For brand alliance social or cause related marketing which one is better? A study in emerging markets

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships and the effectiveness of cause‐ related or social marketing on consumer perceptions, perceived brand motivations, and the direct and indirect effects that these factors have on brand alliance, attitude, and purchase intentions. A total of 425 participated who are users of soap and oil in the fast‐moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. Advertisements of three per brands are taken up for study. Dove soap, Parachute hair oil, and Dettol Soap (social marketing) and Fiama Di Wells beauty soap, Vatika hair oil, and Nihar hair oil (cause marketing) are selected for study. Both social and cause‐related marketing motivate the consumer to purchase products from the same company and likewise recommend to others. The present study findings clearly suggest that compared with social cause‐related marketing, social marketing is more preferred. People like watching advertisements incorporating social marketing more compared with cause‐related marketing. Both social and cause‐related marketing motivate the consumer to purchase products from the same company and also recommend to others. The takeaway from this study is how social and cause‐related marketing differ on brand alliance and subsequent effect on brand image, brand recommendation, brand loyalty, consumer perceptions, and purchase behaviour.     

Understanding factors influencing consumer attitudes toward cause‐related marketing

• Cause‐related marketing (CRM) has proliferated as a marketing strategy and is being employed by numerous brands across product categories. Despite its widespread popularity, not much is known about the factors that influence consumer attitudes toward CRM. In this study, we investigate the antecedents of consumer attitudes toward CRM, specifically sociodemographic characteristics, consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence, and mediating role of consumer values. We test causal relationships employing a partial least squares‐based structural equation model. The data are collected via a structured questionnaire resulting in 456 valid responses. Our study demonstrates that attitudes toward CRM are influenced by sociodemographic characteristics with personal values acting as mediator. In addition, our findings show that consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence affects the importance given to values, which in turn influences attitudes toward CRM. Our study makes theoretical contributions in the domain of CRM, specifically regarding the role of personal values, interpersonal influences, and sociodemographic factors in influencing attitudes toward CRM. In addition, the findings have relevance for managers responsible for their CRM campaigns.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Positively negative: the impact of negativity upon the political consumer

• For years there has been an ongoing debate as to the role and impact that ‘marketing’ has had on politics. Yet, it is the case that many of the concepts associated with the field of marketing have real relevance and have, in fact, been employed within the field of political campaigning for many decades. This is an empirical paper that focuses upon the concept of political brands and the impact that current trends in campaign strategy, and in particular the growth and continued use of negative campaigning, have upon them. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, the implications associated with such activity are examined and, in particular, its effect upon the consumer/brand relationship.
• Within the consideration of the results, it becomes clear that political brands' use of negative campaigning is somewhat shortsighted; offering short‐term gains but at the cost of long‐term damage not only to their brand image but also to the wider democratic system as it stands. In a search for political ‘brands’ that more effectively meet their needs, there appears a tendency for political consumers to now look outside of the conventional political sector. The emergent concept of the ‘negative brand’ is explored together with the implications for political consumers, political brands and the wider field of conventional party politics.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the link between cause‐related marketing and brand building

The use of cause‐related marketing (CRM) is increasing around the world and provides benefits to both firms and causes, by linking the two organisations together. Most of the CRM literature examines this strategy from a for‐profit perspective. This paper examines how this literature could be equally applicable to examining CRM from a not‐for‐profit perspective. That is CRM programmes can positively and negatively impact on a not‐for‐profit's brand, which is frequently its most valuable asset. In this way CRM can be related to a number of not‐forprofit brand and brand equity issues including brand awareness, brand attitude and intention to support the CRM programme. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications     

Evaluations of branding alliances between non‐profit and commercial brand partners: the transfer of affect

