The Impact of Novelty and Brand Image Interaction on Consumer

Decision Making

Jiayi Zhou

School of Foreign Languages English Major, North China Electric Power University, 102206 Hebei, China

Keywords: Digital Marking, Social Media, New Media Marketing, Cobranding.

Abstract: In the competitive market, brand co-branding is a common marketing strategy. However, the impact of

novelty, brand image, and multimedia marketing interactions on consumer decision-making in brand co-

branding has not yet formed a complete theoretical system. This paper aims to explore the co-branding effect

in multimedia marketing, using a case study approach, with the co-branding case of Luckin Coffee and Butter

Bear as the research object. By analyzing the product design, marketing design, sales data, and consumer

feedback of the co-branding partnership, this study deeply explores the influence mechanisms of relevant

factors. The study found that novelty attracts consumers' attention through the perceptual attraction

mechanism; brand image enhancement increases consumer trust and loyalty through emotional resonance;

multimedia marketing amplifies the impact of novelty and brand image through the communication

amplification mechanism, thereby influencing consumer decision-making. The interaction between novelty

and brand image in brand co-branding has a significant impact on consumer decision-making, and companies

should pay attention to this interaction to develop effective co-branding marketing strategies.

1 INTRODUCTION

With the rapid development of China's economy and

the continuous improvement of people's living

standards, co-branded products have attracted

consumers' attention with their beautiful appearance

and rich cultural heritage. In marketing, co-branding

also plays a very important role (Ting, 2024). In

today's highly competitive business environment,

brand co-branding has become a marketing method

frequently adopted by many enterprises. Brand co-

branding cases continue to emerge, from the co-

branding of fashion brands and sports brands to the

co-branding of catering brands and cultural IPs.

These co-brandings often can trigger high attention

and even a rush to purchase among consumers.

However, in the process of brand co-branding, there

are many complex factors that need to be explored in

depth. Among them, novelty is a very crucial factor

in brand co-branding, which can attract consumers'

attention and stimulate their interest. At the same

time, brand image will also be affected during the co-

branding process. Moreover, in the modern marketing

environment, multimedia combination marketing is

an indispensable part. It interweaves with the novelty

factor and brand image factor in brand co-branding

and jointly affects consumers' decisions. However,

how the interaction between the novelty factor in

brand co-branding and its impact on brand image, and

multimedia combination marketing affects

consumers' decisions is an issue that enterprises

urgently need to solve in marketing practice.

Current theoretical research has not yet formed a

complete system regarding how novelty in brand co-

branding interacts with brand image. This study helps

to fill the gap in current theoretical research on the

interaction between novelty in brand co-branding and

brand image; by adopting case study method and

literature analysis method, relevant materials and

literatures are searched for and read, and in-depth

analysis is conducted from three dimensions to

explore how novelty attracts consumers, how the

improvement of brand image influences consumers'

decisions, and how multimedia combined marketing

promotes the entire process. Through theoretical

refinement, the short-term and long-term strategic

goals in brand co-branding are summarized, and the

conclusions related to the research topic are further

elaborated. This study mainly focuses on the brand

co-branding effect in multimedia combined

marketing and focuses on exploring the impact of the

interaction between novelty and brand image on

Zhou, J.

The Impact of Novelty and Brand Image Interaction on Consumer Decision Making.

DOI: 10.5220/0014074700004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 103-108

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

103

consumers' decisions. Through in-depth analysis of

this topic, it aims to reveal the hidden consumer

decision-making mechanism behind brand co-

branding, provide theoretical basis and practical

guidance for enterprises' marketing practices, help

enterprises optimize brand co-branding marketing

strategies, improve marketing effects, and enhance

brand competitiveness.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In the field of brand marketing, numerous studies

have focused on the impact of brand co-branding,

novelty, and multimedia marketing on consumer

decision making.

Some literature points out that brand co-branding

is an effective marketing strategy that can integrate

the resources of both brands. It combines the elements

of different brands through cooperation to create a

unique product or service experience. For example,

the co-branding of tea beverage brands and wine

brands attracts consumers from two different fields.

