A comparison of brand loyalty between on the go and take-home consumption purchases

This paper compares consumer brand purchase loyalty for food products bought either ‘on the go’ (OTG), or for take-home consumption. The study uses two UK consumer packaged goods datasets. The first dataset comprises consumers' purchasing of brands in three product categories: soft drinks, crisps, and savory snacks for on the go consumption. The second contains consumers' purchasing of the same brands for take-home consumption. Analysis uses the polarization index as a behavioral loyalty measure, estimated from the Beta Binomial – Negative Binomial Distribution. This measure controls for the difference in purchase rate and brand market share across on the go and take-home. The study finds that consumer loyalty to brands is markedly higher in purchasing for on the go consumption than for take-home consumption; and that the effect is even stronger for larger brands in on the go.     

Do Global Brands Use Similar Executional Styles Across Cultures? A Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Television Advertising

A major development in global marketing research is the evolution of global consumer culture theory and the notion that global consumer culture positioning (GCCP) strategies can be effective across markets. This study compares the content of a large sample of U.S. versus Japanese television advertising and looks at several executional variables (timing and counting variables) used in prior studies to explore whether global brands use more similar executions across the United States and Japan in comparison with local brands. Results indicate fewer differences for global brands on these dimensions. This pattern of results appears to be consistent with the notion that the use of GCCP strategies aimed at responding to the trend toward global consumer culture have taken hold and that for global brands it is more possible to standardize executions, in addition to strategy, than was the case in the past. However, results suggest that the amount of time that visuals are on screen is more difficult to standardize than other elements of the ad, and that ads for services show somewhat more similarities than ads for physical products. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

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.     

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.     

“Seeing is being”: Consumer culture and the positioning of premium cars in China

Researchers recognize the indispensable role of inwardly vs. outwardly-focused social identities as predictors of consumers' attitudes toward local vs. global brand positioning. Extant studies typically report symmetric assimilative identity effects, meaning that consumers high on national/ethnic identity favor brands with a local (vs. global) consumer culture positioning, and vice-versa for consumers high on an outward (e.g., cosmopolitan) identity disposition. Such identity outcomes may not be generalizable, but rather, be affected by the specific consumption context as well as the individual trait of consumer need for uniqueness (NFU). Focusing on the Chinese premium car market, our experimental study consistently supported assimilative effects for the role played by ethnic identity. For cosmopolitanism however, such effects only held for low NFU consumers, whereas contrastive identity effects emerged for high NFU consumers. These results challenge some findings reported in the literature. Implications of these asymmetric identity effects for marketing theory and practice are discussed.     

Consumer‐Generated Representations: Muslim Women Recreating Western Luxury Fashion Brand Meaning through Consumption

The aim of this paper is to explore the influence of consumer‐generated representations on symbolic brand meaning. The term consumer‐generated representation is used in this research to refer to the image created for a brand based on the defining characteristics of a consumer or group of consumers. A preliminary qualitative study consisting of 12 in‐depth interviews was conducted in Kuwait, specifically exploring Muslim female consumers as consumers of western luxury fashion brands. The findings show that Muslim female consumers generate “Modestly Sexy” representations that recreate meaning for western luxury fashion brands in Kuwait. Thus, marketers need to recognize the importance of managing consumer‐generated representations on a global scale.     

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.     

The moderating impact of perceived globalness on consumers’ purchase intentions for copycats: The pleasure of hurting global brands

Copycats or “me‐too” brands imitate prominent features of market leaders with the intention to benefit from consumers’ positive associations of the imitated brand. However, the imitated market leader can be perceived as being local (=in‐group) or global (=out‐group). Employing social identity theory, Study 1 examined the interaction between copycat strategy and perceived globalness of the brand, showing that consumers have higher purchase intentions for global copycats versus a local counterpart. Study 2 shows that the interacting effect of copycat strategy and perceived globalness is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism. Further, authors demonstrate that a global copycat elicit greater schadenfreude (vs. local brand), which in turn increases consumers’ purchase intentions. Subsequent mediation analysis shows that ethnocentric consumers experience schadenfreude upon encountering copycats of global brands, which in turn increases purchase intention, whereas low ethnocentric consumers show higher purchase intentions for local differentiated brands because they deem a copycat strategy as unacceptable. Finally, Study 3 examines whether the results from Studies 1 and 2 continue to hold for theme copycats.     

