The Role of Trust in Understanding the Impact of Social Media Marketing on Brand Equity and Brand Loyalty

Abstract

In this era, social media platform is integrated into the marketing strategy. This new technology sets out new mechanisms and communication tools that companies can rely on to interact and engage with actual and potential customers. This study aimed at exploring the impact of social media marketing activities (SMM) on brand loyalty via brand trust and brand equity. Based on an online survey of 287 users who follow telecommunications companies on social media located in Egypt, data was collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that SMM activities comprise only three dimensions; trendiness, customization and word-of-mouth. These attributes of social media marketing directly influence brand loyalty and indirectly influence brand equity mediated by brand trust. The study emphasis the role of trust and provide guidance toward measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing.     

产品伤害事件对消费者品牌忠诚度的影响机制研究

本文从产品伤害事件的感知损失程度的角度,研究了产品伤害事件的感知损失程度与品牌感知风险、品牌情感、品牌信任、品牌忠诚之间的关系。文章认为,产品伤害事件中的感知损失与感知风险正相关,与品牌情感、品牌信任负相关;感知风险与品牌情感、品牌信任负相关;品牌情感、品牌信任与品牌忠诚正相关。产品伤害事件对品牌忠诚度影响的机制是产品伤害事件以及与该事件相关的各项信息形成消费者的感知损失与感知风险,进而影响品牌情感与品牌信任,最后导致品牌忠诚度的改变。文章提出,在产品伤害事件不幸发生后,最佳的处理方式是尽量通过各种可能的措施使消费者感到本公司值得信赖,相信公司能够在未来避免此类事件再次发生,能够确保消费者的利益,从而减少消费者对该品牌的疑虑,减弱对该品牌的感知风险,只有这样才能尽量维持消费者对该品牌的喜爱与信任,并进而维持对该品牌的忠诚度。     

调节定向在品牌忠诚动态形成过程中的作用

现有基于消费者—品牌关系对品牌忠诚影响因素的实证研究发现,品牌信任和品牌情感是品牌忠诚的决定因素。尽管很多学者认为应该从动态的视角认识忠诚的概念,却没有随着时间推移来研究消费者品牌忠诚的发展过程的文献。为了弥补现有营销文献中这一理论的不足,文章提供了一个关于品牌情感和品牌信任同时影响品牌忠诚形成过程的动态研究。通过一个纵向情境模拟实验研究发现随着时间的推移,品牌信任和品牌情感在品牌忠诚的形成过程中作用在不断变化,并且消费者自我调节定向与品牌信任或品牌情感的的匹配会增强其在品牌忠诚形成过程中的作用。     

The Relationship Between Customer Loyalty and Purchase Incidence

Little is known about customer loyalty to brands over many dozens or even hundreds of purchases. In this paper we describe, and seek to explain, such patterns of loyalty in two very different markets: a consumer market (laundry detergents), and a more frequently used service (physicians' prescribing of anti-hypertension drugs). Purchase incidence heterogeneity – a problem in most loyalty studies – is addressed by measuring loyalty at different rates of category purchase (rather than over time). Using share-based measures we expect that loyalty will decline as purchase incidence increases, however we clarify the shape of that decline. We find that, as the number of purchases rises, loyalty initially falls steeply, but after around 15 purchases it starts to stabilize, and from 60 to 200 purchases there is very little change in observed measures of customer loyalty. A comparison of the findings with those expected from a stationary market model (the Dirichlet), suggests that the decline in loyalty seen as the number of purchases rises is largely a statistical artifact, dependent on the number of purchases used to calculate loyalty. However, we also find that the higher loyalty exhibited by heavier buyers at low purchase levels is not captured well by the model. The implication here is that, contrary to a central assumption of the Dirichlet model, brand choice is partially dependent on purchase weight.     

区域品牌忠诚影响因素及其理论模型构建

区域品牌发展对区域经济产生了重要的影响．但区域品牌在发展过程中很容易出现区域品牌的滥用现象,如何减少甚至杜绝区域品牌的滥用是区域品牌管理的关键问题之一。为此,以区域品牌忠诚作为研究突破口,探讨建立了以企业因素、区域品牌、产业集群、区域因素等四个变量作为自变量,以企业认知评价作为中介变量,以区域品牌忠诚作为因变量的区域品牌影响因素理论模型,并结合变量关系提出了对应的假设。     

Brand Commitment Role in the Relationship between Brand Loyalty and Brand Satisfaction: Phone Industry in Malaysia

Abstract

To maintain a competitive advantage, the strategy of the creation and maintenance of brand loyalty plays a vital role. The main aim of this study is to examine the theoretical and empirical evidence on the causal relationships among different factors i.e., brand personality, image, experience, satisfaction, trust and commitment that have direct and indirect effects in the creation of brand loyalty. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using Partial Least Squares (PLS) method was applied to test the relationships in this study. The findings indicate that brand personality, brand image and brand experience are key sources of brand satisfaction.     

