Antecedents of emotional attachment to brands

Marketers desire exclusive brand repurchase. This can occur when customers develop deep emotional “bonds” with brands, as elaborated in the emotional attachment to brands construct. To create emotionally attached repurchase, marketers must understand controllable antecedents of the phenomenon. However, a comprehensive study of antecedents is missing from the literature. We use qualitative methods to derive five primary antecedents of emotional attachment to brands. Our summary model allows for simultaneous operation of multiple antecedents, as we consistently observed in our data. We offer applied suggestions for leveraging antecedents to evoke exclusive repurchase based on emotional attachment to brands.     

Women are more likely to buy unknown brands than men: The effects of gender and known versus unknown brands on purchase intentions

Two experimental studies were run to investigate whether, how and why women would respond differently than men to unknown (unfamiliar, new) brands. Female respondents were found to develop higher purchase intentions than males when exposed to unfamiliar brands, and these effects were replicated across four product categories and stimuli. The mechanisms which explain these effects were also tested (i.e., women were observed to place more trust in unknown brands than men). This paper contributes to the current literature and practice by providing insights about women as customers: they are more trustful towards new offerings and more likely to buy unknown brands than men.     

The Big Five dyad congruence and compulsive buying: A case of service encounters

This research examines how the Big Five personality congruence between buyers and sellers influences compulsive buying in a dyadic service encounter. We gathered 904 buyer-seller data and computed personality congruence using the difference score technique. The study findings manifested that buyer-seller congruence in agreeableness and openness increases compulsive buying behavior, whereas buyer-seller congruence in neuroticism decreases this behavior. Further analysis showed that pleasure enhancement dampens the negative impact of neurotic congruence on compulsive buying. In contrast, stimulation enhancement strengthens the positive influence of open-minded congruence on compulsive buying. Conclusively, compulsive buyers exhibit varying buying behaviors based on their personality congruence (incongruence) with their corresponding sellers'. Hence, marketing managers should create similar (dissimilar) buyer-seller pairs to boost firms' sales.     

Convergence in the high-technology consumer markets: Not all brands gain equally from adding new functionalities to products

Convergence in the electronics sector has allowed the addition of new functionalities to products (e.g., mobile television to a cell phone). It is proposed that the goal congruence of the added functionality (i.e., whether it has similar or different goals as the base product) would affect the relative gain to high versus lower quality brands. While lower quality brands would gain when a congruent functionality is added, high quality brands would gain from an incongruent addition. The former hypothesis was confirmed significantly and the latter marginally in two experimental studies.

Desire,need, and obligation: Examining commitment to luxury brands in emerging markets

The availability of a wide variety of luxury brands has resulted in declining commitment toward a single brand. Enhancing brand commitment has, therefore, become a significant challenge for international businesses and marketing managers. We develop a multi–dimensional brand commitment framework underpinned by marketing, organizational, and social psychology literature streams. The simultaneous examination of brand–commitment dimensions based on consumer desire, need, and obligation in our framework offers a novel perspective that advances research on brand commitment. Our findings demonstrate stability of the framework in important emerging markets for luxury brands, namely China, India, Russia, Turkey, and Thailand. The framework, incorporating affective, continuance, and normative brand commitment dimensions, offers a conceptually robust fit. We demonstrate that each brand commitment dimension is influenced by distinct antecedents, and we show the direct and interactional impact of consumers’ emotional attachment, economic motivations, and normative pressures on purchase intentions. Supported by well-established theories in organizational and social psychology, our study offers new insights on how consumers commit to brands. We provide international brand managers with a blueprint for strengthening brand commitment across countries.     

Brand personality appeal,brand relationship quality and WOM transmission: a study of consumer markets in Vietnam

This study investigates the impact of brand personality appeal on both brand relationship quality and word-of-mouth (WOM) transmission in Vietnam. It also examines the role of consumer attitudes towards advertising and public relations on brand personality appeal as well as brand relationship quality. An empirical test with a sample of 477 consumers by means of structural equation modelling reveals that brand personality appeal has a positive impact on both brand relationship quality and WOM transmission and that brand relationship quality has a positive effect on WOM transmission. Furthermore, attitudes towards public relations have positive impacts on both brand personality appeal and brand relationship quality. Finally, attitudes towards advertising have a positive impact on brand personality appeal but not on brand relationship quality.     

Consumer Brand Hate: Steam rolling whatever I see

This study aims to investigate negative consumer‐brand relationships by developing a “Brand Hate” concept. A hierarchical Brand Hate model is theoretically discussed in light of the psychology and consumer behavior literatures. In Study‐I the Brand Hate concept was tested with two different types of consumer brand haters, true haters, and regular haters. The study found that in the study's proposed multidimensional Brand Hate hierarchy true haters display “Boiling Brand Hate” while regular haters reveal “Seething Brand Hate.” Two additional studies were developed to examine the relationship between consumer personality traits and Brand Hate, exploring which types of consumers are more prone to feel hatred toward targeted brands. Study‐II's findings revealed a relationship between consumers who are high in personality traits of “conscientiousness” and those who Brand Hate. Study‐III's findings indicated that “self‐confident” and “competitive” consumers might also be more prone to feel hatred toward those brands that perform poorly and unethically.     

