Alice Wenglosky

Brand Names, Adoption and Diffusion: an Exploratory Study of the Impact of Brand Names on Innovations in the Baby Care Industry Alice Wenglosky

The current study explores the baby care industry in light of adoption and diffusion of two different types of innovation and how this can be affected by branding strategies and brand names. It finds that, in the baby care industry, differentiation is not the appropriate branding strategy for radical innovations, which is counterintuitive to the dominating logic on branding innovations. The customers in the baby care industry are emotion laden and appreciate a feeling of trust to a new product and / or a new brand starting with the brand name. Brand names have inherent meanings because they are able to evoke associations upon hearing without any product attached to it. Next, it casts doubts to whether it is social pressures according to Bass or the product's superior performance that accelerates the diffusion, which is enhanced further by an appropriate brand name. Thus, this study adds to branding innovations, naming brands, and adoption and diffusion literature, being the first to combine these concepts in the context of the baby care industry. Thereby, it contributes new insights, that are valuable to marketers as well, and opens arrays for future research.