Describe three possible dangers of a poorly implemented performance management system and discuss what you could do as an HR Manager to limit those dangers. Solution The three possible dangers of a poorly implemented performance management system are: 1. Low output. 2. Quality challanges. 3. Inefficiency of workers. As an HR manager i will set goals for each worker which he will be supposed to achive in a given ime frame. Alternative inhouse quality tests of products will be done to increase the quality of work and products. Moreover, different incentive programms can be introduced to attact the workers to increase their work efficiency..

1. Describe three reasons that a consumer might have a positive attitude toward a brand
Solution
ROLE OF ATTITUDE TOWARD BRAND ADVERTISING ON CONSUMER PERCEPTION
OF A BRAND EXTENSION
Jung S. Lee, Towson State University
ABSTRACT -
This paper reports findings from an experiment that investigates the role of consumers' attitude
toward the brand advertising (Aad) on the accessibility and perceived appropriateness of the
brand attributes in their perception of a brand extension. The effect is examined either for a
comparable extension (sneakers from denim clothing) or for a moderately noncomparable
extension (perfume/cologne from denim clothing). Findings suggest that positive Aad
significantly increases both the accessiblity and the perceived appropriateness of the brand
attributes. The effect on the accessibility of the brand attributes is observed in a similar pattern
for both comparable and moderately noncomparable extensions. The effect on the perceived
appropriateness of the brand attributes occurs more consistently for a moderately noncomparable
extension than for a comparable extension. Additional analysis indicates that Aad strongly
influences consumers' overall attitude toward a brand extension, with the effect being greater for
a moderately noncomparable extension than for a comparable extension.
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of consumers' attitude toward the brand
advertising on the way they relate a brand extension to the brand. Although the role of brand
concept or brand attitude on consumer perception of a brand extension has been actively pursued
during the past several years, few studies have investigated the impact of brand advertising on
the process. Brand attitude and brand concept are relatively stable, yet they are affected by the
current marketing communication environment. Consumers' response to brand advertising is
likely to have a significant influence on their attitude toward the brand and the brand-salient
concepts at the time of a brand extension, which, in turn, would influence their perception of the
brand extension. Furthermore, it may have a direct effect, in addition to its mediated effect
through the brand, to their perception of a brand extension.
It is reasonable to think that marketers try a brand extension instead of introducing a new brand,
if they believe that consumers will relate a brand extension to their existing positive attitude and
image of the brand. For example, the marketer of Ivory shampoo would hope that consumers
who like Ivory soap would also like Ivory shampoo and associate it with the 'pureness' of Ivory

2. soap. Thus, in general, the more consumers can associate a brand extension to the existing brand,
the better it is.
Among different ways consumers relate a brand extension to the brand, the amount of brand
attributes that become accessible when they think of a brand extension, and the degree to which
those attributes are perceived to be appropriate for a brand extension are of special interest in this
study. This is because they seem to represent two distinctively different ways consumers relate a
brand extension to the existing brand.
Several studies in brand extension suggest that consumers' attitude toward the brand influences
their overall evaluation of a brand extension through a process of 'affect transfer' when a brand
extension is made to a highly similar category (e.g., Aaker and Keller, 1990; Park et al., 1991).
However, few studies have investigated whether the overall attitude toward the brand (or toward
brand advertising) influences the way consumers relate specific brand attributes to a brand
extension.
Research on the role of affect on cognitive organization suggest that people's affective state
(either from the context or from the stimuli) significantly influences the way they organize
incoming information (e.g., Isen and Daubman, 1984; Murray et al., 1990). Research on affective
response to advertising has shown that (1) attitude toward the ad indicates in part consumers'
affective response to the ad (Batra and Ray, 1986), and that (2) a brand name, when cued later,
can retrieve the affect associated with its advertising (Edell and Burke, 1992; Keller, 1987;
Stayman and Batra, 1991). From this line of reasoning, it is speculated that the consumers'
attitude toward the brand advertising may influence the way they make a sense of a brand
extension later. Although the conceptual distinction between affect as a general feeling state and
attitude as an overall evaluative predisposition is important (Cohen and Areni, 1990; Isen, 1984),
it would be interesting to see if attitude toward the brand advertising (as an indicator of an
overall affective response) has a significant impact on consumers' cognitive organization of
brand attributes in a brand extension. It is not the purpose of the study to determine whether the
effect is a consequence of pure affect or of attitude. Thus, the term 'affect associated with the
ad' and 'attitude toward the ad' are used interchangeably in the current study.
Affect and Cognitive Organization
Research have shown that positive affect influences people's cognitive organization (see Forgas,
1991, for a review). However, there is little consensus about what these effects are and how they
occur. First, the state-dependency model states that people in a positive state are more likely to
selectively activate, attend to, store, and retrieve positive materials than those in a neutral mood
are (Forgas and Bower, 1987). Second, the cognitive flexibility model states that positive affect
facilitates people's access to both "proattitudinal" and "counterattitudinal" messages,
depending on the goal of processing (Murray et al., 1990). This is because positive affect

