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The main purposes of this article are twofold: (1) to investigate the unexplored connections among destination gender personality, destination stereotypes, brand attachment and destination brand love and (2) to examine the moderating role of destination involvement in the association between destination stereotypes and destination brand attachment (DBA).

The conceptual model is evaluated using qualitative methods (i.e. three focus groups, six academic experts and a pilot study). In addition, using an empirical study with 610 international travelers who visited Egypt selected by systematic random sampling, 8 hypotheses were analyzed and tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) by AMOS 23, confirmatory factor analyses and exploratory factor analyses.

The study’s results suggest that destination gender plays a vital role in enhancing stereotypes, stereotypes positively affect attachment and DBA positively affects destination brand love. Finally, the results show that destination involvement moderates the dual influence of the warmth and competence of stereotypes on destination attachment.

The research supports the contention that social perception mechanisms are crucial in destination brand perception. It offers new understandings of the association between customers' destination brand perceptions and their responses to destinations.

This paper contributes to the travel literature by analyzing a novel model of destination gender personality, stereotypes, DBA and destination brand love using both social role (SR) theory and a stereotype content model (SCM). Besides attempting this task, it explores the moderating role of destination involvement in the association between stereotypes and destination attachment using the elaboration likelihood model.

Drawing on the stereotype content model (SCM), the authors investigate the stereotype content transfer (in terms of warmth and competence) from country to brand and the simultaneous impact of these two stereotypes on consumer responses toward brands.

The authors test a structural equation model conceptualizing brand stereotypes as full mediators between country stereotypes and consumer outcomes. In addition, in a moderated mediation analysis, the authors investigate the role of brand typicality and utilitarianism/hedonism in potentially moderating the country to brand stereotype content transfer.

Country warmth and competence, respectively, impact brand warmth and competence, thus confirming the hypothesized stereotype content transfer. This transfer is found to be robust and not contingent on brands' perceived typicality of their country of origin. However, brands' utilitarian nature amplifies the positive impact of country competence on brand competence. Finally, brand stereotypes fully mediate the impact of country stereotypes on consumers' brand attitudes and behavioral intentions.

The authors provide the first empirical attempt that (1) explicitly differentiates between consumers' stereotypical perceptions of countries and stereotypical perceptions of brands from these countries, (2) empirically examines the transfer of stereotypical dimensions of different targets (i.e. country to brand), (3) explores boundary conditions for such transfer and (4) simultaneously considers the impact of both kinds of stereotypes on managerially relevant consumer outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to address an overarching question: Does matching consumer place–brand associations with stereotype-consistent messaging affect consumer perceptions of an advertisement?

This paper presents two experiments that examine participants’ differing evaluations of advertisements under various experimental conditions. Study 1 examines the match of place–brand warmth versus competence stereotypes and the use of symbolic versus utilitarian advertising messaging for both new foreign and domestic brands. Study 2 examines this match for global brands.

The paper reveals that stereotype-consistent messaging increases the perceived fit between the advertisement and the brand for new foreign brands but not for new domestic or global brands. Furthermore, in a post-hoc analysis, this congruence is found to improve attitude towards the brand, purchase intentions and brand response, through the mediating effect of attitude towards the ad.

Place–brand stereotypes impact consumer attitudes and opinions regarding brands from different countries. This paper applies two universal social judgment dimensions from social psychology—warmth and competence—to the novel context of advertising messaging to examine previously unexplored facets of the place–brand image.

The dominant paradigm in international branding research treats perceived brand globalness (PBG) and localness (PBL) as attributes algebraically participating in brand assessment and disregards the perception of brands as humanlike entities actively embedded in consumers’ social environments. Challenging this view and drawing from stereotype theory, the purpose of this paper is to suggest that PBG/PBL trigger the categorization of products under the superordinate mental categories of global/local brands which carry distinct stereotypical content. Such content transfers to every individual product for which category membership is established and shapes brand responses.

One experimental study (Study1, n=134) tests the process of global/local brand stereotype formation, identification and content transfer. Subsequently, two consumer surveys test the impact of brand stereotypes on brand approach/avoidance tendencies (Study2, n=328) and consumer–brand relationships (Study3, n=273). Data were analyzed with experimental techniques and structural equation modeling.

