Design for synergy with brand or price information

Customers' preference for the hedonic benefits (e.g., aesthetics) and utilitarian benefits (e.g., functionality) offered by a product varies depending on the context—buying versus selling, and choice versus willingness‐to‐pay. However, a customer's preference formation could involve brand information or price information in addition to the benefits offered by the product. It is unclear how the consideration of brand or price information influences customers' relative preference for hedonic and utilitarian product benefits. Does this information alter preference in favor of a product that offers greater utilitarian or greater hedonic benefits, and why? The results show that (1) hedonic (utilitarian) attributes have a significantly stronger influence on consumer preference when accompanied by a strong (weak) versus a weak (strong) brand; and (2) in the presence of price information, hedonic attributes have a dominant influence on consumer preference compared to in the absence of price information. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of design for synergy with brand or price information. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Promoting continual member participation in firm-hosted online brand communities: An organizational socialization approach

In the age of social media, an increasing number of firms have begun to host online brand communities (OBCs) to strengthen their relationship with their consumers. Despite the popularity of firm-hosted OBCs, building a successful online brand community is still a challenge for every firm because of the nature of voluntary participation. This paper introduces an organizational socialization approach to promote sustained member participation, a deciding factor for the success of online communities. Based on theory of organizational socialization, this study identifies three typical socialization tactics employed by sponsors of OBCs (i.e., member education, interaction support, and participation feedback). Further, we present an empirical study to examine their effects on members' membership continuance intention using the data collected from several firm-hosted OBCs. The mediator role of community identification and the moderator role of membership duration are investigated, and theoretical and managerial implications for community management are discussed.     

The relative advantages of benefit overlap versus category similarity in brand extension evaluation: The moderating role of self-regulatory focus

The literature has identified factors that determine the favorable evaluation of a new brand extension, such as sharing a common product category or providing similar core benefits as the parent brand. However, there has been little research on which of these factors has a greater impact on consumer evaluation. This study explores how self-regulatory focus moderates the relative impacts of benefit overlap (i.e., the consistency of core benefits provided by extensions) versus product category similarity (i.e., the similarity among product categories that include the extensions) on brand extension evaluations. The results of an experiment support the prediction that benefit overlap extensions have greater significance for promotion-focused consumers, whereas category similarity extensions are favored by prevention-focused consumers.     

How much to give? — The effect of donation size on tactical and strategic success in cause-related marketing

In cause-related marketing (CM), companies promise a donation to a cause every time a consumer makes a purchase. We analyze the impact of the size of this donation on brand choice (tactical success) and brand image (strategic success). Our results reveal different effects of donation size on these success measures. For brand choice, the effect of donation size is moderated by a financial trade-off for consumers, whereas the effect on brand image is moderated by donation framing. Specifically, we show that donation size has a positive effect on brand choice if consumers face no financial trade-off; i.e., if they do not have to choose between triggering a donation or saving money. The effect is negative if a trade-off exists such that higher donations come at higher costs. Brand image is enhanced by larger donations if the framing is nonmonetary (e.g., the campaign promises the provision of vaccinations), whereas donation size has a negative effect if donation framing is monetary (e.g., the campaign states the Euro amount). If campaigns use a combination of both frames, the effect of donation size on brand image has an inverted U shape. Our results suggest that CM enhances tactical and strategic success only if firms select the right donation size, taking into account donation framing and financial trade-offs.     

The importance of advertising skepticism for brand extension appeals

According to existing research, ad persuasiveness decreases as advertising skepticism (i.e., the tendency to disbelieve advertising claims) increases. What remains unclear, however, is whether or not this effect extends to brand extension appeals. We suggest that the effect may vary according to brand extension similarity. Three studies test this assertion while providing process evidence and boundary conditions for the proposed effect. According to the findings, consumers automatically transfer associations from parent brands to highly similar extensions or automatically block these associations in the case of highly dissimilar extensions—reducing the impact of advertising skepticism on ad persuasiveness. At moderate levels, however, extension similarity is less predictive of the transfer process, increasing the negative effect of advertising skepticism on persuasion. Consistent with this account, the results identify brand transfer (i.e., the ability of the parent brand to make the extension) as the underlying mechanism explaining the advertising skepticism effect for moderately similar brand extension appeals. Furthermore, the results show how marketers can reduce these effects, and increase extension success, by emphasizing extension attributes that are shared with the parent brand. Collectively, these results provide a unique theoretical view, improving our understanding of advertising skepticism and the drivers of brand extension success.     

