It affects, it affects not: A quasi-experiment on the transfer effect of co-branding on consumer-based brand equity of hospitality products

Although co-branding is postulated to be beneficial for hospitality brands, empirical test of either transfer effect or spillover effect of co-branding on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) of hospitality brands is yet to receive attention from researchers. A quasi-experiment design was applied to test the transfer effect of co-branding on the CBBE of the composite brand, controlling for the familiarity, compatibility (fitness) and complementary of the partner brands. A within-subject (repeated measures) design with four steps measuring the CBBE of internationally known and compatible hotel and restaurant brands and their co-brand, as well as respondents’ own most familiar hotel and restaurant brand and their co-brand was applied in four steps to a class of 46 students enrolled for a tourism and hospitality class at a Tourism and Hotel Management School based in Asia. The t-test of differences revealed that the co-brand of the internationally known and compatible hotel and restaurant brands lead to synergy with both brands being winners and none losers, while the co-brand of respondents’ own most familiar brands lead to losses mostly, despite their high ratings individually. Implications and future research suggestions are provided.

Research highlights▶ A quasi-experiment, within-subject design tested transfer effect of co-branding. ▶ We controlled for familiarity, compatibility (fitness) and complementary of brands. ▶ International and compatible hotel and restaurant brands resulted in winner cobrands. ▶ Co-brands of respondents’ own most familiar brands suffered from losing in CBBE. ▶ Some mid-point ratings of the co-brand CBBE support the cognitive consistency theory.