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This study aims to investigate factors impacting host country consumers’ attitudes toward acquirers’ corporate brands and target brands after cross-border acquisitions (CBAs).

Surveys were conducted with US consumers using two fictitious CBA scenarios in the automobile industry.

Consumer ethnocentric tendencies (CETs) are negatively related to attitudes toward a CBA event; attitudes toward a CBA event are positively related to post-CBA attitudes toward the acquirer's corporate brand; brand-image fit is positively related to attitudes toward a CBA event, and post-CBA attitudes toward the acquirer's corporate brand and the target brand; post-CBA attitudes toward the acquirer's corporate brand and the target brand are positively related.

This study is limited in the sample, analysis approaches, context and factors examined. Future research could use more representative samples and both quantitative and qualitative methodologies; conduct more tests; examine real CBAs in different industries and countries; and investigate effects of other factors affecting attitudes toward the CBA event and post-CBA brand attitudes.

Managers should consider CETs and brand-image fit and strategically influence attitudes toward a CBA event and post-CBA brand attitudes.

It investigates the mediating effect of attitudes toward a CBA event on the relationship between CETs and post-CBA attitudes toward the acquirer's corporate brand and the effects of brand-image fit on attitudes toward a CBA event and post-CBA brand attitudes.

Nation branding strategies are gaining priority as an area of research because of increasing market complexities and the rising importance of national competitiveness ranking. The sustainable development of a nation brand, when properly managed, will provide the economic incentive to attract investors, tourists and generate income for local communities. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on delineating the strategic imperatives for sustainable market competitiveness of nation brands.

The research adopts an eclectic approach in examining a wider range of factors such as sustainability and market competitiveness to develop a synergistic nation brand.

For nation brands to remain competitive, it is essential to understand the key determinants of market competitiveness. These determinants include sustainable tourism factors such as culture, heritage, environmental and integration of internal and external stakeholder groups from the public and private sectors.

This paper provides a framework for the analysis of sustainable market competitiveness factors of the nation brand. It also provides implications for nation branding and future research agenda.

Many audiences might view wine brand web sites as complex or unapproachable. Wine drinking is no longer a pastime of the affluent and elite; rather, it is increasingly popular among younger consumer groups and those from broader socio‐economic backgrounds. In order to communicate effectively with newer consumer demographics, wine brand web sites must first and foremost be understandable and readable. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this issue, aiming to answer the question of whether the web sites of popular wine brands are readable or not.

To investigate the readability of consumer brand wine web sites, web site copy from the 20 most popular wine brands in the USA was calculated across multiple readability indices employing content analysis.

The findings suggest that, while certain target demographics may be assumed by grouping wine brand web sites based on readability measures, there are marked differences in readability across wine web sites of a similar nature that only serves to reinforce consumer confusion, rather than help remove it.

There is scant literature on readability in the wine business literature in general, and with regard to the readability of wine web sites in particular. The research highlights the need for those who communicate with a broad audience of wine consumers to give attention to web site content, and readability in particular. This is for two reasons: less sophisticated consumers will not respond to wine marketing messages they cannot understand, and more sophisticated wine drinkers will react more positively to messages that are clear and well‐written. Readability is equally important for these more sophisticated consumers.

Marketing in an emerging market.

The case is aimed at MBA students in a marketing strategy class on marketing at the bottom of the pyramid or on branding.

A young brand manager faced the challenge to increase drastically a brand market share to 8 per cent in 2015 in a context of a new emerging market with large number of consumers living with no more than US$1.25 a day.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: to familiarize students with emerging markets characteristics; to illustrate the challenges of marketing a brand to local consumers with limited financial resources to craft a marketing strategy for Pepsodent with a clear positioning, allowing the Pepsodent brand to differentiate itself and to leverage its brand equity; and to develop a marketing-mix aligned with the brand positioning.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This research investigates three major research questions. First, how does brand alliance type, defined by a partner's location and brand quality, affect consumers' emotional value perceptions of higher education brand alliances for dual-degree programs? Second, does perceived brand fit mediate the relationship between brand alliance type and emotional value perceptions? Third, do individual differences in world-mindedness moderate the influence of brand alliance type on emotional value perceptions?

In total, two experiments are performed. Experiment one examines the effect of brand alliance type, at varying combinations of partner brand quality and partner location (domestic or foreign), on consumers' emotional value perceptions. Experiment two examines the moderating role of world-mindedness in the relationship between brand alliance type and consumers' emotional value perceptions.

Results provide evidence that consumers' perception of brand fit mediates the relationship between brand alliance type and consumers' emotional value perceptions of the alliance. Results also indicate that world-mindedness moderates the relationship between brand alliance type and emotional value perceptions.

This research extends the previous literature on higher education dual-degree brand alliances and introduces world-mindedness as an important consumer-based characteristic to consider in this line of research. It answers calls for more research on higher education branding and calls for research into the potential mediating role and importance of brand fit. It provides several theoretical and managerial implications relevant to the higher education brand alliances, particularly in dual-degree programs.

