Preservation,rejuvenation, or confusion? Changing package designs for heritage brands

Updating a brand's packaging presents a challenge, especially for heritage brands. This study examines how and when continuity in visual package design influences brand heritage perceptions. A pre‐study uses focus groups to corroborate evidence for the constructs and processes involved. Three experiments show that lower continuity designs create confusion, which in turn damages a brand's heritage identity. Study 1a provides initial evidence for the process and demonstrates that effects occur regardless of prior brand usage. Study 1b replicates the mediating role of confusion with two different product categories, controlling for brand attachment. Study 1c rules out alternative mediating processes through other emotions. Employing a quasiexperimental design involving ten brands, Study 2 demonstrates that a brand's mascot can buffer against detrimental effects of low design continuity on confusion and consequent perceptions of brand heritage and purchase intention while controlling for brand familiarity and need for cognition. Together, these findings contribute to a better understanding of consumer responses to changes in package design and heritage brands.     

Customer choices of manufacturer versus retailer brands in alternative price and usage contexts

This article offers a context-dependent theory of how price changes influence consumer purchase choice for fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) for manufacturer (large household share) and retailer (small household share) brands. The theory proposes that the influence of price on demand is systematically very sensitive to context effects; more specifically, the theory includes the hypothesis that elasticity is much greater when the price change results in the manufacturer and retailer brands having the same price compared to when the price change keeps the manufacturer brand price above the retailer brand price. The implicit and/or explicit association with higher quality with the manufacturer versus retailer brand may be the main reason for buying the higher priced manufacturer brand. Decreasing the price of the manufacturer brand to equal the retailer brand's price takes away the primary reason for buying the retailer brand (i.e., saving money); increasing the price of the retailer brand to equal the manufacturer brand's price has the same effect. The empirical findings in the studies that this article reports support the hypothesis and confirm Scriven and Ehrenberg's [2004. Consistent consumer responses to price changes. Australas. Mark. J. 12(3), 21–39] major conclusion that relative order of price is more important than relative distance.     

What drives brands’ price response metrics? An empirical examination of the Chinese packaged goods industry

As competition among CPG brands intensifies in both emerging and developed markets, brand managers increasingly focus on price as the weapon-of-choice. This calls for an assessment of not only their own price response, but also of their competitive pricing power, and its antecedents. The authors propose a set of universally applicable ('etic') and country-specific ('emic') drivers of brand price elasticity, clout, and vulnerability, for the world’s largest emerging market (viz., China). Leveraging a unique and large-scale data set from this market, they find that high price response is not necessarily indicative of high clout, nor does it signal high vulnerability. Hence, all three price response metrics matter. They also uncover marked differences in the impact of brand- and category-level drivers on these three metrics. Established etic factors such as line length, distribution intensity, and stockpilability have a substantial effect on one or more price response metrics. Among the emic factors, Chinese embeddedness, and especially social demonstrance play an important role: it strongly drives down brands’ price elasticity, but also reduces the intensity of price competition in the category and makes brands less vulnerable to rival actions. Foreign brands, in contrast, exhibit higher price response, and do not enjoy higher clout nor lower vulnerability than their domestic counterparts. Hence, they neither benefit from the aura, nor suffer from the liability, of foreignness. Overall, the study adds to empirical generalizations on the impact of price, and helps managers improve the effectiveness of their pricing strategies.     

The fight between store brands and national brands—What's the score?

In the Western world market shares for store brands have increased across all product categories. The competitive position of store brands compared to national brands may depend on the product category and a retail chain's overall brand assortment strategy. In order to investigate these possible chain and category effects we have selected five chains with different store brand strategies and three product categories that differ with respect to the number of strong national brands in a category. The results we report focus on the competitive position of store brands compared to national brands from a consumer point of view. We find that store brands are in a weak competitive position compared to national brands independent of category and retail chain brand assortment strategy.     

