Brand Associations as a condition for success in co-branding partnerships in the fashion industry : a study on younger generations

• Autor(a) principal: Lima, Luísa Maria Moreira
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/28999
• topic: Co-branding; Consumer behavior; Brand Associations; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

This dissertation investigates the impact of brand associations on co-branding initiatives within the fashion industry. Existing co-branding literature shows that successful co-branding initiatives produce great value for the company and the consumer. We theorized another condition for success is the cognitive cues consumers make about the brands involved in a partnership. Brand associations play an important role in consumers’ product evaluations and choices. Understanding the importance of brand associations in a collaboration venture may contribute to recognizing more successful co-branding initiatives. This study adopted avoidance/approach questions to understand the impact on purchase intentions of brand associations brand fit and consumers’ status-signaling needs. The study was presented to 192 participants between the ages of 23 and 38 years old and was constituted of randomized scenarios of real partnerships between a luxury brand and a mass fashion / mainstream brand. Findings showed a strong impact of brand fit on purchase intentions that overcomes the role of individual brand associations. Consumers that perceived a positive brand fit of the co-branding initiative revealed stronger intent to buy from the collaboration. Individual brand associations do not impact purchase intentions, apart from positive associations of mainstream brands, showing that when consumers have positive associations of mainstream brands their purchase intentions will be higher. Regarding high status-signaling needs, results indicate that consumers show higher purchase intentions when possessing a high status-signaling need for any of the partnered brands. This article discusses theoretic and practical implications and offers paths for future research.