3. enhances cognitive flexibility, instead of state dependency. The Cue-accessibility model
proposes that positive affect cues more material and more diverse material compared to neutral
affect (Isen and Daubman, 1984).
Less is known about the role of negative affect on cognitive organization. Studies have shown
that people under a negative mood engaged in more critical and systematic information
processing, had a narrower latitude of acceptance, and formed a less inclusive category (see
Schwartz and Bless, 1991 for a review). On the other hand, it has been also suggested that
individuals' information processing might become less critical or systematic under a negative
feeling state than under a neutral state (Cialdini, Darby and Vincent, 1973; Isen and Daubman,
1984). This reportedly is because people engage in an affect repair process when they experience
a negative feeling.
Affect and biased inference-making
Other research has shown that positive affect influences the nature of inferences people make
about given information, rather than its organization. For example, people in a positive state
rated the same traits of a target person in a more positive way than those in a neutral state did
(Kunda, 1987). It was suggested that this biased inference was due to "misattribution" of
positive affect from the mood-eliciting stimuli to the object being evaluated (Schwarz and Clore,
1983). If misattribution is the underlying mechanism, it is likely to occur consistently under both
positive and negative affect.
Moderated by Task Complexity
A question may be raised as to whether positive affect always influences cognitive organization
or inference-making. Schwarz and Clore (1988) noted that judgments that were based on often-
rehearsed and highly familiar information ("crystalized") were much less likely to be influenced
by transient mood than were new, ambiguous, or difficult judgments. This reportedly is because
there is less need for a complex cognitive context when the task is simple (Branscombe and
Cohen, 1991). It has also been argued that the relationship between affect and cognitive
organization is often meaning-specific. That is, affect influences the organization of the materials
that are meaningfully related to the type of affect (see Isen, 1987, for a review). This finding may
be applied to the role of affect on biased inference-making. That is, affect is most likely to bias
the inference-making for those concepts that are meaningfully related to the object being
evaluated.
When an evaluation task itself is complex, however, it becomes difficult to judge the relevance
of the accessible concepts to the object being evaluated. Thus, affect may bias the inference-
making rather consistently for all concepts activated in the context. For a relatively easy task, on
the other hand, the effect is likely to occur to a greater degree for those concepts that are relevant
to the object being evaluated. Thus, task complexity may moderate the influence of affect on

4. biased inference-making, because it influences judgment on the concept relevance, which, in
turn, moderates the extent of biased inference-making.
Implications for consumer perception of a brand extension
The findings on the role of affect on cognitive organization and biased inference-making seem to
provide useful insights on the investigation of the relationship between consumers' attitude
toward the brand advertising and their perception of a brand extension. First, findings on affect
and cue-accessibility imply that consumers' attitude toward the brand advertising may influence
the accessibility of the brand attributes when they think of a brand extension. Second, the
discussion on biased inference-making suggests that attitude toward the brand advertising may
also affect the perceived appropriateness of the brand attributes in a brand extension, as a
specific type of inferences.
Furthermore, the extent of the effect may vary across different types of brand extensions. Past
research in brand extension has defined an extension product as being either similar or dissimilar
to the core product. The current study adopts a different view in which many extensions could be
simply noncomparable to the brand to the ordinary consumers, unless external cues are provided
that clarify the relationship. Thus, there could be comparable brand extensions that are easy to
judge their relationship with the brand, and noncomparable brand extensions of which the
judgments are more difficult.
Johnson (1984) defines product comparability as the degree to which two products are
represented by the same set of attributes. Thus, a comparable extension is one that is evaluated
by the same set of attributes as those of the core brand, although the relative salience of each
attribute may vary between the two. A moderately noncomparable extension, on the other hand,
refers to one that shares only a few of its salient attributes with those of the brand, while each
product possesses unique attributes that are irrelevant to the other. A completely noncomparable
extension is excluded in this study because it is unlikely for this type of extension to occur in a
real situation.
HYPOTHESES
Based on the above discussion, the following hypotheses are made about the effect of
consumers' attitude toward the brand advertising (Aad) on the accessibility and perceived
appropriateness of the brand attributes in their perception of a brand extension.
On Brand-Attribute Accessibility
H1a: The more positive consumers' attitude toward the brand advertising (Aad) is, the higher the
accessibility of brand attributes is in their perceptions of a brand extension.
H1b: The effect of Aad on the brand-attribute accessibility is stronger for a moderately
noncomparable extension than for a comparable extension.
On Perceived Appropriateness of Brand Attributes