• There is growing interest in the trend towards co‐branding alliances between non‐profit and commercial entities,which are undertaken by these organisations to transfer associations and affect between each brand partner. Certainly, it makes sense that commercial entities want to gain more from their brands and that non‐profits want secured funding, however, in the same way that the joining of two brands can be beneficial, it can also bring with it major risks when the brand alliance is not well received and evaluations of the alliance are not favourable.
• This research supports the notion that both commercial entities and non‐profit organisations can benefit from a branding alliance, however, an understanding of how these brand alliances are evaluated is important. This research investigates evaluations of brand alliances and the resulting spillover effects for original brand partners that result from brand alliances.
• This research provides empirical support relating to reactions to brand alliances between a non‐profit organisation and a commercial business in terms of how original brand attitudes, familiarity of original brands and perceived brand fit impact on evaluations. While collaboration is important and has potential benefits for each partner—they rest on partner selection and fit between alliance partners. Managerial implications and future research directions are also provided.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrating Behavioural and Branding Perspectives to Maximize Green Brand Equity: A Holistic Approach

The aim of this study is to expand the existing understanding of green consumers' behaviour by proposing and testing an integrated conceptual model that explores the influence of consumers' personal concerns for the environment and general attitudes towards green products on brand‐related knowledge structures (image and associations) and relationship preferences (trust and brand equity) for green brands. A questionnaire‐based survey method was used to collect data using convenience sampling. One hundred and ninety‐nine usable responses were obtained. A structural equation modelling procedure was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The results confirmed that a positive relationship exists between consumer concern for environmental values and general attitudes towards green products. Both these constructs influence consumers' knowledge structure of a green brand (image and associations). Furthermore, a strong relationship exists between consumers' knowledge structure (image and associations) and their relational preference (trust and brand equity) with green brands. These findings are important for business strategy formulation by providing empirical support for the idea that a firm should invest its resources not only to project its environmentally friendly brands but also to build consumers' concern for environmental values and their attitude towards green products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Understanding consumers' purchase intentions toward natural‐claimed products: A qualitative research in personal care products

In recent years there is a trend of consuming natural products for a sustainable and healthier life. Therefore, firms began aligning their strategy with sustainability by communication strategies that they produce natural products, which are better for health as well as the environmental sustainability. However, sometimes these claims may be deceptive. The purpose of this paper is to understand the consumers' purchasing intentions toward products claiming naturalness in their advertising and packaging strategies. This research also examined greenwashing perceptions and their potential roles in purchasing intentions. In‐depth face‐to‐face interviews carried out with 20 Turkish women regarding personal care products (local brand and international brand). The findings of the interviews revealed eight themes (perceived greenwashing, perceived green image, price perception, environmental concern, green trust, skepticism, perceived risk, and purchase intention). This study contributes to predict a framework from consumer viewpoint for identifying the themes related to greenwashing.     

Affective and cognitive influence of control of navigation on cause sponsorship and non‐profit organizations

The purpose of this research is to examine how control of navigation influences cognitive and affective sponsorship responses and attitude towards the non‐profit organization in the context of corporate websites. By conducting experiments on fictitious brands and existing non‐profit organizations, this study found that control of navigation did not influence sponsorship cognition. Attitude towards the website fully mediated the influence of control of navigation on attitude towards the sponsor's brand and attitude towards the non‐profit organization. Additionally, high control of navigation in combination with high perceived fit was associated with the most positive brand attitude. These findings suggest that control of navigation defined as an external control factor is primarily an affective heuristic; in addition, the heuristic processing influences not only the sponsor's brand but also the sponsored non‐profit organization. Practically, this study suggests that the navigation of corporate websites has to be user‐friendly in order to benefit the brand and ensure neutrality of consumers' judgement of the sponsored non‐profit organization. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

消费者国货意识对国外品牌产品购买意向的影响机制——兼论消费者—品牌情感的调节效应

文章基于消费者—品牌情感的新视角细致考察了消费者国货意识不同维度与外国产品品牌购买意向之间的内在机制.通过对418个有效样本的实证分析发现:其一,消费者国货意识对外国品牌产品购买意向具有显著的负向影响,而基于危机感的国货意识比基于自豪感的国货意识具有更强的负向影响;其二,消费者—品牌情感的两个不同维度对消费者国货意识与外国品牌产品购买意向之间的关系具有显著的调节作用,且不同维度对两者关系的调节方向恰好相反.该研究结论为现存研究争议提出了一种消费者—品牌情感视角下的理论辩护.最后,文章基于研究结论提出了企业进行国际营销时的管理建议.     

