EXPRESS: The Coalescence Effect: How a Combination of Foreign and Local Appeals Enhances Customer Engagement through Perceived Brand Globalness

Prior research in international markets has yielded two seemly opposing views regarding customer engagement (CE) with local/domestic versus foreign-made brands, i.e., a preference for foreign brands based largely on country-of-origin effects or a preference for local/domestic brands based primarily on consumer ethnocentrism. In the present research, we contextualize our investigation across international markets and propose that, in two national markets with different cultural characteristics, a combination of local and foreign appeals leads to more favorable brand and product evaluations compared to either local or foreign appeals alone due to a heightened level of perceived brand globalness (PBG), a phenomenon entitled “the coalescence effect”. The current research reports results from seven studies conducted in China and the U.S. and discusses ways to design branding strategies that enhance customer engagement in an era of intensified global competition.