Brands as Product Coordinators: Matching Brands Make Joint Consumption Experiences More Enjoyable

People often consume multiple products at the same time (e.g., chips and salsa). Four studies demonstrate that people enjoy such joint consumption experiences more when the products are merely labeled with the same brand (vs. different brands). Process evidence shows that this brand matching effect arises because matching brand labels cue consumers’ belief that the two products were coordinated through joint testing and design to go uniquely well together. This shows that there is no universal answer to which brand a consumer likes the most; it depends on what other brands are consumed with it. More generally, the authors establish that a simple additive model of brand liking cannot fully capture consumption utility and that brands interact and influence enjoyment at the level of the brand combination.