Research continuum on consumer education and brand knowledge: A critical analysis

Consumer education and brand knowledge have emerged as the dynamic tool in the complex marketplace today that actively stimulate the cognitive behavior of consumers toward developing purchase intentions and buying decisions. The general objective of this study is to critically review the previous studies on the role of brand literacy, transfer and perceptions of knowledge, purchase intention, shopping ambiance and customer satisfaction, and illustrate the consumer decision making process induced by the above factors. The literature review reveals that brand education plays significant role as a driver of decision making among consumers, which not only empowers consumers in developing perceptions on the brand but also helps the companies on brand co-designing and knowledge dissemination process. Consumer literacy and brand knowledge helps the consumers in assessing the brand value, competitive advantage, and operational efficiency of the brand toward building purchase intentions. The effects of the increasing levels of customer expertise in the marketplace today is seen as the outcome of consumer education and perceived brand knowledge.     

品牌个性吸引力研究

大量文献研究表明,产品具有良好的品牌个性大有裨益,比如能强化消费者的品牌态度和购买意向,促成更高水平的消费者信任和忠诚。然而现有的研究尚未充分评估品牌个性对消费者产生的吸引力。而正是这种吸引力能够影响目标消费者的购买决策。本文为评估消费者对品牌个性吸引力感知进行了概念化,提出了品牌个性吸引力的三个维度。     

The effect of entrant brand's ownership on national brands' positioning strategies

National brand manufacturers face the threat of new product entry from not only their traditional competitors (other national brand manufacturers) but also from their own customers (the retailer). We compare how national brands can limit the loss due to entry of these two types of entrants by positioning of their brands. Our results show that national brands position farther from one another when the new entrant is a store brand than when the entrant is another national brand. We also find that due to different positioning strategies of these two types of entrant brands—the entrant store brand positioning “in‐between” incumbent national brands whereas the entrant national brand positioning “away” from incumbent national brands—incumbent national brands may lose more from the entry of a weaker store brand than from the entry of a stronger national brand. Finally, we find that taking into consideration both pricing and product positioning decisions, consumer and social welfare are generally higher from store brand entry than from national brand entry.     

本土品牌“土气”形象成因及时新策略

尽管本土企业希望建立时尚的品牌身份,但由于在国家形象、企业形象、产品形象等品牌形象三维度的"土气"表现,消费者仍然认为本土品牌普遍"土气"。本土品牌要想摆脱"土气",可以采用声誉品牌战略,改变负面的原产地形象;重视长期品牌建设,而不是仅仅关注短期销量的提升;应摒弃简单的模仿,持续进行营销创新。     

Quality competition and entry deterrence: When to launch a second brand

We study the rationale for an incumbent to launch a second brand when facing potential entry into a market with quality‐differentiated products and a fringe producer. Depending on market size, the cost of a second brand and a potential entrant's setup cost the incumbent might use a second brand both when deterring and when accommodating entry. For low costs of brand proliferation, the high‐quality firm will prevent entry with limit qualities or multiple brands. The high‐quality incumbent will accommodate entry only if it cannot be prevented. Accommodation is always accompanied by an additional brand safeguarding the premium brand.     

Do CEO characteristics influence a firm’s investment in brand equity? Evidence from Chinese listed firms

This paper contributes to the upper-echelons theory by extending the investigation of how CEO characteristics, namely gender, age, tenure, education attainment, and duality, influence firms’ strategic decisions regarding brand equity investment. We gather 8830 firm-year observations from the Chinese listed firms for the period of 2012 to 2018. We develop several hypotheses and use a probit regression specification to test each hypothesis. The empirical results show that a CEO’s tenure and duality have a positive influence. Interestingly, the CEO’s age has a negative influence while their gender and education have no significant influence on a firm’s propensity to invest in brand equity. It indicates that longer tenures and duality lead CEOs to be confident making them more willing to invest in high-risk projects. It also indicates that older CEO’s are risk-averse, while gender does not play a role in the risk-taking appetite of the CEO. The results provide several implications for firms looking to develop influential brands, especially in China.

