Co-branding on industrial markets

During the last decade branding has developed to be one of the main focus areas in consumer marketing. In the industrial marketing area there has only been limited attention to this phenomenon. In this paper we focus on how co-branding can be used on industrial markets to increase value. Through an empirical study of professional purchasers' attitudes towards co-branding activities between two companies, we explore the potential of this strategy.     

Fashionable hospitality: A natural symbiosis for Hong Kong's tourism industry?

Despite the well-accepted synergy between shopping and tourism, co-branding between hotels and retail brands has not been realized by either academia or practitioners. Considering the international recognition of retail brands, hotel and retail co-branding may be a sustainable competitive advantage, especially in shopping destinations such as Hong Kong. Using a one-shot cross-sectional design, this study investigated potential consumer reactions and preferences about likely hotel and retail co-branding in Hong Kong and mainland China. Findings indicated several opportunities as well as threats for hotels and retail brands as well as the need to understand specific markets, especially mainland Chinese before venturing into hotel and retail co-branding. Practical implications and future research suggestions are provided.     

Branding destinations versus branding hotels in a gaming destination—Examining the nature and significance of co-branding effects in the case study of Macao

This paper considers destinations and hotels operating within a gaming destination as co-branded experiential choice products. Specifically, it examines the overall and individual effects of visitors’ perceived brand equity of a gaming destination and their perceived brand equity of various hotels, including ‘flagship’ or branded hotels, in terms of influencing their reaction to a hypothetical brand loyalty scenario in which their intended and preferred hotel was unable to provide accommodation thus forcing them to either: (1) choose an alternate hotel in the destination and continue with the visit, (2) cancel the trip and choose another destination to visit, or (3) insist on staying at the preferred hotel but postpone the trip at another period. The study's expectation is that visitors’ response to such a hypothetical scenario is moderated by the relative influence of their perceived brand equity for the destination and for hotels. The emergent gaming destination of Macao is used as a case study for this purpose. The study's findings indicate that visitors’ overall destination brand equity perceptions—rather than hotel brand equity perceptions—is robustly significant when it comes to influencing visitors’ response to the brand loyalty scenario. Results of the study indicate several relevant implications for destination management organizations (DMOs) seeking to enhance their destination-branding efforts and for hotel operators, especially internationally branded hotel chains.     

“New and old”: Consumer evaluations of co-branding between new brands and Chinese time-honored brands

Nowadays, rejuvenation of Chinese time-honored brands, a symbol of Chinese traditional culture, is manifested in their co-branding with new brands. With focus on sincerity and excitement, two fundamental dimensions of brand personality, the authors explore this co-branding strategy which remains unexplored by the extant literature. Based on the integration of brand personality and Stereotype Content Model, a new mechanism is constructed from the perspective of consumers, with brand admiration being the underlying mechanism, as well as product category—hedonic vs. utilitarian—being a boundary condition. Through three experimental studies, the results show that the exciting (vs. sincere) personality of new brands increases consumers’ admiration for both allied brands, which in turn enhances co-branding evaluations, and that the advantage of the exciting personality holds for the hedonic co-branded product, but disappears for the utilitarian one. The research contributes to the co-branding literature and provides implications for brand partner selection and co-branded product design.     

It affects,it affects not: A quasi-experiment on the transfer effect of co-branding on consumer-based brand equity of hospitality products

Although co-branding is postulated to be beneficial for hospitality brands, empirical test of either transfer effect or spillover effect of co-branding on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) of hospitality brands is yet to receive attention from researchers. A quasi-experiment design was applied to test the transfer effect of co-branding on the CBBE of the composite brand, controlling for the familiarity, compatibility (fitness) and complementary of the partner brands. A within-subject (repeated measures) design with four steps measuring the CBBE of internationally known and compatible hotel and restaurant brands and their co-brand, as well as respondents’ own most familiar hotel and restaurant brand and their co-brand was applied in four steps to a class of 46 students enrolled for a tourism and hospitality class at a Tourism and Hotel Management School based in Asia. The t-test of differences revealed that the co-brand of the internationally known and compatible hotel and restaurant brands lead to synergy with both brands being winners and none losers, while the co-brand of respondents’ own most familiar brands lead to losses mostly, despite their high ratings individually. Implications and future research suggestions are provided.