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.     

A longitudinal examination of the effects of retailer–manufacturer brand alliances: The role of perceived fit

Abstract

One resource that has been identified as a valuable source of competitive advantage is the equity associated with an organisation's brands. Organisations devote considerable resources to developing strategies that allow them to build and/or maintain strong brand names. This study investigates brand alliances between retailers and manufacturers. The role of perceived fit between the partnering brands is explored. In addition, the study examines the influence that retailer–manufacturer brand alliances have on: retailer equity; manufacturer brand equity; the intention of consumers to frequent the stores of the retailer involved in the brand alliance (shopping intention); and the intention of consumers to purchase products from the manufacturer involved in the brand alliance (purchase intention).     

How does consumers' Perception of Sports Stars' Personal Brand Promote Consumers’ brand love? A mediation model of global brand equity

Previous research on the sports marketing of global brands has focused mainly on the sponsorship of sporting events and the endorsement of products by athletes. This study reveals the unexamined effect of the impact of sports stars' personal brand on global brand equity and consumers' brand love. Based on global consumer culture (GCC) theory and self-expansion theory, this paper examines the influence of sports celebrities' personal brand on consumers' perceptions of global brand equity and brand love. Using survey data from 372 users of “HUPU”, our results revealed that the use of sports stars' personal brand (attractiveness, expertise, and congruence) was positively related to global brand equity and brand love. Belief in global brand citizenship has a full mediating effect between attractiveness and brand love but a partial mediating effect between expertise, congruence and brand love. Product quality partially mediates the relationship between expertise and brand love. These findings suggest that it is appropriate to use sports stars' personal brand to build global brand equity and increase consumers’ brand love.     

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.     

Role of Advertising and Promotion in Brand Equity Creation

This article surveys the effects of the individual's attitude toward advertising and nonmonetary promotions besides other subjects, namely advertising cost and monetary promotions on brand equity. It has been surveyed on 392 consumers in Iran. Its results prove the effective role of the individual's attitude toward advertising in promoting the brand equity. The deficiency of advertising in affecting the perceived quality and brand association, and the inefficacy of nonmonetary promotions on brand equity are the fascinating ramifications. In addition, the findings show that businesses can improve the process of the brand equity management by contemplating the relations between the dimensions of the brand equity.     

Key service drivers for high-tech service brand equity: The mediating role of overall service quality and perceived value

Abstract

This study investigates how different aspects of service quality could have effects on overall perception of service quality, perceived value, and service brand equity. Based on a survey of active users of mobile telecommunications services in Taiwan, we obtained the following findings. First, we found that empathy, network quality, reliability, and assurance, but not tangibles and responsiveness, have a significant effect on service quality and value perception. Second, the effect of overall service quality on brand equity is partially mediated by perceived value. Third, overall service quality has differential mediation effects on the relationships between specific service quality dimensions and perceived value. Finally, empathy and network quality have direct effects on brand equity. For managers, our study suggests the importance of identifying key service drivers for building strong service brand for high-tech service firms. The identification of key service drivers could then enable these firms to make strategic decisions on services investments. It also demonstrates the importance of the humanisation of technology for services firms. This study is original in that it explores the path from specific services qualities to service brand equity.     

The influence of green brand innovativeness and value perception on brand loyalty: the moderating role of green knowledge

Building on arguments relating to the differences between innovation and innovativeness and their influences on brand loyalty, this study investigates how green brand innovativeness and value perception influence green brand loyalty. In addition, the influences of a mediating variable green perceived value (GPV) and a moderating variable (consumer green knowledge) on the development process of green brand loyalty are examined. Data were collected using an online survey administered to a consumer panel in China, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the conceptual model with a sample of 826 Chinese respondents. The results demonstrate that green brand innovativeness was directly associated with brand loyalty and indirectly influenced brand loyalty via GPV. Moreover, green knowledge significantly moderated the relationship between green brand innovativeness and GPV. Therefore, to promote green brand loyalty, organizations must allocate resources into enhancing consumers’ perceptions of green brand innovativeness and green value, and improving their environmental knowledge.     

