The Impact of Brand Effect on Consumer Purchasing: A Case Study of New Energy Vehicles

As the new energy vehicle (NEV) industry is rapidly growing and the global decarbonisation trend has been accelerating, the brand effect has become a critical factor in customers selecting a vehicle. But the underlying processes of how brand effect influences the purchase behaviour of consumers, especially in cross-market and cross-brand comparative situations, are under-theorised and under-empirically tested. This paper compares BYD and Tesla, and analyses the role of brand effect on the consumer purchasing intention. Based on Customer-Based Brand Equity (CBBE) and Social Identity Theory, the study constructs a model which is related to brand exposure, brand association, perceived value and purchase intention. The analysis reveals that brand effect reduces the decision costs, fosters corporate innovation, but creates brand premium bubbles, innovation lock-in and information asymmetry. To this end, the study suggests a multi-stakeholder governance model, which includes value-driven corporate branding, independent third-party evaluation systems and consumer brand literacy education, to counteract these negative impacts. The results expand the research on brand equity to the context of consumption of high technology and provide actionable implications for global NEV markets.