 When the elephant aligns with the ant: Brand prominence strategies in asymmetric Co-brandingBingxin Tang, Bei Lyu and Ziyuan Wan Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2025, vol. 87, issue C Abstract: Brand prominence strategy is central to asymmetric co-branding, a marketing research area of growing importance for understanding its impact on brand equity and consumer response. This study examines how brand identity prominence in co-branding influences consumer responses through three controlled experiments (N = 1318). The findings indicate that in asymmetric co-branding, the prominent display of the weak brand, in contrast to the strong brand, has a positive effect on product evaluations. This visual prominence enhances consumers’ perception of inter-brand relationship commitment, which, in turn, fosters greater brand admiration for the strong brand and greater brand trust in the weak brand. However, this positive effect emerges only when consumers perceive a high degree of brand integration, diminishing when perceived integration is low. These results offer both theoretical and practical insights into the strategic display of brand identities in asymmetric co-branding. Keywords: Asymmetric Co-Branding; Perceived inter-brand relationship commitment; Brand admiration; Brand trust; Perceived integration between brands (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:87:y:2025:i:c:s0969698925001316 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104352 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services is currently edited by Harry Timmermans More articles in Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services from Elsevier |
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