Managing a Global Retail Brand in Different Markets: Meta-Analyses of Customer Responses to Service Encounters

This study investigates how retailers can leverage their brand to shape customers’ satisfaction with service encounters. It develops and tests hypotheses about how brand, store, and consumer factors moderate customer responses to experience clues during retail service encounters. Six meta-regression analyses synthesize and compare results from 842 satisfaction equations describing customers’ encounters with a global retailer operating 400 stores in 32 countries. The results show how customers weigh their perceptions of service encounters differently depending on brand, store, and consumer factors. In markets where customers believe the retailer has high holistic brand quality, they place less weight on experience clues within the store. In markets where customers believe the retailer’s service brand promise, they place more weight on in-store experience clues. In markets where the retailer promises utilitarian value, customers weigh functional experience clues more heavily. In markets with an online purchasing channel, the effect of experience clues common to offline and online store environments is magnified, and unique clues are diminished. In addition, customers heavily weigh experience clues that fit their goals. In general, retail success factors include high brand quality (which makes customers more forgiving), a service brand promise that is mirrored in the store image (which makes customers attend to the experience clues aligned with them), and the careful monitoring and managing of retail touchpoints (to customize experience clues to each market). In this way, retailers can use customer-based strategies to effectively design and manage their global retail brand in different markets.     

零售商品牌资产管理策略体系构建——基于多维理论视角的探讨

零售商品牌资产的管理和创建是零售企业获取持续竞争优势的关键,但关于零售商品牌资产管理策略的理论指导并不系统和丰富。因此,本文从零售商品牌营销管理、顾客情绪管理、顾客体验管理、顾客关系管理、顾客忠诚管理5个多维理论视角,对零售商品牌资产管理的策略体系进行了构建,以期为零售商品牌资产的创建过程和途径提供丰富的管理视野与思路。     

顾客参与风格对企业品牌资产的影响机制——基于关系联结的视角

随着移动互联技术与虚拟经济的高速发展,虚拟品牌社区成为消费者参与企业活动,与企业沟通的重要窗口,并在品牌营销中发挥着日益重要的作用,成为企业与消费者建立持久、和谐关系联结的重要工具以及企业品牌资产提升的重要载体和手段。依据风格特征视角,虚拟品牌社区中的顾客参与可以划分为任务型参与、社交型参与和贡献型参与,三种风格的顾客参与是企业品牌资产形成和提升的重要前置因素,并通过关系联结的中介机制影响企业品牌资产。顾客任务型参与、社交型参与和贡献型参与能够正向影响企业的品牌知名度、顾客感知质量和顾客忠诚度;关系联结在顾客参与风格和企业品牌资产的关系中起中介作用,在顾客任务型参与和品牌资产的关系中起完全中介作用,在顾客社交型参与/贡献型参与和品牌资产的关系中起部分中介作用;社区意识在不同顾客参与风格和关系联结关系中发挥的调节作用不同,正向调节顾客任务型/社交型参与对财务联结的正向影响,正向调节顾客社交型/贡献型参与对社会联结的正向影响;竞争强度负向调节关系联结对品牌资产的影响作用,即当行业竞争强度提高时,关系联结对品牌资产的正向影响受到削弱。因此,企业应通过虚拟品牌社区平台,积极引导、掌控和规范不同风格顾客参与,拓展企业价值提升的组织外途径。     

A robust approach to measure latent, time-varying equity in hierarchical branding structures

The literature suggests that brand equity can be split into two parts - an attribute-based equity and a non-attribute based one that captures consumer preferences beyond the utility offered by individual attributes. In addition to measuring attribute-based equity, firms deploying portfolios of products within complex branding structures often seek to measure the presence, distribution and evolution of these potentially heterogeneous non-attribute based unique branding associations - which we label ‘intangible equity’ – at each distinct layer of a product’s brand hierarchy. We develop and operationalize a robust and flexible Bayesian semiparametric model to first separate the attribute-based equity from intangible equity, to jointly estimate this multi-level intangible equity and to allow it to exhibit state-dependence using a random-walk prior. The model is empirically illustrated on syndicated US national beer sales data. We find significant, heterogeneous and temporally stable intangible equity presence across the brand hierarchy and highlight some substantive implications arising therein.     