5. H2a: The more positive consumers' attitude toward the brand advertising (Aad) is, the more they
are likely to think that the brand attributes are appropriate for a brand extension.
H2b: The effect of Aad on the perceived appropriateness of the brand attributes is more
consistent for a moderately noncomparable extension than for a comparable extension.
METHODS
Overview
Fictitious print advertisements were prepared for denim clothing (women's jeans, men's jeans,
jackets). Two-thirds of the participants saw the ads and the remaining one-third were given the
brand names only to form a baseline measure. Each participant was then asked questions about a
future brand extension that is either comparable (sneakers) or moderately noncomparable
(perfume/cologne) to denim clothing.
Pretest
A series of pretests were carried out to select the core product, two extension products and
fictitious brands and ads. [Please contact the author for the further details of the findings.]
Stage One: Selecting core product and extension products. Denim clothing was chosen as a core
product from which two different brand extensions would be made. It was selected because (1)
denim clothing was a familiar product to the college students who would be the participants of
the study, and therefore should facilitate their cognitive and affective responses to its
advertisements; (2) jeans were rated on a moderate level of product involvement (an index of 99
based on Zaichkowsky's Product Involvement Inventory), thus it was likely to minimize the
product involvement effect; and (3) jeans were associated with diverse attributes which made it
easy for the experimenter to manipulate different attributes in its advertisements. Three different
types of denim clothing, women's jeans, the men's jeans and the denim jacket, were used in the
study.
Once denim clothing was chosen as the core product, a list was prepared that included product
categories that varied in their shared attributes with the denim clothing. The list was presented to
a group of 27 students who were from the same population group but independent from those
participating in the main study . Students were first asked to write down all their thoughts, other
than specific brand names, for each product in the list. They were then asked to rate the overall
similarity of each product to each of the three types of denim clothing, and their subjective
knowledge of each product and the three types of denim clothing (i.e., how much they thought
they knew each product). The purpose of testing the overall similarity was to maintain a
moderate level of similarity in both a comparable extension and a moderately noncomparable
extension. Subjective knowledge of each product was measured to separate the comparability
between denim clothing and a brand extension from the individuals' knowledge of each product
independently.

6. Sneakers and perfume (or cologne when an extension was made from men's jeans) were chosen
as a comparable and a moderately noncomparable extension, respectively, based on the analysis
of the product association. Specifically, sneakers as a category shared the same attribute set as
the denim clothing although some attributes were more salient in denim clothing than they were
in sneakers and vice versa. Perfume/cologne, on the other hand, shared one of its most salient
attributes, mystique, with that of denim clothing. But each also had unique attributes that were
not comparable with the other. Overall, nine out of ten thoughts associated with denim clothing
were also associated with sneakers, while less than half of them were associated with perfume.
A moderate level of similarity was maintained for both sneakers (4.68 on a scale of 1-7) and
perfume/cologne (3.77). There was no significant difference in the level of subjective knowledge
across the three types of denim clothing and the two extension categories (p>.05). Therefore, the
difference in comparability is not from the difference in the participants' independent knowledge
of denim clothing and sneakers (or perfume/cologne), but from their relationship to each other.
Stage Two: Selecting ad stimuli and brand names. Six print advertisements (two for each of the
three types of denim clothing) were prepared either from unfamiliar magazine advertisements or
from pictures that could be disguised as advertisements for denim clothing. It was important to
use ads that were not familiar but looked real to the participants because their cognitive and
affective responses to the ad were crucial measures in the study. The real brand names and any
other written information were replaced with the prepared headlines using a computerized
scanner.
Three fictitious brand names were borrowed from a previous study (Hitchon & Churchill, 1992).
They were Belas, Komar and Jasil. Three random combinations were prepared between the three
brand names and the three types of denim clothing to cancel out any difference that was uniquely
associated with a specific brand name. The three combinations were then inserted to each of the
six advertisement , thus creating a total of 18 ad stimuli. The ads were then developed into slides.
Procedure
A total of 132 communication major students from a large Midwestern University participated in
the study in groups of three to seven. Each group was randomly assigned to one of the three
orders of different types of denim clothing. Within each assigned order, each group was again
randomly assigned to one of the three brand names. Once the participants were seated, the
experimenter explained that they were participating in a part of advertising copy test for a
national clothing company. They were told that the real brand names were replaced by fictitious
names for confidentiality.
When an introduction was over, a slide of the advertisement corresponding to the assigned order
was shown to the participants for 10-15 seconds. They were then asked to list all of their
thoughts about the advertised brand. Participants' perception of the brand was then measured

