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Compared to typical brand extension research focusing on functional and symbolic attributes, this paper aims to examine brand extensions based on a brand's primary sensory attributes. Specifically, this paper investigates the interplay between brand equity and primary sensory attributes in shaping consumers' evaluations of brand extensions.

This study investigates the impact of primary or central sensory attributes on brand extension evaluations for brands with differing brand equities. The authors conducted two experiments preceded by seven pretests to develop and validate the stimulus materials. The authors aim to contribute to understanding how sensory and brand-related factors influence consumers' evaluations of brand extensions.

In these experiments, the authors find that a parent brand's central/dominant sensory attribute allows the parent brand to successfully extend into functionally unrelated categories. For example, Dove’s central attribute of touch allows it to extend successfully into categories such as towels and shaving razor. However, it does not perform as well as Irish Spring (known for smell) in categories such as cologne and scented fabric softener, where Irish Spring's central attribute of smell is more relevant. Interestingly, Irish Spring, a lower equity brand, outperforms Dove in smell-related extensions, indicating that sensory attributes can counter the impact of lower brand equity if the sensory attribute is relevant to the extension category.

This study investigates brand extensions based on sensory attributes such as smell and touch instead of typical brand extensions based on functional and symbolic attributes. In particular, the authors examine whether the perceived fit between the parent brand’s dominant sensory attribute and the extended category (i.e. sensory fit) is more important than the parent brand's equity in the evaluation of brand extensions.

Humans engage in two types of processing. One system is the rapid, affect-based, and intuitive, “experiential” system, while the other is the relatively slower, cognition-based, and reflective, “rational” system. Extant work focuses on the consequences of having one system relatively dominant over the other. In the current research, we show that consumers who use neither system to a great degree (i.e., low-system consumers) are vulnerable to undesirable outcomes. Specifically, four studies demonstrate that these consumers face confusion in the process of making judgments due to their lack of processing inputs and resolve this confusion by making judgments that are implied by salient stimuli, regardless of the stimuli's diagnostic value. The result is an unbalanced, easily biased, and “blown away by the gust of wind” judgment process that both policymakers and low-system consumers should be vigilant to.

This research finds out to what extent companies’ names are influenced by the place’s attributes versus the official branding policies of a place and, consequently, whether and how local companies “buy into” the place’s strategies put forth by official bodies.

This paper is both conceptual and empirical, as a mixed quantitative and interpretive approach is used. The companies’ names of a tourist industry (the tour and guiding companies) in three destinations are compared and pitched against the branding of these cities. The companies' names are classified into categories to ascertain whether they reflect (or diverge from) the official strategies. Finally, a conceptual model is developed to explain the findings: the strategic naming model (SNM).

Our main finding is that the overall business features of a place being stronger determinants to the naming strategies than tourist destination branding initiatives. The intrinsic features of a place seem thus to be “above” destination branding policies. The researched features account for different naming strategies, such as highly original names, flat names or non-strategic names.

As the work is based on a convenience sample, it cannot claim strong representativity. The fact that each of the three data sets was processed by a different researcher might bring up personal biases.

This work is a call for a more intensive use of naming strategies to the companies’ advantages, as naming is found out to be strategy used to a very low degree. Thanks to this research, companies will understand the different naming possibilities and be able to apply them to their strategies by choosing names which express “uniqueness” or “belonging”. Practitioners will also be aware of whether they are communicating towards the industry or towards the market.

No works were found that empirically pursue our research goals. Therefore, this research might be considered as a novelty. The proposed SNM model explains and relates the most usual company naming techniques, which were unrelated up to date.

Football stadiums, traditionally linked to local landmarks, now see a shift as corporate brands engage in naming rights through sponsorship. However, limited scholarly attention has focused on the perception of stadium toponyms. This research initiative aims to gauge attention garnered by football stadiums in Europe and China based on various naming rights options.

Commencing with a well-known European stadium: Allianz Arena (Munich) and new constructed stadium in China, the original naming rights have been proffered as stimuli, in comparison with two major technology brands as well as Coca-Cola, the historical sponsor of sport mega-events. A sample of 100 participants was analyzed using the eye-tracking technique to compare the perceptions of European and Chinese youth.