Liu Na conducted an in-depth analysis of the

marketing strategy of Luckin Coffee through brand

co-branding activities in "Analysis of the Marketing

Strategy of Luckin Coffee's Brand Co-Branding" and

explored the key factors for its success. The research

indicates that the cooperation model of brand co-

branding breaks the traditional marketing thinking,

brings freshness and surprises to consumers, can

quickly gain a lot of attention, and effectively

increase the brand's exposure (Rui, 2024). Luckin

Coffee is very precise in the selection of co-branding

partners, which can stimulate consumers' curiosity

and expectations. At the same time, it uses the

multiple attributes of its products, a good fan base,

and innovative interaction strategies to increase

exposure and promote sales. In addition, the article

also emphasizes the importance of strategic layout in

co-branding activities, such as the importance of the

links of preheating promotion, official announcement

of the co-branding content, and subsequent

marketing. However, the article does not discuss in

depth the specific implementation details of the co-

branding activities, consumer feedback, and long-

term impact. This article will start from these aspects,

conduct an in-depth analysis of the specific operation

process of the co-branding activities, the actual

feedback from consumers, and the impact of co-

branding on the long-term value of the brand, etc., to

supplement the deficiencies of existing research and

provide more practical guidance for the co-branding

activities of other enterprises.

In the article "The Communication Logic and

Practical Exploration of Brand Co-branding", Yu Jing

deeply discusses the motivation, strategy and the

importance of execution of brand co-branding, and

analyzes the success factors of brand co-branding

through cases. The article pointed out that in the

current market environment of "everything can be co-

branded", brand co-branding can create freshness

through cross-border cooperation, stimulate

consumers' curiosity and purchase desire, thus

enhancing brand awareness and market influence. In

the information age of data explosion, under the

influence of consumption factors and communication

technology, successful brand co-branding can often

make a brand stand out in the same kind of track. At

the same time, novel co-branding products can also

cater to the current young people's consumer

psychology in freshness, novelty, fashion and other

aspects, so that the brand has a higher topic (Yu,

2024). Taking the cooperation between Luckin

Coffee and Moutai as an example, the author analyzes

how such cross-border cooperation can achieve user

sharing, break the inherent user circle, and enhance

brand recognition through new product development.

In addition, the article also emphasizes the

importance of clarifying the purpose of co-branding

and sticking to the brand positioning, pointing out that

co-branding activities should be closely integrated

with the core values and cultural connotations of the

brand to achieve long-term development goals. The

article may not fully explore the application of brand

co-branding in different cultures, markets and target

groups and the challenges of diversification.

Moreover, it may not discuss in detail how to balance

short-term goals with long-term strategy in brand co-

branding. This paper will analyze brand co-branding

strategies and their effects under different cultural

backgrounds in order to better understand brand

interaction in the global market. Secondly, this paper

will discuss how to balance the relationship between

short-term market hot spots and long-term brand

building in brand co-branding.

In the aspect of multimedia combination

marketing, different media channels have different

communication effects. Social media enables

precision marketing and word of mouth, with a wider

reach through major media. In the New Media

Communication Practice and Thinking of Brand Co-

branding Based on 4I Theory, Di Jiahui analyzes the

new media communication practice of brand co-

branding based on 4I theory (principle of interest,

principle of interest, principle of interaction, and

principle of personalization). By consulting domestic

and foreign materials, understanding existing

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research status, and combining 4I theory, the paper

studies and analyzes the communication

characteristics of five typical cases of brand co-

branding on Wechat, Douyin and other new media

platforms. The purpose of this study is to explore the

factors influencing the effect of brand co-branded

new media communication, and to provide prospects

and suggestions for the future development of brand

co-branded new media communication. In the part of

research and analysis, this paper discusses in detail

how to use the new media marketing strategy guided

by 4I theory, analyzes the factors influencing the

communication power of different co-branding cases

on new media platforms, such as content creation,

user interaction and personalized marketing, and

reveals the specific impact of these factors on the

brand co-branding communication effect through

data analysis. In terms of research gaps, the paper

may not fully cover all the potential variables that

affect the communication effect of brand co-branding

in new media, such as the specific impact of user-

generated content (UGC) and the effect of

algorithmic recommendations of social networks on

the communication effect.

3 CASE RECOVERY

Luckin Coffee is a Chinese coffee chain company

founded in 2017 and headquartered in Beijing, China.

