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The purpose of this study is to uncover the dimensions of shared brand use as a part of romantic relationships and examine the dynamics among shared brand use, brand preference similarity, brand variety seeking and relationship satisfaction.

A total of 1,820 MTurk respondents participated in four online surveys and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings of the study show that shared brand use has five use dimensions: special occasion, mundane, activity, nostalgia and relational identity expression; shared brand use leads to brand preference similarity that elicits increased brand variety seeking as a part of the relationship and relationship satisfaction moderates the effect of brand preference similarity on brand variety seeking.

Building on extant literature on branding, variety seeking and shared consumption, the authors develop a measure that captures different facets of shared brand use as a part of romantic relationships, move beyond the existing research on variety seeking in the context of experiential purchases to show how romantic relationship partners engage in purposeful brand variety seeking as a part of their romantic relationships and document that relationship satisfaction is an important factor that influences how partners purposefully engage in brand variety seeking.

The purpose of this study is to examine the behavioral and emotional outcomes of nostalgic brand meanings derived from brand use that occurs in the early stages of a romantic relationship.

This research uses survey data (n = 656) and relies on structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses.

Relationship brand nostalgia has implications for how the relationship partners use the brand together as part of celebrating special occasions, how connected the brand is to their relational identity and how upset they would be if the brand was discontinued. Additionally, interpersonal relationship characteristics (relationship satisfaction and relationship power) influence these outcomes of relationship brand nostalgia.

The findings from this research show that it is important to account for real (experienced) brand nostalgia when considering behavioral and emotional implications of nostalgia in consumer–brand relationships. Specifically, brand use as part of early romantic relationship milestones influences the creation of nostalgic brand meanings, which in turn influence shared brand use, relational brand connections and brand separation distress.

Brand managers can increase relational brand connections and brand separation distress by encouraging shared brand use as part of romantic relationships milestones.

This research addresses gaps in extant research by examining the outcomes of relationship brand nostalgia, which is defined as brand nostalgia anchored in shared brand use that occurred as part of early relationship milestones.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the managerial challenges of shared brands, defined as arrangements whereby a single brand name acts as the sole or principal identity for the products of two or more firms, and where brand management is governed by an entity independent from a single firm.

An exploratory, theory‐building approach is adopted. The paper draws from the brand equity and institutional economics literatures to develop a conceptualisation of club brands, of which shared brands represent one type. The managerial challenges for the latter are explored with reference to secondary evidence and two cases based in the food sector.

The analysis proposes that the exclusive and non‐rivalrous characteristics of club brands pose specific managerial challenges in the key decision‐making phases of brand identity creation, reputation building and reputation protection. Case exploration of shared brands illustrates these challenges, although some are attributed to the distinct governance structure of shared brands rather than their club characteristics.

Through a focus on shared brands, the paper offers an original exploration of a type of branding arrangement which has been overlooked in the literature, but whose use is growing amongst practitioners. It also offers a novel conceptualisation of brands that highlights the bias towards individualism in mainstream branding theory and its preoccupation with customer‐facing managerial tasks.

This chapter offers insights on how knowledge management (KM) tools and initiatives contribute to successful internal branding. Knowledge management has gained considerable recognition from both business practitioners and academics. However, understanding and implementation of KM practices in relation to internal branding is still a largely unexplored field. The authors, thus, present several models of knowledge sharing and outline their applicability to the field of internal branding. Through a case study of a Finnish multinational company Teleste, this chapter shows the applicability of the presented theories for brand knowledge sharing. The practical case looks at how knowledge sharing helped Teleste in the process of rebranding, particularly when promoting its new brand image within the organization.

Companies should move beyond product attribute positioning to fostering affective-laden relationships with customers, as customers often want to feel engaged with the brand they purchase. These brand tribal members share something emotively more than mere brand ownership. As measures of brand engagement continue to evolve, proven instruments measuring brand tribalism and studies investigating its explanatory power are limited. The purpose of this paper is to help fill this research fissure by offering a three-study approach, leaning on Sahlin's anthropological theory of segmented lineage.

In Study 1, the authors develop and evaluate the measurement properties of a brand tribalism scale. Using survey data in Study 2 and Study 3, the applicability of brand tribalism on brand-response variables across two technological contexts is examined.

Data drawn from ordinary brand users confirm scale validity while questioning the efficacy of communal social structures to affect brand attitude and repurchase intentions.

Moving consumers from occasional brand users to members of their brand tribe should be one of many company objectives. The studies here offer acumen as to why such objectives should be pursued and how they can be met.

The data from the three studies lend insight to the importance of brand tribalism, its measurement properties, and raise issues regarding its effect on key brand-related outcomes.

This study aims to compare academic prescriptive models on how to choose a branding strategy on the continuum from a “branded house” to a “house of brands” with real-life branding strategies of leading companies.

