This research examines the growing phenomenon of cross-border brand alliances and the potential factors that influence consumers' attitudes toward these alliances. Building on an existing framework, it establishes country of origin fit as a new variable that influences consumer attitudes toward brand alliances and examines its relationship with brand fit under various conditions of brand familiarity. The results of two studies replicate previous research findings and demonstrate a new relationship between country of origin fit and brand fit in predicting consumer attitude towards cross-border brand alliances. These results extend research in understanding the relationship between the fit variables and the strength of their effects on brand alliance evaluations. / Master of Science

Purpose:                       The purpose of this study is to identify, define and describe the challenges of sustaining positive brand equity gained as an outcome of Cause-brand alliances. Therefore, this study is conducted from the perspective of companies engaging in Cause-brand alliances, with the aim to provide academic and managerial implications of managing brand equity over time following a Cause-brand alliance. Methodology:              This thesis performs qualitative research and uses a longitudinal research design in order to conduct exploratory research. A case study is conducted on Gina Tricot’s CBA with UNICEF. Data is collected through the use of both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data collection is conducted through semi-structured interviews that are formed and analysed through open coding and grounded theory. The secondary data is collected through an analysis of Gina Tricot’s social media, reports, external media and sustainability reports from the company participating in this case study. Empirical findings: The empirical findings demonstrate that Gina Tricot has issues capitalizing on their CBA with UNICEF. A result of some of the challenges Gina Tricot is facing in sustaining brand equity following a CBA, including difficulty in gaining coverage in the media, unreliability in motives, fear of consumer criticism, ineffective communication strategy, intangible projects and lack of marketing prioritization from top management. Conclusions:                The present study found indications that the benefits of CBA’s are not applicable to all industries. In order to gain brand equity, and sustain it following a CBA, it is of highest importance to overcome fear of public criticism and thus communicate the CBA to consumers by implementing an effective CSR communication strategy. Doing so requires prioritization from top management which can be challenging unless the CBA has proven results.

This dissertation study examined the effect of country-of-origin (COO) fit on consumer brand attitude in cross-border strategic brand alliance (SBA). Also, this study investigated the effects of consumer product knowledge by dividing it into subjective and objective knowledge dimensions. It was found that cross-border SBA can be a viable market entry strategy for host and partner brands. Specifically, cross-border SBA creates positive synergistic effects when the COO fit is high. In addition, in a low COO fit situation, the partner brand suffering from less favorable country image would be able to benefit from the established brand equity of the host brand and thus gain favorable consumer product evaluation. Also, consumers with low and high product knowledge are more likely to be affected by COO fit information than those with moderate product knowledge. It was found that subjective knowledge is more related to consumer heuristics and decision making processes than objective knowledge. Implications and suggestions for future research in this area are provided. / text

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-125).

Background - Luxury companies have long been reluctant to adopt the internet as a mode of distribution. A luxury brand’s concept of exclusiveness is seemingly incompatible with the ubiquitous nature of the internet. Hence, many luxury brands are fearful that distributing their products on third-party online retail platforms might decrease the brands’ vital aura of luxury. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to explore consumer perceptions, attitudes and purchase intention towards a luxury brand being distributed on an online multibrand marketplace. This research aims to fill the existing gap on the ambiguous nature of luxury branding and distribution in an online multibrand context. Methodology - A qualitative approach including ten semi-structured interviews with Swedish millennials were conducted. A case study of a hypothetical brand alliance between Louis Vuitton and Amazon was developed, presented and discussed. Collected data was analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings - Results show that the online distribution of a luxury brand did influence consumer perceptions of the luxury brand when seen online. However, it did not result in a change in their overall attitude or purchase intention towards the luxury brand. Additionally, it was found that consumers were not willing to buy luxury on an multibrand marketplace platform.

