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This study aims to investigate the interaction between branding strategies, levels of perceived fit and consumer innovativeness on the evaluation of new products from the perspective of situational strength.

Two experiments were conducted to empirically test the hypotheses.

A significant three-way interaction of branding strategy, perceived fit and consumer innovativeness on the evaluation of the new products was found. A significant two-way interaction of branding strategy and perceived fit was also found. Situational clarity fully mediates the relationship between branding strategy and consumer product evaluations at various fit levels.

The theory of situational strength may shed light on the selection of target market when managers launch new products. Innovative consumers are the target market for the new products under new branding or low fit sub-branding; under brand extension or high fit sub-branding, consumers are the target for the new products regardless of their degree of innovativeness.

This is the first work to apply situational strength theory to a new product evaluation context. The theory provides a unified framework for explaining the cognitive processes involved when consumers use and combine marketing cues (i.e. branding strategies and fit levels) to evaluate new products; it also facilitates evaluating how the effects of consumer innovativeness are accentuated or attenuated based on various combinations of marketing cues. Most research on the evaluation of new products has examined the influence of consumer innovativeness, perceived fit or branding strategies as distinct entities. This study simultaneously examined the three.

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.

Beyond traditional brand endorsement, many celebrities have in recent years decided to launch their own product lines, which may be used to promote their own celebrity brand. Which product categories or social causes match a celebrity’s brand personality? This study aims to investigate the antecedents of celebrity–product degree of fit and willingness to pay (WTP)/make a donation in different scenarios. The manipulation of the scenarios aims to capture the role of celebrity attributes, perceived personality profiles, product involvement and acceptance of social causes.

In total, 335 respondents answered an online questionnaire with a factorial plan corresponding to 20 different matching scenarios: five celebrities/perceived personalities (Emma Watson, Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johansson) × four types of branding scenarios (a lipstick for low involvement; a watch for high involvement; an eco-foundation for “high social acceptance” and vodka for “low social acceptance/controversial”).

Scarlett Johansson obtained the highest degree of fit, both for launching her own brand of lipstick or a watch. Kim Kardashian had the best degree of fit for launching her own vodka brand, while Emma Watson’s attributes confirmed that she would be seen as the ideal founder of an eco-foundation. Significant predictors of WTP/make a donation were assessed by multiple linear regression for each type of product.

The paper provides recommendations that may help guide celebrity brand managers through the celebrity–product matching process.

Celebrity branding in relation to social causes is also discussed in this paper.

This study explores a gap found in the literature as it explores the product match-up hypotheses within a celebrity branding context and moreover extends this investigation to social causes and products with different degrees of involvement and social acceptance.

This study aims to investigate consumer responses to cause-related marketing (CRM) implemented by socially stigmatized industries, especially in fast food restaurants.

This experimental study uses a 2 (degree of perceived fit) × 2 (complementary fit) × 2 (brand equity) between-subjects design.

Results show significant interaction effects between the degree of fit and brand equity and complementary fit and brand equity on consumers’ brand evaluation. When a company with high brand equity chooses a high fit (vs low fit) or complementary fit (vs non-complimentary fit) for CRM promotion, this leads to consumers’ more positive attitude and higher intent to participate in CRM promotion.

This study provides practical implications for designing effective CRM promotion in the stigmatized industry such as fast food restaurants and casino.

Given the increased demand on CRM in the hospitality industry, the paper contributes to extend the realm of CRM literatures by investigating antecedents affecting consumers’ responses toward the CRM in the stigmatized companies or brands.

The main objective of this study is to analyse the influence that service brand extensions have on corporate image.

After reviewing the previous literature, a model is proposed and tested that shows how extending a services brand affects the overall corporate image. Statistical analysis of data from a market survey involving actual services brands and hypothetical extensions was undertaken. Structural equation modelling was the main methodology employed.

It was found that the extent of perceived fit between the corporate brand and the service extension influences the perceived quality of the extension, which in turn affects corporate image, especially for corporate brands that originally had highly rated images.

Given that the study was done with hypothetical brand extensions, the proposed model is not tested in a real situation.

The results offer important implications, both for academics and managers. Through an effective communication policy, the company must increase the perceived fit. The results also suggest directions for further research. For example, it would be interesting to explore how the model works across services categorised on the continuum of search, experience and credence.

In the literature, there are few works analysing the effect of service extensions on corporate image. The research allows the understanding of the concept of corporate image and the role performed by service brand extensions. The proposed model and the estimation with SEM methodology add value to the existing knowledge.

This study seeks to explore the value of using brand alliances, or co‐branding strategies, to influence consumer perceptions of new brand extensions under circumstances where the firm (parent brand) introduces new products that will be targeted to product categories within which the parent brand has a low initial degree of perceptual fit.

Data were collected through a four‐stage questionnaire administered to 308 subjects. Hypotheses were explored through a four‐level single factor between subjects experimental design.