Designing Mobile Brand Communities: Concept and Empirical Illustration

Brand communities are a commonly used marketing instrument to enhance customer attraction and retention. Well-known success stories of brand communities include brands such as Jeep®, Apple Macintosh®, or Harley Davidson®. Despite the great importance for companies to effectively manage the social facet of their products, research in this field has been rare. In literature, indications for success factors and constituting elements of communities have been found. However, seldom have viable business cases for the community operator been provided.

We propose the mobile channel to be a particularly promising media for establishing brand communities. Due to the significant and still increasing worldwide penetration of mobile devices and current always-on location sensitive mobile services, innovative community concepts bear the potential for substantial value creation, which tends to result in positive effects on customer loyalty and brand equity for the community operator.

In this article, we review selected literature to develop propositions on how concepts for mobile brand communities can be developed. Building on the 4 constituting elements of a community, which are member entities, shared interest, common space of interaction, and relation, combined with the specific characteristics of the mobile channel, which are location awareness, ubiquity, identification, and immediacy, we developed a procedure on how to design mobile brand communities according to perceived consumer value. We use the case of a mobile content provider to illustrate the suggested process. Starting from the theoretical mobile community model, we apply means–end chains to do justice to the specific brand values. In concluding, we propose a 4-step model of key mobile brand community design tasks.     

A global perspective on combating Shanzhai products: Cross-cultural solutions

To compete on the world market, companies from emerging economies often adapt their innovations to satisfy unique cultural needs. They do so, in part, by copying the products of their western counterparts with a degree of modification. This approach is referred to as Shanzhai, which is a Chinese neologism meaning “copycat.” In this article, we discuss the Shanzhai phenomenon and explain Shanzhai's development stages and threats to original brands across the globe. Then, we examine how cultural factors (i.e., power distance belief, face consciousness, and analytic vs. holistic-thinking style) influence consumers’ perception towards Shanzhai products. We further suggest that original manufacturers should adopt selected strategies to combat Shanzhai threats vis-à-vis three cultural drivers. One driver entails launching full product lines and developing new distribution channels in high power distance belief cultures but promoting brand originality in low power distance belief cultures. A second alternative involves embracing a sustainable and green brand image in low face-sensitive cultures but strengthening brand logo impacts and enhancing intangible brand benefits—such as social value (e.g., brand user profile, prestige)—in high face-sensitive cultures. The third entails communicating integrated product values in holistic-thinking cultures but highlighting an offering's most competitive and unique features in analytic-thinking cultures.     

Determinants and Outcomes of Online Brand Tribalism: Exploring Communities of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs)

Online consumption communities, involving millions of online consumers, have been created around massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs). Within these communities, players who share interest in MMORPGs convene, interact, and collaborate with fellow players and achieve game‐related outcomes. As these online social networks have been noted to augment, and perhaps supplant person‐to‐person interaction, this study focuses on the drivers of inherent interpersonal relationships, the nature of the constructed society, and resulting consumer initiatives to sustain and nurture the organization. Specifically, this research suggests that MMORPG communities transcend more facile forms of online or brand communities and demonstrate characteristics that can most aptly be construed as brand tribalism in the anthropological sense. Here, the challenge and telepresence innate in playing MMORPGs, cognitive and affective involvement associated with MMORPGs, and commitment to MMORPGs are modeled as antecedents of brand tribalism or a sense of the relationship with the brand and MMORPG community. Consequently, intent to purchase MMORPG‐related virtual products, recruitment of other MMORPG players, and word of mouth are identified as consequences of this unique consumer–brand relationship. Further analysis reveals the negatively charged emotional measure (i.e., defense of the tribe) within the tribalism instrument explains more variance in the outcome variables than the positively charged emotional measures (i.e., lineage, social, sense of community). Implications and future research directions are offered.     

Building the Charity Brand Community

The current article extends the concept of brand community to the charity sector. While the charity sector has begun to embrace the relationship marketing paradigm, brand communities represent a unique form of relationship marketing that can have a significant impact on nonprofits. A conceptual model of brand community development in the charity sector is proposed, and two unique mechanisms by which charity brand communities might develop — the cognitive and experiential‐learning mechanisms — are proposed. Not only do these mechanisms offer unique insights into how brand communities might develop, but they also explain how “sense of community” becomes a dominant influence on supporter loyalty. Research propositions concerning the influence of specific markers of brand community upon charity support behavior, are also presented.     

