Do brand authenticity and brand credibility facilitate brand equity? The case of heritage destination brand extension

Brand extension is a strategy widely used among firms with high brand equity to launch new products into the market. This strategy has been the subject of considerable scholarly interest over the last few years. However, there are very few published works that have focused on analyzing brand extensions in the heritage context or, more specifically, in relation to the UNESCO World Heritage brand. The present study examines the extent to which the authenticity of a brand extension pertaining to a heritage destination parent brand affects the formation of brand equity for the extension. It takes into account the moderating roles of brand extension credibility and tourists' experience and product knowledge. To fulfill the research objectives, an experimental design is applied to a sample of 217 tourists visiting the Monumental Complex of the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada, Spain, and the degree of authenticity of the brand extension is manipulated between subjects. The findings show that brand extension authenticity exerts a direct effect on brand extension equity, and an indirect effect, via brand extension credibility: these effects being activated only beyond certain levels of tourist experience of the heritage site and product knowledge.