Factors that influence manufacturer and store brand behavioral loyalty

This study examines the factors that are linked to consumer goods brands having unusually high or low behavioral loyalty, after controlling for the association between brand size and loyalty that occurs due to the ‘double jeopardy’ effect. Behavioral, or repeat-purchase loyalty is measured as the brand's average share of category requirements (in volume) among its buyers over a 12-month period. We examine a range of factors that theory or past evidence suggests are associated with higher or lower behavioral loyalty, including brand type (store brand/manufacturer brand), price level, promotion intensity, as well as average brand volume per occasion and pack size. Using extensive US panel purchasing data, we find that store brands exhibit relatively higher behavioral loyalty than manufacturer brands. We explain the theory behind this result. We also find that the brand's average pack size and volume bought per occasion has a markedly positive association with behavioral loyalty. Finally, we find that the effect of low price on excess loyalty is moderated via a positive association with average volume purchase per occasion. These findings add to the body of knowledge relating to patterns in behavioral brand loyalty for both manufacturer and store brands, as well as the marketing-mix factors that influence it.     

Managing Brands in the Social Media Environment

The dynamic, ubiquitous, and often real-time interaction enabled by social media significantly changes the landscape for brand management. A deep understanding of this change is critical since it may affect a brand's performance substantially. Literature about social media's impact on brands is evolving, but lacks a systematic identification of key challenges related to managing brands in this new environment. This paper reviews existing research and introduces a framework of social media's impact on brand management. It argues that consumers are becoming pivotal authors of brand stories due to new dynamic networks of consumers and brands formed through social media and the easy sharing of brand experiences in such networks. Firms need to pay attention to such consumer-generated brand stories to ensure a brand's success in the marketplace. The authors identify key research questions related to the phenomenon and the challenges in coordinating consumer- and firm-generated brand stories.     

The competing roles of variety seeking in new brand adoption

We examine how consumers' attribute-level variety-seeking behaviors can explain their propensity to adopt a new brand in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) market. We leverage consumers' purchase history among extant brands prior to a new brand introduction as an indicator of the new brand adoption upon its launch. We incorporate variety seeking at two product attribute levels – brand and flavor – and find that variety seeking along these two dimensions predicts different outcomes for new brand adoptions. The estimation results of our discrete-time hazard model show that consumers' brand-level and flavor-level variety-seeking behaviors affect their likelihood to adopt a new brand in different manners: consumers who purchase various brands are more likely to adopt a new brand, whereas those who choose various flavors are less likely to adopt a new brand. The results also show that the new brand's price promotions and in-store displays can affect the role of variety seeking in consumers' new brand adoption. We assess the robustness of our findings by replicating our empirical model with an additional measure of variety seeking as well as a variety-seeking measure in another product category.     

An experimental test of brand insulation against competitor attacks: Effects of consumer heterogeneity and residual desire

Price discounts generally move consumers from lower‐quality brands to higher‐quality brands more than from higher‐quality brands to lower‐quality brands. This asymmetry can reverse, however, to favor the lower‐quality brand when improvements are made to product quality. Whether such variations exist when the goal is to retain rather than steal customers remains untested and constitutes the focus of this study. Experimental results indicate that customer retention strategies tend to favor higher‐quality brands. Higherquality brands are able to retain customers by matching the form of the lower‐quality brand's attack (price reduction or quality improvement). For lower‐quality brands, matching is effective only in the case of a price attack by a higher‐quality brand. Furthermore, higher‐quality brands are able to effectively retain customers with price reductions that are smaller than the discount offered by a lower‐quality competitor, whereas lower‐quality brands must match the magnitude of a discount by a higher‐quality brand to retain customers. The findings suggest that differences in customer retention across quality levels arise from (1) heterogeneity among consumers of different quality levels in the relative weightings of price and quality, and (2) switching decisions based on reasons that are biased toward continuing to purchase, or moving to, higher quality products. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Country of Origin Association in Retail and Wholesale Branding

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to consider country of origin in terms of its association with brand heritage and its implications in fashion branding, thus providing a new perspective within the context of retail and wholesale brands. This qualitative study demonstrates how country of origin is widely used as a communicative tool by retail and wholesale brands, associated with brand heritage. However, the way country of origin is manifested and/or associated (e.g., brand name, color, etc.) varies depending on a brand's history, positioning, brand value, and the type of market sector that the retail and wholesale brands are targeting.     

