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.     

Celebrity endorsement: How celebrity–brand–user personality congruence affects brand attitude and purchase intention

The present study provides and tests a conceptual framework aimed at comparing the relative effectiveness of celebrity–user, brand–celebrity, and user–brand personality congruence on brand attitude and brand purchase intention (BPI) thereafter. The data collection was done via an online survey of a representative group of consumers (n = 431) located across India. Hypotheses were tested using regression analysis with mediation approach. The results indicate that while user–brand and brand–celebrity personality congruence have a significant impact on brand attitude and purchase intention, celebrity–user congruence does not. Further, brand attitude is found to be a partial mediator on the relationship between the pair-wise personality congruence on BPI. The findings have major implications for marketers in understanding the significance of personality congruence among celebrity–brand–user in the formation of brand attitude and purchase intention that can be used in positioning and in increasing the advertising effectiveness of brands using celebrity endorsement. The present study is a pioneer in contributing to the celebrity endorsement literature by investigating the relative impact of three pairs of personality congruence: celebrity–brand, brand–user, and celebrity–user, on brand attitude and BPI, thereby supporting the applicability of McCracken's Meaning Transfer Model [McCracken (1989), The Journal of Consumer Research, 16 (3) 310–321) and the Hierarchy-of-effects model (Lavidge and Steiner (1961), Journal of Marketing, 25 (6) 59–62].     

The Effects of Comparative Advertising on Young Consumers’ Perceptions: Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the United States and Taiwan

This study aims to examine the effectiveness of comparative advertising of a high involvement product in two countries, the United States and Taiwan. The results show that different types of comparative advertising moderate the relationship in the proposed model and exert different levels of influences on consumers. The United States and Taiwanese consumers are significantly different in attitudes toward the ad, attitudes toward the sponsored brand, and purchase intention. The results show that direct comparative advertising might be suitable for promoting a new brand in countries with individualistic cultures. However, global marketers should be cautious when employing comparative advertising formats in collectivist cultures.     

An Investigation of Attitude Toward the Brand,Commitment, and True Brand Loyalty in a Cross-Cultural Context

Abstract

This study utilized data from two geographically separated cultures to investigate relationships involving antecedents to true brand loyalty. A relationship between the consumer's attitude toward the brand and a measure of expressed commitment was found to explain a significant percentage of the variance in commitment. A relationship between commitment and true brand loyalty also was found significant. Both relationships vary somewhat by product and culture. No evidence was found, however, suggesting that they could not be considered generalizable. The underlying components of brand attitude were found to vary by product and country. The culturally related differences-espe-cially those pertaining to the composition and meaning of the underlying components-have interesting managerial implications.     

Digital Piracy: Factors that Influence Attitude Toward Behavior

A new form of software piracy known as digital piracy has taken the spotlight. Lost revenues due to digital piracy could reach $5 billion by the end of 2005.Preventives and deterrents do not seem to be working – losses are increasing. This study examines factors that influence an individual’s attitude toward pirating digital material. The results of this study suggest that attitude toward digital pirating is influenced by beliefs about the outcome of behavior (cognitive beliefs), happiness and excitement (affective beliefs), age, the perceived importance of the issue, the influence of significant others (subjective norms), and machiavellianism. Given these results, measures can be developed which could alter attitudes toward digital piracy. Sulaiman Al-Rafee received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Arkansas in the USA, May, 2002. He is an assistant professor of Information Systems at the department of Quantitative Methods and Information Systems at the College of Business Administration, Kuwait. He is the MIS coordinator at the department, and has taught different MIS courses within the department. His reserch interests include: ethics, behavioral psychology, software and digital piracy, user acceptance of information technology, and cross-cultural studies. Timothy Paul Cronan, Professor and M.D. Matthews Chair in Information Systems, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas. Dr. Cronan received the D.B.A. from Louisiana Tech University and is an active member of the Decision Sciences Institute and The Associaton for Computing Machinery. He has served as Regional Vice President and on the Board of Directors of the Decision Sciences Institute and as President of the Southwest Region of the Institute. In addition, he has served as Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly. He is currently Director of Enterprise Systems and Director of the Master of Information Systems degree programs. His research interests include information systems ethical behavior, work groups, change management, expert systems, performance analysis and effectiveness, and end-user computing. Publications have appeared in MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Ethics, Information and Management, OMEGA The International Journal of Management Science, The Journal of Management Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Journal of Organizational and End User Computing, Database, Journal of Research on Computing in Education, Journal of Financial Research, as well as in other journals and Proceedings of various Conferences.     

自我概念一致性与品牌偏好关系研究:自我差异的调节作用

本文研究了自我差异对自我概念一致性与品牌偏好关系的调节作用。结果表明,当消费者感知到高水平的自我差异时,理想的自我概念一致性(相比现实的自我概念一致性)对品牌偏好的影响更大;而当消费者感知到低水平的自我差异时,现实的自我概念一致性(相比理想的自我概念一致性)对品牌偏好的影响更大。因此,企业不仅要深刻认识到消费者自我概念在品牌个性塑造中的重要性,而且必须将自我概念一致性与自我差异相结合,针对消费者不同自我差异水平进行品牌个性的细化塑造。     

基于解释水平调节作用的自我形象一致研究

通过构建自我形象一致、品牌信任、解释水平和品牌忠诚的模型,本文发现自我形象一致对品牌忠诚的直接影响不显著,但是会通过情感信任和认知信任间接地影响品牌忠诚;解释水平会调节自我形象一致对品牌信任的影响,高解释水平者自我形象一致对情感信任和认知信任的影响要强于低解释水平者的影响。因此,自我形象一致能够积极影响品牌忠诚。     

