Although consumers might have different perceptions of “the arts” than they do of other products or services, arts organizations face the very real and important marketing challenges that other product and service suppliers do. They are competing with many other forms of leisure andentertainment activities, such as cinema, sports events, pop concerts, jazz festivals and the like. They, too, need to make the most of their good name and the effectiveness of differentways of using their reputation and brand name needs to be understood if resources aren’t to be wasted. Should the extension be an easy or a difficult product to fabricate? Should it be congruent with the domain of the arts organization? Should it be introduced under a single brand name (i.e. that An experimental investigation of the use of brand extensionAlain d’Astous, Franc¸ois Colbert and Marilyne Fournier Journal of Services MarketingVolume 21 · Number 4 · 2007 · 231–240 239 of the arts organization) or should it be co-signed with a partner brand that is perceived as competent for the product class?