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The objective of this article is to explore the general idea that there is a limit to the extent to which consumers make goodwill assumptions when sponsorship is used in combination with advertising.

An experiment was conducted where the number of different sponsorship activities by the same sponsor (i.e. one or two) in a sport event was varied in the context of an ongoing advertising campaign.

The results show that when brand advertising is used during a sport event, it is more beneficial for the brand to either be the official sponsor of the event or to be the official provider of products that are integrated in the event than to apply these two sponsorship strategies at the same time.

Future studies should be conducted with representative samples of consumers and a larger array of sponsored entities such as different sports events, art events, athletes, and cultural organizations. In addition, these studies should incorporate the measurement of consumers' inferences during exposure to marketing communication stimuli.

The study is the first to explore the sponsorship‐advertising interface in order to provide insights on the conditions under which the combination of these two forms of marketing communication will lead to optimal benefits in terms of brand equity.

Board games such as Monopoly and Scrabble enjoy a great deal of popularity among players of all ages. The objective of this study was to identify the characteristics of board games that impact significantly on players' appreciation.

A review of the literature and a qualitative study with players and board game professionals resulted in the identification of seven explanatory factors. A survey was conducted among 169 adult players selected using an area sampling method.

The survey results revealed that the most important factor in explaining players' appreciation of a board game was the extent to which the game was able to make them fantasize and live uncommon experiences. The second factor in importance was the entertainment that is associated with playing a game. Some unexpected differences were found between male and female players. Whereas the surprise elements of a game had a positive impact on men's appreciation, they were not significant among women. In turn, the rhythm of the game had a positive effect on women's appreciation whereas it did not impact on men's appreciation.

Players' perceptions were limited to board games with which they were familiar.

The results of this research offer some insights for the design and marketing of new board games. They indicate that the success of a new board game depends on the game's capacity to make players live a unique play experience and interact with other players. They also suggest that marketing communication should be adapted to the segments of male and female board game players.

This research brings useful knowledge about the factors that make consumers enjoy a board game.

This paper aims to show that the congruency between the source of a product being evaluated and the commonly held perceptions of that product's association with a country of origin (COO) leads to a more positive evaluation of that product.

This is an experimental study using two congruent product stimulus categories and two non‐congruent product categories, each associated with a Danish and a non‐Danish sounding brand name to elicit evaluation of product profiles from a sample of 187 young consumers.

Among all the variables included in the analysis of variance (ANOVA) tables, product‐country congruency performed the best. The second strongest main effect is attributed to familiarity with Danish products. The brand‐country congruence variable related only indirectly to the evaluation of products from Denmark through an interaction with product‐country congruence.

Future research should seek to build data sets from a larger number of adult consumers from several countries with more product and brand stimuli associated with multiple countries.

Consumers who are familiar with products made in Denmark should be the prime target market for products congruent with Denmark. Because of their strong association with Denmark, these products may benefit from their association with country of design (COD) Denmark in promotional programs.

Using cognitive‐consistency theory, this paper extends the previous literature on the perceptions of product‐country‐fit by including the effects of brand‐country fit, technological complexity, three dimensional conception of COO, and two separate product evaluation measures, using product‐country familiarity, product involvement and product experience as moderators.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of two different extension strategies, namely brand extension and co‐branding, on consumer attitude toward an extension in the context of the arts.

An experiment was conducted in which the type of extension strategy, as well as other variables identified as potentially having an impact on consumer attitudes, were manipulated.

The results showed that, whatever extension strategy is chosen, the new product should be congruent with the arts organization's activities and should be of low complexity. If these conditions are met, a co‐branding strategy appears to be preferable.

Because only two arts organizations were analyzed in this study, i.e. museums and symphonic orchestras, future studies should consider other domains of the arts. New products introduced as brand extensions should be simple and congruent with the business activities of the arts organization. If the product is not congruent with the organization's activities, then simple brand extension appears be a better strategy.

This study has examined the extent to which marketing strategies that work for conventional goods and services may succeed in the case of artistic and cultural products. It brings valuable knowledge to managers of arts organizations and marketing researchers with respect to the impact of brand extension strategies in the arts.

Research on fairly‐traded products has shown that changing consumers' attitudes may not be the best strategy to bring consumers to purchase these products. The objective of this study is to examine a different, non‐cognitive approach based on the utilization of behavioral influence strategies.

A field experiment was conducted involving 168 consumers. The experiment took place in the context of a commercial stand in which fairly‐traded products such as coffee, sugar, chocolate, and so on, were sold. Three factors were manipulated: the concreteness of the information provided to visitors; the provision of information about the popularity of fairly‐traded products among relevant others; and the possibility of receiving concrete feedback from a producer.

The paper finds that, contrary to what was expected, abstract information led to a greater amount of money spent on average by visitors. In addition, knowing that fairly‐traded products were popular among relevant others had a significant impact on money spent only when feedback was not offered to the participants.

