Antecedents and Performance Consequences of Integrated Brand Management in China: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

This study explores the role of integrated brand management in China. Using the survey data for 309 brands, our results show that integrated brand management has a positive effect on business performance in China. We also find that top management emphasis and corporate supportive resources directly foster integrated brand management. In addition, the emphasis of top management indirectly affects integrated brand management through reward system. Furthermore, we find that these relations vary between high- and low-performance brands. The implications for transitional economies are discussed.     

Trust,Brand Equity and Brand Reality in Internet Business Relationships: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Trust and the concept of the brand are increasingly of interest in the study of business relationships on the Internet. Synthesising studies of trust from other disciplines such as accounting, sociology, psychology and biology can provide useful insights into the application of trust both specifically and generally, to Internet business relationships. While there is a plethora of models, those with potential application for Internet business relationship theory are described and analysed. The argument is extended to discuss the concept of the brand as a surrogate for trust, and hence as a reliable identifier of a certain cluster of values.     

An Empirical Investigation of Brand Equity: A Cross-Country Validation Analysis

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model in order to better understand brand equity. The goal of this research is to identify the drivers and determine how they influence brand equity performance in the researched industry in order to develop a more effective brand strategy. Quantitative data collected are used to test a model of brand value in the context of the food industry. The findings of this research provided evidence that the customer-based brand equity model can be applied to the food industry context and be used to guide marketing activities internationally. Brand awareness has a positive influence on brand associations and perceived quality. Brand associations have a positive influence on brand loyalty. Finally, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations all have a positive effect on brand equity. This study contributes to the scarce international brand equity literature by testing the proposed model using data from a sample of consumers in two European countries.     

产品与服务的品牌资产比较研究

关于品牌资产对产品更重要还是对服务更重要这一问题,学术界的研究结论并不一致.本文采用问卷调查的研究方法,直接和间接测量了搜索、体验和信任属性的产品和服务共12个品牌的品牌资产,并对两者的测量结果进行比较和讨论.结果表明:品牌资产对于无形的服务更为重要,消费者在选择有形的产品时,则更倾向于通过支付溢价来确保质量;在所有属性的产品中,品牌资产对于搜索属性的产品最为重要;而所有属性的服务中,其品牌资产的重要性是相同的.     

中国品牌和品牌资产的评估

在以“需求”确定市场均衡(即“买方市场”)的当代经济中,企业之间的商战在很大程度上归结为品牌(Brand)之争。品牌的强弱对企业经营的影响往往更胜过其产品的价值本身。这一现象在开放的国际市场上尤其明显。例如,许多消费者都愿意花100美元去买一双“耐克”牌运动鞋,但他们却     

Exploring Green Brand Associations through a Network Analysis Approach

In compliance with society's growing concern for the environment, an increasing number of enterprises are willing to act in socially responsible and environmentally conscious ways. Green‐related issues for enterprises have been an important academic research topic for at least three decades; however, few studies have focused on green brand associations. Based on the associative network perspective, the authors attempt to explore green brand associations through a network analysis approach. By combining network analysis with the qualitative elicitation method, the authors utilize commonly used measures of network analysis (i.e., centrality and cohesion measures) to reveal the content and structure of associative networks for green brands; next, they demonstrate empirical support for the findings. The results contribute to providing brand researchers with different analytical perspectives on the existing knowledge about green brand associations and offering strategic information for green brand practitioners.     

The Effect of Brand Gender on Brand Equity

Brand personality has been suggested as an important source of consumer‐based brand equity, yet empirical research on the relation between brand personality perceptions and brand equity is scarce. This article examines the link between masculine and feminine brand personality and brand equity as well as the underlying process of this relationship. Study 1 reported herein involves 140 existing brands and demonstrates that high levels of brand masculinity and femininity relate positively to brand equity, and that this relation is not moderated by participants’ sex. Study 2 demonstrates that brand gender accounts for brand equity ratings above and beyond other brand personality dimensions. Study 3 identifies ease of categorization as the underlying mechanism for the relationship between brand gender and brand equity.     

