Global brand versus local brand: The regulatory focus perspective

Abstract

The mechanism behind consumers' choice of global brand or local brand is still a question worthy of discussion. Thus, our research uses a between-subjects factorial design was to address this question, and the smartphone is selected as a representative experimental category. Further, two factors were used—brand types: global versus local; regulatory focus: promotion versus prevention—to predict the consumers’ self-brand connection towards the brand. The results support the interaction between the brand type and regulatory focus in our study. Specifically, when exposed to smartphone advertisements, promotion-focused participants will have a higher self-brand connection if the ads feature global brands rather than the local brand. In contrast, prevention-focused participants will prefer local brands and have a more positive self-brand connection when they see local smartphone brand ads.