Brand elongation effect: The impact of logo shape on assessment of products’ temporal property and brand evaluation

The purpose of this paper is to test the brand elongation effect which is defined as the impacts of the aspect ratio of logo on consumers’ temporal property assessment and brand evaluation.

This paper provides a theory with experiments.

The brand elongation effect that strip-shaped logos can make consumers perceive temporal property longer than square-shaped logos has been testified with three pairs fictional logos and one pair real-life one. The valence of temporal property moderates the effect on evaluation of temporal property. The perceived temporal length mediated the shape effect on brand evaluation only when the temporal property is important (vs unimportant) for the product.

This study only deals with the elongation effect of logos’ aspect ratio, without discussing the impact of color, angle/roundness or other graphic properties of logos on consumer attitudes.

This study not only provides empirical supports to update brand logos but also further illustrates that some subtle properties of logos can result in influences that are both significant and substantial.

This research enriches the literature of branding and metaphorical cognition. The findings of this study provide direct implications for brand managers to design logos and manage multi-shape brand logos.