Tiger Woods,Nike, and I are (not) best friends: how brand's sports sponsorship in social-media impacts brand consumer's congruity and relationship quality

This study examines the effects of brand's sports sponsorship in social media on brand consumer's congruity and brand relationship quality. The study included a survey of targeting consumers whose ages range between early twenties and late forties; data from 322 respondents were collected. The results are as follows. First, brand's sports sponsorship in social-media activities relating to sports brands has significant effects on brand consumer's congruity. Second, this congruity significantly influences brand relationship quality. Third, male consumers, who have previously purchased products and services associated with a sports brand, perceive the sponsor's brand image more positively when they are exposed to the sponsor's brand's sports sponsorship in social-media activities, compared to those consumers having no previous purchases of the sponsored brand. Lastly, consumers in their forties with prior experience consuming the sponsor's brand products are most affected by the level of self-congruity with the sports brand compared to younger or older consumers.     

Retail shopping lists: Reassessment and new insights

The paper addresses consumers' shopping lists. The current study is based on a survey of 871 lists collected at retail grocery stores. Most items on shopping lists appear on the product category level rather than the brand level. The importance of the brand level varies considerably across product categories. An association between the frequency of a brand's appearance on lists and the amount of money spent on advertising the brand could not be found. A strong link between brands, prices and store names is revealed. Price in the majority of cases refers to brands rather than to product categories. The paper ends with a discussion and with suggestions for future research.     

Family influence on young adult's brand evaluation. An empirical analysis focused on parent–children influence in three consumer packaged goods

Throughout the years, there has been debate in the consumer research literature on how families influence their children's attitudes to brands. This paper analyses parent–young adult children influence on the creation of brand associations, perceived quality and willingness to pay a price premium. In order to fulfil these goals, an empirical analysis using a sample of 349 young adults has been conducted. Relationships have been analysed by means of structural equations models in three consumer packaged goods, and results obtained allow us to conclude that the information provided by parents may foster the creation of brand associations, it may favour young adults' positive perception of the brand's quality, and finally, it may lead young adults to be willing to pay a price premium for the brand.     

A path to altruism: Investigating the effects of brand origin and message explicitness in CR‐M campaigns

An increasing number of fashion brands are employing cause‐related marketing (CR‐M) campaigns to promote their social responsibility. However, with growing consumer skepticism about CR‐M, it is becoming more difficult than before to encourage consumers' positive responses to these campaigns. Based on construal level theory and rhetorical theory, this study examined the way brand origin (local vs. global), and its interaction with message type (explicit vs. implicit), influence consumers' perceived brand altruism and brand favorability. Two experimental studies were conducted with a total of 574 U.S. consumers. The results of Study 1 indicated that consumers exhibited higher perceived brand altruism and brand favorability toward a local brand's CR‐M campaign than a global brand's, showing that psychological distance can influence a CR‐M campaign's effectiveness. In addition, the results of Study 2 revealed that an explicit CR‐M message was more effective for global brands, while an implicit message was more effective for local brands, and perceived brand altruism mediated both effects. This suggests the importance of framing messages according to brand origin to maximize CR‐M campaigns' ability to achieve their goals effectively, in which perceived brand altruism plays a key role. The study's implications and limitations are discussed.     

Dynamic assortment in the presence of brand heterogeneity

In this paper, we study the dynamic assortment planning problem in the presence of heterogeneous brands. Over a limited selling season, the retailer sells heterogeneous products from one store brand and one national brand. We use the nested multinomial logit (NMNL) framework to model consumer choice process, in which consumers choose first which brand to buy and then a product within that brand. We formulate this problem using the finite-horizon dynamic programming approach. Using available sales transaction data, we estimate the consumer choice behavior and empirically demonstrate existence of brand heterogeneity. Further, our results suggest that ignoring brand heterogeneity will make the retailer’s expected revenues significantly overestimated, and the potential revenue overestimation depends on initial inventories and prices of products of two brands. We finally show that the retailer will benefit from dynamic assortment optimization with the estimated consumer choice model.     

