The impact of brand image fit on attitude towards a brand alliance

• Authors: Debra Riley , Nathalie Charlton , Hillary Wason
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

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 complementarily 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.

Keywords

EN

co-branding; brand alliance; brand image; brand fit; partial-least squares

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Management & Marketing
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 270-283

Dates

published

2015-12-01

online

2016-03-19

Contributors

author

Debra Riley

• Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK

author

Nathalie Charlton

• Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK

author

Hillary Wason

• Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames, UK

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Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/mmcks-2015-0018