Measuring consumer vulnerability to perceived product-similarity problems and its consequences

Abstract

The brand clutter in many product categories and increasing numbers of similar products, some of which are deliberate look-alikes, make it more difficult for consumers to distinguish between brands, which can lead to more mistaken and misinformed purchases. Moreover, increasing brand similarity is likely to influence important consumer outcomes. To examine this phenomenon, a perceived product-similarity scale developed in Germany was administered to 220 consumers in the United Kingdom. Following the formulation of testable hypotheses and assessments of the scale's reliability and validity, the scale was used to measure perceived product similarity (PPS) across three different product categories, while examining the impact of PPS on brand loyalty and word of mouth. Structural equation modelling revealed that PPS significantly affects word of mouth but not brand loyalty. In addition, cluster analysis identified three meaningful and distinct PPS groups. Implications for marketing managers, consumer policy makers, and marketing research are discussed.     

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.     

中国背景下的全球品牌:洞察中国消费者的决策(英文)

本文探究了与全球十大品牌相关的中国消费者决策。通过四个层面(品牌熟悉度、品牌喜爱度、品牌信任度以及知晓一个品牌的原产国)来预测中国消费者样本的品牌购买意向,同时分析指出,中国消费者对世界主义、民族优越感、全球—本地身份的认识以及与全球消费者文化的区别也可能会影响其全球品牌购买意向。本文为全球十大品牌建立了回归模型,并有提供最有力证据的层级模型。品牌熟悉度、信任度和喜爱度基本上在很大程度上解释了差异的存在。     

Private label positioning: Quality versus feature differentiation from the national brand

This paper investigates the retailer's problem of positioning her private label against two national brands in terms of both product quality and product features. Using a demand function derived from consumer utility, we show that the private label's best positioning strategy depends on the nature of the national brands’ competition and its own quality. When the national brands are differentiated, a high quality private label should position closer to a stronger national brand, and a low quality private label should position closer to a weaker national brand. When the national brands are undifferentiated, the private label should differentiate from both national brands.     

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.     

Consumer–Brand Relationships: A Contrast of Nostalgic and Non‐Nostalgic Brands

This research examined how consumer–brand relationships change when one contrasts brands perceived as nostalgic with brands perceived as non‐nostalgic. Paired comparisons of brands in six product categories revealed that brand attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling, as well as, the propensity to offer the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products, depend on the nostalgic status of the brand. On a sample of 606 consumers, the results showed that a brand's nostalgic status has a positive effect on attachment, self‐brand connections, and storytelling. These effects had not previously been considered in nostalgia research. Furthermore, the nostalgic status of a brand has positive effects in terms of intention to purchase the brand as a gift and collect brand‐derived products. Moreover, ANOVA results illustrate that consumer relationships with nostalgic brands are systematically stronger than with non‐nostalgic brands. Finally, results indicated that product category moderates all of the dimensions of brand relationships while gender does not.     

Branding in a global marketplace: The mediating effects of quality and self-identity brand signals

Research documents that consumers with a stronger belief in global citizenship through global brands (GCGB) view branded products as more important and prefer global to local brands. We test the mediating effects of consumer use of quality and self-identity brand signals on the relationships between GCGB and the importance attributed to branded products (Study 1: U.S. and Russia) as well as purchases of global brands (Study 2: U.S., U.K, and Russia). Our research establishes that consumer involvement with branded products and purchases of global brands revolves around consumers' use of brands as signals of quality and self-identity. In the developing country, results document mediation effects for the use of both quality and self-identity signals on the importance of branded products and global brand purchases. In developed countries, we find that the importance of branded products is explained by a greater use of brands as self-identity signals, whereas purchases of global brands are explained by a greater use of quality signals. Overall, consumers with a stronger belief in GCGB are more likely to use brands as symbolic signals and to express their identity through brands, and consumer use of global brands as quality signals provides a distinct competitive advantage to global brands in both developed and developing countries.     

