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Executive Summary
Firms increasingly employ global brand management strategies for the effective coordination of their global activities. Effective coordination requires adapting global brand management strategies to cultural nuances. This study examines the influence of culture on the impact of four key brand management elements (i.e., brand innovativeness, brand customer orientation, brand self-relevance, and social responsibility) on customer commitment to a brand. Using responses from 167 U.K. and 230 Chinese consumers, Eisingerich and Rubera empirically demonstrate that brand innovativeness and brand self-relevance have a greater effect on brand commitment in cultures that are individualist, short-term oriented, and low on power distance (i.e., the United Kingdom), and brand customer orientation and social responsibility have a greater impact on brand commitment in cultures that are collectivist, long-term oriented, and high on power distance (i.e., China). The findings also reveal that in collectivist, long-term-oriented, and high-power-distance cultures, brand innovativeness, customer orientation, self-relevance, and social responsibility equally contribute to brand commitment.

From a theoretical as well as practical viewpoint, these results point out that companies must make different brand management decisions in different countries to enhance customer commitment to their brands. Firm resources may well be wasted when brands invest in characteristics that have no influence on customer commitment in a given cultural context. The research informs global brand managers wanting to optimize brand positioning and strengthen customers’ brand commitment across cultures.

Biography
Andreas B. Eisingerich is an assistant professor in marketing at Imperial College Business School, Imperial College London. His research focuses on brand management, customer relationship, and service innovation strategies. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge and is a research fellow at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

Gaia Rubera is assistant professor of marketing at Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Her research interests focus on globalization, marketing strategy aesthetic innovation, creativity, and organizational structures that foster innovation. She obtained her PhD from Bocconi University and has published in the Journal of Service Research, Marketing Letters, and other journals.

Journal of International Marketing, Volume 18, Number 2, June 2010
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