CO-BRANDING: THE INFLUENCE OF BRAND EXPERIENCE AND CONGRUITY ON THE EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF CO-BRANDING STRATEGIES: AN ANALYSIS IN THE CONTEXT OF TOURISM BRANDS.

The present study employed schema congruity theory (Mandler 1982) and anchoring and adjustment theory (Tversky and Kahneman 1974) to analyze evaluations of co-branding strategies. An online experiment (N = 657) was conducted in the context of tourism brands. In line with hypotheses, co-branding alliances with a moderately incongruently positioned co-brand in regard to the core brand were rated more favorably than congruently or incongruently positioned co-brands. Moreover, findings indicate -- in accordance with hypothesis -- that personal brand experience has an impact on the anchoring effect of the core-brand in a co-branding alliance with touristic brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]