent it had not been studied before and deepened the understanding of brand extension evaluation and its effect on parent brand equity.