购物网站品牌资产及其形成机制实证研究

本文认为,购物网站品牌资产是消费者头脑中购物网站品牌知识导致的消费者对网站营销产生的差异化反应。文章从国情出发构建基于消费者视角的购物网站品牌资产模型并进行实证研究。研究认为,网站认知、网站品牌形象(感知质量、网站体验)、网站信任和网站忠诚是购物网站品牌资产的构成要素,它们之间不是并列的关系,而是有次序的因果关系。网站认知是网站品牌资产的基础,感知质量和网站体验可构成网站品牌形象而导致消费者对网站的信任,进而影响网站忠诚。建立消费者忠诚是购物网站的关键,网络企业可以通过提高网站知名度、产品和服务质量以及在网站设计方面增加网络购物的愉快体验来建立消费者对网站的信任,提高网站忠诚度。     

Brand Authenticity: Testing the Antecedents and Outcomes of Brand Management's Passion for its Products

While customer orientation is accepted as a core marketing principle, this research suggests that an opposing orientation—product orientation—may offer an advantage. Managers who follow a product orientation focus on products that interest and inspire them rather than on products that fulfill consumers’ desires. This research suggests that a consumer's perception that managers follow a product orientation is consistent with prior conceptualizations of brand authenticity. That research suggests that brands perceived as authentic are evaluated more positively, yet that research does not empirically assess brand authenticity's effects nor suggest its antecedents. To fill this gap, the authors develop a conceptualization and model of brand authenticity grounded in self‐determination theory, attribution theory, and extant authentic human brand research. Brand authenticity is defined as the extent to which consumers perceive that a brand's managers are intrinsically motivated in that they are passionate about and devoted to providing their products. The model proposes four antecedents of brand authenticity—two related to rare brand behaviors (uniqueness and scarcity), and two related to stable brand behaviors (longevity and longitudinal consistency). It also proposes two perceptual outcomes of brand authenticity—expected quality and trust. Two 2 × 2 experiments (n = 136 for Study 1; n = 155 for Study 2) demonstrate a positive impact of the antecedents on brand authenticity and of brand authenticity on the outcomes. Brand authenticity mediates these effects.     

Enhancing Brand Equity Through Sustainability: Waste Recycling

Unlike many existing research studies that explain reverse marketing from a purchasing perspective, this study recognizes it as an honest effort made by managers aiming to promote sustainability by purposefully managing waste and discusses the spillover effect of their initiatives on brand equity. It argues that efficient recycling of products through reverse marketing by a brand demonstrates its sincere intent to adopt sustainable business practices and enhances its equity in the marketplace. A business‐to‐business viewpoint has been used to combine knowledge about waste recycling and management through reverse marketing based on the unpretentious operations and management practices. The propositions reflect on the criticality of engaging business customer firms in a procedural mechanism of recycling for increase in brand equity as the success of reverse marketing. A comprehensive adoption of an initiative like waste management through reverse marketing by a brand highlights how sustainability initiatives can create value for the customers of the brand and ultimately drive brand equity. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

慈善捐赠行为对企业品牌资产影响的实验研究

慈善捐赠行为对企业品牌资产的影响机理是一个理论难题,也是实务界关心的现实问题。本文采用实验研究方法,基于顾客的品牌资产理论认知,以大学生和高校后勤职工为对象,考察了不同类型慈善捐赠行为对企业品牌资产的影响,并分析了感知风险的调节作用。实验研究表明,“反应性-一般群体”类和“先行性-特定群体”类慈善捐赠行为能够提升品牌忠诚;四类慈善捐赠行为均对品牌知晓和品牌形象产生了正面影响;感知风险在慈善捐赠行为和企业品牌资产之间具有调节作用。     

品牌资产视角的服务品牌忠诚度研究

本文从品牌资产的视角出发,采用问卷调查的研究方法探讨了在搜索、体验和信任属性的服务中,感知质量、品牌联想和品牌知名度对品牌忠诚度的正面影响.结果表明,在所有的服务中,感知质量对品牌忠诚的正面提升作用随着厂商与消费者之间信息不对称性的增强而增强,而感知价值和品牌知名度对品牌忠诚的正面影响则随着厂商与消费者之问信息不对称性的增强而减弱;品牌个性和公司联想则分别只有在体验属性和信任属性的服务中才显著正面影响品牌忠诚.     