Current research on brand alliances has focused primarily on alliances between two known, national brands. However, there is significant benefit to both parties in an alliance between a national brand and a private brand. Such alliances are gaining importance in the industry but have not been studied by marketers. The basic question explored in this study is whether using a national brand ingredient can benefit a private brand without hurting the national brand. First, a theoretical framework to explain how consumers may react to such an alliance is presented. Next, an experiment was conducted which showed that a private brand with a name brand ingredient was evaluated more positively. However, the evaluation of the national brand was not diminished by this association. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

This paper aims to investigate whether a message from a brand with stronger brand equity generates more trust than a message from a brand with lower brand equity, and thus is more likely to encourage consumers to write online reviews. This paper also explores what happens when consumers become aware that brands are trying to persuade them to write a review.

Through three experimental studies, where participants were randomly assigned to a brand that has either a stronger or weaker brand equity, participants’ intention to write reviews was measured. Trust in the message was measured to study its mediating role, and persuasion knowledge of the participants was manipulated to investigate its moderating effect.

The findings confirm that consumers are more likely to write online reviews when a message comes from a brand that has stronger brand equity, trust in the message mediates the relationship between brand equity and consumer intention to write an online review, and persuasion knowledge has a differential effect on consumer intention to write reviews.

The study adds to the brand equity and online review literature by providing evidence that a higher level of consumer trust on brands that have stronger brand equity leads to an increased intention to write a review for the brand. It also shows that consumers’ awareness of the motive of the brand is more beneficial for brands with strong brand equity, contributing to persuasion knowledge literature.

The apparel industry is often scrutinized for its lack of environmental stewardship, and thus pro-environmental initiatives have been of significant consideration among apparel brands in recent years. However, one personality trait of specific concern to brand marketers is consumer skepticism toward climate change, which has the potential to negatively impact the success of brands’ pro-environmental initiatives. In this light, research indicates that knowledge of the environmental impact of products can lead to lower skepticism (Tobler et al., 2012) and ultimately higher purchase intentions of such products. Thus, this study investigates the impact of consumers’ knowledge about environmental impact of apparel, climate change skepticism on their evaluation of brands’ pro-environmental initiatives (shared value and perceived benefit) and ultimately their relationship with the brand (perceived trust, commitment), leading to purchase intention for both familiar and unfamiliar brands.

Two separate studies were conducted for familiar and unfamiliar brands. Data for online surveys were collected from two US nationwide samples and analyzed using path analyses.

Consumers’ intention to purchase from a pro-environmental brand was influenced by knowledge and skepticism. Particularly, the obtained shared value perceptions and perceived benefits of consumers influenced their relationship with the brand through trust and commitment, which eventually impacted their intention to purchase from the brand. Differences were observed for familiar and unfamiliar brands.

Findings of this study will help brand managers design effective pro-environmental marketing messages. Both familiar and unfamiliar brands would benefit from educating consumers about the true environmental impact of their apparel choices, as well as the personal benefits and values earned when purchasing/consuming pro-environmental apparel. This, in turn, reduces consumer skepticism toward climate change, leading to favorable evaluations of the brand’s pro-environmental initiatives and improvement of long-term brand relations.

This study extended the social exchange theory by understanding antecedents of consumers’ shared value and perceived benefits, namely, their knowledge about the environmental impact of apparel and their skepticism toward climate change, with the final outcome variable being consumers’ patronage intention of pro-environmental brands.

Reviews recent work in the country of origin and brand name literatures regarding the formation of perceptions regarding perceived brand origin. Based on this review, presents six hypotheses concerning such perceptions, including their effect on consumers’ ratings of quality. Using real brands in two experiments, finds support for several of our hypotheses relating to the effects of country of component source, country of manufacture, and country of corporate ownership. In particular, finds that country of manufacture had no effect on product quality evaluations when country of corporate ownership was also present.

Millennials have an interest in luxury and premium products across all types of goods, but little is known about how this translates into their preferences for wine. In general, Millennials are spending less per bottle on wine than older generations, but what are the characteristics of the subset of Millennials who are spending more on wine? The purpose of this article is to develop an understanding of Millennials’ buying habits with regard to higher-priced, luxury wines.

A survey instrument was designed and used to collect responses from 189 Millennial wine drinkers in the US. Statistical tests and a binary probit model were used to analyze the results.

The findings suggest that there is a subset of US Millennials that present a viable market for luxury wines.

This research is limited by the sample itself, as a relatively small, convenience sample of Millennial wine drinkers.

Wineries interested in targeting a Millennial crowd will benefit by recognizing that male, married Millennials with annual incomes of over $50,000 are more likely to buy higher-priced wines. In addition, findings suggest that traditional and non-traditional outlets for wine information are being used as these Millennials seek out information about wine.

While Millennial wine consumers are still developing their tastes, this is one of the first articles to isolate the Millennials who are buying higher-priced wines. This research sheds light on a potentially lucrative consumer segment.