Fabio Caldieraro, Ling-Jing Kao, & Marcus Cunha Jr. Harmful Upward Line Extensions: Can the Launch of Premium Products Result in Competitive Disadvantages? Companies often extend product lines with the goal of increasing demand for their products and responding to competitive threats. Although line extensions may lead to cannibalization and reduction of overall profit, the bulk of theoretical and empirical research has suggested that product line extensions result in a net gain of overall demand and market share. To mitigate cannibalization, the extant literature prescribes the addition of premium versions of products, or “upward line extensions,” with the intention of achieving gains not only in demand and market share but also in overall profit. In this research, the authors employ analytical and empirical methods to make the case that upward line extensions aimed at matching a competing product’s attribute may lead consumers to reassess their perceptions about the brand and the attributes of products in the market in a way that erodes the advantages of the extending firm. Ultimately, this can result in a loss of demand, market share, and profit for the extending firm. Keywords: anchoring, consumer learning, line extension, positioning, spillover effects Online Supplement: http://dx.doi.org/10.1509/jm.14.0100 n many product categories, market challengers attack the detergents featuring an oxi-active ingredient (e.g., Wisk Oxi position of established market leaders with the intent of Complete). Tide, however, did not counteract OxiClean’s Istealing sales and revenues and gaining market share. move and instead continued to invest in supporting claims Frequently, these attacks take the form of a challenger about the superiority of its stain-removing ingredient (Neff improving a key product feature that made a leading product 2003) for more than a decade. successful. Take, for example, the stain-removal laundry This decision by Sun Products is in line with the generally detergent category and the competitive pressure that the accepted notion that the addition of new products to a product market leader, Procter & Gamble’s Tide, faced in the early line may not only prevent loss of customers but also increase 2000s. For years, Tide had successfully persuaded consumers the overall demand and market share for the firm. Numerous of the superiority of its antistain bleach alternative as an theoretical and empirical analyses have provided support for efficient nonchlorine-based stain remover. OxiClean attacked this prescription (e.g., Bayus and Putsis 1999; Kadiyali, Tide’s market position by communicating the benefits as- Vilcassim, and Chintagunta 1998; Kekre and Srinivasan sociated with oxi-action stain removal power. Some estab- 1990; Smith and Park 1992). Procter & Gamble’s decision lished players in the category immediately followed suit not to extend Tide’s product line thus is intriguing given what and extended their product lines to include laundry detergents the literature has recommended. featuring oxi-action. For example, Sun Products extended the The expected net gains in demand and market share product lines of its brands All and Wisk to include laundry predicted by the extant literature arguably provide a strong incentive for firms to launch new products as a way to counter a competitor threat such as the one described pre- Fabio Caldieraro is Associate Professor, Brazilian School of Public and viously. Such gains, however, are not without risk. Line Business Administration, FGV/EBAPE (e-mail: [email protected]). fi ’ Ling-Jing Kao is Associate Professor, School of Management, National extensions can drive consumers to migrate from the rm s Taipei University of Technology (e-mail: [email protected]). Marcus premium products to its cheaper products if the firm Cunha Jr. is Associate Professor, Terry College of Business, University performs a downward line extension. If this form of canni- of Georgia (e-mail: [email protected]). The authors thank the three balization occurs, the overall profitability of the firm decreases anonymous JM reviewers for their valuable input. Ling-Jing Kao despite the increase in demand and market share (Desai 2001). acknowledges the support of Grant NSC 99-2410-H-027-017-MY2 from A product-extension strategy that may prevent consumers Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. All authors contributed from migrating to cheaper products is the addition of a pre- equally. Gary Frazier served as editor and V. Kumar served as area editor — for this article. mium version of a product an upward line extension. This approach, also known as “increase price and improve quality” © 2015, American Marketing Association Journal of Marketing ISSN: 0022-2429 (print) Ahead of Print 1547-7185 (electronic)1 DOI: 10.1509/jm.14.0100 (Kotler and Armstrong 2011; Loudon, Stevens, and Wrenn effects of cannibalization stemming from downward exten- 2005), prescribes that firms should target segments composed sions. Our findings enhance the understanding of this strategy of customers with high willingness to pay. The appeal of by showing that upward product line extension decisions may launching a premium product with attributes similar to those lead to a loss of overall sales and market share and may of a competitor’s product (and dissimilar to the main brand’s negatively affect profit. These novel findings urge brand current attribute offering) lies in the intuition that firms can managers to be much more diligent than prior research has mitigate cannibalization, shield profit, and increase market suggested when considering upward extensions. share by becoming a close substitute of the challenging firm. The remainder of the article is organized as follows: In However, contrary to the dominant view in the literature, is it the next section, we review the relevant literature. Then, possible that such a move could backfire and lead to further we develop theoretical models for the pre- and postlaunch decreases in market share and profit for the leader? scenarios. Subsequently, we provide an empirical model for In this research, we aim to investigate the outcomes of studying the pre- and postlaunch scenarios, the parameter the “increase price and improve quality” strategy. Firms estimates, and the implications from the empirical analysis. frequently introduce new products that share a subset of We conclude with a discussion of the overall results and attributes with competing products in the market. We implications for marketing theory and practice. examine how an upward line extension that positions such an item as a premium subbranded product relative to the firm’s legacy offering can affect the firm’s demand, market share, Literature Review and profit. Drawing on the information-based theory of Our research relates to the stream of new product literature umbrella branding, we develop an analytical model that that investigates the factors that influence the market per- predicts that the introduction of the new subbrand will cause formance of new products (see Henard and Szymanski 2001; spillover effects across brand reputations and product at- Montoya-Weiss and Calantone 1994). This literature has tributes, which may lead to losses of demand, market share, established that the likelihood of success of a new product and profit for the extending firm. We test the theoretical increases the closer the product matches consumers’ pref- model using data from an experiment in a virtual environment erences and the more distinguished the product is relative consisting of consumer choices in pre- and postlaunch sce- to competitors’ products (Carpenter and Nakamoto 1990; narios. The empirical model, based on consumer utility Kleinschmidt and Cooper 1991). This stream of research, maximization theory, enables us to empirically verify the however, focuses almost exclusively on the products’ per- impact of a new product launch on consumer preferences for formance and not on the overall performance of the entire both brand and product attributes. product line of a firm, which is the focus of our research. The analytical model analysis and empirical results The literature in product portfolio management more provide several important contributions to the product line closely relates to our research because it focuses more broadly extension literature. First, in contrast to the great majority of on the performance of the firm’s entire product line. Three findings in the literature, we find that the introduction of a important findings from this literature are relevant to our premium subbrand with attributes that match those of com- research. First, although a more extensive product line is often peting products may erode the very same brand and attribute associated with higher consumer utility and larger market reputation the firm intended to protect. Second, we identify share, a firm may experience negative returns to product that the mechanisms that cause the firm to experience negative proliferation as a result of the higher costs of producing and outcomes in terms of demand, market share, and profit are (1) supporting broader product lines (Bayus and Putsis 1999; spillovers that cause diminished positive perceptions of the Draganska and Jain 2005; Horsky and Nelson 1992; Moorthy legacy product, which is no longer perceived as a premium 1984). Second, product cannibalization is an important factor brand when the new subbrand is positioned as premium; (2) to take into account when a firm attempts to optimize its diminished positive perceptions of the value