It's Closing Time: Territorial Behaviors from Customers in Response to Front Line Employees

Retailers can benefit from an increased understanding of how human territoriality affects their relationships with customers. In the context of closing time, we show that issuance of boundary markers, or closing time cues, before the closing time boundary can result in perceptions of territory intrusion and territorial responses from customers. In study 1, we identify six types of cues used by employees to signal to customers the closing time boundary is approaching: productive, personal, audio–visual, withdrawal, hostility, and blocking cues. Three additional studies show these cues affect customers’ perceptions of intrusion pressure and their subsequent territorial responses, including: retaliation, abandonment and accession (studies 2–4) and negative word of mouth and temporary abandonment (study 4). Additionally, identification with the store can heighten or dampen the effects of customers’ perceptions of encroachment on their territorial responses (studies 3 and 4), depending on the retail context.     

Shaping Retail Brand Personality Perceptions by Bodily Experiences

Customer experiences play an important role in retail brand management. This research investigates how bodily experiences in retail environments influence customers’ perceptions of retail brand personalities. Based on research on human personality perception, we propose that bodily experiences transfer metaphoric meaning to customers’ brand perceptions. In a field experiment and a lab experiment we manipulated participants’ bodily experiences (feeling of hardness and temperature) and consistently found a metaphor-specific transfer of experiences to retail brand personality perceptions (on the dimensions “ruggedness” and “warmth”). A third study reveals the mechanism behind the effect and demonstrates concept activation elicited by bodily experiences in customers’ minds.     

Managing Service Expectations in Online Markets: A Signaling Theory of E-tailer Pricing and Empirical Tests

Expectations play a significant role in determining customer perceptions and satisfaction. Accordingly, retailers seek to manage customers’ service expectations. However, the tangible signals of service quality that are available to brick-and-mortar retailers (such as location, store appearance, and salespersons’ behavior) may not be available in online markets. Using a signaling model, we obtain conditions when Internet retailers (e-tailers) use price to manage their customers’ service expectations. In contrast to extant theory, we find that it is possible for both low and high service e-tailers to use price in signaling their service levels. Further, we develop an appropriate deductive test of our theory based on price-ending patterns as an artifact of the signaling process. Based on this test, we find evidence that e-tailers indeed manage service expectations using price. Interestingly, we also find preliminary evidence that suggests customers implicitly associate price-ending patterns with a retailer's expected service level. We discuss several other implications of our findings for researchers and managers.     

Brand management in small and medium-sized (SME) retailers: A future research agenda

Abstract

Recently, an emerging body of literature has advocated the importance of branding to small and medium-sized (SME) retailers. Nonetheless, this discourse has ignored the complexities and idiosyncrasies of retail branding. The aim of this paper is to provide a new theoretical understanding of brand management by SME retailers. In order to achieve this aim, the paper integrates the brand management, SME branding, and retail branding literature, and offers a conceptual framework for SME retail branding. A number of propositions are included that aid understanding of brand management in SME retail organisations. It is anticipated that these propositions will help shape future empirical research in this area. Further in-depth research into the application of branding within the SME retail context would address a significant gap in academic knowledge. In doing so, it would also provide important insights for management practice.     

Customers�� zone of tolerance for retail stores

The present study describes the zone of tolerance for customers’ service expectations and determines their satisfaction level for retail stores. It attempts to diagnose the service quality level of customers’ in retail store setting. A conceptual model RETZOT is presented in this study, and the results demonstrate that evaluation of services can be scaled according to different types of expectations—‘desired’ and ‘adequate’—and that customers use these two types of expectations as a comparison standard in evaluating retail store services. The findings reveal that customers have a narrow zone of tolerance with regards to the services provided by retail stores.     

Benchmarking Services Branding Practices

The results of research into the competitiveness of New Zealand firms that provide professional and other business services suggest that effective branding is a key source of success. Brand strength appears to be linked to four main practices: investing in marketing communications to improve customer awareness and understanding of corporate and product brand values; contributing to the wider community to improve corporate reputation; improving internal communications (internal marketing) so front-line and professional staff are kept better informed about customer needs, market changes and company initiatives, thereby enabling staff to help customers better; and improving service quality to improve market positioning. The paper answers calls for the development of an integrated theory of services branding and concludes by positing three main conditions for effective services strategies and practices.     

A Conceptualization of the Employee Branding Process

SUMMARY

We propose a conceptual model of the employee branding process in which the employee brand image is driven by the messages employees receive and the mechanisms within employees' psyches that enable them to make sense of those messages. The model identifies various sources through which messages are delivered and describes the contributions of those sources to the employee branding process. The psychological contract is identified as a perceptual mechanism central to the employee branding process. The model specifies the consequences of the employee branding process and describes a feedback loop through which managers can monitor the process.     

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.     

Antecedents of brand citizenship behavior in retailing

There has been increased interest in retail branding yet there is a dearth of internal branding research in this industry. The purpose of this study is to explore the antecedents of Brand Citizenship Behavior (BCB) in a retail environment. The role that the frequency of employee contact with customers plays will also be examined. A further aim is to give guidance to retailers on how they should develop an internal branding management strategy. A conceptual model provides a foundation for the study. A literature review of the brand citizenship behavior and the related constructs was undertaken to inform the model. The results show support for the hypothesized relationships. Significant differences between managers and associates as well as between full-time and part-time associates were found. Recommendations are presented to retailers.     

