Does endorsing product brands by corporate branding pay off? A multi-country study

Abstract

Corporate branding is recently gaining in importance in the FMCG sector. A growing number of firms use their internationally standardized corporate brands as an endorsement to their local, regional and international product brands. Nevertheless, little attention has been given to cross-national effects. Further, the reciprocity between corporate and product brand has not been considered so far. Analyzing both, a crosssectional consumer sample from Germany, France, Romania, Russia, and the USA and a longitudinal consumer sample from Germany and Romania, my results emphasize that corporate and product brand are cross-nationally interrelated, but their impact on consumers’ product response varies considerably between countries. Marketers should be aware of this fact if managing an international visible corporate brand.