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This paper aims to summarize the results of an empirical project to understand the perceptions of consumers of the future high end products in the USA. This project was a precursor of a larger global project on the topic.

The approach utilizes the consumer insights‐driven process, rule‐developing experimentation (RDE), introduced by the senior authors and developed in cooperation with Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania). The empirical part was conducted with qualified US consumers (middle‐ and upper‐middle class respondents). Based on a series of in‐depth qualitative interviews with global leaders of luxury and premium companies, star designers and thought leaders, five dimensions of high end offering were identified, with each dimension having a unique set of four factors (elements). The second part included a quantitative survey based on RDE (modified conjoint analysis) conducted in the USA with 373 qualified middle‐ and upper‐middle class respondents to discover the driving forces behind their perceptions of high end.

There are four distinct consumer mindsets towards future high end products. The segmentation is based on a disciplined experimentation afforded by RDE and produces a more targeted understanding of the consumer mind.

The paper provides insights of what might drive the consumer perception of high end products in the near future. The pattern‐based consumer mind‐set segmentation creates actionable directions for corporations in answering today's big question “How can brands migrate from being cost‐driven commodities to higher margins and profits?” The answer is in the high end.

The approach offered here could help designers and brand managers to efficiently create better products that consumers like and perceive as high end. This will result in higher margins and help marketers to differentiate their respective products from the competition.

This study aims to focus on whether and furthermore how aesthetics-based mystery affects consumers’ responses toward relevant products.

Three experimental studies are reported. In Studies 1–2, smartphone ad flyers varying in mystery and non-mystery styles were adopted. A total of 187 undergraduate participants were recruited in Study 1 and 245 undergraduate participants in Study 2. In Study 3, a total of 193 participants who work in a range of businesses were recruited and wristwatch ad flyers were adopted.

Findings demonstrate that consumers are more willing to pay for products promoted via mystery appeal (versus non-mystery). Such positive impacts occur through consumers’ high-end perceptions of the products. Concrete, rather than abstract, verbal description of quality product features facilitate the impact of mystery appeal on consumer purchase decisions.

The findings advance an extant understanding of mystery appeal in advertising. It is among the first few to demonstrate that high-end product perceptions carry over the positive influence of mystery on consumers. This research is enlightening by suggesting an incongruity effect between pictorial stimuli and verbal information in the advertisement. This study’s scope is limited to visual mystery-evoking stimuli and Chinese participants.

When marketers/advertisers promoting products/brands with high prices, aesthetics-based mystery appeal should be considered as an effective option. This appeal is implicated as effective across gender. Moreover, visual mystery-evoking stimuli, combined with a concrete (not abstract) verbal description of product features should be optimal in promoting products.

The findings contribute to the limited empirical research on the influence processes of aesthetics-based mystery appeal. Different from the intuition, it is suggested that incongruity between visual and verbal stimuli in mystery ads that enhances the positive effect of mystery appeal.

Co-branding is popular with partnerships between well-known and new brands. In a laboratory study, this paper aims to examine the effects of a single ally and multiple allies on quality perception of a brand. The results suggest that the quality perception of the new brand depends on the co-branding strategy.

For dual-brand alliances, a single-factor design was used, with secondary brand quality level (high, medium and low) as the independent variable. Three advertisements were created by manipulating quality levels of the single partner. For multiple-brand alliances, a 2 × 3 between-subjects factorial design was used in the experiment. The two factors were diversification (homogeneous vs heterogeneous) and quality levels of the alliance (high-end, mixed and low-end).

The results suggest that the number of brand partners significantly affected the perceived quality of the primary brand. For both dual- and multi-brand alliances, the quality level of the secondary brand positively influenced the perceived quality of the primary brand. For multiple-brand alliances, even though the highest quality perceptions of the primary brand are in the heterogeneous conditions, the heterogeneity of partners (partners across different product categories) did not affect the quality perception of the primary brand.

One limitation of the current study is that it only addresses one type of brand alliance: co-promotion. The generalization of these findings to other forms of brand alliances (e.g. ingredient branding: Intel with IBM, Dell and HP) merits further investigation. Also, in this study, respondents processed the information in a relatively low-involvement condition (note that the target ad was presented along with filler ads). They were more likely to use brand names as heuristic cues to form their judgments. Because an alliance partner also assumes risks, future research should consider the effect of the alliances on the secondary brand.

Understanding brand alliances (especially multiple-brand alliances) is critical for new product managers and marketers. Introducing a new brand has higher risk and failure rates. Companies may lower these risks by co-branding with established brands. However, they should carefully consider the diversification and quality level of the partners. If brand managers position their product as “high quality (luxury)” or “low quality (budget)”, they should choose high- (or low-) quality partners from different product categories (heterogeneous high-end or low-end alliances) because diversification strengthens the primary brand. For a single-partner alliance, the secondary brand should be of high quality.

