Brand Positioning Based on Brand Image–Country Image Fit

This article proposes that managers may use local consumer culture (LCC), or the culture of one’s home country, in their brand-building activities by adapting the brand’s positioning to the country image the brand targets. It introduces the concept of brand image–country image (BICI) fit, which measures the extent to which consumers in a specific country perceive a brand image as being congruent with their home country’s image. Using more than 350,000 brand-respondent observations across three countries, we develop and empirically illustrate a multiattribute methodology for operationalizing BICI fit and provide robust evidence that BICI fit is positively associated with consumers’ brand evaluations. A large number of validity and robustness tests support the proposed BICI fit metric and the findings derived from it. For example, we find that age, education, being female, and need for structure enhance the BICI fit effect, whereas materialism diminishes it. Furthermore, BICI fit matters more in categories that are closely tied to a local cultural context or that are characterized by high purchase risk. Given its multiattribute nature, the proposed BICI fit metric identifies concrete image attributes and thereby provides managers with an effective way to develop or revise LCC positioning plans for their brands.