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As sales of store brands increase, retailers are shifting their store branding strategies by raising store brand prices, extending their store brand assortments to high‐risk categories, and marketing store brands in high retail image formats. The purpose of the research is to explore the effects of these changes on consumers’ judgments of store brands. The conceptual framework is derived from pricing, prospect, and information processing theories. It is tested in two experiments. The study finds that consumers’ use of price information varies by decision‐making context. In particular, price‐based effects for store brands are moderated by the contextual factors of category risk and retail image.

Understanding how consumers form beliefs and attitudes about brand extensions is important. However, this process may be complex in brand extensions because beliefs can stem from both the parent brand and the extension’s category. In two studies, we examine how positioning may impact brand extension beliefs and attitudes by altering its fit with the parent brand and category. We find position fit alters brand extension beliefs and attitudes, but its effects are moderated by the perceived fit between the extending brand and category. We discuss the results, theoretical and managerial implications, and avenues for future

The aim of this paper is to seek to understand better how consumers judge multiattribute products that are perceived as either more or less complete in terms of feature coverage in a category. Complete products are used to reduce the need of developing and managing expansive and expensive line‐extension portfolios.

The research used an experimental method and conducted two studies to test hypotheses derived from the marketing literature.

It is found that more complete multiattribute products are preferred to less complete alternatives. This preference for more complete products remains under larger competitive product assortment, but is reduced under smaller assortment. With a higher price level and larger assortment, the preference is substantial. However, under the conditions of lower price level/larger assortment, higher price level/smaller assortment, and lower price level/smaller assortment, the preference is again reduced.

More positive evaluations and higher product utility accrue from adding new features to multiattribute products prior to purchase. Moreover, more complete information causes more positive evaluations and cognitive responses. Larger assortment strains cognitive resources, and more complete multiattribute products are easier to understand than less complete multiattribute products. This processing facilitation generates positive affect leads to greater use of information that can shorten processing.

Brand managers can have a better understanding of how consumers judge more and less complete products, and under which circumstances more complete products are preferred.

The study of perceived product completeness is novel.

The aim of this study is to better understand how consumers understand and judge multi‐attribute products that are perceived as either more or less complete in terms of feature coverage in a category. Complete products are used to reduce the need of developing and managing expansive and expensive line‐extension portfolios.

The authors used an experimental method and conducted two studies to test hypotheses derived from the marketing literature.

The authors find more complete multi‐attribute products are preferred to less complete alternatives. This preference for more complete products remains under larger competitive product assortment, but is reduced under smaller assortment. With a higher price level and larger assortment, the preference is substantial. However, under the conditions of lower price level/larger assortment, higher price level/smaller assortment, and lower price level/smaller assortment, the preference is again reduced.

More positive evaluations and higher product utility accrue from adding new features to multi‐attribute products prior to purchase. Moreover, more complete information causes more positive evaluations and cognitive responses. Larger assortment strains cognitive resources, and more complete multi‐attribute products are easier to understand than less complete multi‐attribute products. This processing facilitation generates positive affect and leads to greater use of information that can shorten processing. Price level strongly influences processing of more complete products under larger assortment, but not under smaller assortment.

Brand managers have a better understanding of how consumers judge more and less complete products, and under which circumstances more complete products are preferred.

The study of perceived product completeness is novel.

The purpose of this research is to examine how consumers form beliefs and evaluate derivatives (e.g. handheld computers) and branded derivatives (e.g. Palm handheld computers). The aim is to study how consumers combine two categories (e.g. “handheld products” and “computers”) to form beliefs, how the similarity between the categories influences beliefs, how the addition of a brand changes beliefs, and how the presence of brand associations impacts on evaluations.

Three laboratory experiments to test hypotheses were conducted.

Results of the studies show the modifier (e.g. “handheld” in handheld computer) dominates derivative beliefs, but the nature of its dominance changes with category similarity. Brand effects are surprisingly limited in belief formation due to modifier dominance. Brand beliefs only transfer to branded derivatives when the brand fits with the modifier category. The presence of brand associations induces more positive evaluations of branded derivatives when the brand fits with the modifier category and, under certain circumstances, when it fits with the header‐category.

The presence of multiple concepts (e.g. Palm handheld computer) is common in line and brand extensions, yet little research has examined such complex products. Their comprehension can be better predicted by utilizing conceptual combination theory.

Managers can better determine what kinds of line and brand extensions are best suited for their brands.