The company's mission is to become the leading

coffee brand in China, providing high-quality coffee

and a convenient coffee experience. The company has

attracted consumers, especially young people, by

opening stores in China's first - and second-tier cities,

as well as offering online ordering and delivery

services (Huang, 2024). Luckin Coffee, the largest

coffee chain brand in China, is committed to

providing customers with high-quality, cost-effective

and convenient products through a new retail model

that makes full use of mobile Internet and big data

technology. In recent years, Luckin Coffee has

actively carried out brand co-branding activities and

constantly explored cooperation opportunities with

different types of brands or IP. Butter Bear is a rapidly

popular IP in the field of emojis, its image is simple

and straightforward, with strong emotional appeal,

and has a high popularity and affinity among young

consumer groups. The joint cooperation between

Luckin Coffee and Butter Bear aims to attract young

consumers and further expand market share.

In the product design, this joint cooperation

cleverly integrates the beverage characteristics of

Luckin Coffee and the image elements of Butter bear.

For example, coffee cup covers with butter bear

images were introduced, and the packaging of co-

branded coffee drinks was printed with the image of

Butter Bear. In terms of marketing design, the theme

of "cute appearance level is justice" emphasizes the

unique consumption experience. The co-branded

coffee drink echoes the image of Butter Bear,

introducing coffee with butter flavor, bringing a new

taste experience to consumers. Moreover, Luckin

Coffee has made full use of multimedia combination

marketing to promote. The topic and content of joint

cooperation were published on social media (Weibo,

Wechat), which triggered discussion and attention

from consumers. In addition, Luckin Coffee invited a

number of well-known KOLs to test and evaluate the

drink and share it on social media, and it quickly

spread on the network. At the same time, Luckin

Coffee also released a series of interesting short

videos on the short video platform, showing the

production process and unique taste of co-branded

products, further enhancing the spread of novelty.

After the launch of the campaign, social media

quickly set off a heated debate. According to

statistics, during the joint activity, the sales volume of

Luckin Coffee related products increased

significantly. Many consumers share photos of their

purchases of co-branded products on platforms such

as Weibo and Xiaohongshu and express their love for

the products' cute packaging and unique tastes. The

number of views on the topic reached millions in a

short period, and the discussion heated up. The

content shared by consumers includes not only the

look and taste of the product but also the emotional

experience associated with the Butter Bear image. For

example, some consumers said that they felt happy

when they saw the image of a butter bear, and the

emotional value combined with the consumption

experience of Luckin Coffee increased the appeal of

the product.

4 CASE STUDY

4.1 The Attraction of Novelty:

Perceptual Attraction Mechanism

Products are the carriers that connect enterprises and

customers, and also the carriers that meet the basic

needs of customers. Co-branded collaborations often

lead to co-branded products that can differentiate

themselves through co-branded stunts, generate

unique appeal, and ultimately generate more sales.

The co-branded products of Luckin Coffee reflect the

co-branded characteristics, have a strong attraction,

The Impact of Novelty and Brand Image Interaction on Consumer Decision Making

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and have obtained high sales volume (Rui, 2024).

Luckin Coffee conducted a total of 16 IP co-branding

activities in the first half of 2024, involving 14 brands

and 11 stars. These co-signings resulted in significant

sales growth, with the average number of monthly

trading clients reaching 69.7 million, an increase of

61.8% year-on-year. Luckin Coffee has numerous

successful co-branded promotions. Luckin Coffee is

very good at grasping current events and holiday heat

to promote its products. For example, the "Sad Frog"

co-branded for Chinese Valentine's Day in 2022 and

the "Line Dog" co-branded for Valentine's Day in

2023 have both brought huge sales to Luckin coffee

(Shang, 2023).

In the context of multimedia portfolio marketing,

novelty attracts consumers' attention through cross-

border collaboration and innovative design. When

consumers are exposed to these novel elements, they

will have a desire to explore, thus focusing their

attention on co-branded products. This kind of

perceived attraction is the first step for consumers to

interact with the brand, which breaks consumers'

conventional cognition of the brand and lays the

foundation for the subsequent brand image building

and consumption decision. In the joint name of

Luckin Coffee and Butter Bear, the novelty is mainly

reflected in the unique design and limited edition

concept. Unique designs such as the packaging with

the butter bear image and the newly formulated coffee

drink are in stark contrast to the regular coffee

products on the market. Coffee with butter flavor is

different from the common coffee taste in the market,

and this unique taste experience has stimulated the

curiosity of consumers. For consumers who pursue

new things and are willing to try new tastes, this novel

product feature has a strong appeal. Limited edition

because of its scarcity, but also stimulates the desire

of consumers to buy. Luckin Coffee launched a buy

set get free co-branded campaign, and many

consumers bought co-branded coffee multiple times

to collect cup sets with different patterns of butter

bears.