Rejoinder to commentary on Chien, Cornwell, and Pappu (2010): Advancing research on sponsorship portfolio effects

This article responds to the issues Bibby (2010) raises in his recent commentary essay on Chien, Cornwell, and Pappu (2010). The rejoinder focuses on brand meaning's definition, measurement, construct delineation and operationalization, and cautions against outright rejection of Aaker's (1997) brand personality scale applied to the sponsorship context. Further, criticism by Bibby of employing Aaker's scale in Australia seems unwarranted given similarities in cultural values between Australia and the United States. Bibby (2010) also questions the legitimacy of event personality fit effects but the questions potentially misinterpret the construct used by Chien et al. (2010). While this rejoinder admits to the challenges of brand personality measurement, theory-testing goals of Chien et al.'s (2010) research are not compromised by the measures employed.     

The Big Five,happiness, and shopping

This study assessed the relationships between the Big Five dimensions of personality and individual happiness with three indicators of shopping and spending for non-grocery items using a sample of 660 U.S. adults. The data from an online survey showed that all five of the Big Five traits correlated positively with self-reported happiness, even controlling for the effects of age and gender. Regression analysis showed, however, that the positive relationships between happiness and Agreeableness and Openness to Experience were no longer significant, indicating that they are real, but redundant to the other traits. The correlations also showed that happiness, Openness to Experience, and Extraversion correlated positively with the three shopping indicators. Finally, happiness appears to have a direct effect with shopping and mediates the influence of Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, and Extraversion on happiness.     

The neurophysiological mechanisms underlying brand personality consumer attraction: EEG and GSR evidence

The “similarity-attraction” mechanism of brand personality exists in a state of controversy because many studies have found that the brand personality favored by consumers is inconsistent with their personality. The psychological reasons underlying this paradoxical situation remain unknown. Therefore, based on the circumplex model of emotion theory in neuroscience, this study uses EEG and GSR to measure physiological responses and self-assessment questionnaires to the display of 5 brand personality images to subjects with different Big Five personality traits. 36 undergraduate students participated in the experiment. The results show that: 1) if the questionnaire survey method is used, the results are approximately consistent with previous studies, which is consistent with the theory of ‘similar personality leads to attraction’. 2) The subjects' physiological indicators were not concordant with the self-report scores. Based on EEG and GSR results, brands with the “competence” personality strongly attracted consumers with strong ‘openness’. Subjects with strong “conscientiousness” avoided the ‘sincerity’ and ‘ruggedness’ brand personality; Based on the “emotion/feeling” theory of neuroscience, this study explains the non-concordant results of physiological indicators and self-assessment questionnaires, and proposes a new solution to the controversial issue of brand personality theory. Our findings have significant practical value for guiding brand personality design and the identification of target consumer groups.     

Effects of Chinese consumers' relationship benefits and satisfaction on attitudes toward foreign fashion brands:The moderating role of country of salesperson

The paper examines the various responses of consumers depending on the country of salesperson (COS) and to look into the effects that consumer–salesperson relationship benefits have on consumer satisfaction and brand attitude. The results suggest that consumers' perceived social benefit and functional benefit positively influenced their satisfaction with salesperson, and a significant positive effect of consumers' satisfaction with salesperson on consumers' brand attitude is found. This positive relationship was moderated by COS. These findings suggest that COS will serve as an important retail mix for global marketers. Other results and management implications are also discussed.     

An investigation into online atmospherics: The effect of animated images on emotions,cognition, and purchase intentions

While prior research on animation effects focused on Web advertising, this article focuses on online retailing and identifies animated images as an important online atmospheric cue. Using an extended Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model, this article explores animation effects on emotional and cognitive processes. Across two studies, the findings show that compared with static images, animated images elicit greater pleasure, which in turn induces more favorable website attitudes, and lead to higher purchase intentions. Further, this serial mediation effect holds across different types of products. These findings, from the perspective of online atmospherics, deepen our understanding of animation effects on consumer approach-avoidance responses.     

The dark side of innovation: How new SKUs affect brand choice in the presence of consumer uncertainty and learning

New product activity is critical for sustained success of consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. However, the impact of new SKUs on the perceived quality, quality uncertainty and subsequent choice of the brand as a whole is, as of yet, not well understood. The authors study how new additions to the brand line shape consumers’ quality perceptions, and how this – next to the mere line length effect – influences their choice of brands over time. They do so in the setting of an emerging market (China), where new product activity is particularly pervasive. Using a unique scanner panel dataset of Chinese households over the period 2011–2014, they estimate a Bayesian learning model that accommodates varying quality, on two CPG categories, and for two types of new-product additions (new sensory SKUs vs. new non-sensory SKUs). They show that while adding new SKUs may lift the brand’s perceived quality level, it also makes consumers more uncertain about the quality of the brand – dampening their brand choice. This holds especially for light customers – an important part of the brand clientele. Managerial implications are discussed.     