The originality and value lay in utilizing the conceptual combination approach to more deeply understand which extensions are best suited for which brands. This helps fill a gap in the literature on consumer perception of multiple‐concept extensions.

The purpose of this paper is to show how sonic logos, despite their brief exposure time, resonate with consumers’ emotions and attitudes in a manner that until now has been attributed to only longer background music in advertising. The moderating role of sonic logo placement within the ad (beginning versus ending) and the mediating role of emotion felt after exposure to the brand and advertisement are also explored.

An expansion on sonic logo research is completed through two experiments testing nine hypotheses. A pretest is also conducted to create two orthogonal sonic logos (sad sonic logo and happy sonic logo) which are then used in the two experiments.

Participants had higher attitude scores for an advertisement that had a happy sonic logo over the ad that had a sad sonic logo. These consumer attitudes are mediated by emotion felt because of the exposure to the brand and advertisement and are moderated by placement of the sonic logo within the ad. Placement drove more positive consumer attitudes of a sad sonic logo at the beginning and a happy sonic logo at the end of the advertisement.

Given the short nature of a sonic logo, sonic logo placement in the advertisement is shown to change consumer perceptions. This effect uncovers an important aspect of placement of the sonic logo in the advertisement which gives practitioners a means of application. Furthermore, consumer emotions drive these strong attitudes despite the short exposure times of the sonic logo.

This paper expands upon the limited sonic logo research and shows how the short exposure time of a sonic logo can have the same emotional qualities as long-form music, previously reserved for background music in advertising. In addition, by uncovering the mediating relationship of emotion felt after exposure to the brand and advertisement, it is shown how these short audio branding elements can help shape emotion and consumer attitude toward brands. Finally, altering placement of the sonic logo can enhance consumer attitudes of the advertisement and brand.

The present data illustrate the effectiveness of utilizing theoretically guided models to develop consumer-based micro-segmentation strategies. The results provide marketers with a powerful discriminant function calculated from six variables to profile consumers and make informed decisions regarding promotional content and channel delivery to stimulate processing of marketing communication. The function also enables marketers to carve out casual, moderate, and loyal market segments with 74.3 per cent accuracy utilizing only 18 survey questions.

This paper examines the relationship between brand associations (anything in the consumer's mind linked to a specific team brand) and brand loyalty in US professional sport. To study the relationship between 13 brand association dimensions and brand loyalty, a survey of professional sport consumers was completed (N = 929). Results of multiple regression analysis revealed positive relationships between fan identification, escape, nostalgia, and product delivery, and brand loyalty. Negative relationships were found between tradition, star players, and peer group acceptance, and brand loyalty.

This paper aims to examine how scholarly research on corporate branding has evolved using bibliometric author co‐citation analysis of articles published between 1969 and 2008 on corporate branding.

The bibliography was compiled using the ISI Web of Science database. The authors searched articles published between 1969 and 2008 that used terms in their title related to their research scope. Then they used citation mapping to visualize the relationships between and among key works in the field.

The search resulted in 264 papers by 412 authors in 150 journals. The field is notably interdisciplinary, with articles published mainly in business, management, architecture, arts and communications disciplines. The authors found three main approaches to corporate branding research (internal, transactional, external) with seven core research streams: product, service and sponsorship evaluation; corporate and visual identity; employment image and application; corporate crime; financial performance; brand extension; and corporate image. They also identified emerging fields such as corporate branding combined with corporate social responsibility.

This research is limited by the database and the terms used for the search. Self‐citations were also included. The authors used citation mapping and content analysis to identify core research streams.

The article is singular in using bibliometrics by means of author co‐citation analyses to identify, analyze and visualize key articles about corporate branding in the last 40 years. The results demonstrate the impact of selected institutions, journals, and key articles and authors on the research field.

This paper applies marketing concepts to the recruitment research literature in order to develop the concept of employer knowledge, or the beliefs that a job seeker holds about a potential employer. Job seekers' employer knowledge creates value for an organization because it determines how they pursue and process information about the organization, whether they accept jobs with the organization, what they expect from the organization as new employees, and whether they purchase products and services from the firm in the future. Drawing on the marketing literature, this paper: (1) differentiates the dimensions of employer knowledge, (2) describes the sources of employer knowledge and how these information sources are processed by job seekers, and (3) describes how and why job seekers' employer knowledge represents a valuable asset to organizations. The discussion illustrates the implications of the model for recruitment researchers and managers, and suggests new perspectives and research directions that emerge from integrating of marketing and recruiting literatures.