This paper extends the brand alliance literature beyond single-partner to multiple-partner alliances. With multiple partners, one can explore several critical aspects of an alliance, e.g. quality variance and product class diversity across the partners.

This study aims to investigate how narcissistic consumers perceive and respond to variations in price and store image in retail settings.

The data for this study were collected from a sample of 248 respondents who participated in an experiment with a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design.

The findings show that while narcissists and non-narcissists do not differ in their perceptions of product quality, they show completely different behavioral intentions. For instance, narcissistic consumers ascribe more importance to store image than to product price, whereas price is more critical in non-narcissists’ decision-making.

Using a young sample and only one product category (i.e. clothing) may affect the generalization of the findings. The inherent drawback of experiments (i.e. gaining internal validity at the cost of external validity) is another limitation of this work.

The construct of narcissism plays a critical role in the way people evaluate products’ symbolic value and ultimately decide to purchase goods from a store which has a certain type of image, including the expected price of the merchandise. Therefore, the findings of this study have significant managerial implications for critical areas of retail business such as segmentation using narcissism, store image management and merchandise pricing.

Despite a long history in social and clinical psychology, few empirical studies have examined narcissism and its impact on consumer behavior. The present study is an attempt to address this gap in retail settings and provides insights into the joint effects of product price and store image on narcissists’ purchase behavior.

This study aims to explore how cocreated brand meaning builds and affects dynamic brand positioning in a hyperconnected world.

The authors conducted a qualitative study of Casarte, a high-end appliance brand, as an instrumental case for conceptualizing and theorizing. This study constructs a matrix of dynamic brand positioning as the key analysis framework using in-depth interview data, firm materials and user-generated content from online brand communities.

The matrix of dynamic brand positioning has two dimensions: brand core and peripheral meaning, and firm- and customer-led orientation. The interaction between the firm and its customers strengthens the understanding of a brand’s core meaning and consistency perception, expands the scope of brand peripheral meaning and improves the perception of brand meaning diversity. The mutual transformation of the ambidexterity of core and peripheral meanings facilitates the dynamic positioning of brands.

This study is a qualitative case study; the relevant conclusions have not been tested empirically. If longitudinal data of actual tracking support the effect of dynamic brand positioning, the theory’s reliability can be more rigorously tested.

It provides managerial logic and a tool for firms to practice dynamic brand positioning in a hyperconnected world, which contributes to the implementation of the emerging firm-customer synergistic strategy.

This study proposes a construct of dynamic brand positioning supported by qualitative evidence. It disputes the traditional view that brand positioning is determined by the perception of core meaning consistency and creatively puts forward the view that brand positioning evolves dynamically with the mutual transformation of the ambidexterity of brand core meaning and peripheral meaning.

Cause-related marketing (CR-M) – promising to donate to a charity when consumers purchase specific products – is a popular brand strategy, particularly in the social media context. In light of Veblen’s theory of conspicuous consumption, the purpose of this experimental study is to test the impact of a brand’s level and the conspicuousness of a brand’s CR-M campaign on consumers’ brand-related responses. Results reveal a novel mechanism underlying the effects by showing that pride and guilt mediate results.

This research is based on two studies that used a 2 (brand level: high-end vs low-end) × 2 (conspicuous of CR-M campaign: conspicuous vs non-conspicuous) between-subjects experimental design with random assignment to conditions and manipulation checks.

Results reveal that consumers respond more favorably when high-end brands participate in CR-M, particularly when the CR-M promotion is conspicuous. That is, when a high-end brand partners with a charity, especially under conspicuous conditions, it significantly improves consumers’ brand attitudes and intent to share with others. Moreover, pride and guilt are important mediators in effects.

The results of this study offer strong implications for brand managers seeking to partner with charities in CR-M campaigns. Results suggest that implementing CR-M campaigns may be fruitful for brands, particularly high-end brands when they enhance the conspicuousness of their CR-M campaign.

Results empirically extend the notion of conspicuous consumption by demonstrating that social status can be achieved by displaying not only acquired goods but also benevolence.

Given an increasingly volatile and competitive fashion environment, the purpose of this paper is to qualitatively explore current consumer behaviour and psychological perspectives of luxury in women's undergarment fashion purchasing, with specific examination of whether this under‐investigated area of discrete or inconspicuous fashion appraisal is consistent with other luxury purchases.

The study employs an interesting methodological approach using multiple qualitative techniques including research interviews, group forums, and narrative capture, to investigate women's undergarment purchasing in a changing fashion environment in relation to the issues of branding, self‐image, perceived self‐image, motivational perspectives, and consumer behaviour, as identified by 119 female consumers aged between 18 and 60.

This study supports in part previous research that indicated consumer behaviour is determined by the congruency between the consumer's self‐image and the consumer's image of brands, although early research suggested this only applied to conspicuous products and social consumption. The current study confirms the self‐image link in the area of inconspicuous fashion, and strongly relates inconspicuous products consumed privately to self‐esteem and perceived sexy self.