Investigating the impact of brand vs cause interaction on cause related advertisements

Cause-related Marketing (CRM) strategies have been widely implemented by numerous brands in their communication with customers through advertisements. This research employs four quasi-experimental studies to understand how brands and cause related variables interact to impact attitude towards advertisements and brands. Study I (n = 623) seek to understand the influence of brand related variables, namely, brand familiarity, brand importance, and brand association on the attitude towards advertisements and brands. Study II (n = 722) shows the moderating effect of advertisement type (CRM vs non-CRM) on the relationships connecting branding variables to advertisement and brand attitude. In Study III (n = 637), the effect of cause related dimension, namely, cause familiarity, cause importance, and cause brand fit on the attitude towards advertisement and brands is studied. Finally, study IV (n = 549) shows the interaction effect of brand and cause related dimensions on the attitude towards advertisements and brands. Results indicate cause brand fit to be the most significant variable affecting attitudes followed by brand association, brand importance, and cause importance. Cause importance also interacted with brand importance and brand association to cause a positive and negative magnifying effect on the advertisement attitudes respectively.     

Taiwanese Retailing: Market Analysis and Retail Branding Model Application

ABSTRACT

The Taiwanese retail market is in a highly competitive stage. In the past three decades, the Taiwan retail grocery market has experienced many developments and changes, and recently, has started to realize the importance of developing its own retail brand. Although the idea of retail branding is still new in Taiwan, the major hypermarket players have tried to build up their own brand image and create new own label products which differ from other competitors. This paper explores retail branding in the Taiwan hypermarket industry through macro/micro environment analysis and applying retail branding models to the Taiwanese retail market. The macro/micro environment analysis is undertaken by the two STEPs model and the retail branding model is created from Dawson's three levels model combined with previous studies and theories. The approach in this study involves literature reviews and secondary research in the field of the Taiwanese retail market. The outcome of this study is to highlight key issues that deserve further research.     

A framework for SME retail branding

Abstract

It has become increasingly important for small to medium sized enterprise (SME) retailers to stand out in the current marketplace. Branding in SMEs is a growing area of academic interest, although the majority of studies have been based in the manufacturing sector. This study seeks to develop a framework of the characteristics, processes and dynamics of SME retailers. A qualitative research study was carried out with SME owner managers (OMs) over a period of 15 months. The findings extend the understanding of branding in SMEs in a number of ways. Firstly, it is found that SME retailers take a cautious approach to brand management, seeking to build loyalty, networks and relationships. Secondly, the holistic nature of SME retail branding presents a challenge to OMs who are resource-constrained. Thirdly, the soft, colloquial and intuitive approaches to brand equity appraisal are evident. Brand marketing is focused on word of mouth, which has implications for how OMs operationalise the brand around store experiences. Finally, the influence of the OM on branding decisions is clear. The key findings are discussed in relation to the retail context of the study, the centricity of the OMs in SME branding and entrepreneurial brand management.     

Brand morphing across Wal-Mart customer segments

The premise of segmentation theory is that different segments each have a discrete customer profile and behavioral characteristics. At a conceptual level, the recent branding literature recognizes that different sub-cultures or segments could experience different meanings of an organization's brand. However, few quantitative studies address the issue. The current paper combines branding and segmentation theory and offers a new perspective on whether all segments have the same brand meaning. A leading discount retailer, Wal-Mart, is the focus of this Canadian-based investigation. Two segments of Wal-Mart customers are the basis of the study — one segment preferring Wal-Mart and one less attached. The research quantifies the two networks of brand meaning that the two segments associate with the Wal-Mart (corporate) brand. Empirically, brand morphing of the corporate brand occurs, with different brand meanings across the two segments.     

Public sector corporate branding and customer orientation

The objectives of branding and marketing in the public sector can differ in nature from those in the private sector, to include an improved responsiveness to public needs, rather than an increase in customer numbers. In addition, the customer orientation (a disposition that will influence brand perception) of public services is often questioned. Drawing from prior work in the private sector on the relationships expected between employee and organization customer orientation (hereafter referred to as CO), corporate brand personality, and both employee and customer satisfaction, the authors propose a number of models. These models are tested using structural equation modeling on data from a study of the employees (n = 302) and customers (n = 200) of a public hospital. Corporate brand personality mediates the positive links between employee customer orientation (hereafter referred to as ECO) and satisfaction; ECO influences brand personality, which in turn influences satisfaction. However, while both the needs and enjoyment dimensions of ECO improve customer satisfaction, the former has an unexpected, negative effect on employees. Organization customer orientation (hereafter referred to as OCO) influences customer, but not employee, satisfaction. The paper discusses the implications for managing and researching corporate branding in the public sector.     

