Stereotyping global brands: Is

warmth more important than

competence?

Ziva Kolbla, Maja Arslanagic-Kalajdzicb,

Adamantios Diamantopoulosa

a Department of International Marketing, University of Vienna, Oskar-

Morgenstern-Platz 1, 1090 Vienna, Austria
b Marketing Department, School of Economics and Business, University of
Sarajevo, Trg oslobodjenja 1, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Introduction:
Increased marketplace globalization has made the competition between brands a
central topic in international marketing research. On one hand, attention has been
drawn to the ‘homogenization thesis’ under which global brands are “Trojan horses
through which transnational corporations colonize local cultures” (Thompson &
Arsel, 2004,) resulting in the creation of a global consumer culture (Alden,
Steenkamp, & Batra, 2006). On the other hand, despite the convergence
of consumer needs and desires around the world (Levitt, 1993), consumers do not
always display preferences for global brands (Riefler, 2012) but often opt for
locally positioned brands that emphasize local identity and culture (Swoboda,
Pennemann, & Taube, 2012). In short, brands being perceived as global and/or
local have the “ability to embody, inform, and communicate desirable consumer
identities” (Stokburger-Sauer, Ratneshwar, & Sen, 2012,). Consumers are exposed
to numerous brands in their daily environment, so they tend to simplify and
generalize beliefs about the brands they encounter through the process of
(Greenwald & Banaji,1995). The latter refers to the categorization process that
helps people streamline, organize and systemize information they receive
(Tajfel,1969, 1981). Specifically, stereotypes represent sets of “oversimplified
and generalized set of beliefs about the characteristics of a social group”
(Greenwald & Banaji, 1995,) and are used as “energy-saving devices that serve as
the important cognitive function of simplifying information processing and
response generation” (Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, 1994,). A central feature of
the stereotyping process is the assignment of group characteristics to individual
members of the group simply because of their group membership. For example, a
stereotype portraying English people as polite and reserved, leads to the
expectations that John (who happens to be English) will also be polite and reserved
(i.e. that he will “conform” to the country stereotype). Although the notion of
stereotyping was originally applied to social groups – such as different races,
genders, nationalities or professions (Fiske, Cuddy, Glick, & Xu, 2002) – research
shows that “stereotypical associations do not only apply to people, but also to every
stimulus object that is ascribed to the stereotypical category” (Halkias, Davvetas
& Diamantopoulos, 2016), including brands. Brand stereotypes represent
consumers' beliefs about brands as intentional agents (Kervyn, Fiske, & Malone,
2012) and such beliefs can guide consumers' perceptions (e.g. brand evaluations),
intentions (e.g. purchase intentions) and actual behavior (e.g. brand ownership).
Inconsumers tend to form relationships with brands in a similar fashion as
they form with people (Escalas & Bettman, 2003; Fournier, 1998).