试论品牌延伸的边界

品牌延伸是目前业界比较盛行的一种品牌营销策略,本通过对经典献的回顾,详细讨论了影响品牌延伸成败的两个关键因素,并根据这两个因素构建了一个品牌延伸边界模型,用以限定品牌延伸的范围。     

Relational Resources in Interorganizational Exchange: The Effects of Trade Equity and Brand Equity

This research examines the effects of two key relational resources in relationships between retailers and national brand manufacturers. We introduce the new concept of trade equity, defined here as the value that accrues to a firm from being known in a trading network as a trustworthy trading partner, to explore the relational resources that are inherent in a firm’s ties with trading partners. We consider brand equity to represent relational resources that are located in a firm’s relational ties with end consumers. Based on data collected in a survey of 797 home appliance retailers, results show that a manufacturer’s trade equity and brand equity have differential effects on the retailer’s dependence and commitment to the manufacturer. Findings show that a manufacturer’s brand equity strengthens the effect of its trade equity on the retailer’s dependence and weakens the effect on the retailer’s commitment.     

Two-Party Negotiation Modeling: An Integrated Fuzzy Logic Approach

Game theoretic models attempted to predict unique equilibrium outcomes of negotiations with limited success. The imprecise character of negotiation is often altered to fit the game theorist's exacting approach. Alternative models deviated from the formal game theoretic approach and attempted to accommodate concepts such as negotiator power and time pressure. In this paper, we introduce a model which uses a fuzzy logic approach to deal with the imprecision in the negotiation process and to integrate several negotiation theories. The new model is used to simulate multiple-issue, two-party negotiations and results are consistent with established negotiation theories.     

Leveraging Equity Across The Brand Portfolio

Industry informants suggest that the equity of well-known, established brands can be leveraged to create value for unfamiliar or less-established brands. To the extent that cues in the retail environment imply some commonality between the high-equity brand and the less-established brand, benefits to the less-established brand may be expected. We refer to this implied commonality as strategic equivalence. Sharing the retail brand portfolio with high-equity brands is one way of establishing strategic equivalence. Display structure—whether the brands are displayed separately or intermixed—can also affect perceptions of strategic equivalence. In two studies, we demonstrate the ability of high-equity brands to increase the value of lower-equity brands in the same retail department and the ability of display structure to moderate this effect.     

Servbrand Framework: A Business-To-Business Services Brand Equity Framework

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The research reported on here set out to develop a tailored branding model for business to business (B-to-B) services by applying the brand resonance pyramid to a selected B-to-B services context.

The brand resonance pyramid was developed based on research that was predominantly consumer product or individual brand oriented, though one of the objectives when the model was developed was that “the model had to be versatile and applicable to all possible kinds of brands and industry settings. As more diverse applications of branding continued to emerge for products, services, organizations, people, places, and so forth, the model needed to have far-ranging relevance”. The brand resonance pyramid therefore had to be applicable to any context, including B-to-B services contexts. However, consumer goods branding strategies are not directly transferable to B-to-B or services markets and there are documented differences between the B-to-B and business-to-consumer (B2C) markets and products and services contexts. There is also doubt regarding the validity of the contention that the brand resonance pyramid should be applicable to the B-to-B sector.

Methodology: Using an interpretivist qualitative research approach and an exploratory research strategy, the Servbrand framework was developed empirically by applying the brand resonance pyramid to a selected B-to-B services context. Fourteen useful in-depth interviews were obtained from appropriate and information rich participants that represented more than 14 of the 89 organization that were included in the selection frame. Some of the participants were responsible for the relevant decisions of more than one organization.

Findings: The results from the study reported on here (summarized as Figure 5) prompted the inclusion of a people dimension and elevated the importance of relationships in an amended B-to-B services brand equity framework. The people brand-building block includes the dimensions of attitude and demeanor, personality and values, personableness, product knowledge and client knowledge. Relationships, as the ultimate aim of the framework, concern both interpersonal relationships and partnerships.

The article presents a conceptual framework to guide effective brand building strategies in a selected B-to-B services context. Researchers can use the framework to test its applicability in other contexts, which will contribute to the amendment of a significant brand equity management framework.

The Servbrand framework can assist marketing practitioners to improve the effectiveness of strategic brand management for B-to-B services.

Contribution: The empirical research contributes to three areas of brand equity research, namely: 1) the offering type – by investigating service offerings rather than product offerings; 2) the brand level – by investigating organization-level brands rather than product-level brands; and 3) context – by investigating a B-to-B context rather than a B2C context. A revised brand resonance pyramid is proposed and called the Servbrand framework.     

企业品牌资产的建立与管理

在消费者日益成熟与理智，产品和服务的选择范围越来越广泛，产品和服务的可替代性越来越强，竞争异常激烈的买方市场条件下，企业为了保持或提高其产品和服务的市场占有率，获取更多的利润，就必须建立和管理其品牌资产，实行品牌营销．