An Empirical Investigation of Brand Equity: A Cross-Country Validation Analysis

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model in order to better understand brand equity. The goal of this research is to identify the drivers and determine how they influence brand equity performance in the researched industry in order to develop a more effective brand strategy. Quantitative data collected are used to test a model of brand value in the context of the food industry. The findings of this research provided evidence that the customer-based brand equity model can be applied to the food industry context and be used to guide marketing activities internationally. Brand awareness has a positive influence on brand associations and perceived quality. Brand associations have a positive influence on brand loyalty. Finally, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations all have a positive effect on brand equity. This study contributes to the scarce international brand equity literature by testing the proposed model using data from a sample of consumers in two European countries.     

Role of customer orientation in an integrative model of brand loyalty in services

This study attempts to model the development of brand loyalty by examining the simultaneous effects of customer orientation, perceived quality, brand associations, and satisfaction on brand loyalty. Data are used from retail banking and discount store retailing services to examine the direct and indirect effects of customer perceptions of customer orientation and quality on brand loyalty. It was found that customer orientation has a direct effect on brand loyalty and indirect effects through customer satisfaction, perceived quality, and brand associations as mediators. Further, perceived quality has a direct effect on brand loyalty as well as an indirect effect with satisfaction as a mediator. The results suggest that effective management of brand loyalty would require tracking of customer perceptions of a firm's customer orientation, quality and brand, in addition to measuring customer satisfaction.     

购物网站品牌资产及其形成机制实证研究

本文认为,购物网站品牌资产是消费者头脑中购物网站品牌知识导致的消费者对网站营销产生的差异化反应。文章从国情出发构建基于消费者视角的购物网站品牌资产模型并进行实证研究。研究认为,网站认知、网站品牌形象(感知质量、网站体验)、网站信任和网站忠诚是购物网站品牌资产的构成要素,它们之间不是并列的关系,而是有次序的因果关系。网站认知是网站品牌资产的基础,感知质量和网站体验可构成网站品牌形象而导致消费者对网站的信任,进而影响网站忠诚。建立消费者忠诚是购物网站的关键,网络企业可以通过提高网站知名度、产品和服务质量以及在网站设计方面增加网络购物的愉快体验来建立消费者对网站的信任,提高网站忠诚度。     

本土网站品牌资产及其形成机制——基于网站内容视角的实证研究

This study develops a research model that can be used to evaluate website brand equity from the perspective of web contents. To evaluate the model and to examine the effects of web contents on brand equity, a SEM analysis is conducted on twenty Chinese websites which could be classified into four different types. The results show that the website brand equity model, which is composed of five dimensions, namely brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand relationship, brand experience and brand attraction, is useful for measuring website brand value, and also applicable to different web types. Web contents factors, such as recourses, design, service and interactivity, are found to be the antecedents of website brand equity, and they all affect dimensions of website brand equity. However, the effects vary according to web types. The results also demonstrate that portal websites’ brand equity value is the highest while shopping websites’ brand equity value is the lowest among the four web types. Suggestions and implications are provided for website brand management.     

A cross‐national validation of a new retail customer equity model

This study aims to examine retail customers of China and Korea with a view to understanding the differences in the effects of customer equity on perceived store loyalty. We built a modified model of retail customer equity incorporating three drivers of retail customer equity (experience equity, brand equity and relationship equity), and further substantiate the relationships among the three equity drivers. For this purpose, we measured the customer equity of large scale discount stores located in China and Korea. The result shows that experience equity and brand equity significantly influence customer loyalty, whereas relationship equity does not. The relationships among the three drivers of customer equity revealed that experience equity significantly affects both brand and relationship equities, but relationship equity does not significantly affect brand equity. Based on country level analysis, on Korean side the experience equity influences relationship equity, brand equity and store loyalty, whereas on Chinese side, experience equity influences relationship equity and brand equity,     

Brand equity in hospital marketing

Health care marketers face unique challenges around the world, due in part to the role the health care field plays in contributing to public welfare. Hospital marketing in Korea is particularly challenging since Korean law prohibits hospitals from running any advertising. As a result, Korean hospitals depend heavily on customer relationship management (CRM). This study identifies five factors that influence the creation of brand equity through successful customer relationships: trust, customer satisfaction, relationship commitment, brand loyalty, and brand awareness. An empirical test of the relationships among these factors suggests that hospitals can be successful in creating image and positive brand equity if they can manage their customer relationships well.     

