Research On The Effects Of Clothing Brand Alliances Based On Consumer Learning Theory

Nowadays, global economics is integrated and brand has become the emphasis of competition among enterprises. Brand alliances are widely favored because of its outstanding performance in keeping enhancing brand equity. Brand alliance means the association or combination of two or more individual present brands, which have a wide range of application in various business fields abroad. However, brand alliances have less business practices in China, not to mention the related research theory. Therefore, studyies on the effects of clothing brand alliance will contribute to the development of clothing brand alliance strategy for enterprises according to target consumer groups.Based on the literature review of brand alliances, consumer learning and consumers’ attitude, two research models were built, which are brand alliance main effect model and brand alliance spillover effect model. UNIQLO and Louis Vuitton were selected as two clothing brands for a virtual alliance in scenario simulation experiments, which contains questionnaires. The relationship among consumers’ attitude, brand fit, consumer involvement and brand alliance evaluation were examined in these two models. Accordingly suggestions were made for clothing enterprises to develop and carry out brand alliance strategy.The main contents are as follows:(1) Review and summarize the development and present situation of clothing brand alliances, which was classified according to the types of participating brands.(2) In the model of main effect model, both consumers’ attitude before alliance and brand fit have positive influence on brand alliance evaluation, while the impact of brand fit is more significant.(3) In the spillover effect model, both brand alliance evaluation and consumers’ attitude before alliance have positive influence on consumers’ attitude after alliance, while the two factors will slightly vary according to different brands.(4) The regulating effects of consumer involvement and brand fit were not verified in two models.(5) Four suggestions were made based on above research findings: positive consumer attitude; appropriate participating brands; sufficient marketing stimulus; comprehensive feedback data.