A field experiment does not offer a high degree of control over nuisance variables. The application of the manipulations and the randomization of participants in this study were therefore not optimal.

Managers involved in the marketing of fairly‐traded products who communicate with potential buyers using concrete messages should make sure that consumers are attentive to their messages. These messages should inform consumers that fairly‐traded products are purchased by relevant others.

The paper provides useful information on how to influence consumers' attitudes to purchasing fairly‐traded products.

The purpose of this study is to contrast athlete endorsement vs athlete sponsorship from a power imbalance perspective when a scandal strikes the athlete.

A first study was conducted with a probabilistic sample of 252 adult consumers where the type of brand–athlete relationship (endorsement or sponsorship) and the level of congruence between the two entities (low or high) were manipulated in a mixed experimental design. A second study with a probabilistic sample of 118 adult consumers was conducted to demonstrate that consumers perceive that the balance of power between the brand and the athlete is not the same in endorsement and sponsorship situations.

The results of the first study showed that when an athlete is in the midst of a scandal, the negative impact on the associated brand is stronger in the case of an endorsement than in the case of a sponsorship. However, this occurs only when the brand–athlete relationship is congruent. The results of the second study showed that the athlete’s power relative to the brand is greater in an endorsement than in a sponsorship context.

The findings suggest that a company that worries about the possibility that the athlete with whom it wants to build a relationship be eventually associated with some negative event (e.g. a scandal) should consider sponsorship rather than endorsement as a strategy.

This study is the first to compare the athlete endorsement and sponsorship strategies in general and the first to put forward the notion of power imbalance in brand–athlete partnerships, its impact on how the two entities are represented in consumers’ memory networks and the consequences on brand attitude when the athlete is associated with a negative event.

Presents the results of a study in which judgement of quality and purchase value of three different product categories were obtained from 173 purchasing managers and 190 household consumers. The products varied according to the country where they were designed, the country where they were assembled, their brand name, their price and their warranty. In addition, the respondents rated 13 developed and newly industrializing countries by their capacity to design and assemble products in general. Indicates that the respondents′ perceptions of newly industrializing countries are more negative than their perceptions of developed countries. However, when additional information concerning the product′s brand name, price and warranty is available, their perceptual differences between developed and newly industrializing countries are considerably reduced. Shows significant differences between household and organizational buyers in the relative importance given to country‐of‐origin and other product cues. Discusses strategic implications of these findings for global marketing.

Presents the results of a study of consumer reactions to various sponsorship programmes. The programmes differed in terms of four factors: the nature of the sponsorship (philanthropic versus commercial), its origin (pre‐existing versus event created by the sponsor), its frequency (continuous versus one‐shot) and the strength of the link between the entity (or the event) and the sponsor (weak versus strong). The results show that philanthropic sponsorship has a more positive impact on corporate image than commercial sponsorship. Also, the link between the sponsor and the event has a non‐linear effect on corporate image. Consumer interest in the sponsored event has a positive impact on perceptions of the sponsor′s image. In addition, it was found that the factors have interactive effects on consumer evaluations. Strategic implications for sponsorship management are derived from these results.

Reports a common occurrence in the marketplace: brand imitation. A total of 160 consumers participated in an experiment where goodness of imitation, presence/absence of the imitated brand, reputation of the store and type of product (convenience/luxury) were manipulated. The results show that consumer evaluations of brand imitations do not depend on how good the imitation is. The better the image of the store in which brand imitations of luxury products are distributed, the more positive consumer evaluations. In the case of convenience goods however, the impact of store image on consumer evaluations depends on the presence or absence of the imitated brand. Four consumer characteristics were found to correlate negatively with evaluations of brand imitations: product category involvement, product familiarity, brand sensitivity and generalised brand loyalty.

This paper studies how Chinese consumers respond to foreign goods in the post‐WTO era. Specifically, it examines brand sensitivity as a mediator and product cues as moderator of purchase intention. Additionally, it examines consumer preferences for different products and consumption plans for the subsequent five years. The survey sample is drawn from a population of foreign product users from 34 cities in 18 provinces in China. Results provide evidence that brand sensitivity mediates the relationship between consumer ethnocentrism and purchase intention; product cues moderate the effect of ethnocentrism on purchase intention. As the first study to link consumer ethnocentrism directly to brand sensitivity and purchase intention, this research provides some managerial implications. Global marketers can offset the negative effect of ethnocentrism by emphasizing brand image of its products, taking advantage of specific product cues, or by providing more comprehensive after‐sale service to reduce the perceived risk of purchasing imports. Also, price is still a hurdle that prevents Chinese consumers from mass consumption of foreign products. Global firms should not overestimate the purchasing power of Chinese consumers. This study represents a “snapshot” of Chinese consumers’ decision making at a time when their economic system is undergoing rapid change.