Extending the view of brand alliance effects (original) (raw)
Related papers
International Marketing …, 2007
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to broaden the external validity of the "brand alliance" theory, as it is set up by Simonin and Ruth, by analysing transnational brand alliances. It aims to discuss the significance of country of origin in this context. Design/methodology/approach -Based on a broad literature review of the brand alliance and country of origin literature the authors conducted an empirical study that examined consumer attitudes towards cross-national brand alliances. Findings -The findings demonstrate the role that the relationship between country of origin fit and brand fit plays in predicting consumer attitude towards cross-border brand alliances; and that when brand familiarity decreases, the positive influence of country of origin fit on attitudes towards the brand alliance increases, and is greater than that of brand fit.
Is Familiarity a Moderator of Brand/Country Alliances? One More Look
Product and brand familiarity have an important role in consumer choice behaviour and they have been equated with knowledge and experience Consumers having high and low familiarity utilized brand information (an extrinsic cue) in their evaluations, whereas moderately familiar consumers used intrinsic cues (product attributes) in evaluating products. The question of whether familiarity moderates the country-of-origin (COO) effect is a valid one. In this present paper, we attempt to provide additional evidence as to how familiarity with products, brands and countries moderates consumer evaluation of brand/country alliances. Specifically, we concentrate on the brand leveraging process identified by Keller (2003) applied to the effect of familiarity on country/brand alliances.
A typology of brand alliances and consumer awareness of brand alliance integration
Marketing Letters, 2018
Brand alliances, which involve intentionally presenting two or more brands together, appear in many different forms. For example, Subway stores placed within Wal-Mart, Airbus A380 airplanes with Rolls-Royce Trent engines, and Nike+iPod co-developed personal trainers are among the more well-known manifestations of this strategy. Our study contributes to the literature on brand alliances by conceptualizing and measuring a typology of brand alliance types based on their degree of integration. We also empirically test and find that consumers are sensitive to varying degrees of brand alliance integration. We then link these findings to the managerial decision of how and with whom a brand should form an alliance. We use extensive examples, conversations with managers, and survey-based experiments to show that brand alliance integration is relevant and impactful to both managers and consumers.
The impact of brand image fit on attitude towards a brand alliance
Co-branding has become an increasingly popular strategy over recent decades. Studies have found that the pre-existing attitudes to the parent brands, fit between their product categories and perceived fit in the brands themselves as important drivers of a co-brand success. Despite its importance, most studies have treated brand fit as a simple measure of complementarity and consistency. Recently, a few papers have challenged this view, suggesting that a broader range of brand attributes (such as personality, functional and hedonic characteristics, cultural meaning) should also be considered when investigating brand alliances. The current study draws on these findings, exploring the fit between partners' brand images and how they influence perceptions of a brand alliance. We treat brand image as a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of economic, symbolic, sensory, futuristic and utilitarian elements. Using an experimental design with nine hypothetical brand pairings with 221 respondents, we find brand image fit provides greater explanatory power over a traditional unidimensional measure of brand fit, with economic, futuristic and utilitarian dimensions having a significant influence on co-brand perceptions.
Brand Alliance, a Strategy to Enter New Markets and a Tool for Positioning
Journal of Knowledge Management Economics and Information Technology, 2013
Brand alliance has emerged in the last two decades as a form of cooperation between two or more established brand names and has expanded as a business strategy to include both the production/ service sectors. This strategy is taking different forms; the most common one is co-branding which involves associating a single product with more than one brand name. .Another approach to create a brand alliance is brand licensing, in which one business obtains the rights to utilize the brand name owned by another business for a specific project or activity under a licensing agreement or contract. The third common approach is known as cross-marketing, and this implies the creation for a joint marketing campaign which allows two or more companies to promote each other and consequently broaden their prospective consumer bases.Brand alliance may be a short-term tactical partnership to increase awareness in the consumer's minds, promote sales and provide urgent financial resources, as it may also be a long-term strategic tool for brand growth and development and marketing success. In this sense, relying on a case study which involves a contracted alliance since 2005, between Algeria post foundation and mobiles branch, the researcher will try to demonstrate the advantages of such a strategy for these two operators, as a tool to enlarge the target population, penetrate new markets, strengthen the brand image in the mind of the consumer and reinforce its competitive position.
Understanding alliances: a review of international aspects in strategic marketing
Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 2003
This paper presents a review of the recent literature related to international strategic business alliances utilizing the conceptual foundations presented by Varadarajan and Cunningham in the 1995 special edition of Marketing Science as a baseline. Employing a parsimonious framework, alliances are defined, motives are identified, structures and governance methods are considered, critical success factors are recognized and outcomes are analyzed. This paper elucidates the relationships between the major components of the alliance literature, presents a conceptualization of an integrated framework and provides direction for future research.
Journal of Strategic Marketing, 2018
This study investigates whether firms that are evaluating potential partners might benefit from considering how consumers view these organisations, specifically the extent to which consumer identification with local and foreign partners influences consumer satisfaction with a co-branded product and consumers’ post purchase/consumption supportive intentions toward each partner. Data came from institutions of higher education in Hong Kong and Sri Lanka that operate in collaboration with a foreign partner. A conceptual model was developed and then tested using structural equation modelling. Dual consumer-organisation identification was found to be a significant predictor of consumer satisfaction with the co-branded product and consumers’ supportive intentions toward each partner. Furthermore, the perceived identity attractiveness of each partner was significantly related to the consumers’ identification with each partner. The results suggest that organisations which indulge in collaborative arrangements with foreign firms should recognise that each partner plays a significant and distinct role in generating consumer satisfaction and positive post-purchase/consumption behaviours.
International Marketing Review, 2016
Purpose: Recent research has shown that the country-of-origin (COO) effect - the influence on consumers’ attitudes and purchase behavior derived from a brand’s perceived association with a country - is inextricably linked to consumer perception. The present research examines this shift by considering origin as a characteristic derived from perceived association and also by proposing that this association varies by degree, rather than simply acting as a binary attribute in its effect on consumer attitudes. Design/methodology/approach: Data from a test-series in which respondents (n=100) rated 38 brand-country pairs were put to split-half multi-group analysis tests to capture the moderating influence of association strength on several facets of country image simultaneously. Findings: Association strength is a variable that exerts a moderating influence on how different dimensions of country image influence consumers’ evaluation of brands. Research limitations/implications: The findings indicate that origin, as a characteristic, should be considered an association that is variable by degree and not as dichotomous. The implications of such a shift are broad, not only for the theoretical understanding of the COO effect but also for marketing and brand management practice. Accounting for association strength allows for more accurate prediction of how consumers will react to COO. Originality/value: The paper explicitly demonstrates that the strength of country-brand association moderates COO’s influence on brand equity. Such a relationship had previously only been theoretically implied but had not been empirically tested across multiple categories of products on multiple levels of country image.
1998
Current research on brand alliances has focused primarily on alliances between two known, national brands. However, there is significant benefit to both parties in an alliance between a national brand and a private brand. Such alliances are gaining importance in the industry but have not been studied by marketers. The basic question explored in this study is whether using a national brand ingredient can benefit a private brand without hurting the national brand. First, a theoretical framework to explain how consumers may react to such an alliance is presented. Next, an experiment was conducted which showed that a private brand with a name brand ingredient was evaluated more positively. However, the evaluation of the national brand was not diminished by this association. Implications and future research directions are discussed.