Shared Brand Equity

T. Bettina Cornwell, Michael S. Humphreys and Youngbum Kwon (2022), Shared Brand Equity, Journal of Advertising

Are you interested in sponsorship, celebrity endorsement, influencer marketing, product placement, co-branding, place-based branding or human brands? Then you might be interested in Shared Brand Equity.

Collaborative platforms bring brands together and intertwine them. In our hyper-connected world, the additive logic of brand equity, introduced over 40 years ago, does not capture the interdependence built in collaborative marketing.

In traditional advertising, like in decorating a holiday tree, ornaments can be added or subtracted (this is not to say that advertising associations do not linger). In collaborative platforms, such as sponsoring, brands work together for years, even decades, and become integrated. They have grown together, as has our memory for them. What are the implications?

• Shared brand equity can reduce the control that either partner has in strategic brand decisions. Think of the Stolichnaya vodka brand - that once touted a Russian heritage - but immediately changed their name to Stoli after Russia invaded Ukraine. The place brand of Russia did not simply subtract from the value of the Stolichnaya vodka but forced a brand crisis.
• Shared brand equity can impact the performance that either partner realizes from strategic brand decisions. Research shows that sponsor brands in sport are remembered years after they have been replaced by another sponsor brand. This persistent partnership recall can be advantageous to the old sponsor but problematic for the new. Strategies must adjust for shared brand equity.

Our work on this topic, at the link above, includes a definition of shared brand equity, a model of building shared brand equity, and research propositions. We welcome thoughts you might have on the topic.

This work is dedicated to theoretical memory researcher, Professor Michael S. Humphreys.