Perceived economic mobility predicts evaluation of low‐fit co‐brands

Co‐branding is an effective marketing strategy that is widely used by brands to expand the market, but research on the influence of consumer‐level factors is limited, with predominant emphasis on brand‐level factors that predict acceptance of brands that are seemingly “different” from each other co‐branding with one another. This research explores the effect of perceived economic mobility on perceived co‐branding fit. Findings from Experiment 1 indicate that co‐brands low or moderate (vs. high) fit with one another are perceived more favorably when perceived economic mobility is higher. Experiment 2 further examines the proposed mechanism that we propose to be holistic thinking style behind the influence of perceived economic mobility on distant co‐branding evaluation, and it also rules out two alternative explanations. Experiment 3 replicates above findings with an American dataset. Our findings contribute to the co‐branding literature by proposing a novel antecedent—perceived economic mobility—of low‐fit co‐branding. Our findings also provide managerial guidelines for enhancing co‐branding effectiveness.