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題名 MANAGING PRODUCT AND BRAND PORTFOLIOS: STAND AHEAD, NOT NECESSARY TO BE THE HEAD: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR A COMPOSITE BRAND EXTENSION? 作者 Tsai, Meng-Chun;Monroe, Kent B.;Lou, Yung-Chien;Bei, Lien-Ti
蔡孟君;樓永堅;別蓮蒂貢獻者 企管系 日期 2011 上傳時間 2-Sep-2015 14:50:53 (UTC+8) 摘要 Composite branding extensions, wherein two existing brands ally themselves to create a composite brand name and enter a different product category, have become a common way to introduce a new product. Most brand alliance strategy researchers have emphasized that the selection of the best partner can enhance consumers` evaluations of the co-branded product or the brands themselves. However, an important managerial issue once the alliance has been formed and the new product has been developed is how to communicate the composite brand to consumers with an expression in advertising and packaging. Consumers may interpret the expressions in their own way, and form perceptions about how the brands in the alliances have cooperated with each other, or which brand has more responsibility for developing and marketing the new product. Previous researchers proposed a model to describe how consumers form the combined concept of composite brand extensions. According to this model, if consumers are exposed to the expression "Slim-Fast chocolate cakemix by Godiva," it was suggested that they would first combine the product chocolate cakemix and the brand Slim-Fast to form a new concept in their minds. And then this new concept would be combined with Godiva to create the final composite brand product concept. Thus, consumers would perceive the product to be associated closer with and more likely belongs to Slim-Fast than Godiva. In this example, Slim-Fast is considered the "head brand," and Godiva is called the "modifier brand." However, in this expression Slim-Fast is also located in the initial position in the above expression. A reasonable question may be raised: does the effect come from the head brand or the fact that the brand is also in the initial position? Speakers often put the words they want to emphasize at the beginning of a sentence. The meaning of the words or the phrase in the initial position also reveals the theme of the sentence or the scope of the latter words. According to this syntax rule about the initial position, consumers may raise some thoughts toward the initial brand -- the brand in the initial position of a composite brand expression. In the expression `Slim-Fast chocolate cakemix by Godiva," consumers may think that Slim-Fast is the initiator and Godiva was invited to take part in this alliance. Thus, the extension product may be perceived as a member of Slim-Fast`s product line. The association between the product and Slim-Fast will be perceived to be closer and consumers will also believe Slim-Fast is responsible for the product and its marketing. Differing from the conclusions of previous researchers, we propose that the brand which stands in the initial position of the composite brand expression will be perceived to have more responsibility for the co-branded product. To clarify our research questions, we created three composite brand expressions in Chinese, which were different from the expressions in previous research. The head brand no longer stood at the beginning of the three expressions. Now the modifier brand was in the initial position in these expressions. By doing so, the strength of the head brand and the initial brand could be separated and examined. Three composite brand alliances and extensions were selected through pretests. The results show a consistent pattern supporting the superiority of the initial brand in three expressions, and generalizability was enhanced by meta-analyses including three expressions and three alliances in the research. Instead of the head brand, the initial brand was perceived to be more responsible for the extension product. That means, if one of these brands would like to show its involvement with the co-branded product, standing in the initial position of the expression would be a sufficient way to create a deeper-involved image. Moreover, this perceived responsibility was also influenced by the perceived relative brand strength of both brands. When a strong international brand was paired with a weaker national brand, consumers perceived the international brand to have more responsibility than its national partner no matter which brand was in the initial position. If it is not necessary to take an important role in the alliance, it was suggested in this research that the international brand should choose an expression that may cause less harm if the product fails. On the other hand, to stand in the initial position in two of the expressions in our experiments helps the national brand create a more involved image in the alliance. 