Believe It or Not: The Effect of Involvement on the Credibility of Image Transfer through co-Branding

Abstract

This paper aims to study the effect of customer involvement on the perceived credibility of association reinforcement through co-branding. Two propositions were developed which were tested in a case of co-branding between Fastron and Lamborghini. The authors measured the credibility of the reinforcement of three associations on Fastron, namely high quality, premium product, and high-speed use. Input from 414 respondents was collated through online and offline surveys. The discussion was enriched by an elaboration of association networks relating to Fastron, Pertamina (the parent company of Fastron), and Lamborghini, from the perspective of respondents. Results show that high involvement users tended to combine both salient and non-salient information regarding the three brands. Such individuals were also influenced by the strong adjacency between Fastron and Pertamina, consequently expressing doubt that Fastron is associated with the three attributes. In contrast, low involvement customers paid no attention to non-salient information. Rather, they accepted the newly formed Fastron/Lamborghini adjacency, culminating in their conviction that Fastron demonstrated all three attributes. In addition, research results suggest that country of origin and country image effect lead to unsuccessful associations of brand images on high involvement customers, due to unmatched saliencies between brands detained by each in consumers’ minds.

Keywords:

• Brand adjacency
• country of origin
• co-branding
• consumer involvement
• information saliency