Exciting on Facebook or competent in the newspaper? Media effects on consumers’ perceptions of brands in the fashion category

Abstract

Media investments are continuously shifting from traditional media like newspapers to digital alternatives like websites and social media. This study investigated if and how media choice between the two rival channels can influence consumers’ perceptions of a novel brand. 504 Swedish retail fashion customers participated in an experiment to evaluate the identical advertisement placed either in a national newspaper or on Facebook. The results revealed that advertising in a newspaper can have a positive effect on brand equity facets and purchase intention through brand personality perceptions of being competent, while advertising on Facebook have similar effects but through perceptions of being exciting. Besides some evidence that choice between traditional and new media affects brand personality this study is one of the first attempts to incorporate media channel choice into the broader customer-based brand equity framework. The results from this particular study suggest that media channel choice should be considered from a brand equity building perspective at least in the fashion category. This study shows that different media channels could complement each other strategically, as traditional media channels still can have valuable and unique contributions to brand building through brand personality perceptions, especially for brands striving to be perceived as competent.     

Shades of gray��the impact of gray markets on authorized distribution channels

Gray markets refer to the diversion of unauthorized products from a market or channel with low prices to another market or channel with higher prices. In this paper, we study the effects of gray markets on the profitability of distribution channel members under different channel structures with different parallel importer identities. We show that a manufacturer can benefit from parallel importation by a third party or by an authorized dealer. However, channel structure is critical in determining both who benefits and the mechanism by which this benefit occurs. In addition, we show whether the parallel importer is a third party or a retailer has significant effects on channel members’ profits. Although this research is motivated by international marketing practices, the modeling approach and the results apply more generally to cases where a manufacturer sells to different customer segments at different prices.     

The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Brand Performance: The Mediating Effect of Industrial Brand Equity and Corporate Reputation

In this article, the researchers explore the following question. Can corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the corporate reputation of a firm lead to its brand equity in business-to-business (B2B) markets? This study discusses CSR from customers’ viewpoints by taking the sample of industrial purchasers from Taiwan small-medium enterprises. The aims of this study are to investigate: first, the effects of CSR and corporate reputation on industrial brand equity; second, the effects of CSR, corporate reputation, and brand equity on brand performance; and third, the mediating effects of corporate reputation and industrial brand equity on the relationship between CSR and brand performance. Empirical results support the study’s hypotheses and indicate that CSR and corporate reputation have positive effects on industrial brand equity and brand performance. In addition, corporate reputation and industrial brand equity partially mediate the relationship between CSR and brand performance.     

Brand equity and retailer acceptance of brand extensions

Two important benefits of brand equity have largely been assumed in most previous research: reduced marketing expenditures required to launch brand extensions; and channel participants as an important source of brand equity. Results of a discrete choice experiment with independent retail grocers indicate that brand names influence independent retailers’ probability of listing brand extensions, but their sensitivity to mix elements such as consumer advertising, promotional allowances, and wholesale price, as well as competitors’ listing actions are not influenced by brand names. This means that retailers treat each dollar of consumer advertising or promotional allowance the same, regardless of who is spending it. Manufacturers should not assume that retailers will be less sensitive to other elements of the marketing mix for stronger brands.     

Retailer Dominance and Quality Variation: Observations and a Theoretical Explanation

A number of consumer and business reports suggest that slightly lower quality (or feature) versions of products are being sold through dominant retailers, while higher quality versions continue to be sold through weaker retailers and, customers are uninformed about such subtle differences. We study two intriguing questions based on this phenomenon namely (1.) why are lower quality-lower priced versions sold primarily through dominant retailers and not the weaker retailers? (2.) Why do sometimes the weaker retailers not inform customers about these quality differences? Using a game theoretic model, we find that when quality is noncontractible an increase in retail dominance leads to a decrease in quality offered by the dominant retailer vis-à-vis the weaker retailer. However, we show that the weaker retailer does not have an incentive to advertise its higher quality if quality differences are not too high. This situation arises endogenously when the dominant retailer is not too powerful as compared to the weaker retailer or when retail differentiation is high. The motivation for this result is traced to the threat of increased competition in the event of such advertising.     