7. with a scale that included both salient and latent attributes of the brand. It was followed by a
measure of their overall attitude toward the ad (Aad), attitude toward the brand (Ab), and
familiarity with the ad.
The experimenter, then, briefly explained the concept of brand extension by saying, "it refers to
a situation in which a company that currently makes a certain product with a brand name 'A'
introduces a new product under the same brand name." Ivory shampoo and Honda lawnmower
were presented as examples of brand extensions from Ivory soap and Honda automobile,
respectively. Once all of the participants said that they understood the concept , they were told
that a brand extension, either sneakers or perfume (cologne if the core product was men's jeans),
would soon be introduced from the advertised brand of denim clothing. They were then asked to
list all of their thoughts at the moment on the specified brand extension. This was followed by a
scale-measure of the perceived appropriateness of the brand attributes for the brand extension.
The items in the scale were the same as those used to measure their perception of the advertised
brand. Next, their overall attitude toward a brand extension (Ab-ext) was measured, followed by
their perception of the overall similarity of the brand extension to the advertised brand. The same
procedure was repeated for the remaining two types of denim clothing. After subjects completed
all three sections, they were asked what they thought the purpose of the study was; if they were
aware of the stated purpose while answering the questions; and if they would write down more
details if they did. Finally, they were debriefed and dismissed.
Measures
Subjects' attitude toward the advertisement (Aad), was measured with six seven-point semantic
differential items that were used in a previous research (Stayman & Batra, 1991). They are
'unpleasant-pleasant,' 'unfavorable-favorable,' 'dislike-like,' 'low quality-high quality,'
'worthless-valuable' and 'disagreeable-agreeable. Since these items were highly correlated with
each other (Cronbach's Alpha=.96), the mean rating across six items was used as a single
measure of individuals' attitude toward the advertisement. The same items were used to measure
their attitude toward the brand (Ab), and attitude toward the brand extension (Ab-ext) .
Accessibility of the brand attributes was measured from the participants' thought listing.
Participants' thoughts on each brand extension was differentiated into individual thoughts and
coded by two independent judges depending on whether each thought was based on the
participant's prior description of the brand (brand-relevant thoughts), or on something else,
including the unique attributes of extension category (brand-irrelevant thoughts). The inter-judge
agreement was 86%. Disagreement was resolved by discussion, thus all thoughts were coded.
Once the coding was completed, the number of brand-relevant thoughts in each subject's
response was counted to be a single measure of his or her accessibility of brand attributes.
Perceived appropriateness of the brand attributes for a brand extension was measured by the

8. participants' rating of a brand extension on a scale of six seven-point semantic differential items
that represented the brand-salient attributes. Three of the six items in the scale were the salient
attributes of the denim clothing that were also salient in the category of sneakers, but less so in
the category of perfume/cologne ("intrinsic attributes"). They were: 'not durable-durable,' 'not
lasting-lasting,' 'not built well-built well' (for women's jeans ); 'uncomfortable-comfortable,'
'not easy to wear-easy to wear,' 'not relaxing to wear-relaxing to wear' (for men's jeans); 'not
warm-warm,' 'not weather-resistant-weather resistant,' 'doesn't protect from the elements-
protects from the elements' (for denim jacket). The inter-item reliability coefficients
(Cronbach's Alpha) for each scale were .89, .92, and .75, respectively. The other three items in
the scale were the salient attributes of the denim clothing that were also salient in the category of
perfume/cologne more than in sneakers ("extrinsic attributes"). They are: 'gentle-bold,'
'unconfident-confident,' 'not sexy-sexy' (for women's jeans); 'soft-rugged,' 'weak-tough,'
'feminine-masculine' (for men's jeans); 'not exotic-exotic' 'not mysterious-mysterious'
'timid-bold' (for denim jacket). The inter-item reliability coefficients (Cronbach's Alpha) for
each scale were .76, .86., and .76. An average score across the three items in each scale was used
as an index of the perceived appropriateness of brand attributes for a brand extension.