Impact of component supplier branding on profitability

In recent years, many business-to-business (B2B) component supplier (CS) firms have added branding to their marketing toolbox. By extending the logic of ingredient branding to B2B components, they aim to create “pull” from B2B end customers by building a strong CS brand image among their customers' customers. In contrast with the established “push” approach of building strong relationships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), it is unclear whether and under which conditions CS branding is a worthy strategy. On the one hand, anecdotal evidence suggests that suppliers can leverage strong CS brand image in negotiations with increasingly powerful OEMs to enhance their financial performance. On the other hand, many B2B managers believe that branding does not work in their industry context and erodes profitability. We build a data set consisting of survey measures and archival data across a broad set of industries. Our results indicate that the financial outcomes of CS branding largely depend on the characteristics of the CS and OEM industries. Unlike dyadic OEM–CS relationships, which enhance profitability invariably across industry contexts, CS branding is effective only in well-defined situations. CS branding initiatives can enhance return in CS industries with substantial levels of product differentiation and technology intensity. However, unfavorable results may arise in industry contexts in which OEM–end customer relationships or OEM brands are important.     

Branding co-creation with members of online brand communities

This article looks at the co-creation of value in the branding process with members of online communities. Three online communities in Iran are analyzed through 45 interviews with members along with three interviews with top managers of the three brands of these communities. A content analysis shows a clear process in that the social interactions of customers in online brand communities with their favorite brands help develop relationship quality and increase customer brand loyalty. The findings suggest that firms may develop their branding strategies using social media and online brand communities through relationship marketing by using an online co-creation strategy. The findings also serve to inform practitioners of the impact of social media on branding and how they can best facilitate these brand relationships.     

Political branding: sense of identity or identity crisis? An investigation of the transfer potential of the brand identity prism to the UK Conservative Party

Abstract

Brands are strategic assets and key to achieving a competitive advantage. Brands can be seen as a heuristic device, encapsulating a series of values that enable the consumer to make quick and efficient choices. More recently, the notion of a political brand and the rhetoric of branding have been widely adopted by many political parties as they seek to differentiate themselves, and this has led to an emerging interest in the idea of the political brand. Therefore, this paper examines the UK Conservative Party brand under David Cameron’s leadership and examines the applicability of Kapferer’s brand identity prism to political branding. This paper extends and operationalises the brand identity prism into a ‘political brand identity network’ which identifies the inter-relatedness of the components of the corporate political brand and the candidate political brand. Crucial for practitioners, this model can demonstrate how the brand is presented and communicated to the electorate and serves as a useful mechanism to identify consistency within the corporate and candidate political brands.     

Towards a strategic place brand-management model

Abstract

Using earlier research into models of place branding-management processes, this paper develops a multi-level conceptual model of strategic place brand management designed to support managers in embracing a holistic approach to place brand management. The model identifies the following components for attention and activity: place brand evaluation; brand infrastructure relationships, including infrastructure (regeneration) and stakeholder engagement (management); place brand articulation; and brand communications. The model identifies the influences and action processes between these components, including brand identity and architecture, influencing brand experience. Existing place branding models take different perspectives on the branding process – respectively, relationship management, communications, and strategic planning; none of these models are comprehensive and neither are they widely adopted or tested. This paper proposes an integrative model that builds on and subsumes these earlier models and is also grounded in the wider research on branding and place branding concept and processes.     

Validating a consumer-based service brand equity (CBSBE) model in the airline industry

Over time, scholars have argued that consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) models are less suitable for service-dominant brands, mainly because the role of customer experience with services is often disregarded. Also, the absence of two essential components, brand consistency and perceived value, signals a lack of depth in creating service brand equity. To address these gaps, we examine service-branding theory by conceptualizing and validating a consumer-based service brand equity (CBSBE) model in Sarker et al. (2019) in the context of airlines. Airline service direct experience and brand consistency are highly important aspects for strengthening brand equity components of services. Subsequently, maximizing perceived value, followed by creating favorable brand meaning are the nucleus of branding services. Using the most advanced PLS-SEM techniques, our CBSBE model is highly robust in explaining the theoretical notion of creating service brand equity. Thus, achieving a pleasant and desirable experience and maintaining consistency across direct service touchpoints would be an effective strategy for service organizations.     

The Effect of Brand Engagement and Brand Love upon Overall Brand Equity and Purchase Intention: A Moderated –Mediated Model

Abstract

In their quest for retaining or enhancing their overall brand equity, firms engage with their customers. This study investigates if brand engagement blossoms in brand love and the combined effect of brand engagement and brand love upon overall brand equity and purchase intention. A two stage analysis was done on data collected from 548 respondents through a self administered questionnaire. In the first stage the measurement model was checked for reliability and validity, while in the second one, the strength of the relationships was ascertained in the structural model. The study enables an in-depth understanding of the antecedents of brand equity. It provides valuable theoretical insights on the determinants of brand equity formation. At the same time, it explores the effect of socio demographic variables like gender and usage. Brand love and overall brand equity mediate relationships. This study proposes a new branding model by simultaneously integrating variables that have been previously researched upon; brand love, brand experience, overall brand equity and purchase intention as one comprehensive model. This paper confirms that brand love and brand engagement are second order constructs and important brand mix elements. Brand engagement and brand love relationship is moderated by usage and gender.