旅游者参与低碳旅游意愿的驱动因素与形成机制：基于计划行为理论的解释

为揭示旅游者参与低碳旅游意愿的驱动因素和形成机制,文章基于计划行为理论,检验低碳旅游情境下行为态度、主观规范和自我效能感对低碳旅游意愿的影响效应。通过对512份样本数据进行结构方程模型分析发现：（1）行为态度和自我效能感对低碳旅游意愿存在正向显著影响,尤其是行为态度的影响力更强烈;（2）尽管主观规范未能直接作用于低碳旅游意愿,而主观规范对行为态度和自我效能感与低碳旅游意愿的关系存在负向调节效应。基于上述结论,文章提出了旅游者参与低碳旅游意愿的干预路径与管理启示。     

Store brand and national brand promotion attitudes antecedents

Retailers compete against national manufacturers by launching store brands. National manufactures regularly use brand promotions to fight store brands back. The purpose of this article is to find out whether attitudes toward national brand promotions and store brands have similar or different conceptual antecedents. The study presents and tests a model of the effects of shoppers´ characteristics (price and non-price-related) on attitudes toward store brand and national brand promotions. The results support that constructs relating to price impact both store brand attitude and national brand promotion attitude, but the strength of some of these relationships differ. Other shopper characteristics like brand loyalty and store loyalty, have similar negative and positive effects, respectively. These slight differences suggest that promotions of national brands might be a good tool for fighting back store brands, but manufacturers need to design and target these promotions carefully in order to avoid head-to-head competition.     

Culture-Based Values and Management Style of Marketing Decision Makers in Six Western Pacific Rim Countries

ABSTRACT

Given increasing advertisement clutter, advertisers are increasingly trying unconventional means to attract consumers' attention. One such method involves the use of incongruent ads, which are believed to attract viewers' attention. This research was conducted to ascertain the impact of audiovisual congruency in ads and the moderating role of product involvement on three facets of consumer response: attention to the ad, attention to the brand, and purchase intentions. Participants were shown one of eight TV ads for 30 seconds, following which they were asked to rate the ad on several dimensions. Results indicated, as expected, that congruent product and music type elicited favorable consumer responses. However, contrary to earlier findings that congruency in ads affects consumers in both high- and low-involvement conditions, we find that that the level of involvement moderated this effect on some consumer persuasion measures. In particular, participants under high-involvement conditions were found to be less influenced by congruent product–music situations. Implications for advertisers are discussed.     

品牌个性、消费者真实自我与品牌态度

基于FCB Grid模型视角,运用实证分析的方法研究品牌个性与消费者真实自我对品牌态度的影响。研究发现,高涉入度/认知型和高涉入度/情感型品牌的品牌个性与真实自我概念一致的群体比不一致的群体具有更高的品牌态度,在此类品牌的塑造上考虑注入品牌个性的五个维度中的"智"和"雅"的个性特征,低涉入度/认知品牌未显示出显著的品牌个性,低涉入度/情感型品牌的一致群体与不一致群体均显示出显著的品牌个性。     

The impact of a World Wide Web site visit on brand image in the motor vehicle and mobile telephone industries

During recent years the number of World Wide Web (WWW) sites and visitors has increased very rapidly. WWW site evaluation has focused more on click‐through rates than on brand effects. Nevertheless, there are few studies on the effects of WWW site exposure on brand image. The aim of this research was to illustrate brand association changes after a WWW site visit. More precisely, the paper describes the effect of a forced visit on the global brand image of two bricks‐and‐mortar companies. The results indicate that some positive brand associations increase significantly after the visit and that attitude towards the WWW site has an impact on attitude towards the brand.     

Olfaction and the retail environment: examining the influence of ambient scent

This article concerns the ability of smell to assist the development and communication of retail brand image. It presents a number of propositions regarding ambient smell and the retail environment derived from the literature—including the potential for novel ambient aromas to act as a distinctive element in a retailer’s marketing mix. Empirical testing is achieved through a ‘natural experiment’ in a large electrical store using fragranced and unfragranced conditions. An environmental psychology base was used to develop an in-store questionnaire, supported by direct measurement of customer dwell times and subsequent interviews. In total, 329 questionnaires were returned and 429 customer groups were timed in the two departments where the experiment occurred. Significant differences in consumer perceptions of the store’s environmental attributes were identified, despite the fact that less than 10% of respondents questioned were aware of the use of in-store fragrances. The qualitative interviews provided some initial confirmation for the more complex propositions concerning the memory of scents.     

External Brand Placement: The Effects on Game Players’ Processing of an In-Game Brand

Video games are now a venue for branded messages. Hence, game players may be exposed to brands in and outside game environments. This study focuses on the latter, that is, external brand placement. Drawing upon the literature on involvement and on the limited capacity model (LCM) of information processing, this study explores the mechanism by which external brand placement influences game players’ processing of a brand placed within a game, known as an in-game brand. The results show that players exposed to an external brand identical to an in-game brand showed greater in-game brand recall than those not so exposed. Players exposed to a competing external brand—whether congruent or not—showed lower in-game brand recall. When the brand was incongruent, however, they showed a preference for the in-game brand.     

Customer brand personality perception: A taxonomic analysis

Abstract

The brand personality concept has received considerable attention. However, researchers have paid little attention to how homogeneous consumer brand personality perceptions are. This study attempts to fill this gap by analysing survey data (n?=?603) collected from respondents evaluating seven mass-market consumer brands. Using cluster analysis, it identifies four typical brand personality constellations. The authors find variance among brand personality perceptions across brands, but more interestingly also within perceptions of individual brands. This result points to issues in implementing brand personalities in marketing practice. The article concludes with theoretical and managerial implications.