Brand equity and the exacerbating factors of product innovation failure evaluations: A communication effect perspective

When both high-equity and low-equity brands experience an innovation failure, does the high-equity brand fare better? This study investigates this question by exploring how consumers view and evaluate brands following an innovation failure. The researchers examine whether brand equity, preannouncement of the innovation, and word-of-mouth from an opinion leader exacerbate or alleviate the negative impact of the failure. Two experiments with a total of 816 subjects show that high-equity brands suffer less than low-equity brands from the adverse effects of innovation failures. However, innovation failures are more detrimental to high-equity brands that have preannounced the innovation and to low-equity brands that do not receive supportive word-of-mouth from an opinion leader after the failures occur.     

Consumer evaluation of self-service innovation failure: the effect of brand equity and attribution

The purpose of this study is to examine how, when a self-service innovation fails, customers evaluate different levels of brand equity and how the brand equity effect is moderated by consumer attribution and service recovery. Based on two experimental studies, the results indicate that high-equity brands suffer less from the adverse effects of self-service innovation failures when compared with low-equity brands. However, self-service innovation failures are more detrimental to high-equity brands if they are caused by service providers' internal factors as well as low service recovery.     

Consumer evaluations of service co-branding

Rooted in signaling theory, this paper investigates the effects of co-branding structure, category fit, and types of sales promotion on consumers’ evaluations of service brand alliance. Results of a 2?×?2?×?2 experiment with co-branded credit cards as the focal product show that an equals co-branding structure (combination of two equally strongly established brands) is more likely to have greater consumer evaluations than any major-minor structure. The alliance of a low-equity host brand and a high-equity partner tends to enjoy better consumer evaluations than the arrangement of a high-equity host brand and a low-equity partner does, demonstrating a dominating effect. Category fit, which stands for signal consistency, positively moderates the relationships between co-branding structure and consumer evaluations. For any major-minor structure, consumers evaluate brand alliance with non-monetary promotion more favorably than that with monetary promotion. For equals co-branding structure, however, promotion type does not influence co-branding evaluations.     

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.     

Brand presentation order in voice shopping: Understanding the effects of sequential product presentation

Nearly half of US households own a smart speaker with voice shopping functionality. Voice shopping product presentation is inherently sequential due to the audio delivery of information, which may give retailers the opportunity to influence customer decisions through the order in which brands are presented. This research examines the effect of brand order presentation in voice shopping and its impact on high-equity versus low-equity brands. Moreover, this research considers the moderating effect of product presentation format (simultaneous vs. sequential, audio vs. visual) on the impact of brand presentation order. The results of six experiments with more than 1,000 participants provide evidence that consumers attempt to balance competing concerns about risk in voice shopping with search costs because products are presented sequentially and information is reduced. If high-equity brands are presented first, the choice distribution in voice shopping is unimodal, with a peak at the first-presented products. However, a bimodal choice distribution results if low-equity brands are presented first. Importantly, choice distribution in voice shopping differs markedly from choice distribution when products are presented simultaneously and visually, as in online shopping.     

Some antecedents and outcomes of brand love

Survey research is employed to test hypotheses involving brand love, a new marketing construct that assesses satisfied consumers’ passionate emotional attachment to particular brands. Findings suggest that satisfied consumers’ love is greater for brands in product categories perceived as more hedonic (as compared with utilitarian) and for brands that offer more in terms of symbolic benefits. Brand love, in turn, is linked to higher levels of brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Findings also suggest that satisfied consumers tend to be less loyal to brands in more hedonic product categories and to engage in more positive word-of-mouth about self-expressive brands.     

Consumer-based brand equity and brand performance

The relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance was investigated across 15 product categories in Brazil and the UK. Brand equity was conceptualized as related to the level of social benefit offered by each brand and was measured with a simple questionnaire that asked consumers to rate brands with respect to their familiarity and quality levels. These measures were then related to brand market share and revenue. Results showed that the relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance varies across product categories, indicating that products differ with respect to their level of brandability and suggesting ways to measure it.     