Personality,person–brand fit,and brand community: An investigation of individuals,brands, and brand communities

Abstract

Brand communities have received considerable and warranted attention from marketing researchers and practitioners. Brand communities can be important sources of information for both the firm and other customers, and they play an important role in building and maintaining strong brands. Nevertheless, the antecedents of brand community identification, such as individual differences across consumers in the propensity to connect with brand communities, are not as well understood. We hypothesise that the enduring personality traits extraversion and agreeableness predict identification with the [brand] community, which in turn, and along with product attachment, will be related to brand trust and brand loyalty. Product attachment itself is hypothesised to be a function of person–brand congruity, the perceived fit between the person and the brand. Those relationships are tested and supported in data from a sample of 662 car enthusiasts attending a large brand community meeting or ‘brandfest’.     

Brand community: Drivers and outcomes

Groups of users and admirers of a brand who engage jointly in group actions to accomplish collective goals and/or to express mutual sentiments and commitments are known as brand communities. Lately, brand communities have been a heavily researched topic in marketing science. While the positive consequences of brand communities are well documented in the literature, little is known about how brand communities can be facilitated and how consumer–brand relationships can be fostered. This research empirically assesses the relevance of offline (i.e., events) and online marketing management tools (i.e., Web sites with online bulletin boards and online expert chats) to strengthen brand communities by facilitating shared customer experiences and multi‐way interactions. Additionally, the importance of consumer–brand identification as a consequence of such relationship‐building activities is investigated, and the outcomes of a consumer's identification with a brand are analyzed. Important management implications can be derived. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Marketing channel evolution: From contactual efficiency to brand value co-creation and appropriation within the platform enterprise

Abstract

In recent years, major technological advances have been a primary force driving channel evolution. In particular, the Internet of things has provided a means for some firms to experience the rise of one of the most innovative and cutting-edge channels—the platform enterprise (i.e., firms such as Amazon, Etsy, and Airbnb). We examine the platform enterprise through a marketing channel evolution lens. In doing so, we point to key factors that enable particular kinds of firms to forge unique marketing channels. As platform enterprises, these channels offer value that transcends contactual efficiency, because they utilize their resources and capabilities not only to connect buyers and sellers efficiently but also to create a community of stakeholders whose collective efforts are focused on two linked priorities—brand value co-creation and brand value appropriation.     

Beyond Seeing McDonald's Fiesta Menu: The Role of Accent in Brand Sincerity of Ethnic Products and Brands

Given the significant increase in the number of ethnic consumers, firms attempt to utilize various marketing communication strategies and tactics to promote their brands to these ethnically diverse groups. Similarly, many marketers are striving for brand crossovers by introducing ethnic offerings to new audiences. This research focuses on one such ethnic marketing communication strategy—the use of accented spokespersons. Building on a prosodic theory of accent, we propose that certain prosodic features (i.e., intonation) connote associations of sincerity and trustworthiness and thus affect brand sincerity perceptions. The current research also demonstrates that the effect of intonation depends on the degree of congruity between product ethnicity and a spokesperson's accent. Our results reveal that when these variables are congruent, consumers rely on the cues that are consistent with the advertising appeals. Thus, when a message uses a sincerity appeal, falling (versus rising) intonation leads to greater attributions of brand sincerity, whereas when a message uses a competence appeal, rising (versus falling) intonation triggers higher perceptions of brand sincerity. In the condition of incongruity, consumers aim to resolve the incongruity and rely on cues that connote the trustworthiness of a message (i.e., falling intonation). Theoretical and managerial implications conclude the article.     

Ingredient branding and feedback effects: The impact of product outcomes,initial parent brand strength asymmetry,and parent brand role

Ingredient branding is a popular strategy involving two “parent” brands developing a co-branded product, called an ingredient branding offering (IBO). Drawing on extant brand literatures, we investigate how brand feedback effects are influenced by (1) the initial brand strength among the parent brands (low vs. high), (2) parent brand roles (whether the brand is the host or ingredient), and (3) IBO success and failure. Three experiments indicate that IBO success positively affects both parent brands, but the positive feedback is much more substantial for the weaker (vs. the stronger) brand. Under the failure condition, the strong ingredient brand is the only parent that is somewhat protected from an IBO failure. All the other IBO possibilities—in terms of brand strength and parent role—suffer from substantial negative feedback and share a high level of responsibility for the failure. Managerial and theoretical implications are drawn from these results.     

