Consumers and Mixed-Brands: On the Polysemy of Brand Meaning

Abstract: Brands have become one of the most discussed phenomena of marketing research in recent years. They are ubiquitous in the marketplace and virtually impossible for consumers to avoid. The corporate obsession with brands is likely to continue since the wealth of “how-to-do-branding” strategy handbooks suggest that brands are the magical panacea for creating superior business performance. In short, we live in a branded world, where companies seek to win and dominate markets by imposing brand meanings on consumers. This dissertation focuses on consumers’ use of brands in their everyday lives and examines how consumers develop and negotiate meanings for mixed-brands. The practice of mixing brands, also commonly referred to as co-branding, is a brand strategy gaining favor in the marketplace, where two or more brands are used as co-endorsers for a product. As brands become linked to each other through such co-endorsements, there is a possibility that consumers develop and negotiate a variety of symbolic meanings for the brand couple. This dissertation will illustrate how consumers deal with these symbolic meanings and how they interpret this particular brand strategy.