Gabriel J. Biehal & Daniel A. Sheinin
Executive Summary
This research shows that corporate messages affect a company's product portfolio (i.e., transfer occurs). However, transfer depends on the type of corporate message and properties of a competitive message. The authors first examine the influence of corporate versus product messages on a portfolio containing three products—A, B, and C. They find that corporate messages transfer onto Products B and C, but a product message for A does not. However, A's product message has more influence than a corporate message for evaluating Product A. Then, the authors examine the comparative influence of corporate ability (CA) messages, which position on product quality, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages, which position on environmentalism. They find that CA messages transfer more strongly than CSR messages, leading to higher product beliefs and more positive product portfolio attitudes. Finally, they study how a competitive product message affects transfer from a previously seen corporate message. When a competitive product message is encountered before the company’s product message and positioned similarly (high quality), the corporate message does not transfer to the company’s product.
In the other three conditions the authors investigate, the opposite occurs; that is, the corporate transfer always occurs. These results have important managerial implications. For corporate brand managers, CA messages should be more effective than CSR messages and more efficient than product-specific messages when the objective is to strengthen the equity of a similarly positioned portfolio (e.g., a BMW and "performance") or of a weakly positioned portfolio (Levi's response to product differentiation problems with its CA message, "A Style for Every Story". However, the risk is that CA messages undermine some product’s positions. For example, DuPont’s CA message, "The Miracles of Science," could undermine the fashion positioning of its Lycra product.
In contrast, CSR messages appear to work better when the objective is to maintain portfolio positioning. Such messages provide an equivalent product-attitude increase as CA messages but with weaker product-belief effects. This can be useful when products in the portfolio are dissimilarly positioned. The DuPont situation may favor CSR messages because they are less likely to undermine dissimilar and strong product positions. For product managers, the critical consideration is how to capitalize on corporate transfer. Product managers seeking to maximize transfer should ensure clear differentiation and schedule product messages as close as possible to corporate ones. This lessens the chance that competitive messages will precede company product messages and thus reduce corporate transfer. However, such activities could jeopardize the corporate positioning, particularly when managers of weak products or ones that are inconsistent with the corporate positioning try to "ride on corporate coattails."
For example, consider 3M's corporate "innovation" message. If product messages for 3M's Highland brand, a less-innovative product, include the corporate tagline, consumers recalling the corporate positioning could become confused by the inconsistency. As a result, the corporate positioning could be diluted. Corporate and product managers’ messaging decisions are closely intertwined. This implies that companies need to develop effective organizational mechanisms for communication, cooperation, and integration. Unfortunately, these mechanisms are the exception rather than the rule.
Biography
Gabriel J. Biehal (PhD, Stanford University) is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research interests include consumer decision making and purchase behavior and corporate and brand advertising. He has published articles in several of the top marketing journals, including Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and Journal of Marketing, as well as papers in Marketing Letters and Journal of Advertising. He served for three years on the Journal of Marketing Research editorial review board and currently serves on the editorial review boards of Journal of Advertising and Journal of the Academy of Marketing Sciences. His research into corporate branding effects on the company product portfolio was partially funded by the Marketing Science Institute. He has taught marketing strategy in various executive programs and in the Robert H. Smith School of Business executive MBA program.
Daniel A. Sheinin is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Rhode Island. He was previously Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Maryland. Dan received his PhD in Marketing from Columbia, his master’s degree from Northwestern, and his bachelor's degree from Amherst. His research expertise is brand equity management. Sample work includes how to build corporate brands that enhance product perceptions (a project funded by Marketing Science Institute), how to extend product brands into new categories, and how to develop marketing communications and promotions that enhance product perceptions. Dan's recent research has appeared in publications such as Journal of Advertising, Marketing Letters, Journal of Product and Brand Management, and Journal of Business Research. He has substantial experience in consulting and executive education with a wide variety of firms. Dan has been consistently cited for teaching excellence at the executive, graduate, and undergraduate levels. Before his academic career, he worked in brand management and consulting.
Journal of Marketing, Vol. 71, No. 2, April 2007
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