A Proposed Model for Consumer-Based Brand Equity Analysis on Social Media Using Data Mining and Social Network Analysis

Online social networks have expanded their “virtual borders,” making the Internet more like an environment of social interaction than a business tool. However, even before the emergence and expansion of social media, marketing professionals were interested in identifying consumers' perceptions about brands. Thus, operational models have been proposed to facilitate such a task. Those models, however, can be expensive and inconvenient, since the models use questionnaires for data collection. To help overcome this problem, this article proposes a model for brand equity analysis from the consumer perspective expressed in social networks using opinion mining techniques and social network analysis. The application of the proposed model on data collected from Twitter made it possible to analyze five brand equity dimensions: brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived sentiment, perceived quality, and brand associations. The results reached by the application of the model show that brand equity can be analyzed from data retrieved from virtual social networks, disclosing how consumers perceive brands in such an environment, without using questionnaires, enabling different brands in different contexts. Those data can be analyzed under both objective and replicable criteria for each of the brand equity elements that make up the model.     

Mediating effects on the relationship between perceived service quality and public library app loyalty during the COVID-19 era

The demand for using library apps to search for information has been increasing after the COVID-19 outbreak. To look into how the pandemic affects the users’ perception of the loyalty of using library apps, we designed this research by amalgamating the updated IS success model and S–O-R model to evaluate the service quality of a public library app under the Hong Kong Government mobile applications initiative. A third-order model is established to demonstrate the multi-faceted aspects of service quality and mediating effects of perceived brand image, satisfaction, and e-word of mouth. Using structural equation modeling, data collected from Hong Kong, a metropolis where mobile services empower its citizens, showed the interrelationships among service quality and possible outcomes (i.e., perceived brand image, user satisfaction, e-word of mouth, and user loyalty). Findings also indicate that the influence of perceived service quality on user loyalty could only be achieved through perceived brand image and user satisfaction. This is a timely study during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the lockdown and social distancing arrangements created challenges for citizens to search for information in public libraries in person. Our findings and suggestions reiterate the importance of considering the usability concepts when analyzing the service quality of each unique app. They also provide insights for practitioners in developing the next generation of apps for smart public information services and call for further investigation into the proposed hierarchical model and other potential factors related to service quality.     

The antecedents of customer loyalty: A moderated mediation model of customer relationship management quality and brand image

This study examines the mediating role of customer relationship management (CRM) quality to better explain the effects of service evaluation variables (service quality, customer satisfaction and customer value) on customer loyalty. The study also investigates the moderating effect of brand image on these mediated relationships. The mediating role of CRM quality on the relationship between the service evaluation variables and customer loyalty is supported. Further, it is found that the indirect effect of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty via CRM quality is stronger when perceived brand image is high than when it is low. The results have implications for relationship managers, brand managers and scholars who use service evaluation and relational metrics to predict customer loyalty.     

An integrative approach to relationship marketing,customer value,and customer outcomes in the retail banking industry: a customer-based perspective from Turkey

Given how important it is to provide superior value to customers and to maintain customer loyalty for a sustainable competitive advantage, the aim of this paper is to examine the relationships among relationship marketing components of – trust, competency, commitment, communication, and conflict handling, – relationship investment, relationship quality, perceived customer value, satisfaction and loyalty in an integrated framework in the Turkish retail banking industry. Unlike previous studies, this research extends the literature by analysing affective as well as cognitive dimensions in the same model with a holistic view by simultaneously examining the direct and indirect effects of the related concepts. The distinctive nature of this study is its evaluation of customer satisfaction and loyalty from the perspective of actual consumers. The research model was tested using data collected from 685 retail banking customers by applying structural equation modelling. The findings show that relationship marketing induces loyalty through relationship quality, customer value, and satisfaction, which are mainly provided by trust, communication, and relationship investment. Furthermore, relationship investment and relationship quality are the most important factors in the development of customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty. The emotional value dimension, which captures the affective aspects of perceived value, has the strongest effect on both satisfaction and loyalty.     

