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This paper aims to investigate the effects on corporate brand equity when a company moves from a house of brand strategy to a branded house. In fact, recently, most of large companies (Procter & Gamble, Unilever) are managing this swift in order to simplify and optimize their efforts.

A total of 433 consumers participated in a between-subject experimental design completing a questionnaire. Each respondent was exposed to one of eight hypothetical scenarios with real-existing brands. A moderated-mediation model was tested.

The number of individual brands interacts with the variety of product categories within the portfolio to define its internal consistency which, in turn, exerts a significant mediation effect on corporate brand equity.

The study supports the mental accounting process (subtyping vs bookkeeping), demonstrating how this psychological framework is applicable within brand management.

The study unveils a strong dichotomy: consumers award very small portfolios focused on a single product category or, conversely, they appreciate a wide and highly diversified brand portfolio. No chances for intermediate and hybrid solutions. Findings demonstrate that a brand architecture shift might be a flexible opportunity to manage an on-going diversification strategy.

The study is the first to analyse the importance of internal consistency within a brand portfolio in case of a shift in the portfolio strategy. Moreover, it investigates the effects since the first announcement of a linkage between the individual brands and the corporate one.

Past research on cause-related marketing (CRM) suggests that these socially beneficial initiatives are more effective when linked with hedonic than utilitarian products. Little is known, however, about the process underpinning this effect. This paper aims to investigate why and under what circumstances CRM enhances the appeal of hedonic products by testing the mediation of guilt and introducing the moderating role of cause-product fit.

The authors test a model of moderated mediation in two studies. Study 1 shows that the effectiveness of combining CRM with hedonic consumption is explained by the mediating role of feelings of guilt. Study 2 demonstrates that this mediation depends on the level of fit or congruency between the cause and the product.

Results suggest that CRM campaigns offer the opportunity to improve the consumption experiences of hedonic products by reducing the feelings of guilt intrinsically connected with these options. Moreover, fit moderates the emotional processes activated by CRM initiatives. When fit is high, CRM reduces guilt and improves consumers’ experiences when purchasing hedonic alternatives.

The study extends current understanding of how CRM can promote hedonic consumption and contributes further to research on guilt as an emotion able to promote responsible consumption decisions. Moreover, the study introduces and tests the impact of cause-product fit in predicting consumers’ ethical purchase intention. For managers of hedonic brands, the study offers important implications on how to deploy CRM campaigns to foster better customer experiences.

When companies face a crisis, they sometimes deliver blame-shifting communications, trying to shift blame onto another actor to protect their reputation. While previous research has considered how different features of the message affect its persuasiveness, little is known about whether specific senders can blame more effectively. This paper aims to contribute to research in this domain through an investigation of the sender’s social perception as a critical moderator to the persuasiveness of blame shifting.

The authors conduct four between-subjects scenario experiments to test the research hypotheses. In each experiment, participants are presented with a realistic crisis scenario and the crisis communications delivered by the company. The authors assess the extent to which perceptions of the sender influence the message’s ability to reduce negative word-of-mouth intentions and to increase purchase intentions.

The authors show that blame shifting is more likely to be effective when deployed by senders that are small (Study 1) or have a positive CSR track record (Study 2). Furthermore, The authors find that even large senders can successfully deploy blame shifting if they can benefit from being known for their CSR programs (Study 3). Finally, the authors show that the effect of blame shifting depends on the receiver’s level of concern about the crisis: stakeholders significantly concerned by the crisis reject blame-shifting communications (Study 4).

Further research should examine the impact of information about brand competence on blame-shifting effectiveness. Further research is also needed to explore sender effects for other defensive crisis communication strategies such as denial or the use of excuses or justifications.

The study offers critical information for marketers considering the use of defensive crisis communications strategies such as blame shifting.

The study extends the understanding of how sender effects influence blame-shifting communications. The analysis allows us to clarify why this strategy is effective for certain senders and certain receivers while, for others, it tends to backfire. Blame shifting backfires for large senders unless they can boast a strong CSR record.

Past research on cause-related marketing (CRM) suggests that these socially beneficial initiatives can be implemented as co-branding strategies. Little is known, however, about the role of brand prominence, in terms of visual conspicuousness of the two brands that are partner-involved (for-profit and non-profit brands). This study aims to advance a model of moderated mediation that explains how and under what circumstances brand prominence disparity enhances consumers’ attitudes toward CRM co-branded products and increases purchase intention

The authors test a model of moderated mediation in two studies. Study 1 shows that the effectiveness of brand prominence disparity is explained by the mediating role of attitude toward a CRM co-branded product. Study 2 demonstrates that this mediation is moderated by the positioning of the for-profit brand partner (luxury vs non-luxury positioning).

Results show that brand prominence disparity has a role in defining consumers’ purchase intention toward a CRM co-branded product through mediation of attitude. Moreover, positioning of the for-profit brand partner moderates the cognitive processes activated by the visual brand prominence. In luxury positioning, a loud visual prominence of the for-profit brand significantly improves consumers’ attitudes and intentions to buy the CRM co-branded product.

