Leveraged Marketing Communications The Importance of Studying the Transfer of Object-to-Brand Associations

This comprehensive book features recent works on leveraged marketing communications (LMC)?an intentional pairing of a brand to benefit from the associations the target audience has with the object. LMC conceptually binds a wide range of marketing communication strategies previously studied in isolation: celebrity endorsements, sponsorship, product placements, cause-related marketing, and cobranding. LMC strategies assume that an entity (e.g., Michael Jordan) can be paired with a brand (e.g., Nike) to evoke associations that ultimately enhance brand awareness and evaluations.

The collection of chapters in this book examines the association between brands and entities, ideas, and contexts and combines theory and practice to offer new perspectives to help academics, practitioners, and policymakers better understand and apply LMC research. The chapters collectively provide a theoretical framework for building brand equity via linking brands to people, places, and things; examine how marketers can best leverage brand alliances; explore ways to maximize the effectiveness of sponsorship, product placement, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and cause-related marketing; and summarize our knowledge of the various forms of LMC.

The chapters in this book were originally published in the International Journal of Advertising.

Preface: Why Leveraged Marketing Communications is a Critically Important Topic in Marketing

Charles R. Taylor

Introduction: leveraged marketing communications

Sukki Yoonand Yung Kyun Choi

1. Leveraging secondary associations to build brand equity: theoretical perspectives and practical applications

Kevin Lane Keller

2. Leveraged brand evaluations in branded entertainment: effects of alliance exclusivity and presentation style

Hyejin Bang, Dongwon Choi, Tae Hyun Baek, Sang Do Oh and Yeonshin Kim

3. The effects of sensory fit on consumer evaluations of co-branding

Jungyong Ahn, Ahyeon Kim and Yongjun Sung

4. Legitimacy and sincerity as leveraging factors in social sponsorship: an experimental investigation

Alain d’Astous, François Anthony Carrillat and Audrey Przybysz

5. Communicating the fair trade message: the roles of reputation and fit

Jos Bartels, Machiel J. Reinders, Chrissie Broersen and Sarah Hendriks

6. When partners divorce: understanding consumers’ reactions to partnership termination in cause-related marketing programs

H. Aghakhani, S. W. Carvalho and P. H. Cunningham

7. When good becomes bad: the role of corporate crisis and issue congruence

Yoojung Kim and Sejung Marina Choi

8. Celebrity endorsements: a literature review and research agenda

Lars Bergkvist and Kris Qiang Zhou

9. Cause-related marketing persuasion research: an integrated framework and directions for further research

Lars Bergkvist and Kris Qiang Zhou

10. Talking about CSR matters: employees’ perception of and reaction to their company’s CSR communication in four different CSR domains

Sarah Desirée Schaefer, Ralf Terlutter and Sandra Diehl

11. Celebrity vs. Influencer endorsements in advertising: the role of identification, credibility, and Product-Endorser fit

Alexander P. Schouten, Loes Janssen and Maegan Verspaget

Sukki Yoon is Professor of Marketing, Bryant University. Previously he taught at Cleveland State University. He was a visiting scholar at Grey Worldwide, Harvard University, and Southern Methodist University and a consultant at U.S. and Korean firms and government agencies. He has published articles in many international journals and has served on editorial boards.

Yung Kyun Choi (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Dongguk University in Seoul, Korea. His research interests are in advertising effects and consumer behaviour in digital media such as social media, mobile media, and AR/VR. He has published articles in many international journals including Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, and Journal of Business Research, serving on editorial boards in these journals.

Charles R. Taylor is John A. Murphy Professor of Marketing at Villanova University. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Advertising. Taylor has published extensively and has received the Ivan L. Preston Award for Outstanding Contribution to Research from the American Academy of Advertising and the Flemming Hansen Award for long-term impact on the advertising field from the European Advertising Academy.