Prioritizing Brand Equity Methods From Customers’ Perspective for the Food Industry

Brand equity assessment is an important measurement of strategic value for internal use as well as for external stakeholders. Although there are a number of methods available for brand evaluation, it is still uncertain which approach is best. Yet almost no research exists that has prioritized the existing brand equity methods from the perspective of different stakeholders through a survey. In this article a model is developed for prioritizing brand equity methodologies from the viewpoint of customers as a stakeholder of brand equity. The developed model can help businesses to deploy a brand equity methodology that best considers the criteria of their customers as one of their key stakeholders. The criteria of this process are the expectations of customers from a brand. The priority of these criteria sets via a structured questionnaire filled by customers. Then the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) incorporates to prioritize the methodologies versus these criteria. This study set out to prioritize the brand equity pool to help practitioners and academics in assessing the alternative techniques and selecting the most relevant one that measures the most important criteria of brand in the eyes of customers.     

Life after death? Analyzing post-defection consumer brand equity

The industry literature is full of the idea of winning back lapsed customers. Yet marketing practitioners and academics know very little about what happens to customers after they stop buying the brand. This research investigates the brand equity of lapsed customers of five major financial institutions. The analysis compares the propensity for positive and/or negative brand associations, overall brand evaluation, and the propensity to consider the brand in the future across the main segments of lapsed customers. The results show that the group of lapsed customers is not homogenous, but consists of distinct segments. Customers who defected for different reasons also differ in their post-defection brand equity. The paper concludes with implications for winback strategies for lapsed customers and brand equity measurement and management.     

Constructing an index for brand equity: a hospital example

If two hospitals are providing identical services in all respects, except for the brand name, why are customers willing to pay more for one hospital than the other? That is, the brand name is not just a name, but a name that contains value (brand equity). Brand equity is the value that the brand name endows to the product, such that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for products with the particular brand name. Accordingly, a company needs to manage its brand carefully so that its brand equity does not depreciate. Although measuring brand equity is important, managers have no brand equity index that is psychometrically robust and parsimonious enough for practice. Indeed, index construction is quite different from conventional scale development. Moreover, researchers might still be unaware of the potential appropriateness of formative indicators for operationalizing particular constructs. Towards this end, drawing on the brand equity literature and following the index construction procedure, this study creates a brand equity index for a hospital. The results reveal a parsimonious five-indicator brand equity index that can adequately capture the full domain of brand equity. This study also illustrates the differences between index construction and scale development.     

The role of the brand in driving online loyalty for multichannel retailers

Multichannel retailers offer shoppers the possibility to cross channels to complete their shopping process. Multichannel retailers, unlike pure online sellers, offer shoppers multiple contact points to experience the brand. Also, multichannel retailers can leverage the trust and attachment to their brands that has been built with their offline presence to drive customers to buy online. Our paper explores the role of the customer relationship with the brand, with variables such as brand trust, brand attachment and length of brand relationship, as drivers of loyal behaviours towards the online channel. We compare the impact of these variables with those of the technology acceptance model. Multiple linear regression analysis is applied to data collected through a survey answered by 1533 multichannel retail shoppers in two product categories (apparel and consumer electronics) in two countries (UK and Spain). Our findings show that both brand trust and brand attachment have a positive impact on loyal behaviours towards the online channel, and that different loyalty behaviours, i.e. purchase intentions, word of mouth and electronic word of mouth are explained by different variables.     