     

大型超市自有品牌购买意向影响因素研究

随着零售业竞争不断加剧,自有品牌战略成为零售业一个新的利润源泉。但实践显示,大型超市在不断推出自有品牌商品后,并没有带来意料之中的利润增长,消费者对自有品牌商品的认可度较低、满意度不高、购买意愿不强。由此,对影响自有品牌购买意向关键因素的识别显得十分重要。本文在已有研究成果基础上,围绕六个方面提出了研究假设,利用调查数据,运用SPSS统计分析软件进行了验证。研究结果表明,自有品牌的感知质量、感知风险、销售价格、促销力度、超市自身形象、消费者品牌偏好等因素与大型超市自有品牌购买意向呈正相关。     

客户采购关注点对再制造产品购买意愿的影响研究——基于政府促进政策的调节效应研究

近年来,国家出台各种政策措施促进再制造产业发展,但是由于多方面原因,客户在产品选择上往往将再制造产品列为下策。本研究采用扎根理论分析客户采购关注点对再制造产品购买意愿的影响,并检验了政府促进政策的调节效应。研究发现,客户对品牌的信任、质量感知、成本控制意识对再制造产品购买意愿有正向影响,而客户的社会责任观对再制造产品购买意愿影响不显著。此外,政府的促进政策对客户的品牌信任、质量感知、社会责任观和再制造产品购买意愿之间的关系有正向调节效应,但是在政府的促进政策中,直接补贴对成本控制意识和再制造产品购买意愿之间的关系没有调节效应,而“以旧换再”对这两者有正向调节效应。该研究结论的理论意义在于从再制造这一特殊工业品角度研究了购买意愿的影响因素及其调节机制,有助于完善组织市场购买行为理论;实践意义为有助于再制造企业更好地吸引客户购买,有助于提高政府促进政策的有效性提供指导建议。     

The strategic use of contingent workers in Hong Kong's economic upheaval

This research examines strategy in the use and purposes of contingent employment in four retail firms under different economic conditions in Hong Kong. Data from in‐depth qualitative case studies found that the four firms – three Japanese and one British – had different organisational responses to the economic conditions caused by the increase of sales before the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the shrinkage of sales afterwards. One such response concerned the companies' employment policies, especially in their use of contingent workers. Some tended to have an ad hoc opportunistic approach to the use of contingent workers, while others were more strategic and incorporate long‐term planning in their labour utilisation strategy. Implications are drawn relating to companies' use of contingent employment to changes in the contextual environment regarding their long‐term development.     

Brand orientation in charity organisations: qualitative research into key charity sectors

The study explores, through qualitative research, levels of brand orientation in large, medium and small‐sized charity organisations where brand orientation refers to the extent to which the organisation regards itself as a brand. The results indicate that charity managers are largely endorsing the conversion from charity organisation to charity brand. Brand status was seen to offer a shorthand communication of what the charity organisation did, its cause, and what it represented, its values. Significantly, it was also seen to fulfil organisational objectives such as raising awareness, building trust, fundraising and parliamentary lobbying, with a more focused and more consistent communication of what the organisation stood for. Strategically, however, charity organisations were not making the best use of their brands. It was suggested, for instance, that more sophisticated targeting of key donor segments with research‐based, tailored messages, might help reverse the trend of declining donor numbers. Overall, however, the study provides much evidence of brand orientation in the charity sector with most charity managers clearly wedded to the concept of putting the brand at the heart of the organisation. The charities that enjoyed a full commitment to the branding process from all their stakeholders were best placed to reap the benefits of charity brand status. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Effectiveness of cause‐related marketing for differential positioning of market entrant in developing market: An exploratory study in Indian context

Cause‐related marketing is being increasingly used for forging strong relation between the brand and the customer. It is primarily being used by the well‐established brands to further strengthen their position in the market as it leads to a positive image of the brand, and customers are more receptive towards such brands because they tend to provide them with tangible as well as intangible benefits. This study tends to identify the effectiveness of cause‐related marketing as a marketing tool for newly launched products in developing market of India, which has so far remained a less explored area. A sample of 150 consumers was taken, and case studies were undertaken for validating these findings. The findings suggest that cause‐related marketing campaigns, even at early stages of brand development, can lead to customer trial and differential positioning thus providing these new entrants with an opportunity to interact with the customers. The proposed framework can provide useful insights to brand managers to design cause‐related marketing campaigns for newly launched brands. The results and findings have been deduced from real‐time market research, and it can help in furthering research in the field of cause‐related marketing in India and other developing economies with similar market conditions.