Co-branding and quality judgments: exploring the impact of co-branding on quality judgments

Abstract

Branding has been recognized for centuries and has made inroads into every industry as a means to distinguish goods and services o f one producer from another. Co-branding is one o f the unique tactics in brand management which can be effectively used to create strong associations for a brand in the customer’s mind. The concept o f co-branding is rarely researched in Sri Lanka. Hence, this research focuses on the impact o f co-branding on the quality judgments o f the customers. The survey method was used as the main research method for this study. The research attempted to explain the problem whether there was an impact o f co-branding on the quality judgments o f customers. In the identification o f the impact, the study scrutinized the quality judgments o f customers through product performance, excellence o f the staff, punctuality o f the organization, and the level o f responding to complaints. It was recognized that the product quality judgments were mainly dependent on the physical attributes o f the products and even though products were co-branded, if they do not represent the expected quality they will not be accepted by the customers. However, there was a positive relationship with co-branding among brand quality judgments on the excellence o f the staff and negative relationship with judgments on punctuality and the level o f responding to the complaints o f customers.