黑袜子 昂贵背后的营销术

<正>出售的商品简单得出奇,价格不便宜,甚至要先交年费。但就是这样的一个网站,却赢得了极高的用户忠诚度。它成功的奥秘在哪里呢?这是一家欧洲的小型网络商店,叫"黑袜子站"(BlackSocks.com),顾名思义它专卖黑袜子。但这种普通的黑袜子,定价不低,基本上是一双10美元。然而,十多年来,它成功在欧洲卖出1000万双黑袜子,并因此一度成为美谈。该网站的创始人萨米·赖尔切思路清晰:只专注商务人士。     

Competition with clone: an analysis of the role of illegal copy

The efficiency of a market depends on the amount of information about products available to buyers. However, an information goods market is not an efficient market because information goods are mostly experience goods. We suggest that illegal copying can be an efficient information channel to account for the problem. We also suggest that partially enforced copyright protection may encourage the competition between the original information goods and illegally copied goods that benefits not only customers but also producers.     

Brand response to environmental turbulence: A framework and propositions for resistance,recovery and reinvention

As valuable assets of corporations, governments and not-for-profit organizations, brands have attracted considerable research attention. We know a lot about how brands create knowledge in their target consumers’ minds, which leads to an attitude towards or relationship with the brand that translates into a number of favorable outcomes. The resultant brand equity is often associated with improved performance of the organization in reaching its objectives such as increasing market value. We know less about the dynamic nature of brand equity and, in particular, how it may interact with turbulence in the external environment in which the brand competes, both positively and negatively. We examine three key dimensions of brand equity—brands’ access to their target markets, perceived differentiation, and level of brand engagement with their target consumers—that influence the effect environmental turbulence has on diminishing equity or providing future opportunities for brand equity growth. Borrowing from the strategy literature, we suggest ways in which agile and resilient firms can use brand equity to resist environmental turbulence, recover from any damage that may result from it, and reinvent themselves to leverage opportunities created by a radically altered external environment. We close with a set of propositions intended to guide managers in anticipating and responding to environmental turbulence and inform and shape future research in this area.     

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,     

Why would a big retailer refuse to collaborate on manufacturer SPIFF programs?

Big retailers that carry a large assortment of products rely on knowledgeable salespeople to provide purchase advice to customers and match customers with suitable products. Interestingly, big retailers vary in their policies regarding whether to allow their salespeople to receive manufacturer SPIFF (Sales Person Incentive Funding Formula) payments, which motivate salespeople advising at no cost of the retailer. In this study, we investigate a big retailer’s incentive to block manufacturer SPIFF programs, which has the consequence of demotivating salespeople from advising customers, from the perspective of vertical channel interactions. We scrutinize a big retailer’s decision to maximize its profit through managing its channel interactions with upstream manufacturers offering horizontally differentiated products, customers uncertain about true fits with competing products, and its salesperson who can match customers with suitable products through offering purchase advice. Our analysis shows that motivating the salesperson to advise customers is profitable for the retailer only if the such advising has moderate effectiveness in matching consumers and suitable products, and only in this case would the retailer collaborate on manufacturer SPIFF programs. Otherwise, salesperson advising hurts retailer profit and the big retailer benefits from blocking manufacturer SPIFF programs. Our study reveals the interesting theoretical insight that the incentives of a big retailer and upstream manufacturers to motivate sales advising reside in their incentives to battle for a more favorable channel status.     

Examining Market Information and Brand Equity Through Resource‐Advantage Theory: A Carrier Perspective

To survive in this challenging economic environment, transportation providers must differentiate themselves in the eyes of current and potential customers. Consequently, they are seeking to develop superior resources that allow them to build greater awareness of and distinctive images for their brands. Those that are successful achieve higher levels of brand equity and, ultimately, positions of competitive advantage in the logistics services industry. This research applies resource‐advantage theory to investigate the role of market information in creating an informational advantage to build brand equity for transportation providers. Results from a survey of motor carriers indicate that informational advantage mediates the impact of market information resources on the levels of brand image and brand awareness, two dimensions of a firm’s brand equity.