The findings indicate that for intimate apparel marketing to be effective and credible, the marketed fashion items, and actions taken by designers, and retailers need to be consistent with the consumer's personal style, value perceptions, and self‐image.

This research examines several neglected areas in fashion and consumption research, and contributes to our understanding of key motivational elements important in the consumption of inconspicuous fashion, and the relationship of self‐image to inconspicuous consumption.

This study, conducted in Thailand, aims to examine the effect of interaction of country‐of‐origin (COO), brand equity and product purchase involvement on consumers' evaluation and purchase preference of Thai brands of fashion apparel made in three nominated Asian countries of varying levels of manufacturing competence.

Data from a field survey were analyzed through a 2×2×3 factorial design and the influence of a particular factor over the others in specific scenarios was observed.

This study suggests that if low purchase involvement apparel with high brand equity is sourced from a country‐of‐origin of low perceived competence, the superior reputation of the brand encourages consumer partiality to the apparel's quality and purchase inclination. However, this study has evidenced that a brand of modest equity sourced from the under‐developed economy is capable of getting greater consumer support for its higher end fashion products than for its standard apparel.

That consumers are comfortable with the quality of high‐end fashion items sourced from lesser developed countries suggests that low equity brands ought not to feel discouraged to enter the high end of the fashion market particularly if they can offer a price advantage and promise of guaranteed quality.

A more expansive paper would allow for analysis of interaction effects of additional combinations of country's competence, brand equity and purchase involvement on consumers' evaluation and purchase preference.

This study informs brand owners of consumer expectations of high and low complexity products, made in countries of differing manufacturing competencies, to deliver desired level of performances.

This study examined the influence of supermarket brand name on the perceived quality of its private label merchandise. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the fascia brand of a retail chain has the power to positively or negatively skew prevailing opinions concerning the quality of its own merchandise range, beyond the set of product-specific intrinsic benefits.

A within-subject two-phase research design was adopted, intially using an experimental approach and thereafter modeling the cognitive effect with the inclusion of a moderator variable (brand interaction). Paired sample t-tests were used to assess differences in mean ratings and partial least squares analysis was implemented in order to test the hypothesized relationships.

In the experiment phase, both products were rated equally at the outset in unsighted conditions, however, ratings diverged when brand name was introduced. Here, the high-end private label brand was scored considerably better than in its unsighted condition, while the low-end brand suffered a marginal decline in rating. In the modeling phase, two iterations of the conceptual model were run, considering the high-end and low-end brands seperately. The results were mutually reinforcing. A strong relationship, significant at the one percent level, was found to exist between brand name and perceived quality for both the lower- and higher-end brands, whereas no moderation effect was found to exist. This suggests that entrenched views of the brand strongly determine the perceived quality thereof, with operational and day-to-day fluctuations having little bearing on this.

This study focusses solely on South Africa, an emerging market within the BRICS consortium. To this end, the results are not transferable to other markets. The context of the study pitted a top tier retail brand against a mid tier retail brand. In accordance with this eventuality, lower income consumers, and retail chains catering to this market segment, do not constitute components of this particular study.

While the relationship between store image and perceived quality of private label merchandise is well documented, this study considers the effect through an experimental design. Here, perceived quality was measured both with and without brand cues evident. Thus, the results are likely to be more accurate than those acquired through strictly survey research. As a defining feature, the study points to the brand name as being a supremely powerful extrinsic cue, and hinting at the fact that it is long term influences that create a distinct brand aura, with these being largely undisturbed by short term fluctuations.

Many fashion brands employ growth strategies that involve strategically aligning with a retailer to offer exclusive co-brands that vary in duration and perceived fit. While growth and publicity are enticing, pursuing collaboration may change consumers' evaluation of the brand. Utilising commodity and categorisation theory, this research tests how a brand may successfully approach a co-brand with a retailer.

Three experimental studies manipulate and test the effect of co-brand duration (limited edition vs ongoing) (Study 1), the degree of brand-retailer fit (high vs low) (Study 2), and its combined effect (Study 3) on changes in consumers' brand evaluation.

Results reveal that consumers' evaluations of brands become more favourable when: (1) brand-retailer co-brand make products available on a limited edition (vs ongoing) basis (Study 1), (2) consumers perceive a high (vs low) degree of brand-retailer fit (Study 2) and (3) both conditions are true (Study 3).

In light of commodity and categorisation theory, this study helps to understand the effectiveness of a brand-retailer co-branding strategy.

To increase brand evaluations, brands should engage in a limited edition strategy, rather than ongoing when collaborating with retailers. It is also important to select an appropriately fitting retailer for a strategic partnership when creating a co-brand.

While previous studies highlight the importance of perceived fit upon extension, perceived fit between brand and retailer co-brand had yet to be investigated. Additionally, this research investigates changes in brand evaluations to more accurately understand how co-branding strategies impact the brand.