The moderating effect of self-esteem on consumer responses to global positioning in advertising

The study investigates consumers' responses to global positioning in advertising from the perspective of self. It is suggested that consumers' attitudes toward the brand advertised through global positioning are influenced by their ideal selves and cosmopolitan orientations and these influences are moderated by one's self-esteem level. Study 1 shows that attitudes toward the globally positioned brand are more positive for those with ideal selves that are more congruent with personal traits associated with globally positioned brands, but only for those with high self-esteem. Interview results from study 2 suggest that low self-esteem informants make use of the global brands associated with ‘Western’ as a means of signaling their social selves in order to obtain social approval and that high self-esteem informants attend to ad content, whether the ad employs global or local positioning.     

Consumer and Corporate Values: Yet Another View on Global Marketing

The author examines the issue of multinational marketing first from the point of view of the consumer. He argues that consumers make very personal decisions about the brands which they purchase. These decisions are based on each individual's own value system and on the values he or she sees in the brand. Independent research undertaken by the J. Walter Thompson Company indicates that successful multinational marketers understand this process. The entire debate on global marketing really concerns the management, development, manufacture, distribution and sales of brands around the world. The important link between consumers and marketers is the link of values. Because successful marketers understand both consumer values and brand values, they are capable of developing brands that work effectively across borders.     

Group Buying: A Strategic Form of Consumer Collective

Existing literature on collective consumption focuses on passionate consumers of particular brands. This research examines group buying (GB), a multi-phase consumer collective activity, that creates value prior to, during and after the acquisition of products and services. Through a two-year, multi-sited, qualitative study, we examine both retailers’ and consumers’ motivations for participating in GB. GB is essentially a consumer collective that centers on consumer needs across brands, activities and lifestyles. This consumer collective is not initiated by brand affiliation or a consumption subculture, but by the need to discover desirable brands and obtain optimal products and services at favorable prices. Furthermore, GB empowers consumers to better protect their rights in an under-regulated market.     

Marketing hedonics: Toward a psychoanalysis of advertising response

The author advances a psychoanalytic theory of advertising response to theorize the intersection of brand positioning, the semiotics of gender, and consumer desire in advertising discourse. Researchers traditionally focus on the iconic representation of desire in advertising imagery. However, by drawing upon Lacan's theory of scopophelia, the author focuses on the dialectical implication of the spectator/consumer's psychic drives in the visual semiotics of advertising discourse. The consumer identifies with the brand discourse primarily by means of projective identification with the voyeuristic gaze of the camera referenced in the image, and only secondarily because of perceived parallels between consumer lifestyle and the content of the advertisement. By way of illustration, the author analyzes the positioning of consumer desire in homoerotic advertising for Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana, which draws upon resistance discourses in contemporary art to hold the consumer in a passion play of alternative sexualities and subject positions. Though these campaigns deconstruct the conventional binary opposition of male voyeur/female object of the gaze, they have contributed to the broad popularity of these brands because the brand discourse – logo, product placement, and rhetoric – restores a conventional logic to these advertisements that would have been censored from the worlds of popular culture and fine art.     

An Investigation of Brand-Related User-Generated Content on Twitter

The big data of user-generated content (UGC) on social media are laden with potential value for brand managers. However, there are many obstacles to using big data to answer brand-management questions. This article presents a framework that automatically derives latent brand topics and classifies brand sentiments. It applies text mining with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and sentiment analysis on 1.7 million unique tweets for 20 brands across five industries: fast food, department store, footwear, electronics, and telecommunications. The framework is used to explore four brand-related questions on Twitter. There are three main findings. First, product, service, and promotions are the dominant topics of interest when consumers interact with brands on Twitter. Second, consumer sentiments toward brands vary within and across industries. Third, separate company-specific analyses of positive and negative tweets generate a more accurate understanding of Twitter users' major brand topics and sentiments. Our findings provide brand managers with actionable insights in targeted advertising, social customer relationship management (CRM), and brand management.