Co-branding in advertising: the issue of product and brand fit

Abstract

Three studies are conducted to investigate co-branding in advertising by manipulating product and brand fit. Polarity of brand images (positive or neutral) and the type of ad processing (topdown versus bottom up) were also taken into account. The results show that either product or brand fit is sufficient to produce positive attitudes towards the core brand in case of a high image core brand. However, these results do not hold for core brands with a neutral image. In that case, brands better team up with a brand possessing high product fit and/or a positive image instead of a similar image.