The meanings of branded products: A cross-national scale development and meaning assessment

This research develops a scale to assess branded product meanings, including quality, values, personal identity, and traditions. Using data gathered in the U.S. and three emerging markets (Romania, Ukraine, and Russia), we demonstrate a valid and reliable measure that exhibits cross-national measurement invariance. Our findings document quality is the most important branded product meaning across countries; identity-related and traditions-related meanings are more important in the U.S. than the emerging markets. We discuss these findings, provide important managerial implications, and offer future research opportunities related to branding and measurement. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.