The study extends our understanding of how visual brand presence can promote the effectiveness of co-branded CRM initiatives, and it offers practical guidelines for marketers wishing to partner with social causes, while promoting products with luxury or non-luxury features.

Taking the consumer perspective, this paper aims to investigate the effect of counterfeiting awareness on consumer advocacy behaviour towards the brand in a specific context, that is, the luxury brand context.

The authors conducted two surveys among actual and potential consumers of the original brand. Study 1 demonstrated the mediating role of customer-based brand equity between the consumers’ awareness of brand counterfeits and their advocacy behaviour towards the genuine brand. Study 2 showed the moderating role exerted by consumers’ emotional attachment to the brand in this framework.

This work showed specific mechanisms underlying consumer responses to counterfeits, revealing a wide framework able to uncover important positive spillover effects on counterfeited brands.

This framework should be tested on additional brands and integrated with further processes and individual variables to extend our knowledge about consumer responses to counterfeits.

This research recognises counterfeiting as a consumer-led process. The results showed the ambivalent nature of counterfeiting, that is, a threat and an opportunity for the counterfeited brand. In fact, actual and potential consumers are prone to protect the genuine brand. The consequent advocacy behaviour is stimulated by the attempts of consumers of fakes to take possession of the brand experience, and these activate actions of self-protection among consumers of the original brand. Interesting managerial implications are drawn.

Previous research on brand crisis has introduced the difference between a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis. However, little remains known regarding consumers’ varying negative responses towards these two different types of brand misconduct. This paper aims to investigate and compare consumers’ affective and behavioural negative reactions (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention) towards a faulty brand during a values-related crisis and a performance-related crisis by testing the mediation of negative emotions and introducing the moderating role of cultural belongingness (collectivistic vs individualistic).

The authors tested a model of moderated mediation in a cross-cultural investigation on a sample of 229 Italian and Asian consumers. The study is a 2 (cultures: collectivistic vs individualistic) × 2 (crisis: performance-related vs values-related) between-subjects experimental design. The moderated mediation model shows that consumers’ negative reactions (negative word of mouth and negative purchase intention) towards a faulty brand involved in different crisis typologies is explained by the mediating role of negative emotions, and that this mediation depends on a consumer’s cultural belongingness.

The results suggest that consumers belonging to a collectivistic culture (e.g. Asian culture) tend to react in a more severe and strict manner when faced with a values-related brand crisis event then when faced with a performance-related crisis. The arousal of negative emotion towards a brand represents the mediating variable in behavioural responses (i.e. negative word of mouth and purchase intention).

The present study extends current knowledge in the field of consumers’ negative response to brand irresponsibility behaviours while introducing the role of crisis typology and cultural belongingness. In particular, individualistic people are more sensitive to a values-related crisis in comparison with a performance-related one. The findings of this study have strong managerial implications for defining effective response strategies to negative events involving brands in different markets.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of a shift in brand architecture strategy on corporate brand equity. The change is from a house of brands to a branded house approach in which the corporate brand is prominent. The study proposes two alternative approaches in order to explore how consumers build the corporate brand equity from single product brand equities in the portfolio: the dilution process or the bookkeeping/subtyping cognitive process.

Data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 150 Italian consumers. All the items were related to a real corporate brand – Procter & Gamble (P&G) – and to seven of the product brands in its portfolio. The choice of the Italian context and the P&G brand was motivated by the fact that P&G has recently adopted a shift in its brand strategy, starting to give prominence to the corporate brand in its communication campaign in Italy.

The dilution process does not describe the effect of a change in strategy on corporate brand equity, but the bookkeeping/subtyping cognitive process does. This suggests that consumers tend not to revise corporate brand equity when they perceive many product brands behind it.

The value of the present paper is to deal with a relevant and current topic: the brand architecture dynamism. This research is an exploratory step to satisfy the need for theory-based research on consumer responses to the shift in the brand portfolio architecture strategy.

The aim the present study is to investigate the consumption practices of fast fashion products. During the introductory stage of this phenomenon, most academic literature has focused its attention on structural and industrial aspects of the fast fashion phenomenon. Now that the phenomenon has been present as a part of individuals’ daily lives for some years, the time is ripe for taking a closer look at consumers’ standpoint.

The qualitative technique of focus groups was chosen to carry out the research study within Italian consumers. The decision to exploit this methodology was largely guided by the exploratory purposes of this study and by the willingness to analyze the phenomenon of fast fashion and the consumption practices by adopting a social perspective.

Results of the exploratory study show an overview of the phenomenon of fast fashion from the standpoint of the consumers and especially of the way they “live” fast fashion and integrate these products in their consumption practices.

The study reveals a new perspective of analysis (consumers’ standpoint) to the phenomenon of fast fashion not previously investigated and suggests useful ideas to guide the strategic levers and communications through which fast fashion companies can identify their own evolutionary path.