The conclusion drawn from the study is that for stadiums with a history of sponsorship, unedited versions of the pictures attract the most attention. Compared with technology brand, Coca-cola is the brand with the greatest ability to attract the attention of young people in both historical stadiums or new constructed stadium, acting as an impulse to the activation of the naming rights strategy due to its historical character as a sponsor of mega sporting events.

The research makes dual contributions, both theoretically and practically. It enhances comprehension of audience visual attention patterns in the context of football stadium naming rights sponsorship, employing cognitive attention theory to substantiate empirical evidence. Furthermore, it advances the existing literature on football stadium naming rights research. Additionally, it proposes an optimization tool to assess the effectiveness of naming rights sponsorships, offering valuable insights for companies and brands seeking to enhance their marketing strategies.

Product color names related to a consumption setting are commonly used in advertising to persuade. This study aims to use consumption imagery fluency as an underlying mechanism for assessing how such a naming tactic impacts product evaluation.

Three between-subjects experiments examine how product evaluation, in response to the use of color names containing consumption situation information, varies as a function of their accessibility (Study 1), and also test the role of a naming explanation (Study 2). How readily a consumer takes in consumption imagery is evaluated as a mediator. The studies further check if color attribute serves as a moderator of such color naming effect and that the naming factor contributes to consumption imagery fluency directly or indirectly alters such through their impact on comprehension fluency (Study 3).

Marketing products with color names related to the consumption setting is more effective than using generic names. Consumption imagery fluency mediates the results. This positive outcome is reduced when color names are less accessible. Fortunately, including an explanation to facilitate reasoning for product color names is helpful to reverse this disadvantage. The same patterns are not evident for highly accessible names. In addition, the effectiveness of consumption situation-related color names is restricted to the circumstance of color attribute as secondary, as opposed to primary. Furthermore, naming factors influence the ease of consumption of imagery whether or not facilitated by comprehension fluency.

This research provides evidence of consumers’ responses to product color naming that involves consumption situations and identifies consumption imagery fluency as a potential means for mediating the studied effect.

Naming a product color in consumption situation-related terms triggers consumption imagery, driving evaluation when color is the secondary attribute of a product.

This research contributes to understanding the influence of naming a product’s color in promotional communication and correlates to productive tactics for advertising messages.

Grounded in strategic fit theory, this study aims to identify external and internal factors that influence retailers’ strategic choices regarding their own product brands. Furthermore, it seeks to explore the variations between different own product brand strategies in achieving both external and internal strategic fit.

The systematic review method, incorporating a thematic analysis, was adopted, and 318 articles were included for review.

The factors that influence retailers’ strategic choices regarding their own product brands encompass a range of external macro and industrial environmental factors, along with various internal resource and capability factors. Moreover, the effects of these factors vary across different own product brand strategies.

To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of research on retailers’ own product brands from a strategic management perspective, offering systematic and structured guidance for retailers.

Several high street retail banks are extending their brands into digital banking through fully digital, app-only neobanks, which have been described as traditionally-driven neobanks (TDNBs). These TDNBs are considered a form of brand extension, representing the increased complexity of branding banks and financial institutions. This study explicitly addresses the branding strategies employed by TDNBs.

This study has adopted a case study research design, using a multi-stage data collection strategy. Initially, interviews were conducted with bank managers, followed by interviews with customers. Later, user-generated content was extracted through verified reviews from the app store. Subsequently, these three strands of data were thematically analysed and triangulated, in order to gain a holistic understanding of the branding strategies used by TDNBs.

Three key themes emerged regarding the branding strategies of the TDNBs: aligning with the parent brand, reinforcing the digital experience, and enhancing the brand image.

This study contributed to the growing body of research on marketing, branding, and digital transformation of bank services. As more traditional banks are exploring opportunities to pivot and explore other fintech options, this study offers significant insights that will help in managing brand experience and promotion across customer journeys in the banking sector.