Product quality,attributes, and brand name as determinants of price: The case of consumer electronics

This paper proposes and illustrates an approach to measuring one aspect of brand equity, viewed as a price premium and defined as the increment that a brand name contributes to the price of a product above and beyond that justified by its quality (where quality is determined by an assessment of the relevant attributes, features, or characteristics). Two illustrative studies apply the proposed measure to consumer-electronics products found in home-theater or audio-video entertainment centers. Study 1 uses data presented byConsumer Reports to regress market price on overall quality and on dummy variables coded to represent brand names. Here, the results for home-theater products suggest a conspicuous absence of incremental brand-name effects. Study 2 generalizes this result by analyzing data for various electronic products offered by theCrutchfield Catalog. Across six product categories, when controlling for differences in an attributes-based index of product quality, a significant brand-related price premium appears to occur only for Carver. This finding again casts doubt on the importance of brand equity in the market for consumer electronics.The author gratefully acknowledge the support of the Columbia Business School's Faculty Research Fund.     

Relationships among consumer vanity,gender, brand sensitivity,brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among consumer vanity, gender, brand sensitivity, brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness within a context of social comparison theory. The four dimensions of consumer vanity are concern for and positive view of physical appearance and concern for and positive view of achievement. Participants were 400 college students (284 women; 116 men). Participants above the median in three of the four dimensions of vanity (except vanity achievement view) were more sensitive to and more conscious of brand names. Participants above (vs. below) the median in vanity achievement view scored higher on private self‐consciousness. Women scored higher on brand sensitivity, brand consciousness and private self‐consciousness than men. There was a significant correlation between brand sensitivity and brand consciousness. Results support the notion that consumers’ decisions, especially regarding brand names, may be guided by vanity‐related concerns and views.     

Mining the text of online consumer reviews to analyze brand image and brand positioning

The growth of the Internet has led to massive availability of online consumer reviews. So far, papers studying online reviews have mainly analysed how non-textual features, such as ratings and volume, influence different types of consumer behavior, such as information adoption decisions or product choices. However, little attention has been paid to examining the textual aspects of online reviews in order to study brand image and brand positioning. The text analysis of online reviews inevitably raises the concept of “text mining”; that is, the process of extracting useful and meaningful information from unstructured text. This research proposes an unified, structured and easy-to-implement procedure for the text analysis of online reviews with the ultimate goal of studying brand image and brand positioning. The text mining analysis is based on a lexicon-based approach, the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (Pennebaker et al., 2007), which provides the researcher with insights into emotional and psychological brand associations.     

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.     

A model of consumer relationships with store brands,personnel and stores in Spain

Abstract

Relationship Marketing is an important approach to the study of exchanges. This approach puts emphasis on the development of trust, satisfaction and relational norms to obtain parties' commitment. However, there are very few studies that consider the different levels the consumer relates with. Moreover, a limited number of marketing studies include variables that are often used in economic approaches such as signalling theory, which can enrich the understanding of commercial relationships. Therefore, the proposed multidisciplinary model relates economic variables—the signals that firms send to the market—and key relational variables—satisfaction and trust—considering three relationship levels of trust and satisfaction—store brands, personnel and stores. Results show a transference process among the three levels of trust and confirm that satisfaction and signals are important antecedents of each trust level.     

Slowing the adoption and diffusion process to enhance brand repositioning: The consumer driven repositioning of Dunlop Volley

What should you do when your brand becomes ‘hot’ overnight among influential endorsers? Do you exploit this sudden rise in popularity and mainstream the brand, or do you attempt to slow the diffusion process and seek to understand how to market to these consumers? Drawing on the case of Dunlop Volley in Australia, we argue that mainstreaming the brand by targeting later adopters results in a short-term fashion cycle rather than creating long-term brand value. Since these brands are ‘discovered’ by consumers, marketers must first understand the value system underlying this adoption and then fit the marketing program to these values. In the case of Dunlop Volley, slowing diffusion rates was achieved through four tactics: the rejection of hard sell marketing, appearing authentic, targeting alternative distribution channels and delaying launch to the mainstream audience. These activities ensured the ongoing credibility of the brand with endorsers and helped revitalize a long-thought ‘dead’ brand.     

Bringing product and consumer ecosystems to the strategic forefront

The widespread adoption of technology and electronic media has dramatically altered the set of products consumers compare before making a purchase decision. Online platforms have succeeded at drawing linkages among products by highlighting those that are preferred, evaluated, or purchased together. However, despite the increase in both product and customer inter-connectedness across markets, managers continue to make decisions based largely on the dynamics of competition within narrow product categories. In this article, we raise the call for a migration from a category-focused mindset to an ecosystem-focused strategic mindset that acknowledges and accounts for the network of related or unrelated entities that a specific product resides within. We illustrate the importance of this shift using examples of preference, choice, and customer networks from popular online platforms. We then discuss the impact of the shift in strategic mindset toward ecosystems on competitive structure analysis, market research, brand footprint analysis, intra-band ecosystems, promotion planning, new product development, customer valuation, strategic alliances, and market segmentation.