4.2 The Relationship Between Brand

Image and Consumer Decision-

Making: Emotional Resonance

Mechanism

The improvement of brand image can make

consumers have emotional resonance for the brand.

When Luckin Coffee enhances its brand image

through co-branding, making it more in line with

consumers' emotional needs (such as young,

fashionable, cute, etc.), consumers will emotionally

connect with the brand. This emotional resonance

will increase consumers' trust in the brand, making

consumers buy not only because of the function or

price of the product, but also based on the emotional

identification of the brand.

The cute and positive image connotation of Butter

Bear is in line with the target audience of Luckin

Coffee, and the brand co-branding makes the image

of Luckin Coffee in the eyes of consumers more

young, fashionable, and friendly. As an IP with a

wide fan base, cute image and affinity, Butter Bear's

positive image connotation has been passed on to

Luckin Coffee. In the minds of consumers, Luckin

Coffee may have been just a coffee chain brand

known for rapid expansion and innovative marketing,

but after the joint name, it has been given more young,

fashionable and friendly image characteristics. The

co-branding market could enlarge new age groups of

customers. According to the data from Mobtech, from

March to August in the year of 2021, Luckin Coffee’s

consumers aged 18 to 24 accounted for more than 25

percent in both new first-tier and second-tier cities

(Zhang, 2023). This enhancement of brand image is

conducive to enhancing user stickiness and enhancing

user trust for consumers. Consumers will see Luckin

Coffee as a brand that constantly innovates, pays

attention to consumer preferences, and has vitality, so

they are more willing to buy its products. Young

consumers who had little interest in Luckin Coffee,

because they saw Luckin Coffee's innovative

measures in brand co-branding, began to trust it, and

they were willing to try to buy its products. The brand

image after the joint name is more in line with the

emotional needs of consumers, especially the love of

young consumer groups for cute and fashionable

elements. This kind of emotional resonance makes

consumers not only consider rational factors such as

product price and function but also be influenced by

emotional factors when making purchase decisions.

When consumers emotionally connect with a brand,

they are more likely to become loyal customers. Some

consumers have a preference for Luckin Coffee

because of their love for the butter bear image, even

in the absence of promotional activities, they will give

priority to Luckin Coffee products.

4.3 The Driving Role of Multimedia

Portfolio Marketing:

Communication Amplification

Mechanism

The success of Luckin Coffee serves as a compelling

case study that exemplifies the transformative

potential of digitalization in achieving sustainable

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growth. The company's adeptness at creating a

flourishing digital ecosystem, utilizing technology for

store expansion and management, and elevating user

engagement underscores the multidimensional

advantages of digital strategies (Qing et al., 2024).

Multimedia portfolio marketing (social media, short

video platforms, etc.) helps brands spread novelty to

a wider audience. Through the sharing of social

media, the promotion of KOL, and the spread of short

videos, the novelty can spread quickly and attract the

attention of more potential consumers. At the same

time, multimedia combination marketing also helps to

strengthen the brand image, so that the brand image

in a wider range of dissemination and recognition,

and then promote consumer behavior.

Social media platforms play a key role in the

entire co-branding process. The announcement

information of Weibo, Wechat, and other platforms

and the sharing of KOL form a topic effect, quickly

attracting consumers' attention. Consumers publish

orders and interact to achieve the secondary

dissemination of information. For example, after a

KOL shared a taste of the co-branded coffee on

Weibo, its fans forwarded and commented on it,

letting more people know about the co-branded event.

The series of short videos on the short video platform

further magnifies the influence of novelty and brand

image. Through lively and interesting video content,

consumers can more intuitively feel the

characteristics and charm of co-branded products.

The wide spread of these videos on short video

platforms has attracted the attention of more potential

consumers, helping Luckin Coffee to expand its

market coverage and achieve better market results.

5 THEORETICAL REFINEMENT

5.1 Short-Term and Long-Term

Strategy of Brand Image

Increasing product sales is the primary short-term

goal. Through the launch of co-branded products,

using the Butter bear fan effect and novel product

design, attract consumers to buy. Increasing brand

awareness is also an important goal. Joint activities

can attract the attention of the media and consumers,

especially on social media, so that more people know

about Luckin Coffee.

Luckin Coffee's long-term strategy may be to

build a coffee brand with a broad consumer base,

multicultural connotations and high brand loyalty.