An Investigation of Attitude Toward the Brand,Commitment, and True Brand Loyalty in a Cross-Cultural Context

Abstract

This study utilized data from two geographically separated cultures to investigate relationships involving antecedents to true brand loyalty. A relationship between the consumer's attitude toward the brand and a measure of expressed commitment was found to explain a significant percentage of the variance in commitment. A relationship between commitment and true brand loyalty also was found significant. Both relationships vary somewhat by product and culture. No evidence was found, however, suggesting that they could not be considered generalizable. The underlying components of brand attitude were found to vary by product and country. The culturally related differences-espe-cially those pertaining to the composition and meaning of the underlying components-have interesting managerial implications.     

消费者品牌忠诚影响因素实证分析

伴随着激烈的市场竞争,消费者品牌转换行为日趋频繁,迫使企业寻找影响消费者品牌忠诚的关键因素。本文以北京市消费者为研究对象,对消费者品牌忠诚的影响因素进行了实证分析,得出了驱动品牌忠诚的若干因素,以期为企业做出正确的营销决策提供参考。     

Consumer Brand Loyalty in the Chilean Wine Industry

Worldwide, the wine industry has become tremendously competitive, with new world wine countries, such as Chile, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa becoming relevant players. Consumers are increasingly offered a broad range of wine brands in supermarkets, restaurants, and wine stores. Consequently, wine marketing managers are required to develop strategies for building consumer brand loyalty for their own wines. This study attempts to investigate this issue and tests a model of antecedents of wine brand loyalty with 300 consumers from Chile, a new world wine producer. Results are analyzed with structural equation modeling (SEM). Our results indicate that wine brand satisfaction has the strongest relationship with wine brand loyalty. Additionally, wine experience is positively related to brand trust and brand satisfaction.     

品牌体验对品牌忠诚的影响:品牌社区的中介作用

文章以"动感地带"为测试品牌,在构建品牌体验、品牌社区和品牌忠诚三者之间概念模型的基础上,应用多元回归分析,实证研究了品牌体验、品牌社区对品牌忠诚的影响.研究发现:品牌体验对品牌社区具有显著的正向效应;品牌体验和品牌社区对品牌忠诚均具有明显的正向影响;品牌社区是品牌体验作用于品牌忠诚的中介变量,品牌体验更多的是通过品牌社影响品牌忠诚.这些研究结论为品牌忠诚影响因素的进一步研究提供了理论基础,对于企业创新品牌忠诚培育模式和策略也具有指导意义.     

An examination of reference prices at factory outlet stores

The purposes of this research study were to (1) examine the use of reference prices by one segment of retailing – factory outlet stores and (2) explore related public policy considerations. The researchers found that there was a significant difference between advertised reference prices at factory outlet stores and the regular retail price found in department or specialty stores in the same market. Advertised reference prices in outlets were significantly higher – a 6.2 percent difference. For only two of the product categories studied were differences not significant – housewares and children's apparel. Since these comparative reference prices are not in line with the regular prices at traditional stores, there is a potential for deceptive price claims.     

Retailers with traits of consumer: Exploring the existence and antecedents of brand loyalty in small unorganized retailers

Retail in most emerging countries, like India, is dominated by the informal sector consisting of small unorganized retailers and marketers selling through them desperately want to win them over because it can be a powerful competitive advantage in these markets.Small unorganized retail store is a unique setting because most of these stores are owned and managed by individual proprietors who are neither schooled in systematic business decision making and nor have access to professional expertise and scientific tools to assist in taking business decisions in a systematic way. With loads of decisions to be made by this individual, it can be assumed that heuristics and common sense drive a lot of their business decisions and this makes them very similar to the decision making done by the end consumers, who also engage in buying decisions but are not scientific in their approach.Based on this similarity, this study attempts to explore a simple but profound question that like individual consumers, do these retail customers’ buying decisions also get affected by brand loyalty? In that direction, the study assesses the role of three variables - salesperson quality, self-experience with the brand and perceived company support, for predicting brand loyalty in small unorganized retailers.Using Structured Equation Modelling on data collected from 543 retailers, the proposed hypothesized paths have been tested. The results strongly support the proposition made. This study extends the application of the existing attitudinal – behavioural framework of brand loyalty to retailers and puts forward a vital and a unique way for marketers to get these retailers on-board and work as an influencer to push their brand.     

Integrative effects of firms' price and endorsement strategies on consumers' loyalty intention

This research examines the effects of price and brand endorsement that are adopted by firms from a consumer-based viewpoint, and provides practical brand management discussions as a reference for both manufacturer brands and retail store brands. According to the findings, manufacturer brands support high prices and boost those vivid impressions which are helpful in engendering consumer loyalty intention. Without a careful evaluation process, a brand-endorsing strategy may prove detrimental to the manufacturer. Retail store brands follow distinct pricing policies and carry out brand-endorsed strategies. Price/endorsement stimuli influence consumer brand loyalty through the partial mediating effect of brand impression. Manufacturers and retailers could define appropriate price premiums on products with a potential for a manufacturer–retailer brand co-branding as identified by market research, thus increasing the sales of both.     

