The Impact of Country of Brand Image on Symbolic Value of Luxury Brands

This research explores the different effects of country of brand (COB) image on symbolic value of luxury brands. Based on two empirical studies of symbolic value of sunglasses and sunscreen cream, we find that COB image has significant positive impacts on prestige value, social self-expressive value and inner self-expressive value while COB cues influence uniqueness value negatively. This research demonstrates that the effect of COB image on social self-expressive value and inner self-expressive value of luxury brands will be greater when subjects are promotion-primed rather than prevention-primed. In addition, COB image affects symbolic value prominently when the brand is closely related to COB.