Judith H. Washburn’s research while affiliated with University of Tampa and other places

Branding strategies have become increasingly important to both marketing academics and practitioners in recent years. This research focuses on an emerging and popular branding strategy for consumer products – co-branding. Through an experiment, we investigated the impact of co-branding on consumers’ brand equity evaluations of both the co-branded product and the branded products that comprise it.

In this article, the authors describe the use of an experiential team-based project in a capstone marketing management course. In the project, students worked with the university administration to develop a marketing plan for the Admissions Office's Tour Guide Program. The authors discuss why such marketing activities are important to colleges and universities and report on a successful collaboration between an academic program and a school administration in designing such a program. The authors conclude by discussing the benefits that such collaborations offer to both the students and the university.

This research examines brand alliances, a specific marketing strategy designed to transfer the positive brand equity of two or more partner brands to the newly created joint brand. The study explores how customer-based brand equity (that is, brand equity as seen from the customer's perspective) of partner brands affects consumer evaluations of an alliance brand; how the brand equity of one partner brand affects the other; how customer-based brand equity of the partner brands affects consumers' evaluations of the search, experience, and credence attribute performance of the alliance brand; and how product trial influences such evaluations. Results suggest that merely the act of pairing with another brand elevates consumers' evaluations of the partner brands' customer-based brand equity, and high-equity partners enhance pretrial evaluation of experience and credence attributes that are relevant to the high-equity partner. As hypothesized, product trial moderates the equity value of the alliance partner for experience attributes, and brand equity of the partner brands influences consumer perceptions of the alliance brand's equity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the existence and strength of the relationship between proactive environmental policies and brand equity for the winery. Results of this study suggest that consumer perceptions about product quality, consumer trust, consumer perceptions about pricing, and positive expectations for the consequences of the winery's actions undertaking the pro-environmental policies, all have strong, positive relationships with the winery's brand equity. Trust in the winery and brand equity for the winery increased significantly when the winery in this study adopted proactive environmental business policies.

This research reports an independent assessment of a recently developed set of consumer-based brand equity measures. Yoo and Donthu (1997) developed a multidimensional, consumer-based brand equity scale comprised of four theoretically defined constructs and a separate multiple-item overall brand equity measure. The present research employed slightly modified items in a different context in an attempt to examine the robustness of the proposed scale. Subjects (n=272) responded to the brand equity scale for different brands and combinations of brands in a co-branding context. The results suggest that, while the Yoo and Donthu scale represents an adequate first step, further scale development is needed. Nevertheless, this scale development has brought us closer to a universally accepted measure of consumer-based brand equity.

The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent corporate and non-profit alliances can impact the public's attitudes and intentions to support a cause. Through the use of experimental design four types of alliances were examined: (1) low affinity cause aligned with company with strong reputation, (2) low affinity cause aligned with company with weak reputation, (3) high affinity cause aligned with company with strong reputation, and (4) high affinity cause aligned with company with weak reputation. Results of paired sample t-tests indicated significant changes for only one type of alliance, that which is between a low affinity cause and a corporate sponsor with a strong reputation. The low affinity cause experienced increased: (a) customer trust in the non-profit, (b) intentions to support the cause, (c) evaluations of cause importance, (d) personal feelings of responsibility to help the cause, and (e) evaluations of consequences for society through providing support. For the remaining three types of alliances changes were not significant.

Co-branding is an increasingly popular technique marketers use in attempting to transfer the positive associations of the partner (constituent) brands to a newly formed co-brand (composite brand). This research examines the effects of co-branding on the brand equity of both the co-branded product and the constituent brands that comprise it, both before and after product trial. It appears that co-branding is a win/win strategy for both co-branding partners regardless of whether the original brands are perceived by consumers as having high or low brand equity. Although low equity brands may benefit most from co-branding, high equity brands are not denigrated even when paired with a low equity partner. Further, positive product trial seems to enhance consumers’ evaluations of co-branded products, particularly those with a low equity constituent brand. Co-branding strategies may be effective in exploiting a product performance advantage or in introducing a new product with an unfamiliar brand name.

In today’s increasingly competitive environment, it is important to measure the service firm’s performance in the areas which contribute most significantly to the client’s overall satisfaction. Previous research indicates that marketing research clients are concerned with a research provider’s performance in four areas; product quality, service quality, cost management, and timeliness. A survey of 155 marketing research clients indicated that these clients perceive product quality as being most important in accomplishing their research objectives, followed in order by service quality, cost, and timeliness. The results of the study indicate that less than half of the clients were completely satisfied with the ability of their primary research supplier to save them money or to provide them with a useful analysis. A research provider that is capable of improving performance in these two areas may be able to create a competitive advantage that could lead to increased client satisfaction and improved customer loyalty. These research findings provide insights for other business services in assessing client needs and tracking client satisfaction.

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study designed to examine influential information sources and decision factors in the selection of plastic surgeons for cosmetic versus medical procedures. Physician referrals were found to be the most influential sources of information for both groups. Word-of-mouth and magazine and newspaper articles were also important information sources for cosmetic patients. Primary selection factors were significantly different between groups, with board certification the most influential for cosmetic patients and recommendation by physician most influential for medical patients.