Data from an executive survey, observations and desk research on 75 leading companies in Austria are analysed with multilevel weighted least squares (WLS) regression.

Branding strategies for products are determined by industry (23 per cent of variance), the overall strategy of the company (28 per cent), the remaining variance being product-level decisions deviating from both. Service and consumer durables companies lean more towards corporate branding than consumer nondurables. On the company level, synergies in advertising, e-commerce and e-CRM (customer-relationship management) increase the usage of shared brands. A higher company age leads to brand proliferation. On the product level, quality differences between products, the emphasis on and differences in experiential product positioning and, marginally, the symbolic differences between products favour individual brands.

Future research should investigate additional markets, additional drivers, small and medium-sized entreprises (SMEs) and employ additional measures.

The study informs brand-architecture audits with benchmarks from leading companies, calls for a view of brand architecture more flexible than ideal-type categories proposed in literature and cautions against management inertia, industry standards and trends in designing branding strategies.

This study is the first quantitative cross-industry multi-level study on real-life branding strategies. It also applies a new conceptualisation and measurement of branding strategy.

The purpose of the present study is to propose identifying similar characteristics and managerial actions of the sector brand identity elements among the associations that compound the Brasil Fashion System (BFS) brand.

An exploratory qualitative research was developed through in-depth interviews conducted with associations of the Brazilian fashion sector.

The results indicate that there are characteristics of the elements of brand identity that are similar between the associations that compound the BFS brand. However, there are also several distinct characteristics among them, which makes it difficult, in large part, to consolidate the brand identity of the Brazilian fashion industry abroad.

Moreover, it was indicated that for sectorial brand cases with a great divergence among brand partners, the creation of sub-sectorial brand specific for each partner could bring better results, as in this way, brands could be created with more suitable attributes for each partner, which will better suit their target audiences.

A practical contribution is also obtained, as the study can help in elaborating upon improvements for the sectorial brands that represent a large partners group.

An empirical evidence of how to identify common attributes between sectorial brand partners was presented to have a consolidated brand image in the external market.

The purpose of this research is to analyze brand competition in China using the Duplication of Purchase (DoP) law, with important implications for understanding Chinese buyer behavior in comparison with Western buyers. Discovered in the Western markets, the DoP law holds across a variety of product categories.

Multiple sets of new data are examined to extend past research in the application of the DoP law in Chinese buying behavior. This study draws on panel data and self-reported data, utilizing bootstrapping to identify partitions where excess sharing occurs.

This paper finds the DoP law holds across six categories (two personal care, two impulse categories and two durables), as well as over multiple years. Brands in China share customers with other brands in line with the market share of the competitor brand. There were few partitions where brands shared significantly more customers than expected. Partitions occur due to the same umbrella brand or ownership, and geographic location.

Areas for further research include extended replication in other categories, investigating partitions and whether a different consumer path to purchase occurs in China.

DoP can be applied across a wide range of categories in China to understand market structure. New entrants to China can use this approach to understand a category from a consumer behavior perceptive. DoP provides guidelines for marketers to identify competition and allocate resources appropriately.

This research provides a comprehensive, unparalleled examination across six very different categories of brand competition in China. This gives confidence in the robustness and generalizability of the results.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer attitudes towards ambush marketing and official event sponsorship through the lens of sentiment analysis, and to examine social media users' ethical responses to digital event marketing campaigns during the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The study employed a sentiment analysis, examining Twitter users’ utilization of sponsor and non-sponsor promotional hashtags. Statistical modelling programme R was used to access Twitter’s API, enabling the analysis and coding of user tweets pertaining to six marketing campaigns. The valence of each tweet – as well as the apparent user motivation underlying each post – was assessed, providing insight into Twitter users’ ethical impressions of sponsor and ambush marketer activities on social media and online engagement with social media marketing.

The study’s findings indicate that consumer attitudes towards ambush marketing may be significantly more positive than previously thought. Users’ attitudes towards ambush marketing appear significantly more positive than previously assumed, as users of social media emerged as highly responsive to creative and value-added non-sponsor campaigns.

The findings affirm that sentiment analysis may afford scholars and practitioners a viable means of assessing consumer attitudes towards social marketing activations, dependent upon campaign objectives and strategy. The study provides a new and invaluable context to consumer affect and ambush ethics research, advancing sponsorship and ambush marketing delivery and social sponsorship analytical practice.

The author explores the variety of ways in which sports brands have risen to prominence and how the development of particular activities and relationships, with athletes, fans, media and regulators, are designed to present them as authentic. This status is crucial given the cultural and emotional significance of sport alongside its ability to underpin forms of collective belonging. A range of examples, including Red Bull, Nike, Patagonia, Olympic skateboarding and Manchester United Football Club, are used to highlight these processes as well as the complexity of the contemporary social, cultural and political landscapes that such brands now operate in.