The effects of competitive context on consumer response to price changes

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to understand how a brand’s price level, relative to its competitors, will affect consumers’ responses to price changes of the brand. The study uses experiments to examine brand choice responses to price increases and decreases across contexts differing in competitor brands and their respective prices. These experiments are conducted with six consumer goods categories. The research identifies three key factors that affect the size of responses to brand price changes – (1) passing a competitor brand’s price, (2) narrowing versus widening the price gaps with competitors, and (3) whether competitors are predominantly higher or lower priced brands.     

Associative and dissociative comparative advertising strategies in broadening brand positioning

When marketplace dynamics prompt a familiar brand to change its positioning, consumers often meet such attempts with resistance. This research demonstrates how familiar brands can incorporate new attribute information into the brand's position via comparative advertising in order to broaden the brand's marketplace positioning. Study 1 shows how the use and nature of comparative advertising affects the ability of a familiar brand to broaden its positioning. Studies 2a and 2b demonstrate that a comparative advertising strategy that incorporates a specific sequencing of dissociative and associative comparative advertisements best broadens brand positioning.     

Understanding retail branding: conceptual insights and research priorities

With the growing realization that brands are one of a firm's most valuable intangible assets, branding has emerged as a top management priority in the last decade. Given its highly competitive nature, branding can be especially important in the retailing industry to influence customer perceptions and drive store choice and loyalty. We integrate lessons from branding and retail image research to provide a better understanding of how retailers create their brand images, paying special attention to the role of the manufacturer and private label brand assortment. We also highlight some important areas that deserve further research in the form of three sets of research priorities.     

Brand alliance and customer‐based brand‐equity effects

This research examines brand alliances, a specific marketing strategy designed to transfer the positive brand equity of two or more partner brands to the newly created joint brand. The study explores how customer‐based brand equity (that is, brand equity as seen from the customer's perspective) of partner brands affects consumer evaluations of an alliance brand; how the brand equity of one partner brand affects the other; how customer‐based brand equity of the partner brands affects consumers' evaluations of the search, experience, and credence attribute performance of the alliance brand; and how product trial influences such evaluations. Results suggest that merely the act of pairing with another brand elevates consumers' evaluations of the partner brands' customer‐based brand equity, and high‐equity partners enhance pretrial evaluation of experience and credence attributes that are relevant to the high‐equity partner. As hypothesized, product trial moderates the equity value of the alliance partner for experience attributes, and brand equity of the partner brands influences consumer perceptions of the alliance brand's equity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumer response to service brand physical elements: Using a semantic priming task to explore implicit understanding of service brand meaning

Consumers' responses to design features involve both conscious and non-conscious information processing. The current research therefore argues that a combination of explicit and implicit measures should be used to assess consumer understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements. However, most methods traditionally used to evaluate design meaning are explicit methods, based on conscious cognitive processes. The current research addresses this gap by documenting how understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements can be tapped by an implicit measure. More specifically, it aims to investigate the extent to which a greater ability to decode meaning conveyed by design features results in differences in implicit understanding of service brand meaning. This research uses a Semantic Priming Task to assess associative strength between brand meaning and a service brand's physical elements. Results (N = 157) show that command of the design language, captured by design acumen and involvement in the product category, results in greater ability to implicitly understand brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements, and moderates the implicit-explicit relationship. Results suggest that combining implicit and explicit measures may help practitioners in charge of creating brand's physical elements, especially when associations between design types and brand impressions are not constant across product categories.     

Defensive strategy against a private label: Building brand premium for retailer cooperation

We build a game-theoretic model of price competition between a national brand manufacturer and a retailer that also sells its private label. In particular, we examine a national brand's strategy of building brand premium in the context of channel coordination. The importance of national brand's brand equity has been well-documented in many empirical and behavioral studies. We reinforce the argument that building brand premium should be the first line of defense for a national brand instead of aggressively cutting wholesale price. Not only does the national brand manufacturer benefit from it, but also the retailer who sells both the national brand and its own private label has less incentive to promote the latter. Therefore, it can induce retailer cooperation, which is essential for a successful strategy in a distribution channel.