The effects of dual branding rumors on consumers’ national and store brand evaluations

ABSTRACT

The current research considers dual branding, where national brand manufacturers produce store brands against which they compete. Although agreements are confidential, rumors about the practice emerge. Thus, the authors examine the influence of dual branding rumor exposure on consumers’ respective national and store brand evaluations. The results support positive (negative) serial indirect effects of rumor exposure on participants’ store (national) brand evaluations through dual branding beliefs and comparative quality perceptions. In addition, smart shopper perceptions amplify the indirect effects of dual branding rumor exposure on store, but not national, brand outcomes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ The authors acknowledge the use of “dual branding” in some previous literature as referring to a cobranding strategy, which involves an expressed linkage between two brands (e.g. parent and sub-brand) to influence consumers’ product quality inferences and attribute recall (see for example, Lam et al., 2013; Levin & Levin, 2000). However, the authors maintain the use of the term here, in line with Sethuraman (2009) and ter Braak, Dekimpe et al. (2013a), among others.