Abstract
Nowadays, co-branding has become a useful marketing method to help brand attract consumers’ attention with the background of the rapid development of social media, However, high popularity does not always have a positive impact on consumers' actual purchasing decisions. Based on the S-O-R model, this research explores the effect of co-branding popularity on consumers’ decision making. Meanwhile, it focuses on analyzing the mediating role of perceived novelty and brand trust transfer in this process and also studies the moderating effect of consumer involvement. The research data was collected 400 valid samples through questionnaire survey, and these data were analyzed by SEM. The research results show that co-branding popularity has a significant positive impact on consumers’ decision making. At the same time, perceived novelty and brand trust transfer play an important mediating role in it. In addition, consumer involvement can affect the intensity of the effect of popularity on perceived novelty and brand trust transfer. This article helps with a deeper understanding of the role of popularity in co-branded products and it provides a reference for how brands can more effectively influence consumers in actual co-branded collaborations