The influence of price and brand loyalty on store brands versus national brands

Abstract

This article investigates how price and brand loyalty of three frequently purchased product categories can influence the purchase decision process of store brands versus national brands. A multinomial logit model was constructed to analyse the data obtained from a consumer panel. The results confirmed that brand loyalty is the main variable which influences the purchase decision process of both national and store brands. The influence of price on the purchase decision process is product specific. There is a clear distinction between the buyer's profile of store brands and national brands. But there is no evidence of any correlation between demographic variables and national brands or store brands.     

Consumers' Trust in a Brand and the Link to Brand Loyalty

Brands are important in the consumer market. They are the interface between consumers and the company, and consumers may develop loyalty to brands. This study proposes that trust in a brand is important and is a key factor in the development of brand loyalty. Factors hypothesized to influence trust in a brand include a number of brand characteristics, company characteristics and consumer-brand characteristics. Respondents representing a broad spectrum of Singapore consumers were surveyed. The findings reveal that brand characteristics are relatively more important in their effects on a consumer's trust in a brand. The results also show that trust in a brand is positively related to brand loyalty. Marketers should, therefore, take careful consideration of brand factors in the development of trust in a brand.     

消费者创新性对顾客忠诚的影响

近年来,随着买方市场特征的日益显著,企业竞争策略开始从单纯的争夺顾客向保留顾客转变。鉴于当前消费者创新性对顾客忠诚的重要作用,研究消费者创新性对顾客忠诚的影响,对于我们更好地认识顾客忠诚形成机制并指导顾客关系管理实践具有十分重要的意义。基于消费者视角,借助计划理论与调节聚焦理论探讨消费者创新性对顾客忠诚影响的内在机理可以发现,消费者创新性对顾客忠诚具有负向影响,且这种负向效应不受顾客满意度水平高低影响。同时,消费者创新性对顾客忠诚两个维度的影响存在差异,即消费者创新性负向影响行为忠诚,而对态度忠诚并无显著影响。考虑到消费者创新性对顾客忠诚及其具体维度的影响,为更好地进行企业顾客关系管理,必须关注目标顾客消费者创新性程度,特别是重视目标市场中消费者创新性程度较高的那部分顾客。企业在追求顾客忠诚时,不能仅仅关注顾客满意,还要充分认识消费者创新性对顾客忠诚的负向影响,将注意力转向企业外部,关注消费者创新性程度,采取适当的营销策略合理防止消费者创新性程度较高的顾客发生购买行为转移。     

顾客忠诚及其有效性研究回顾与展望

顾客忠诚是顾客关系管理的重要指标之一,自20世纪40年代起,企业与学术界不断探寻提高顾客忠诚的管理方法,但顾客忠诚的有效性至今尚有很大争议。文章在系统梳理国内外文献的基础上,对顾客忠诚的内涵、顾客忠诚管理有效性、顾客忠诚与赢利性的关系等研究进行了评析,并提出了顾客忠诚与赢利性关系研究的未来展望。     

Customer Loyalty and Privacy on the Web

ABSTRACT

This study examines from simulation the effects of the privacy sensitivity of customers, the personalization practices or standards of retailers and the difficulty in locating favorable sites on the loyalty of consumers to a Web site. The key finding of the study is that customer privacy sensitivity is a critical success factor that significantly impacts loyalty to a retailer. Customers have higher loyalty to sites that request the least information, while they have lower loyalty to sites that request the most information. Web retailers considering expanded personalization of products or services to customers, through increased personal information, need to rethink their practices. The study also found that difficulty in locating a favorable site is a success factor that impacts retailer loyalty, and that customers have higher loyalty to difficult to locate favorable sites on the Web. These findings are important at a time when consumers are empowered with Web technology to immediately shop competitor sites.     

The Retailer's Perspective on the Link Between Logistical Resources and Perceived Customer Loyalty to Manufacturer Brands

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between logistics and brand‐related resources, and assess their impact on the retailer's perceptions of customer loyalty to manufacturer brands. On the basis of theoretical underpinnings of the resource‐based view, this study explores the relationships among four main variables: (1) variety of collaborative logistics technologies shared between retailers and manufacturers, (2) manufacturer's logistics operations quality provided to retailers, (3) retailer's brand differentiation orientation, and (4) retailer's perceptions of customers loyalty to manufacturer brands. An online survey was conducted on 313 senior marketing and supply chain managers from retailer firms. The results of the structural equation analysis support a mediated relationship between logistical resources and perceived loyalty to manufacturer brands. The retailers believe that shared logistics technologies enable manufacturers and retailers to offer higher levels of availability and visibility of preferred brands to their end‐user customers. In turn, the end‐users become more confident with their decisions to repurchase the same brand offerings.     

Identifying Customer Loyalty Supporting Factors in the Retail Banking Context: An Empirical Examination

This article aims to identify factors which support customer loyalty, either through dedication or by imposing constraints, and subsequently empirically analyzes the relationship between identified factors and the attitudinal and behavioral component of loyalty in the context of retail banking. Data collected from a sample of 293 retail banking customers have been analyzed through structural equation modeling. The study results suggested two constraint promoting factors and one dedication promoting factor which supported loyalty. The study contributes to knowledge by empirically testing the qualitative model and coming out with empirically proven dedication-promoting and constraint-promoting loyalty supporting factors.