The Role of Gender in Co-branding Strategies of Hi-Tech Brands and Luxury

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the different components of consumers’ attitude (cognitive and affective components) towards co-branded products. We compare the consumer behavior from gender differences. Several marketing studies have discussed how gender differentiates and influences consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. Our attention to HLCPs is mainly due to the fact that they represent an interesting case of brands that are characterized by both functional attributes in which cognitive aspects are predominant, and symbolic attributes where affective aspects are key. Provided that men and women seem to assign different importance to both aspects, HLCPs represent a perfect setting to explore the differences in consumer behavior between men and women. The empirical analysis has been conducted by means of a survey with genuine products, “Samsung Giorgio Armani” and “LG Prada” cell phones. Participants for this study were undergraduate students from one major university in Spain (493 respondents in total, Male: 193; Female: 300). We adopt ANOVA (analyses of variance) to test our hypotheses. Based on the ABC model of attitudes, the three components of consumer attitude – affect, cognitive and behavioral intention – are individually affected by four factors, Attitude toward luxury goods, Product fit, Band fit, and Acceptance of high-tech products. In order to obtain results that can give more detailed and interesting results, we performed twelve 2 (gender: male, female) × 2 (factors: high, low) ANOVA tests. We sorted the four factors into high and low, with respect to the median of the sum of the items. The empirical results show two significant interaction effects of gender differences with (1) product fit and (2) acceptance of high-tech products. Male consumers’ recommendation to buy is higher when their acceptance of high-tech products and the perceived level of product fit are higher. Concerning the results which present significant interaction effect, gender only plays an interacting role in the relationships between (1) product fit and recommendation to buy, and (2) acceptance of high-tech products and recommendation to buy. In the case of product fit, high product fit is more critical in order to attract male consumers than female consumers to recommend others to buy HLCPs.