The Role of Brand Orientation in Church Participation: An Empirical Examination

Although a large amount of research has been undertaken into the application of marketing techniques in church organizations, few studies have provided empirical evidence on the effects of brand orientation on church participation. This empirical study sought to contribute to the body of literature via a survey of 344 church attendees of a particular church denomination in Australia. The conceptual model hypothesizes brand orientation as performing direct and indirect effects on church participation through perceived benefits as the mediating variables. A person's perception of the extent to which a church engages in brand-oriented activities and behavior is significantly related with his or her perception of the benefits associated with church activities, which then leads to a higher level of church participation. The results reveal that brand orientation is significantly related with perceived benefits and church participation.     

The role of customer online brand experience in customers' intention to forward online company-generated content: The case of the Islamic online banking sector in Palestine

The purpose of this study is twofold: Firstly, to assess the impact of customer online brand experience (COBE) with online banking on customer's intention to forward online company-generated content (CGC). Secondly, to explore the role of online brand community engagement (OBCE) and the perceived trust of brand community page (BCP) as mediating variables between COBE and the intention to forward online CGC. This research conducted an online survey among various Islamic bank customers in Palestine who were members of online brand communities (fan pages) on Facebook. 375 valid responses were collected and results revealed that COBE exerts a dual influence on intention to forward CGC. This study is a pioneering empirical research on the role of OBCE in customers' intention to forward online CGC within the fast-growing Islamic banking industry. This study contributes to fill this research gap by assessing the effect of COBE on OBCE and intention to forward online CGC within the context of the Islamic online banking sector in Palestine. In this sense, this study is a first-of-its-kind research on the role of experience on customer engagement with regard to online brand communities of Islamic banks.     

The role of benefits and transparency in shaping consumers’ green perceived value,self-brand connection and brand loyalty

Building on the literature on green consumption, this study investigates consumers’ perceptions of a brand's green benefits (utilitarian environmental and warm glow) and green transparency on their green perceived value (GPV). In particular, this study tests the mediating role of GPV and self-brand connection on the relationships between green benefits and green transparency and brand loyalty. We used structural equation modeling to test the research model with a sample of 826 Chinese respondents. Our findings suggest that most of the hypotheses were supported. However, comparison between brands of physical goods and services indicate that the approach to develop consumers’ green value perceptions is different and that the influences of GPV and self-brand connection on brand loyalty are significantly different between these two groups of brands. Hence, it would be more effective for organizations to have diverse green branding strategies between these two groups of brands.     

Consumers' response to other consumers' participation in new product development

In this paper, we investigate how consumers react to information that the brand has involved other consumers in the development of its new product. More specifically, we investigate how the participation of other consumers in either the ideation, where consumers come up with product ideas, or selection, where consumers select which out of many products the brand should produce and market, impacts on consumers' evaluations of the product and perceptions of the brand. Drawing from the literatures on brand schema and congruity, we hypothesize that by way of its effects on perceived brand uniqueness and brand attribution, consumer participation in new product ideation (selection) impacts more favorably on product and brand ratings when the product is incongruent (congruent) with the brand. An experimental study with 386 consumers supports the hypotheses.     

Influence of Corporate Image on Brand Extensions: A Model Applied to the Service Sector

The paper presented here provides a new perspective in the study of service brand extensions, which has become a popular strategy for launching new services. Specifically, the paper proposes and estimates a model that shows how potential consumers evaluate service extensions. The findings show that the corporate image affects both the perceived service quality and the perceived fit between the new service and the parent brand, which in turn affects attitudes towards the extension. In consequence, the service extension is more likely to be successful when the corporate image is reinforced by effective marketing communications. The perception of service quality will be better and consumers will think that the company is more able to offer the new services.     

The impact of functional integration on perceived risk and consumer-based brand equity

Consumers today have access to a wide span of corporate information and are increasingly aware of the degree to which the functional areas of marketing and supply chain activities are becoming more integrated. Functional integration involves coordinating supply- and demand-focused activities and is theorized to create two interrelated benefits for consumers: lower perceived purchase risk and, ultimately, higher consumer-based brand equity. Despite an emphasis on the important role of consumers in the functional integration literature, the consumers’ viewpoint is missing. This research addresses this gap using a survey and an experiment to investigate the impact of functional integration on consumers’ perceptions of risk and consumer-based brand equity. Findings suggest that when functional integration acts as a component of brand association, purchase risk decreases and consumer-based brand equity increases. The results can help scholars and practitioners better understand the role of functional integration by advancing the nomological net of brand associations as part of the standard marketing mix.     