Esta tesis estudia cómo la afinidad de producto y la afinidad de marca, en una estrategia de co-branding, afectan la preferencia del consumidor. Mediante un análisis de regresión se comprueba que ambas influyen de manera estadísticamente significativa sobre la preferencia del consumidor. Se investiga, también, la interacción entre la afinidad de producto y la afinidad de marca y se comprueba que no existe evidencia estadística que lo confirme. Si bien la afinidad de producto y la afinidad de marca afectan de forma significativa a la preferencia por separado, no existe interacción manifiesta entre ellas. Finalmente, se comprueba qué afecta más a la preferencia, la afinidad de producto o la afinidad de marca. Se mide su importancia relativa y se concluye que la afinidad de producto tiene un peso relativo mayor en la preferencia que la afinidad de marca / The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship that product fit and brand fit have with consumer preference in co-branding. Product combinations were determined by whether they fit or not using the input from 60 subjects, through surveys. Then, brand combinations were designed based on the input from another set of 60 subjects who decided which brands from those product combinations fit and which did not fit. Four final combinations were formed. The combinations included products and brands that fit, products that fit with brands that did not fit, products that did not fit with brands that fit and products with brands that did not fit. A final questionnaire was distributed to 178 university students to find the preferences on the four combinations. Then, through a conjoint analysis it was possible to find the relationship between product and brand fit and consumer preference. The results revealed that both, product and brand fit, significantly influence consumer preference. It also indicates that the effect of product fit on preference is greater than the effect of brand fit. Finally, the results did not support the expectation that there would be an interaction effect between product and brand fit.

This study sought to enrich the research in cross-border strategic brand alliance (SBA), an international business practice highly utilized today. In order to spread out the risk of competing in international markets, firms formed alliances with overseas counterparts. However, confusing positioning and inaccuracies in communication in cross-cultural settings reduced the success rate of these partnerships. The content analysis examined cross-border SBA advertisements to shed light on their communicational strategies. Taiwan and the US, representative of inherent cultural values in Eastern and Western countries, served as great research subjects for this comparative study. The findings suggested that cross-border SBA advertisements do not have significantly distinctive communication strategies except for the inherent difference in multi-national characteristics. However, cross-border SBA advertisements in both countries differ from generic advertisements documented in previous studies in terms of information cues, advertising appeals, and general communication strategies. The comparison between cross-border SBA advertisements was reflective of the cultural differences in these cultural contexts. In sum, cross-border SBA advertisements were embedded with stronger cultural distinctiveness and in need of special execution to integrate proper messages. / text

Bergslagens Sparbank as well as other independent(fristående) sparbanker have discoveredthat some of their customers can not separate them from Swedbank. Some customers maythus believe that they are the same bank. This study seeks factors that may contribute to thisproblem, and measures that can counteract. We refer to this problem as brand confusion andmainly have our focus on factors derived from brand alliance, but also from the companyitself and the banking industry. We use a qualitative method where we collect empirical datafrom interviews with four sparbanker. Strategic differences between them, allow us to seehow different factors can contribute to and or counteract brand confusion. This study showsthat the graphic profile, that includes the common symbol and colors, may have great impactwhen it comes to sparbankerna. However, the messy business history that includes thecomplex partner relationship could also have a great impact. Finally, we would also like tomention the importance of how all involving parties in a brand alliance communicates this. Ifit does not come through loud and clear to the customer that there is a partnership, strongsimilarities and ambiguities may affect customers to believe two companies are one and underthe same brand.

La marque n’est plus seulement un signe distinctif, elle est devenue un actif incorporel dont la valeur peut dépasser largement celle de tous les autres actifs réunis d’une entreprise. Le secteur des services financiers tunisien a connu plusieurs opérations de fusions-acquisitions. Ces opérations ont donné l’occasion aux entreprises du secteur de changer de noms et de choisir entre un nouveau nom ou maintenir l’ancien ou préserver les noms des entreprises alliées (co-branding). Le but de ce travail est d’étudier l’impact de cette stratégie de co-branding sur l’attitude des consommateurs (aspect affectif, conatif mais surtout cognitif). La marque-entreprise a été considérée dans cette recherche comme étant une représentation sociale. Afin de comprendre l’effet de la stratégie de co-branding sur l’image de marque il s’agit dès lors d’évaluer l’évolution du noyau central et du système périphérique de cette représentation. / The trademark is no longer considered as a distinctive sign, rather; it has become an intangible asset whose value can far exceed that of all other combined assets of a company. The Tunisian financial services sector has experienced several processes of mergers and acquisitions. These operations have provided an opportunity for companies in the sector to change names and to choose a new name, to maintain the old one or to keep the names of the allied companies (co-branding). The aim of this work is to study the impact of this strategy of co-branding on consumer attitudes (affective, conative and especially cognitive). The brand company in this research was considered as a social representation. In order to understand the impact of the strategy of co-branding on the brand image, it comes to assess the evolution of the central core and the peripheral system of this representation.