Birds of a feather flock together…definition, role and measure of congruence: An application to sponsorship

Congruence has long been discussed in the context of brand extensions and advertising, particularly in terms of celebrity endorsement. Although just as relevant for sponsorship, the examination of this concept in that context is more recent, despite evidence that it plays a significant role in determining the effectiveness of this particular communication technique. In this paper, the authors argue in favor of conceptualizing congruence as a bidimensional construct, consistent with previous research. A scale to capture this important construct is subsequently developed and validated in two separate countries. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[1]  Awareness as a measure of sponsorship effectiveness: the Adelaide Formula One Grand Prix and evidence of incidental ambush effects , 1997 .

[2]  David M. Boush,et al.  A Process-Tracing Study of Brand Extension Evaluation , 1991 .

[3]  Durairaj Maheswaran,et al.  The Effects of Extensions on Brand Name Dilution and Enhancement , 1998 .

[4]  Sejung Marina Choi,et al.  CONGRUENCE EFFECTS IN SPONSORSHIP: The Mediating Role of Sponsor Credibility and Consumer Attributions of Sponsor Motive , 2004 .

[5]  C. Whan Park,et al.  Composite Branding Alliances: An Investigation of Extension and Feedback Effects , 1996 .

[6]  J. Lynch,et al.  The matchup effect of spokesperson and product congruency: A schema theory interpretation , 1994 .

[7]  T. Meenaghan,et al.  The Role of Sponsorship in the Marketing Communications Mix , 1991 .

[8]  Relatedness, Prominence, and Constructive Sponsor Identification , 1999 .

[9]  Bernd H. Schmitt,et al.  Extending brands with new product concepts: The role of category attribute congruity, brand affect, and brand breadth , 1994 .

[10]  Vicki R. Lane The Impact of Ad Repetition and Ad Content on Consumer Perceptions of Incongruent Extensions , 2000 .

[11]  Stephen R. McDaniel An investigation of match‐up effects in sport sponsorship advertising: The implications of consumer advertising schemas , 1999 .

[12]  Richard Ladwein Le jugement de typicalité dans l'évaluation de l'extension de marque , 1994 .

[13]  Isabelle Maignan,et al.  An International Review of Sponsorship Research , 1998 .

[14]  C. Russell Investigating the Effectiveness of Product Placements in Television Shows: The Role of Modality and Plot Connection Congruence on Brand Memory and Attitude , 2002 .

[15]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion , 1986 .

[16]  K. Gwinner A model of image creation and image transfer in event sponsorship , 1997 .

[17]  Shelly Rodgers THE EFFECTS OF SPONSOR RELEVANCE ON CONSUMER REACTIONS TO INTERNET SPONSORSHIPS , 2003 .

[18]  Mary T. Curren,et al.  How Does the Congruity of Brand Names Affect Evaluations of Brand Name Extensions , 1994 .

[19]  S. West,et al.  The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. , 1996 .

[20]  Géraldine Michel,et al.  Co-branding: clarification du concept , 2001 .

[21]  Sandra J. Milberg,et al.  Evaluation of Brand Extensions: The Role of Product Feature Similarity and Brand Concept Consistency , 1991 .

[22]  John R. Rossiter,et al.  The C-OAR-SE procedure for scale development in marketing , 2002 .

[23]  Terry L. Childers,et al.  The Role of Expectancy and Relevancy in Memory for Verbal and Visual Information: What Is Incongruency? , 1992 .

[24]  T. Meenaghan Sponsorship – Legitimising the Medium , 1991 .

[25]  S. West,et al.  Effects of sample size and nonnormality on the estimation of mediated effects in latent variable models. , 1997 .

[26]  Charlotte H. Mason,et al.  Responses to Information Incongruency in Advertising: The Role of Expectancy, Relevancy, and Humor , 1999 .

[27]  Chris Janiszewski,et al.  The Influence of Nonattended Material on the Processing of Advertising Claims , 1990 .

[28]  Margaret C. Campbell,et al.  The Moderating Effect of Perceived Risk on Consumers’ Evaluations of Product Incongruity: Preference for the Norm , 2001 .

[29]  Carolyn J. Simmons,et al.  When Do Social Sponsorships Enhance Or Dilute Equity? Fit, Message Source, and the Persistence of Effects , 2002 .

[30]  Jan-Benedict E. M. Steenkamp,et al.  The use of LISREL in validating marketing constructs. , 1991 .

[31]  John G. Watson,et al.  Sponsorship and Congruity Theory: a Theoretical Framework For Explaining Consumer Attitude and Recall of Event Sponsorship , 2001 .

[32]  Chris Janiszewski Preattentive Mere Exposure Effects , 1993 .

[33]  R. Speed,et al.  Determinants of sports sponsorship response , 2000 .

[34]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[35]  Bernard L. Simonin,et al.  Is a Company Known by the Company it Keeps? Assessing the Spillover Effects of Brand Alliances on Consumer Brand Attitudes , 1998 .

[36]  Max Sutherland,et al.  Cognitive Evaluation: Prompts used to Measure Sponsorship Awareness , 2003 .

[37]  Pascale G. Quester,et al.  Attitudinal Effects of Combined Sponsorship and Sponsor's Prominence on Basketball in Europe , 2001, Journal of Advertising Research.

[38]  F. Farrelly,et al.  Brand Association and Memory Decay Effects of Sponsorship: the Case of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix , 1998 .

[39]  David W. Stewart,et al.  The Differential Impact of Goal Congruency on Attitudes, Intentions, and the Transfer of Brand Equity , 2001 .

[40]  Celebrity Endorsers: Do You Get What You Pay For? , 1992 .

[41]  Björn Walliser An international review of sponsorship research: extension and update , 2003 .

[42]  E. Tauber,et al.  BRAND LEVERAGE: STRATEGY FOR GROWTH IN A COST-CONTROL WORLD , 1988 .

[43]  Alice M. Tybout,et al.  Schema Congruity as a Basis for Product Evaluation , 1989 .

[44]  Colin McDonald,et al.  Sponsorship and the Image of the Sponsor , 1991 .

[45]  J. Eaton,et al.  Building Brand Image Through Event Sponsorship: The Role of Image Transfer , 1999 .

[46]  Susan M. Broniarczyk,et al.  The Importance of the Brand in Brand Extension , 1994 .

[47]  Bernard J. Jaworski,et al.  Information Processing from Advertisements: Toward an Integrative Framework , 1989 .

[48]  A. d’Astous,et al.  Consumer evaluations of sponsorship programmes , 1995 .

[49]  Jagdip Singh,et al.  What Occurs Once Consumers Complain? A Theoretical Model for Understanding Satisfaction/ Dissatisfaction Outcomes of Complaint Responses , 1991 .

[50]  Rohini Ahluwalia,et al.  The Effects of Extensions on the Family Brand Name: An Accessibility‐Diagnosticity Perspective , 2000 .

[51]  G. Hastings Sponsorship Works Differently from Advertising , 1984 .

[52]  S. Beatty,et al.  Celebrity spokesperson and brand congruence: An assessment of recall and affect , 1990 .

[53]  Kevin Lane Keller,et al.  Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions , 1990 .

[54]  Amanda B. Bower,et al.  Is Beauty Best? Highly versus Normally Attractive Models in Advertising , 2001 .

[55]  Michael A. Kamins,et al.  Congruence between spokesperson and product type: A matchup hypothesis perspective , 1994 .