The partnership with Butter Bear is part of that long-

term strategy. Through joint cooperation with

different types of cultural images, we gradually build

an inclusive and creative brand image to adapt to the

needs of different consumer groups. The real landing

point of brand co-branding should be products with

deep content, novel and unique, and can cause

consumer consensus, establish a bridge between the

brand and consumers, strengthen the brand image,

and comprehensively improve the product power and

influence of the brand. But this is not a short time to

form, may need more investment between brands,

spend more time, think about the depth of the content

of joint activities, to create content, creative joint

products. In the future, brand co-branding may

become a long-term battle. Long-term brand co-

branding can not only increase brand profits and

increase the number of fans, but also directly reflect

brand value, improve brand image, brand culture and

other potential value of the brand, and leverage for the

sustainable development of the brand (Di et al.,

2024).

For co-branding, we need to choose a brand or IP

that is highly compatible with our tone and values so

that both parties' consumer groups will complement

one another and fit together, which will help both

parties' user bases grow; if the sales networks of both

parties are complementary, they can also widen the

sales channels; and if the brand image and concept of

both parties fit together, which will also help improve

the brand image (Chen and Yang, 2022).

5.2 Brand Co-Branding New Media

Communication Strategy

Social media platforms have certain advantages in

communication, and social media platforms such as

Weibo and Tiktok have played an important role in

the spread of co-branding. The topic of microblog and

the fast speed of information dissemination make the

joint information spread quickly. After the joint

announcement of Luckin Coffee's official Weibo

account, the relevant topic quickly became a hot

search and attracted the attention of a large number of

users. The short video form of Douyin is suitable for

displaying the characteristics of joint products.

Through creative short videos, it shows the loveliness

of butter bear cup sets and the production process of

special coffee, attracting users' visual attention and

stimulating their desire to buy.

The rhythm and content of communication also

affect the effect of communication. Luckin coffee has

made a certain warm-up before the joint name and

released some mysterious hint information to arouse

the curiosity of consumers. When the joint product is

officially released, focus on large-scale publicity and

The Impact of Novelty and Brand Image Interaction on Consumer Decision Making

107

promotion, and then continue to follow up in the

following period of time to keep the topic hot. Based

on the 4I theory, in the communication of co-branded

brands' wechat tweets, the more innovative the title of

the tweet and the richer the content, the more

interesting the tweet, and the higher people's interest

in reading it. The more comments and likes the author

has in the comment section of the article, the more

people can be attracted to participate in it; The public

account opens a video account to publish videos of

the interaction between the brand and the co-branded

object, that is, the more interactive the articles and

videos are, the more they can stimulate people's desire

to share (Luo et al., 2024). The choice of release

timing is also critical, choosing to release information

during the active period of young consumer groups

(such as weekends or evenings) can improve the

exposure and dissemination of information.

User interaction participation and secondary

communication also affect the effect of brand co-

branding. Luckin Coffee has designed a series of user

interaction activities, such as punching in to share to

win the surrounding, user creative solicitation. These

interactive activities improve user engagement, so

that consumers are not only passively receiving

information, but actively participating in the

communication process of brand co-branding. If

consumers are satisfied with the co-branded product,

they will spontaneously carry out secondary

transmission and recommend it to friends around

them. This kind of secondary communication based

on user word-of-mouth is more credible than the

enterprise's own publicity and can attract more

potential consumers.

6 CONCLUSION

Through the case study of joint cooperation between

Luckin Coffee and Butter Bear, this study deeply

discusses the brand co-branding effect in multimedia

combination marketing, especially the influence of

novelty and brand image interaction on consumer

decision making. It is found that novelty attracts

consumers' attention through unique design and

limited-edition concept, and the enhancement of

brand image can enhance consumers' trust and

emotional resonance, while multimedia combination

marketing plays an important amplification role in

disseminating novelty and brand image. This study

not only provides a new idea for the research of brand

co-branding and multimedia marketing, that is,

explores the decision-making mechanism of

consumers from the perspective of the interaction

between novelty and brand image, but also provides

practical marketing strategy reference for enterprises.

Future research should focus more on enterprises to

establish a long-term good brand image, create a

sense of novelty direction for in-depth exploration.

Enterprises in the brand co-branding, can focus on

creating novelty, enhance the brand image, and

reasonable use of multimedia marketing to attract

consumers, promote product sales and brand

development.

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