Building Brands through Brand Alliances: Does a Second Ally Help?

Several papers have been published demonstrating the positive effects a single, reputable ally has on evaluations of a focal brand. Interestingly, little research has been published examining the effects of multiple brand allies. We examine the effect of an alliance with two, one, or zero well-known brand allies on evaluations of a previously unknown focal brand. The presence of a single brand ally significantly increased perceived quality and hedonic and utilitarian attitudes. While multiple alliances improved focal brand evaluations relative to the no ally condition, the second ally did not increase evaluations relative to the single ally condition.     

Antecedents of Belief in Global Citizenship: A Two-Country Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT

This research contributes to the existing literature by investigating the antecedents of belief in global citizenship. Previous literature in global brand management has provided strong evidence of the importance of perceived quality and social prestige of global brands in influencing consumers’ evaluations of global brands. Accordingly, the authors’ model focuses on the perceived quality and social prestige of global brands as antecedents of consumers’ belief in global citizenship. In addition, they examine the direct and indirect effects of consumer ethnocentricity and cultural openness on consumers’ belief in global citizenship. They empirically examine this framework within a rich cross-cultural context using samples from the United States and India (developed and developing countries). The proposed model suggests that perceived quality and social prestige of global brands are mediators of the relationship between ethnocentricity and cultural openness and consumers’ belief in global citizenship. They followed Gerbing and Anderson's two-step approach to develop a measurement model with an acceptable fit to the data and then conducted a structural model to test the hypothesized relationships. The authors conducted χ² difference tests to examine the structure of their hypothesized relationships across the United States and India. The results support partial mediation for perceived quality and social prestige of global brands on the relationship between ethnocentricity and cultural openness and consumers’ belief in global citizenship. Furthermore, they demonstrate some interesting differences in the relationships in the model across the two samples.     

Consumer evaluation of brand alliance signals

A consistent finding in brand‐alliance research is that a well‐known, reputable brand ally improves consumers' evaluation of an unknown brand. The authors contribute to this research by examining the effects of a brand ally at different levels of cognitive elaboration and message argument strength. Results suggest that the brand ally serves as an endorser of the primary brand in two key ways. When cognitive elaboration is low and the ad contains strong arguments, the ally serves as an endorser. On the other hand, the presence of a reputable ally is an information cue when cognitive elaboration is high and the ad contains weak arguments. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How does a Brand Ally Affect Consumer Evaluations of a Focal Brand?

Published research has shown that an alliance with a well‐known, reputable brand can improve quality perceptions of a previously unknown focal brand. Much of this research is based on signaling theory's bonding hypothesis. However, customers face information search costs when evaluating brands with which they may be unfamiliar. The authors contend that, since consumers are self‐interested, they will prefer to realize cost savings for themselves relative to a future conditional opportunity to punish a false signal sender. Three studies show that the effect of brand ally information on quality perceptions of an unfamiliar brand is mediated by perceived risk reduction due to lower information search costs.