Examining E-Commerce Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: An Integrated Quality-Risk-Value Perspective

Because of the inherently virtual nature of online environments, maintaining customer loyalty on business-to-customer (B2C) e-commerce websites is a challenging task. Although there have been many e-commerce studies that investigate customer loyalty in various B2C contexts, none of them have examined loyalty by simultaneously adopting quality-, risk-, and value-driven perspectives. This study integrates the quality-satisfaction-loyalty paradigm and the extrinsic cue-quality-risk-value chain to develop a theoretical model of customer loyalty that is based on an integrated quality-risk-value perspective. Data collected from 542 experienced online shoppers are used to validate the theoretical research model. Additionally, the mediation effects of perceived e-service quality, perceived risk, perceived value, and satisfaction on the relationship between electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and loyalty in B2C websites are validated using rigorous statistical methods. As hypothesized, the findings indicate that both positive and negative eWOM significantly influence perceived e-service quality and perceived risk and, in turn, significantly affect perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty via the mediation of perceived e-service quality and risk. This study substantially enriches our understanding of the success of B2C websites by highlighting how the sequential causal relationships among key extrinsic cues, quality, risk, and value can strongly influence customer satisfaction and loyalty on these websites. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Elements of destination brand equity and destination familiarity regarding travel intention

In a highly competitive market, marketing staff are always looking for solutions to strengthen what can be called their destination values (unique place, services, and human resources, etc.). They do this by concentrating on vital factors which can enhance their brand equity. Nevertheless, there is a shortage of studies about how destination brand evaluations are related to visitor appraisals. Using the opinions of 531 foreign tourists visiting a destination in Vietnam and a partial least squares (PLS) approach, this study examines four elements of destination brand equity (perceived quality, loyalty, awareness, image) regarding travel intentions and the moderating effect of destination familiarity. Results revealed that brand equity is positively related to travel intentions. Additionally, destination familiarity has positive moderating effects on destination awareness and perceived quality of travel intentions. This study offers some managerial insights into the effective building of destination brand equity.     

The influence of sport sponsorship on brand equity and purchase behavior

Abstract

Drawing on Aaker’s brand equity model and Keller’s brand engagement concept and building on the sponsorship between a professional basketball club and a software company, this study examined how sport sponsorship affects brand equity and purchase behavior of the sponsor’s product. Data from 222 survey respondents were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling techniques. The results provided evidence that perceived quality and brand engagement impact brand loyalty and purchase behavior of fans toward the sponsor’s product. Perceived fit between sponsor and sponsee and team identification were found to influence significantly sponsor’s brand equity constructs. The study extends Aaker’s model in the sport sponsorship context and highlights the influential role of perceived quality and brand engagement on driving sport team fans to form brand loyalty and purchase sponsor’s product.     

What are the Building Blocks of Customer Brand Loyalty in Department Stores? A Multi-Level Mediation Analysis

Building customer brand loyalty through branding strategies to sustain competitiveness in the retail industry has gathered momentum among researchers. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of brand personality and consumer brand identification on customer brand loyalty via the mediating variables of perceived service quality, perceived value, brand trust, brand commitment, and word-of-mouth communication among Malaysian department stores' customers. Using a self-structured questionnaire, 381 usable responses are considered for data analysis by applying a covariance-based structural equation modeling approach. The results of exploratory factor analysis show that sincerity, followed by sophistication and competence, are the most significant dimensions used to predict brand personality in department stores. The outcomes also reveal that brand personality indirectly influences customer brand loyalty via consumer brand identification. Furthermore, perceived service quality, perceived value, brand trust, word-of-mouth communication, and brand commitment mediate the effects of consumer brand identification on brand loyalty. Finally, the proposed competing model implies that the indirect impact of brand personality and consumer brand identification is inevitable in building department stores' brand loyalty.     

