A systematic analysis of the preference change in co-branding

This paper presents current theoretical and empirical findings on consumers’ preference change in co-branding. We develop a conceptual model to illustrate consumers’ attitudinal changes in co-branding based on the findings of Park et al. (1996) and Simonin and Ruth (1998), among others. We argue that the attitude change is influenced by three important effects, namely the extension effect, the mutual effect, and the reciprocal effect. It is shown how the interaction of these effects can be used to systematically explain the rationale behind preference change in co-branding. So, our study takes an initial step toward the understanding of the connection between consumer evaluation and the success of alliance formation for adapting the Venkatesh et al. (2000) model. Finally, we provide suggestions for marketing managers and motivate the need for further research in the field of strategic marketing.