Strategies to offset performance failures: The role of brand equity

In this research, we examine the role of brand equity as a strategy to offset the negative effects of a performance failure. Two independent studies, spanning four industries and involving 669 respondents are employed to investigate this issue. Results suggest that high brand equity leads to more favorable satisfaction evaluations and behavioral intentions than low brand equity. The brand equity effect is identified as a prevailing advantage that spans the entire failure and recovery sequence. This is an important finding because it implies that the advantages of high brand equity theoretically can apply to all failures, not just those for which recovery is attempted. Further inspection, however, reveals that despite the prevailing advantage, high-equity brand failures lead to a more drastic decline in customer evaluations immediately after the failure episode. Managerial implications and future research are addressed.     

“New and old”: Consumer evaluations of co-branding between new brands and Chinese time-honored brands

Nowadays, rejuvenation of Chinese time-honored brands, a symbol of Chinese traditional culture, is manifested in their co-branding with new brands. With focus on sincerity and excitement, two fundamental dimensions of brand personality, the authors explore this co-branding strategy which remains unexplored by the extant literature. Based on the integration of brand personality and Stereotype Content Model, a new mechanism is constructed from the perspective of consumers, with brand admiration being the underlying mechanism, as well as product category—hedonic vs. utilitarian—being a boundary condition. Through three experimental studies, the results show that the exciting (vs. sincere) personality of new brands increases consumers’ admiration for both allied brands, which in turn enhances co-branding evaluations, and that the advantage of the exciting personality holds for the hedonic co-branded product, but disappears for the utilitarian one. The research contributes to the co-branding literature and provides implications for brand partner selection and co-branded product design.     

Spillover effects of ingredient branded strategies on brand choice: A field study

Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as providing significant benefits in terms of increased product differentiation and greater market share. The association between two brand names can both enhance and dilute the brand equity of the host brand name and the ingredient brand name. This research examines the behavioral spillover effects associated with cobranded strategies across segments of consumers that vary in their prior brand commitment or loyalty. Different from previous research, this paper uses A.C. Nielsen scanner panel data to investigate the behavioral spillover effects of ingredient branded products on choice of the host and ingredient brands in a field setting. The results suggest that there is a significant behavioral spillover impact of trial of the cobranded product on the purchase probability of both the host and ingredient brands. This effect is greater among prior non-loyal users and prior non-users of the host and ingredient brands and when there is a higher degree of perceived fit between the host and ingredient brands.     

Understanding brand and dealer retention in the new car market: The moderating role of brand tier

Dealers may contribute to brand retention through their sales and service efforts. In this study we investigate the degree to which dealers contribute to brand retention and how this contribution is moderated by brand tier. To this end we distinguish between economy, volume and prestige brands. We also investigate how the effectiveness of dealer instruments to increase dealer retention differs across these brand tiers. We collected data on brand retention and dealer retention among consumers who recently purchased a new car. Our findings show that dealers selling volume brands are able to improve brand retention rates. In contrast, dealers of prestige and economy brands are unable to affect brand retention. In line with the notion of brand-dealer fit we also find that the effects of dealer extrinsic service quality and dealer payment equity on dealer retention differ between prestige, volume, and economy brands. Extrinsic dealer service quality has the smallest effect for dealers selling economy brands, while dealer payment equity is the most important determinant of dealer retention for these dealers.     

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.     

How Attitudes Toward Product Categories Drive Individual Brand Attitudes and Choice

Three experiments examine the role of attitudes toward the category to which a brand belongs in consumers’ attitudes toward individual brands. The core findings indicate that what consumers think generally about a category affects their evaluations of singular brands belonging to the category. Study 1 demonstrates that both consumers’ attitudes toward a category as well as their relative attitudes toward a brand versus intracategory competitors drive overall attitudes toward individual brands. Study 2 shows that manipulating attitudes toward a product category affects attitudes toward, and purchase intention of, individual brands belonging to that category. Study 3 demonstrates that more versus less favorably evaluated categories are more likely to exhibit brand positivity effects in judgments of singular brands. The results suggest the practical importance of measuring attitudes toward product categories, as well as the utility of marketing interventions aimed at the category level.     

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.     