品牌资产视角下的银行创新型服务产品策略研究

面对复杂多变的市场竞争环境,银行业需要持续创新服务产品来满足消费需求。然而,品牌资产管理瓶颈会极大地削弱银行创新型产品的市场竞争力。本文基于品牌资产理论,对银行创新型服务产品的市场竞争优势进行分析,归纳银行创新型服务产品在品牌资产管理中存在的问题,并提出品牌资产视角下的提升银行创新型服务产品竞争力的对策,旨在为银行业推进金融产品创新和品牌资产管理以提升品牌竞争优势提供研究借鉴。     

Development of brand equity: evaluation of four alternative models

This study examines the development of brand equity by evaluating the influences of brand associations, perceived quality, satisfaction, and brand loyalty. Based on insights from prior research, four models are proposed, which focus on alternative relationships among these four factors. Sample data sets from the banking and discount store services are used to evaluate the relationships between and among these four factors. Results of the comparative data analyses reveal that the research model fits the data significantly better than the other three models. In particular, the contention that the effects of perceived quality impact brand equity indirectly through satisfaction is supported. The findings indicate that the primary contribution of the current study lies in the inclusion of satisfaction as an antecedent to brand equity and in the attempts to adequately model its relationships with the more traditional brand equity antecedents of perceived quality, brand loyalty, and brand associations. These results, and their implications, along with avenues for further research are also elaborated in this research.     

The rise of smart consumers: role of smart servicescape and smart consumer experience co-creation

ABSTRACT

Rapid technological advancements have led to the emergence of smart services and smart consumers. This study focuses on smart consumers who voluntarily engage in value creation activities, in order to conceptualise smart experience co-creation (SEC) and the smart servicescape. Drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework, a model is proposed and tested around the impacts of smart servicescape dimensions (aesthetics, superior functionality, social presence, perceived interactivity and perceived personalisation) on smart consumer experience co-creation. SEC is conceptualised as a second-order construct consisting of cognitive, hedonic, social/personal, and pragmatic/economic first-order dimensions. Results show that the technological environmental cues of the smart servicescape (S) collectively influence smart experience co-creation (O), and this co-created experience eventually influences consumers’ service brand equity and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions (R). A major novelty of this study lies in uncovering the relationship between experience co-creation and service brand equity. Findings have theoretical and managerial implications for smart services.     

品牌资产引擎视角下的品牌价值模型及其应用研究

品牌资产引擎(Equity Engine)是一种基于消费者认知的评估模型。在该模型中亲和力、功能表现和价格构成了品牌价值的三大要素。亲和力是品牌受到的来自消费者的信任和尊敬。功能表现是品牌资产的另一个重要组成部分。品牌对消费者而言的终极价值是品牌资产和价格的共同作用。品牌资产引擎可以帮助商业企业定量地测量品牌资产,了解品牌的显性和隐性驱动因素和最大化品牌资产。     

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.     

Role of customer perceived brand ethicality in inducing engagement in online brand communities

In recent times, ethical consumerism has motivated firms to behave ethically to garner various benefits for their brands. More specifically, firms have become more conscious of consumers' perceptions of brand ethicality. Thus, recent research on this topic attempts to explore the factors that can lead to the formation of perceptions of brand ethicality and its favorable outcomes for the brand. This research contributes to the existing literature on brand ethicality by examining the role of perceived brand marketing communications in engendering perceptions of brand ethicality among consumers. Further, this research explores online brand community engagement as the outcome of perceived brand ethicality. The study's results based on the analysis of 397 responses exhibit that various elements of brand communications tend to generate favorable perceptions of brand ethicality. Such perceptions of the brand ethicality further induce an inclination towards engaging with online communities of such brands. The study offers specific implications for academicians and practitioners.     

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.