Dual branding strategy for a successful new product launch in China

Marketers may increase the chance of success for a new product launch by using a sub-brand name and a parent brand name simultaneously. In this article, we report the successful case of using two brand names—dual branding strategy—by practitioners in China for the Minute Maid Orange Pulp juice drink launch. A suggestive sub-brand name helps consumers recall the key benefits and features of the new product. A suggestive parent brand name communicates the benefits of the product category. A dual branding strategy addresses the problem of using only one brand name for a new product launch. After the successful launch of the first new product by a parent brand, marketers are able to launch other new products under other sub-brand names in the future to meet different consumer needs. Marketers may use the same parent brand to introduce different products to build scale for the brand, and are able to clearly differentiate the different product offerings under different sub-brand names. If a company acquires a brand from another company, a marketer may position the acquired brand as a sub-brand under the parent brand if the marketer has defined the business scope of the parent brand broadly enough and with a suggestive parent brand name.     

Enjoyment or autonomy? The interactive effect of brand ritual and brand personality on consumer purchase

The use of brand rituals is a pervasive tactic in business, but the marketing effectiveness of this practice largely remains unknown. In the present research, we postulate the contingent nature of brand rituals on consumer purchase. Based on the two countervailing processes—the enhancement of perceived enjoyment and the reduction of perceived autonomy, we suggest that the effectiveness of brand rituals is determined by the interaction between the degree of brand ritual (simple vs. sophisticated) and the brand personality (excitement vs. sincerity). By means of field and laboratory experiments in various product categories (i.e., fruit tea, juice, stationery, and hand cream), we show that for a sincere brand, a sophisticated brand ritual elicits higher consumer purchase than a simple brand ritual only via the process of enhanced enjoyment because its sincerity personality weakens the salience of the process of reduced autonomy. In contrast, for an exciting brand, a sophisticated brand ritual elicits lower consumer purchase than a simple brand ritual via the process of enhanced enjoyment but reduced autonomy (the autonomy route dominates the enjoyment route) because its exciting personality intensifies the salience of the process of reduced autonomy. In simple words, a sophisticated brand ritual benefits a sincere brand, but a simple one benefits an exciting brand. Our findings extend the research on ritual and brand ritual and offer implications for marketing practice regarding how to design a brand ritual more effectively.     

If all their products seem the same,all the parts within a product seem the same too: How brand homogeneity polarizes product experiences

Many different factors affect brand homogeneity, including the different products associated with a brand, how they are made, and how they are branded. How does the perceived homogeneity of a brand’s offered products, in turn, affect consumers’ experiences with those products? Nine experiments reveal that consumers have more polarized judgments of product experiences when the sampled products are perceived to belong to more homogeneous brands. When a consumption experience is positive, the consumer has an even more positive experience when they think the sampled product came from a homogeneous brand; however, when a consumption experience is negative, the consumer has an even more negative experience when they think the sampled product came from a homogeneous brand. This polarization occurs because the individual product inherits the brand-level quality of perceived internal consistency—when a brand seems homogeneous (i.e., consisting of homogeneous products), consumers also perceive any individual product from the brand as similarly consisting of homogeneous ingredients or parts. We suggest that brand homogeneity leads to selective processing of individual product experiences, which makes products seem more coherent, products rated faster, and ratings of different product ingredients or features more highly correlated. The perception that all of the parts within the individual sampled product are homogeneous in quality polarizes judgments of the product experience.     

Place the good after the bad: effects of emotional shifts on consumer memory

Marketing research has a limited understanding about the effects arising from emotional shifts (i.e., the transition from one emotion to another) during the same advertising message. This paper sheds light on this topic through two studies. Study 1 examines whether an advertising message that features a negative-to-positive emotional shift (i.e., a shift from a negative to a positive emotion) generates greater recall of an advertised brand than an advertising message with a neutral-to-positive emotional shift (i.e., a shift from a neutral to a positive emotion) or one with no emotional shift. Study 2 examines whether an advertising message that simulates a buyer-seller encounter—with the seller reproducing a negative-to-positive emotional shift via facial expressions—generates a greater recall of the advertised content than an identical advertisement with no emotional shift. Results confirm that a negative-to-positive shift facilitates the recall of both the brand and the advertised information.     

The impact of death on consumer responses to celebrity endorser misbehavior

A well‐established stream of research on celebrity misbehavior suggests that negative information may have an adverse effect on an endorsed brand because of its association with a celebrity considered as blameworthy. However, the present research calls into question the generalizability of these results to fatal misbehaviors (i.e., misbehaviors that lead to the celebrity's death). Indeed, after death, a celebrity may gain spiritual meanings, and consumers may find it more difficult to blame a sacred individual. As such, the current article investigates the impact of a celebrity's death on blame attribution and consumer attitudes in the context of celebrity endorser misbehavior. The results of three experiments uncover that death favors a partial blame attribution transfer from the celebrity endorser to the brand, but only when the misbehavior implies a product related to the brand. In addition, the findings reveal a positive effect of death through celebrity sacredness on brand attitude.