Hedonic vs. utilitarian consumption: A cross-cultural perspective based on cultural conditioning

This study investigates the effects of cultural conditioning, product type, and benefit claim type on attitudes and brand personality perceptions among consumers from a society that is more culturally conditioned towards utilitarian consumption (Shanghai, China) and an economy that is less culturally conditioned towards utilitarian consumption (Singapore). Our findings reveal that consumers in Shanghai preferred ads promoting utilitarian rather than hedonic products. They also rated brands of utilitarian products as more sophisticated, competent, exciting, and sincere than hedonic products. No such difference was observed among Singaporeans. These consumers preferred hedonic over utilitarian products but did not perceive them as being different from utilitarian products in terms of brand personality. Theoretical and managerial implications are forwarded, together with directions for future research.     

Consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) and the role of social media communications: Qualitative findings from the Malaysian automotive industry

Previous studies on consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) have maintained that CBBE is a multidimensional construct which reflects both consumers’ perceptions and attitudes. However, only few of the extant CBBE models emanate from the context of automotive brands. As such, this present study employs a qualitative approach using a semi-structured face-to-face interview among 11 informants, to explore the concept of CBBE in the context of automotive brands. Also, this study explores the role of social media communications in developing CBBE for automotive brands. The findings of this research demonstrate that CBBE is a valid concept which reflects consumers’ perception and mindset towards their knowledge, which are reflected through brand awareness, hedonic brand image, functional brand image, and brand sustainability of automotive brands. Additionally, the marketing activities and communication contents on social media play an important role in improving the perception of automotive brands in consumers’ minds, hence the development of automotive CBBE. The theoretical implications of these research findings are that this study provides an insight into the feasibility of developing a specific CBBE model for automotive brands. Practically, this study presents insights for brand manager on the importance of developing CBBE through social media communications.     

The shape of premiumness: Logo Shape's effects on perceived brand premiumness and brand preference

Logos are the brands’ visual identity, which can influence brand positioning and contribute to brand success. However, little is known about the effect of logo shape on brand premiumness perception. Thus, we conducted four studies, including one archival dataset analysis, to examine this issue. Results revealed that consumers perceive angular-logo brands as more premium than circular-logo brands. Such logo shape effect is driven by perceived psychological distance between the brand and consumers. We further identified the downstream consequences of perceived brand premiumness. To express status, consumers are more likely to choose angular-logo brands, which are perceived as more premium. However, consumers unmotivated by status-expressing goals will be unaffected by such perceptions. These findings have theoretical implications regarding brand logo and positioning, and practical implications for logo design.     

National versus private brand: A regulatory focus perspective

Why do consumers choose a private versus national brand? A between-subjects factorial design was used to address this question in two product categories: shampoo and athletic shoes. Three determining factors were used—regulatory focus: promotion versus prevention; brand types: national versus private; and attribute framing: hedonic versus utilitarian—to predict consumer attitude towards the brand, its ad, and purchase intention. The results provide support for the interactions between regulatory focus and attribute framing for shampoo, and between regulatory focus and brand types for shoes. When exposed to shampoo ads, promotion focused consumers have a more positive attitude toward the ad and a higher purchase intention if the ad features utilitarian rather than hedonic attributes. Further, both promotion and prevention focused consumers prefer national brands of shoes to private labels. One possible explanation may lie in private versus public consumption of shampoo and shoes.     

Store Brand Quality and Retailer’s Product Line Design

This study analyzes a retailer’s store brand quality decision in vertically differentiated product categories. We analyze a game theoretic model composed of one or two national brand manufacturers and a retailer, who strategically chooses the quality level(s) of its store brand(s) relative to the well-established national brand position(s) to maximize its category profit. Our analysis reveals that the nature of a retailer’s store brand quality positioning is quite different from the manufacturer’s national brand positioning decision, and that the best position for a store brand is not “as close to a national brand as possible” as previous studies suggest. Instead, the optimal quality position of each store brand is remarkably sensitive to the distribution of consumers’ willingness-to-pay. In particular, the relative proportions of quality sensitive consumers and price sensitive consumers determine the balance of three key strategic forces — the market expansion force, the retail margin force, and the consumer profitability force, leading to different optimal product line designs for store brands across different category environments. Interestingly, against multiple incumbent national brands, the retailer’s optimal product line design includes a store brand positioned at the highest quality level in the category only if most consumers are moderately quality conscious. We also analyze the implications of national brands’ brand equity for retailers’ store brand strategy.