Parent brands’ influence on co-brand’s perception: a model-based approach
| Date | 20 August 2018 |
| Pages | 514-522 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-08-2017-1555 |
| Published date | 20 August 2018 |
| Author | Daniel Böger,Pascal Kottemann,Reinhold Decker |
| Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
Parent brands’influence on co-brand’s
perception: a model-based approach
Daniel Böger, Pascal Kottemann and Reinhold Decker
Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to investigate what influence the perceptions of two parent brands have on the perception of a newly formed co-brand.
Furthermore, it elaborates whether respondents’evaluations of the parent brands, their familiarity towards the parent brands and their usage of the
parent brands affect this influence.
Design/methodology/approach –Building on both cognitive consistency and information integration theory, this paper proposes a model-
based approach to quantify the parent brands’influence on the co-brand’s perception. Using an empirical study with 317 respondents
collected by a professional online market research firm, this paper highlights the benefits of this model-based approach.
Findings –The results indicate that the perception of a co-brand arises from a weighted merge of the parent brands’perceptions. The findings
further reveal that the better (worse) a parent brand’s evaluation is in contrast to the other parent brand’s evaluation, the more (less) familiar a
parent brand is in contrast to the other parent brand, and the more (less) frequent a parent brand is used in contrast to the other parent brand, the
larger (smaller) is its influence on the co-brand’s perception.
Originality/value –The findings shed light on the formation of a co-brand’s perception which can be crucial when selecting the right co-
branding partner. Additionally, by quantifying the parent brands’influence on the perception of the co-brand, this model-based approach
helps brand managers to analyze co-brand pairings beforehand and select the best pairing in accordance with their goals.
Keywords Brand alliance, Brand association, Brand perception, Co-branding, Partner selection
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Brand alliances are the short- or long-term combination of
at least two brands for joint corporate activities (Gammoh
et al.,2010). A popular long-term brand alliance strategy is
co-branding, in which one product is branded and identified
simultaneously with at least two brands (Helmig et al.,
2008). In recent years, co-branding has gained increasing
popularity for leveraging brands worldwide (Besharat and
Langan, 2014) and has been applied in various industries,
such as consumer goods (Philadelphia-Milka spread), high
technology (e.g. Apple Watch, co-branded with Hermès)
and services (e.g. MasterCard by BMW). Moreover, H&M
has started a variety of co-branding activities with designer
luxury brands in the field of fast fashion, such as Alexander
Wang (Shen et al., 2017).
At the same time, co-branding has evoked a wide range of
academic research activities (Cunha et al., 2015;Huertas-
García et al., 2017;Mishra et al., 2017). While one research
stream examines the potential benefits of co-branding
activities (Park et al., 1996;Washburn et al., 2000,2004),
other streams focus on how to select the right partner for a
(co-)brand alliance (Lee and Decker, 2016;Van der Lans
et al., 2014) and empirically explore how consumers
evaluate co-branded products (Besharat, 2010;Bouten
et al.,2011). However, the findings still remain fragmented
(Besharat and Langan, 2014).
For example, only little is known about how exactly
consumers form their perceptions regarding a new co-brand.
As marketers use co-branding in an attempt to transfer positive
associations of the parent brands to the newly formedco-brand
(Washburn et al., 2000,2004), this lack of knowledgeprompts
the question what influence the perceptions of parent brands
exactly have on the perception of this co-brand. This question
is particularly importantfor both research and practicebecause
the resulting perception of a co-brand itself may have an effect
on the parent brands’perceptions, which is called spillover
effect in literature (Helmig et al.,2008). Additionally, this
question should be addressed especially in the case when two
well-known and established brands are combined to form a
new co-brand. Regarding these two brands, consumers have
salient brand associations in mind that may be transferred to
the co-brand as well as to the partnering brand (s) through
spillover. However, prior research has often focused on co-
brands between an unknown brand and a well-known brand
(Besharat, 2010;James, 2005;Voss and Gammoh, 2004;
Washburn et al.,2004).
To answer this question, this paper builds on both
cognitive consistency and information integration theory.
According to cognitive consistency theory (Levin et al.,
1996), when perceiving a co-brand, consumers tend to
assimilate their perceptions in a way that their perception
of the co-brand results from a merge of their perceptions of
the parent brands. According to information integration
theory (Lafferty and Goldsmith, 2005), when perceiving a
co-brand, the parent brand with more salient and more
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
27/5 (2018) 514–522
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-08-2017-1555]
514
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