The findings suggest that upon categorization under the global or local brand class, individual brands are charged with the stereotypical content of the class. Global brands are predominantly stereotyped as competent while local brands are predominantly stereotyped as warm. Localness-induced warmth has uniformly positive effects, whereas globalness-induced competence acts as a double-edged sword which can both help and harm the brand.

This research contributes by proposing a novel conceptualization of global and local brands as groups of intentional marketplace agents stereotyped along their intentions and abilities, empirically establishing the process through which individual brands are assigned stereotypical judgments and demonstrating how these judgments impact critical brand outcomes and consumer–brand relationships.

This study aims to understand consumers' attitudes towards luxury products based on the stereotype content model, brand anthropomorphism and the psychological ownership theory.

The authors collected data from Indian consumers using the online questionnaire survey method. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS AMOS version 24 and PROCESS SPSS macro, using both mediation and moderated mediation models.

The findings suggest that increasing brand anthropomorphism and stereotypes enhance consumers' attitudes through a significant mediating role of brand credibility. The results also show that consumers' psychological ownership positively moderates the mediating path via brand credibility from low to high levels.

In doing so, this study contributes to the literature on luxury retail by examining how brand stereotypes and brand anthropomorphism impact consumers' attitudes towards luxury brands through the mediating role of brand credibility and the moderating role of psychological ownership. In the process, the study provides an understanding of Indian consumers' attitudes in the context of the Indian luxury retail sector.

This study aims to investigate the role of destination brand stereotypes in predicting destination brand attachment (DBA).

Using survey data from 612 Indonesian respondents, the conceptual framework is tested by applying structural equation modeling analysis.

The results show that the four components of destination branding contribute to DBA through brand stereotypes.

Based on the stereotype content model, this study explores how two cognitive (i.e. brand awareness and perceived quality) and two affective (i.e. ideal self-congruence and enduring culture involvement) components build destination brand stereotypes, which in turn increase DBA.

The purpose of this research is to examine consumers' perception of the difference between customised/modified products and brand stereotypes, and the extent of brand's impact on consumers' decisions to customise their purchases. Current literature is rife about the shift from the dominance of brands in directing consumer choice to the contemporary ascendancy of individualism reflected in customising products.

A structured questionnaire containing 23 variables relating to brand perception and customisation was administered to more than 500 random shoppers leaving two shopping centres in an Australian city during a two‐week period. Results were used to construct two econometric models aimed at predicting consumers' perception of the difference between customised/modified and brand stereotypes and the extent that consumers' decisions to customise their purchases were affected by brand names.

The results show that factors, other than the motive of and the satisfaction from customising the product, with a significant influence on the perceived difference between customised items and brand stereotypes, have little in common with factors that impel consumers to customise/modify their purchases based on the imagery of brands. A significant reason why consumers self‐engage with composing their product purchases is to satisfy their desire for quality and genuinely believe that their compositions are appreciably different from brand stereotypes thus vindicating the theory of self‐congruency. Indeed, there is evidence that the extent brands influence customers to tailor their purchases, depend on the stores from which consumers make their purchases.

The research did not ask questions on the extent of influence of brands on purchase behaviour of made‐to‐order products in relation to every specific durable product tested. These items conceivably have different buying protocols and therefore future research may want to consider a larger sample size with dedicated respondents for each type of item that was modified or customised. Meaningful comparisons can then be made across each of these items to identify the intrinsic and extrinsic product appeals of customised items that consumers may find more compelling than the pull of established stereotypes of brands.

Brand owners might consider setting up “virtual” stores that offer templates to adjust their stereotypes in order to accommodate specific styles and perspectives of customers.

In an era when individualism is getting increasing currency, this study aims to introduce service providers in the retail industry to how much of a role brands play in influencing the specifications of adjusted and customised products.

This paper aims to examine whether brands derive their personalities from their culture of origin, the stereotypes about their cultures of their origin or the cultures of their buyers. It also examines which of a culture’s personality traits are more transmittable to brand personalities (BPs), as well as the consequences of the BP resemblance to the personalities of the brand’s culture of origin and consumers’ culture on BP’s clarity and consumer attachment to the brand.

