Global Brand Ownership: The Mediating Roles of Consumer Attitudes and Brand Identification

The branding literature repeatedly emphasizes the role brands play in shaping consumer identities. In this context, the rise of global consumer groups gives global brands a prominent role as potential tools for consumer identification. Specifically, consumer segments that idealize global communities and/or hold positive attitudes toward various aspects of globalization are particularly prone to using global brands in order to strengthen their identification with the global world. Against this background, this paper empirically investigates the mediating roles of (a) consumer attitudes toward globality and (b) identification with global brands on the relationship between consumer orientations toward globality and global brand ownership. Findings from a study with 300 French consumers provide evidence of full mediation in line with the theoretically derived causal structure linking consumer orientations to brand ownership through consumer attitudes and brand identification. The paper discusses implications of the findings for theory, practice and future research directions.