This study contributes to the growing body of research on marketing, branding, and digital transformation of bank services. Even as more traditional banks explore opportunities to pivot as well as other fintech options, this study offers significant insights to help manage brand experience and promotion across customer journeys in the banking sector.

While previous studies on banking and financial services have concentrated on traditional retail and high street banks, there is a need for a greater understanding of the brand positioning of digital banks, especially those created by traditional banks.

Joint advertising is an emerging strategy where marketers promote both brands in the same marketing communication. This research determines how the domestic, foreign, or global nature of the partner impacts important brand-related outcomes and identifies underlying psychological process mechanisms and contextual variables that affect this relationship.

Across three experiments, we investigate how the type of joint advertising partner impacts consumer attitudes and behaviors. We establish the number of similarities between the partners and perceived cognitive fit as the mediating process mechanisms underlying this relationship, with holistic processing moderating the effect.

We find that when consumers are exposed to joint advertisements between domestic or global [foreign] brands, they will be able to generate more [fewer] similarities between the partners and perceive a stronger [weaker] cognitive fit. Moreover, these similarities interact with consumer cultural traits related to holistic processing style to differentially influence perceived cognitive fit and downstream consumer attitudes and behaviors.

Partnering for mutually beneficial, joint advertisements is a growing phenomenon that redefines traditional thinking about advertising, but the success of the joint advertisement is contingent upon the characteristics and compatibility of the partners.

This study describes how a multinational enterprise (MNE) gains acceptance after rebranding acquired brands from different countries among its internal and external stakeholders and identifies factors that influence this process.

The study employed a single case-study approach, including 18 semi-structured in-depth interviews with employees of a firm involved in the rebranding process in six countries. The countries are Sweden, Germany, the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.

The findings reveal how the MNE integrated brands it acquired in different international markets into one overarching corporate brand. The study shows that in emerging countries, external legitimation (external implementation process, country profiles and customer buy-in) constitutes the most significant challenge. By contrast, in developed countries, internal legitimation (employee buy-in and internal implementation process) is more challenging.

The study contributes to and extends the rebranding literature by using a legitimation lens to analyze the rebranding process. This lens shows how internal and external stakeholders are both crucial to successful rebranding. The study provides a comprehensive perspective of the process, identifies challenging factors and differentiates between their importance in emerging and developed countries.

To address the dearth of research on how firms legitimize a new brand in different national contexts, the study compares the rebranding process in multiple countries and discusses the factors influencing the rebranding process.

For the design of this case study, the authors used primary sources of information from the shops visited by them in preparation of the case and website of Fred Perry and secondary sources of information from both academic and journalistic publications.

Fred Perry is a premium clothing brand, well-known for its polo shirts. It was created by Mr Fred Perry, a British tennis player. The brand’s stated values are integrity, personality and individuality. Throughout its history, the brand has been adopted by different British subcultures but recently it has faced a challenge because of the brand appropriation by the Proud Boys, a US far-right white supremacy group and other extremist groups as Antifa and hooligans. The nature and actions of the group mean that Fred Perry runs the risk of losing control over its brand equity. This brand hijack means that Fred Perry risks alienating some of its customers by openly opposing the group but also by embracing this subculture’s appropriation. Practically, the brand opposed the appropriation in a press release and by putting an end to the sale of the black and yellow polo shirts in the USA and Canada. Fred Perry has also made a lot of efforts to reposition the brand away from extremist groups while maintaining its strong historical and cultural roots. Through this case study, students will have the opportunity to discuss this topic and explore solutions for brands that face this type of dilemma.

This case is designed to be used in a marketing management, brand strategy or consumer behavior/culture course, especially in the subfield of market segmentation in the telecommunications sector. Specifically, this case is designed for college seniors or master students with basic strategic marketing training. This case will help students understand the difference between the brand identity that the brand owners intend and the brand image that consumers actually perceive. It provides the basis of discussions on the topics of brand management, consumer culture, consumers-brands relationships, brand architecture, brand equity, brand appropriation and repositioning strategy.