Analyses suggest that by partnering with brands possessing higher perceived degrees of fit in the extension category (i.e. co‐brand), parent firms' brands can achieve more favorable positions for their extensions than could be realized if firms acted independently. Explained variance in perceptions of the extension increased substantially when perceptions of co‐ and parent‐brand fit were considered. Fit between the co‐brand and the new extension product apparently should be the driving factor in selecting best partnering brands for alliances. Fit between parent and partner brands may take a back seat when forming alliances.

Current co‐branding research typically addresses the ability of brand alliances to improve perceptions of new products bearing the names of both co‐joined brands. “Perceptual fit” and brand attitudes are major constructs thought to influence the ability of brand alliances to achieve this goal. Specifically, in co‐branding applications, perceptual fit is usually conceptualized as the fit between co‐joined brands themselves, rather than fit between each co‐joined brand and the proposed new product for which both has been combined to launch. The paper's original argument is that when one brand (parent or host brand) seeks to co‐brand for purposes of improving its ability to penetrate an untested new product category, fit should be treated from a more traditional brand extension perspective. This argument is supported.

This paper aims to understand the reciprocal spill‐over effects of brand extensions by testing a comprehensive model that gathers both the brand extension evaluation process and the later influence on brand image.

Data were obtained from 699 face‐to‐face interviews conducted in Spain. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results indicate that brand extensions have feedback effects on brand image depending on the attitude toward the new product and perceived image fit. Consumer attitude depends, in turn, on initial brand associations, perceived category fit, perceived image fit and consumer innovativeness. Brand familiarity also shows indirect effects.

The model should be tested with extensions of the same (line extensions) or different categories. It is also necessary to analyse non‐fictitious products, and to take different moderating effects into account.

The results suggest how to protect the brand image from unsuitable extension strategies. The paper shows what kind of perceived fit is more important for consumers as well as the direct and indirect role of several variables.

The paper extends previous research by proposing a complete framework that considers the factors that influence either the attitude to the extension or the attitude to the extended brand.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the dual nature of social cause‐brand fit by studying the influence of two cause‐brand fit categories, functional fit and image fit, on the formation of brand corporate social responsibility consumer perception (CSR perception) in a cause‐brand alliance (CBA) context.

A theoretical model is proposed, based on previous research, which explains the effect of functional fit and image fit on altruistic attributions, brand credibility and CSR image; these relationships were assessed through structural equation modelling. The model was estimated with a sample of 299 Spanish consumers of toiletries and cosmetics products, randomly selected. Two newly created, printed CBA advertisements served as the basic stimulus of the study.

This research shows that consumers perceive functional and image fit differently, and each has its own mechanism for influencing brand CSR perception. While functional fit has a direct, although gentle influence on CSR perception, image fit has an indirect influence, as it is used as a cue to evaluate altruistic brand motivations and brand credibility.

The chosen research approach may reduce the generalisability of the results. Further empirical testing using alternative brands and outcome measures is encouraged.

Both types of fit influence the formation of CSR perception, and should therefore be postulated as decision criteria to brand managers for choosing the CBA partner. Specifically, brands which are likely of being perceived as not credible or egoistic when associating with the cause, must pay special attention to image fit.

This work analyses and compares simultaneously the influence of functional fit and image fit on CSR brand perception formation in the context of a CBA strategy.

This paper aims to investigate the impacts of uncertain online reviews on product prices and profits of two competitive retailers.

First, the authors develop a game-theoretical model to determine the optimal product prices and profits considering uncertain online reviews. Afterwards, to examine the effects of the uncertain online reviews, they compare the equilibrium solutions with those of the game-theoretical models of deterministic online reviews and no online reviews, respectively.

Uncertain online reviews play a significant role in product price optimization and profit maximization. In the quality-dominates-fit case, both retailers will lower their product prices in response to the uncertain online reviews. And the uncertain online reviews would hurt the two retailers. Conversely, in the fit-dominates-quality case, the presence of uncertain online reviews will encourage both retailers to raise their product prices. And the two retailers can still benefit from the online reviews. With the increase in consumer uncertainty about online reviews, both retailers might raise their product prices, thus generating higher profits.

Managerially, the results indicate that in the quality-dominates-fit case, when consumers are uncertain about online reviews, it might be better for retailers to abandon the online review system; however, in the fit-dominates-quality case, both retailers could still benefit from the uncertain online reviews through product price optimization. Therefore, the presence of an online review system could be beneficial.

This paper develops a game-theoretical model to help competitive retailers optimize their price strategies and achieve profit maximization considering uncertain online reviews.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the effect that a brand extension strategy has on brand image. Specifically, the paper analyzes how variables related to the parent brand and the extension influence brand image after the extension. From a sample of 389 consumers the paper demonstrates that the extension strategy dilutes the brand image. Through a regression analysis it is shown that the perceived quality of the brand and consumers’ attitudes towards the extension positively influence both the general brand image (GBI) and the product brand image (PBI) after the extension. While familiarity with the products of the brand only affect the GBI, the perceived degree of fit affects the PBI.