Hypotheses were developed and tested on survey data from a sample figure of 1,116 US consumers of luxury brands on 23 luxury brands originating from France, the USA, Britain, Italy and Germany. Trait by trait and personality profile analyses were performed using hierarchical model analysis (linear mixed effects models) and Cattell’s (1969) pattern similarity coefficient.

The culture of a brand’s origin accounts for differences of different brands personalities. The personality profiles of a country’s brands are distinct from the BP profiles of brands from other countries. The conscientiousness trait of a culture is the most transmittable to BPs. BPs derive their characteristics from stereotypes of a culture’s personality than the actual personality of the culture. The assimilation of a brand’s personality to consumer’s culture is not supported. The similarity of a BP to both real and stereotypical personality of the culture of the brand’s origin enhance perceived clarity of the BP.

The study’s focus is limited to established luxury brands coming from countries that are the traditional producers of luxuries. Empirical evidence also comes only from American consumers of luxury brands. New luxury brands from countries that have recently emerged as luxury producers need to be included.

Brands retain a significant space to differentiate their personalities beyond the influence of their culture of origin on BPs. With the exception of conscientiousness, personality traits of culture are not automatically inherited or transmitted to the brands. Cultural stereotypes find their way into BPs easier than real personality traits and managers should focus on them. BP matching with the personality of a culture is a good way for managers to increase the perceived clarity of their brands’ personality.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the culture’s influence on BP using a compatible to the BP construct cultural framework, McCrae and Terracciano’s (2005a) personality of a culture framework. Three cultural meaning transfer processes are examined (cultural inheritance, cultural stereotyping and acculturation to the consumer’s culture) within the same study from a trait-by-trait and a configurational (i.e. personality profile) perspective. The consequences of BP similarity to the brand’s culture of origin as well as consumer’s culture on the BP’s appeal are also assessed.

Almost every consumer has many experiences of sales promotion and different stereotypes of it. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the model of sales promotion stereotype content (model of SPSC) and its perception differences among groups.

Drawing on the methods testifying stereotype content model and mixed stereotype proposed by Fiske et al. (2002), the authors decomposed the SPSC model into two dimensions, namely, the profitability and authenticity of sales promotion, and developed a multidimensional scale for profitability and authenticity. Then a survey that examined 765 participants was conducted to test the reliability of profitability and authenticity as the two primary dimensions of the model of SPSC and perception differences among consumer groups.

The model which consists of two dimensions, authenticity and profitability, was shown to be reliable and valid. Furthermore, the authors find that the profitability and the authenticity reflect consumers' evaluation (perception) of an enterprise's intention and its ability to enact the intention of sales promotion. In addition, mixed stereotypes of promotion can also explain consumers' entanglement when making promotion decisions.

This paper fills the gap in the existing literature of which the single dimension stereotype of sales promotion by the model of SPSC. In addition, the results show that consumers' stereotype of promotion varied in demographics and psychographic characteristics. Furthermore, this paper provides a basis for exploring the social stereotypes of specific things and related marketing activities.

This paper aims to test one of the symbolic influences of the employee on brand associations and by doing so demonstrate why the stereotyping of employees should be added to the research agenda for corporate branding.

The research is a quantitative study of the employees (n=424) and customers (n=964) in 28 branches of four fashion retailers providing data to model the influence of employee age on the associations customers make with such corporate brands.

Theory suggests two competing employee age‐related stereotypes influence the associations customers hold of a corporate brand. Using a measure of brand personality, the authors confirm that the older the average age of employees the more competent the corporate brand appears but the less enterprising. The overall effect on customer satisfaction is negative. The average age of employees and customers in the branches studied also correlate positively. The symbolism of the employee to the customer, in this instance due to their age, can be important in creating associations with the corporate brand.

Discrimination in employment due to an employee's characteristics is illegal in most circumstances. However the authors' findings show employers need to recognize the potential influence on their corporate brand imagery (and consequently customer satisfaction) due to employee stereotyping by customers and the symbolic as well as the functional role that employees can have in marketing a corporate brand.

While prior research argues that employees influence a corporate brand by how they behave, less is known about any symbolic effects due to their stereotyping by customers. The symbolism to customers of brand elements such as packaging has been researched but, thus far, the symbolism of employees, the employee stereotype effect, has been largely but wrongly ignored.