Consumer perceptions of co-branding alliances: Organizational dissimilarity signals and brand fit

This study explores how consumers evaluate co-branding alliances between dissimilar partner firms. Customers are well aware that different firms are behind a co-branded product and observe the partner firms’ characteristics. Drawing on signaling theory, we assert that consumers use organizational characteristics as signals in their assessment of brand fit and for their purchasing decisions. Some organizational signals are beyond the control of the co-branding partners or at least they cannot alter them on short notice. We use a quasi-experimental design and test how co-branding partner dissimilarity affects brand fit perception. The results show that co-branding partner dissimilarity in terms of firm size, industry scope, and country-of-origin image negatively affects brand fit perception. Firm age dissimilarity does not exert significant influence. Because brand fit generally fosters a benevolent consumer attitude towards a co-branding alliance, the findings suggest that high partner dissimilarity may reduce overall co-branding alliance performance

Digital Marketing Strategies and Business Trends in Emerging Industries

The digital age in which the Internet is located in the center has initiated a period that completely revised the whole marketing system from using traditional tools to using modern tools. Thus, this has led to the birth of digital marketing. Digital marketing can be defined as the marketing practices carried out by using digital channels such as internet, mobile, and interactive platforms. It provides cost advantage and competitive advantage for businesses through its distinctive features. New industries which bring new developments into economies such as new products and concepts are called emerging industries. There are several difficulties an emerging industry faces while entering into a market such as high costs, uncertainty, complexity, and instability. Traditional marketing may not be effective enough in these industries to deal with these difficulties due to the ongoing transformation in the technology and digital marketing. This is expected to present more useful and effective results. Therefore, the digital marketing potential in emerging industries will be presented in this study. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG