MKT 3096 Contemporary Marketing Dissertation Dissertation Research Proposal
Student Name: Lu Li Student Number: 130381806 Degree Programme: N500 BSc Marketing Submission Date: 02/11/2015 Word Count: 1000
2.1 Working Research Title Further Brand extension congruence of a celebrity brand impacts on existing co-brands’ image and fitness How does anchoring effect impact on the consumers’ willingness to purchase celebrity/crossover co-branding products? 2.2 Introduction and Background
Co-branding as an alternative brand extension strategy makes grounds and trends in brand management and marketing in many industries because it can offer companies new opportunities and help companies to enter a new market with relatively low costs. (UKEssays, 2015) Additionally, co-branding can increase consumers’ evaluation on companies’ brand image and quality by the developed image of the partner brand. (LEBAR et al., 2005) In the past 5 years, celebrity co-branding has been an increasing phenomenon but there are few academic researches about it. When companies co-brand with celebrities, which is not simply celebrity endorsement; instead, they collaborate to co-create or co-design a product that shares the identity of both of them. (Wilcox and Carroll, 2011)Helmig, Huber and Leeflang(2008) stated that con-branding strategy would transfer into a brand extension strategy which can be defined as two extension types: line extension( new products with the same brand name in existing or new products categories) and franchise/brand extension (new products in new categories). According existing example of celebrity co-brand products, most of celebrity co-branding is a brand line extension strategy. For instance, the most successful example is Michael Jordan with Nike to co-create “Air Jordan”. Recently Rihanna co-brand with Puma to launch a new line named “Creeper”, and Adidas Originals partnered with Pharrell William and Kanye West to launch “Super colour Superstar” and “Yeezy Boots 350” respectively.
Although celebrity co-branding strategy has numbers of benefits, the potential risks cannot be undeniable. Once companies applied co-branding strategy, if partner brands had any positive or negative conditions, it would be impossible for companies to avoid impacts. (Geylani, Inman and Ter Hofstede, 2008) For example, when celebrity brands and companies lack of congruence, co-branding strategy possibly leads to negative effects on them. “Congruence” or “fitness” has been applied in various sectors of marketing researches such as brand extension, co-branding and celebrity endorsement. (Monga and Lau-Gesk, 2007) tested the differences between consumers’ evaluations on collaborated brands with two distinct personalities versus one personality, and the result was that consumers preferred co-brands with two distinctive brand personalities to those with one. However, based on examination about the level of brand-celebrity match-up and its impacts on effectiveness, Mishra (2015) demonstrated that high level of brand-celebrity match-up would obtain higher effectiveness. Both of them were only focus on the existing congruence with co-brands but ignored the partner brands’ further extension strategies and their influence on existing co-branding products. Due to these different views and gaps, it is worth to conduct a research to exam further congruence of celebrity brand extension and its effects on previous co-branding products evaluation and overall congruence.
2.3 Aim and Research Objectives Within co-branding strategy, collaborated brands are not in the same position; instead, they could be divided into leader brands (transfer identity) and partner brands (transfer image). (Uggla, 2004) Within celerity co-branding strategy, Celebrity brand is the partner brand and the companies are leader companies. Based on this theory, this study aims at solving three questions: Q1: To what extent does congruence of partner celebrity brands and companies impact on consumer evaluation? Q2: To what extent does the partner celebrity brands’ further brand extension activities affect on themselves evaluation? Q3: To what extent does further effects of partner celebrity brands (in Q2) influence on existing co-branding products’ evaluation and fitness?
2.4 Research Implications Celebrity co-branding strategy shares both features of celebrity endorsement and brand extension strategy, and it is not an emerging marketing tool but few academic researches on it. Along with the launch of more successful celebrity co-branding products to the market such as 2015 Puma × Rihanna “Creeper” sneaker collection which is sold out globally within three hours. (O'Reilly, 2015) However, the fitness of co-brands is one of the main factors influencing consumer evaluations, namely the possibility of co-branding success. (Seno and Lukas, 2007) Therefor, it is necessary for brand managers to understand the fitness of partner celebrity brands and their further brand extension activities. 2.5 Theoretical Underpinning The congruence of co-branding strategy was tested with divergent frameworks, for example meaning transfer model, categorisation theory and brand association base. Within this study, the discussion will mainly concentrate on brand association base that is a conceptual model of strategic links and transfer of meaning between two brands, and the two brands are defined as a leader brand and a partner brand respectively (Uggla, 2004), as outline in Figure 1:
Figure 1 brand association base with image and identity transfer between brands (Uggla, 2004)
Brand Association base also stated that consumers’ perceived brand image and equity would change as a brand linked to another brand or entity, and the meaning of brand in this model could be a symbol (Adidas is a symbol for sports fashion), an index (David Beckham was an index for football boots) or a icon, as showed in Figure 2:
Figure 2 partner brand associations from the consumer perspective (Uggla, 2004)s
Related to this dissertation study, a celebrity brand could be a partner brand and the host company is treated as the leader brand. The partner brand co-branded with a leader brand and launched a product. While this partner brand collaborated with another leader brand to cocreate a new product that may have high or low level of brand congruence (similarity of symbol, index or icon). Will this new high/low brand congruence will change the consumers’ evaluation on previous co-brands’ fitness and brand image.
2.6 Methodology A quantitative research method will be applied because this dissertation aims at find a specific relationship (positive or negative) between two main factors so quantitative approach will provide more convinced and clear evidence, for example the linear relation. Surveys will be designed with questions about respondents’ perspective about partner brand’s previous cobrand fitness, the partner brand’s new co-brand fitness and again their new perspective on the previous co-brands’ image and fitness, 5 or 7 Likert scaling will be used. A real celebrity cobranding product will be chosen as an experimental example that should be affordable and familiar for university students. As for data collection, online questionnaire will be sent out through e-mail and social media, and expect a sample of 250 university student, 125:125 split between male and female to avoid potential gender bias.
2.7 Limitations One of the limitations is that personal preference or perception on the chosen celebrity brand and company would possibly influence the validity and objectivity of respondents’ answers,
for example fans of chosen celebrity brand. Thus, the choice of celebrity brand and company should be familiar to general public instead niche. 2.8 Milestones and Plan (Gantt chart) Ongoing plan for this dissertation and overall time management could be seen at appendices sector Figure 3.
3.1 Reference Geylani, T., Inman, J. and Ter Hofstede, F. (2008). Image Reinforcement or Impairment: The Effects of CoBranding on Attribute Uncertainty. Marketing Science, 27(4), pp.730-744.
Helmig, B., Huber, J. and Leeflang, P. (2008). Co-Branding: The State of the Art. Schmalenbach Business Review (SBR), 60(4), pp.359-377.
LEBAR, E., BUEHLER, P., KELLER, K., SAWICKA, M., AKSEHIRLI, Z. and RICHEY, K. (2005). Brand Equity Implications of Joint Branding Programs. Journal of Advertising Research, 45(04), pp.413-425.
Mishra, A. (2015). Brand-Celebrity Match and Its Impact on Advertising Effectiveness. DLSU Business & Economics Review, 25(1), pp.16-27.
Monga, A. and Lau-Gesk, L. (2007). Blending Cobrand Personalities: An Examination of the Complex Self. Journal of Marketing Research, 44(3), pp.389-400.
O'Reilly, L. (2015). Puma Has Hired Rihanna As Its Creative Director. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://uk.businessinsider.com/rihanna-becomes-creative-director-of-pumas-womens-business-2014-12? r=US&IR=T [Accessed 26 Oct. 2015].
Seno, D. and Lukas, B. (2007). The equity effect of product endorsement by celebrities. European Journal of Marketing, 41(1/2), pp.121-134.
Uggla, H. (2004). The brand association base: A conceptual model for strategically leveraging partner brand equity. Journal of Brand Management, 12(2), pp.105-123.
UKEssays, (2015). Recent Trends In Co Branding. [online] Available at: http://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/recent-trends-in-co-branding-marketing-essay.php [Accessed 20 Oct. 2015].
Wilcox, K. and Carroll, W. (2011). (In)congruity in the Evaluation of Celebrity Co-Brands. Advances in Consumer Research, 39(2), pp.483-484.
4.1 Appendices
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
Literature Review
Writing Proposal
Discussion with Supervisor
Design Questionnaire
Ethical Approval
Progress Report Preparation
Questionnaire Rollout
Data Analysis
Writing Final Dissertation
Review and Final Adjust
Plan
Figure 3 Gantt chart of dissertation time planning