關聯 AMA Summer Educators` Conference Proceedings, 22, 47-48 資料類型 conference dc.contributor 企管系 dc.creator (作者) Tsai, Meng-Chun;Monroe, Kent B.;Lou, Yung-Chien;Bei, Lien-Ti dc.creator (作者) 蔡孟君;樓永堅;別蓮蒂 zh_TW dc.date (日期) 2011 dc.date.accessioned 2-Sep-2015 14:50:53 (UTC+8) - dc.date.available 2-Sep-2015 14:50:53 (UTC+8) - dc.date.issued (上傳時間) 2-Sep-2015 14:50:53 (UTC+8) - dc.identifier.uri (URI) http://nccur.lib.nccu.edu.tw/handle/140.119/78149 - dc.description.abstract (摘要) Composite branding extensions, wherein two existing brands ally themselves to create a composite brand name and enter a different product category, have become a common way to introduce a new product. Most brand alliance strategy researchers have emphasized that the selection of the best partner can enhance consumers` evaluations of the co-branded product or the brands themselves. However, an important managerial issue once the alliance has been formed and the new product has been developed is how to communicate the composite brand to consumers with an expression in advertising and packaging. Consumers may interpret the expressions in their own way, and form perceptions about how the brands in the alliances have cooperated with each other, or which brand has more responsibility for developing and marketing the new product. Previous researchers proposed a model to describe how consumers form the combined concept of composite brand extensions. According to this model, if consumers are exposed to the expression "Slim-Fast chocolate cakemix by Godiva," it was suggested that they would first combine the product chocolate cakemix and the brand Slim-Fast to form a new concept in their minds. And then this new concept would be combined with Godiva to create the final composite brand product concept. Thus, consumers would perceive the product to be associated closer with and more likely belongs to Slim-Fast than Godiva. In this example, Slim-Fast is considered the "head brand," and Godiva is called the "modifier brand." However, in this expression Slim-Fast is also located in the initial position in the above expression. A reasonable question may be raised: does the effect come from the head brand or the fact that the brand is also in the initial position? Speakers often put the words they want to emphasize at the beginning of a sentence. The meaning of the words or the phrase in the initial position also reveals the theme of the sentence or the scope of the latter words. According to this syntax rule about the initial position, consumers may raise some thoughts toward the initial brand -- the brand in the initial position of a composite brand expression. In the expression `Slim-Fast chocolate cakemix by Godiva," consumers may think that Slim-Fast is the initiator and Godiva was invited to take part in this alliance. Thus, the extension product may be perceived as a member of Slim-Fast`s product line. The association between the product and Slim-Fast will be perceived to be closer and consumers will also believe Slim-Fast is responsible for the product and its marketing. Differing from the conclusions of previous researchers, we propose that the brand which stands in the initial position of the composite brand expression will be perceived to have more responsibility for the co-branded product. To clarify our research questions, we created three composite brand expressions in Chinese, which were different from the expressions in previous research. The head brand no longer stood at the beginning of the three expressions. Now the modifier brand was in the initial position in these expressions. By doing so, the strength of the head brand and the initial brand could be separated and examined. Three composite brand alliances and extensions were selected through pretests. The results show a consistent pattern supporting the superiority of the initial brand in three expressions, and generalizability was enhanced by meta-analyses including three expressions and three alliances in the research. Instead of the head brand, the initial brand was perceived to be more responsible for the extension product. That means, if one of these brands would like to show its involvement with the co-branded product, standing in the initial position of the expression would be a sufficient way to create a deeper-involved image. Moreover, this perceived responsibility was also influenced by the perceived relative brand strength of both brands. When a strong international brand was paired with a weaker national brand, consumers perceived the international brand to have more responsibility than its national partner no matter which brand was in the initial position. If it is not necessary to take an important role in the alliance, it was suggested in this research that the international brand should choose an expression that may cause less harm if the product fails. On the other hand, to stand in the initial position in two of the expressions in our experiments helps the national brand create a more involved image in the alliance. dc.format.extent 186372 bytes - dc.format.mimetype application/pdf - dc.relation (關聯) AMA Summer Educators` Conference Proceedings, 22, 47-48 dc.title (題名) MANAGING PRODUCT AND BRAND PORTFOLIOS: STAND AHEAD, NOT NECESSARY TO BE THE HEAD: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR A COMPOSITE BRAND EXTENSION? dc.type (資料類型) conference en
