Global Brand Perception Based on Social Prestige, Credibility and Social Responsibility: A Clustering Approach

Towards the merchandising of a global brand, it is necessary to establish guidelines for marketing managers to define appropriate standardization/adaptation measures. Therefore, it is required to understand the construct of susceptibility to global consumer culture (SGCC) to position the brand according to the wishes and preferences of consumers belonging to specific segments of the global market. Based on three dimensions of the SGCI, proposed in literature: (i) social prestige; (ii) brand credibility; and (iii) social responsibility. This study aims to identify groups of global consumers; from different cultural backgrounds, ages, countries, among other characteristics; who share similar interests. For this purpose, an analysis and a comparison of four clustering algorithms are proposed. Besides, the best number of groups for each algorithm is calculated to find the groups that best explain the behavior of the global consumer. The results confirm the existence of a hybrid culture of global consumption, which produces companies to segment consumers from different countries based on similar or shared needs.