The Influence of Consumer Degree of Knowledge on Consumer Behavior: The Case of Spanish Olive Oil

This article analyses the influence of perceived quality measured across intrinsic and extrinsic attributes on satisfaction and consumer loyalty for a traditional food product as with PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) olive oil “Aceite del Bajo Aragón.” In addition, the article highlights the influence of consumer's degree of knowledge on these relationships. The results suggest that the main drivers to explain consumers' satisfaction and loyalty are the perceived quality of the intrinsic attributes (color, appearance, flavor, etc.). However, when consumers are classified attending to their degree of knowledge the main explanatory variable of satisfaction and loyalty of the more experienced consumers are the extrinsic attributes of the product (brand name, place of origin, images associated to the product, etc.). These findings allow us to develop important managerial implications for building a brand image for a PDO.     

The role of international tourist perceptions of brand equity and travel intention in culinary tourism

Brand equity is becoming increasingly important, and research has started to examine the brand equity of tourist destinations. However, little research has studied the inter-relationship between the dimensions of brand equity in culinary tourism. The purpose of this study is to examine the roles of the three aspects of brand equity in culinary tourism. The Sobel test in line with Baron and Kenny's procedure was used to test the hypotheses in a sample of 407 international tourists from 10 regions. The empirical evidence supports the process-oriented view and indicates that brand loyalty could mediate the effects of brand image and perceived quality on travel intention. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical development of a conceptual model and fill the gap in the literature.     

Sports sponsorship effects on customer equity: an Asian market application

The authors of this study investigate sponsorship effects on customers in Korea and China, specifically to determine whether current sponsorship research applies to Asian countries and whether the model is significantly different between Korea and China. For this purpose, 251 Koreans and 309 Chinese participated in a survey. The findings suggest that appropriate fit between the sponsor and the sports event enhances brand loyalty and customer equity by positively influencing attitude toward the sponsor and brand image. However, in China, the sponsor's fit did not directly impact brand image. As expected, sporting event experience search positively affects attitudes toward the sponsoring brand, which enhances brand image. Koreans' more favourable attitude toward the sponsoring brand positively influences their brand preference, but favourable attitude does not significantly affect Chinese consumers' perceived congruency with a product. Brand image positively impacted brand preference, and therefore confirms brand personality's congruence effect in both countries. Both brand image and brand preference directly and positively enabled brand loyalty to develop more favourable customer equity. Koreans, however, showed higher effects in the relationships between brand image and brand loyalty and between brand loyalty and customer equity.     

Customer perceived value,satisfaction, and loyalty: the role of willingness to share information

This study proposes and tests an integrative model to examine the relationships among customers’ willingness to share information, satisfaction, perceived value, and loyalty in a retailing context. This study extends research on customers’ willingness to share information from trust and privacy concerns toward key outcome measures such as perceived value, customer satisfaction, and loyalty, and is thus among the first to model customers’ willingness to share information with companies in robust theoretical retailing frameworks. The proposed relationships were tested using data from two retailing contexts – groceries (N = 429) and do-it-yourself (DIY) (N = 895). Findings from the two samples suggest that both perceived value and satisfaction are significant determinants of customers’ willingness to share information with a company. Although some differences emerge in the two studies, structural modeling largely supports the hypothesized framework and positions customers’ willingness to share information as an important antecedent of their loyalty intentions and behavior. This study provides practitioners with preliminary insight into the relationship between willingness to share information and perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. This study advances retailing research, as it is one of the few empirical studies investigating the role of customers’ willingness to share information in driving loyalty and its relationship with perceived value and satisfaction in a retailing context.     

A consumer-based method for retailer equity measurement: Results of an empirical study

This research extends the consumer-based brand equity measurement approach to the measurement of the equity associated with retailers. This paper also addresses some of the limitations associated with current retailer equity measurement such as a lack of clarity regarding its nature and dimensionality. We conceptualise retailer equity as a four-dimensional construct comprising retailer awareness, retailer associations, perceived retailer quality, and retailer loyalty. The paper reports the result of an empirical study of a convenience sample of 601 shopping mall consumers at an Australian state capital city. Following a confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling to examine the dimensionality of the retailer equity construct, the proposed model is tested for two retailer categories: department stores and speciality stores. Results confirm the hypothesised four-dimensional structure.