| In the past decade, several types and grades of forest products have transitioned in their marketing classification from commodity products to branded industrial products. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on two specific areas of branding in the forest products industry. The first part of this dissertation centers on corporate (producer) and product co-branding. Traditionally, in the forest products industry, uses of new industrial product brands have been promoted in a co-branding context, i.e. in conjunction with their better-known corporate brands. This research explores the brand associations of: quality, leadership, and environmental stewardship related to corporate and product brands in this co-branding context. Specifically, the research explores the transfer of the noted brand associations from the corporate brand to the product brand as well as the transfer of these brand associations from the product brand to the corporate brand. Resulting analysis of the data noted that stronger rated brands significantly improve rating of weaker brands generally, while weaker brands do not significantly devalue stronger brands in the co-branding context.;The subsequent part of this dissertation examines another type of co-branding, i.e., the use of specific product characteristics applied as co-brands. The wood product characteristics used as co-brands are: product structure (i.e. solid or engineered), species identification, country of origin identification, and certification status. The product brand associations measured as part of this research are quality, technology, and environmental stewardship. In eleven of the twelve tests conducted for this dissertation, research showed that the addition of a wood product characteristic co-brand improved the strength of the brand associations. Seven of the twelve tests showed brand associations to be significantly improved. Data for this research were collected via web surveys completed by 123 builders in Washington, Oregon and northern California from June to November 2007. |
