Fostering international brand loyalty through committed and attached relationships

The relationship-building approach, focused on the building of brand-to-consumer relationships conducive to brand loyalty formation, has become an extensively investigated topic in international brand management studies. However, the theoretical development of this approach manifests obvious diversities, causing managerial uncertainty about how to take appropriate strategic actions to put the relationship-building approach to best use. The current study, orchestrating the main concepts derived from three relationship-building paradigms with necessary adaptations and modifications, develops and validates the Relationship-Building for Strategic Brand Management Model. Its most noteworthy contribution lies in the coalescence of pragmatic utilitarianism, emotionalism and social symbolism, orienting the relationship-building approach to correspond to the principle of holistic consumer experience management. As explicated by the model, committed and attached relationships built upon the relationship foundation mirroring the holistic essentiality of holistic consumer experience are convertible into powerful driver of international brand loyalty. The model structure and causal path pattern prove to be applicable to different international product brand categories in different regions. Strategic implications are deduced from the research findings, which the international brand manager may take into consideration to maximize the effectiveness of relationship-building strategies for fostering brand loyalty in the international market.     

旅游目的地品牌研究

旅游目的地营销经历了旅游地形象、旅游宣传口号之后,迎来了旅游目的地品牌竞争时代,构建旅游目的地品牌已经成为一种必然趋势。通过在前人研究基础上对旅游目的地品牌做进一步研究,探究了旅游目的地品牌内涵及自身发展规律,对旅游地品牌有进一步的认识,更好的促进旅游地可持续发展。     

可持续发展视角下的湖南省休闲农业区域品牌构建研究

本文从可持续发展的视角探寻湖南省休闲农业品牌构建之路,旨在为湖南省休闲农业实施品牌战略、推动该产业可持续发展提供思路和对策建议。     

高等教育品牌的现状及发展趋势

本文分析了高等教育产业的新形势及高等教育品牌的现状,指出教育品牌扩张进入资产重组时代,预测了未来教育品牌的发展趋势。     

Creating Global Brand Names: The Use of Sound Symbolism

ABSTRACT

Creating meaningful brand names for international markets can be particularly challenging because translation may distort intended meaning. To mitigate this issue, marketers can imbue meaning into a brand name with sound symbolism, which refers to the direct linkage between sound and meaning. The aim of this article is to examine whether sound symbolism effects are maintained after translating a brand name from English to Hindi. Results of an empirical study with Hindi-speaking subjects indicate that the sound–meaning relationship can persist after translation. A primary contribution is that sound symbolism can help create global brand names with consistent meaning across languages.     

Mapping hotel brand positioning and competitive landscapes by text-mining user-generated content

This study uncovers hotel brand positioning and competitive landscape mapping by text-mining user-generated content (UGC). Rather than relying on a single dimension of consumer evaluation, the current study detects brand attributes by using both customer preferences as well as perceptual performance to develop meaningful insights. For this, the study combines content analysis and repertory grid analysis (RGA) to answer three key research issues. 111,986 hotel reviews from two biggest Chinese cities are used to explore and visualize the competitive landscape of six selected hotel brands across three hotel categories. Findings from the study will not only advance the existing literature on brand positioning and competitive landscape mapping but also help practitioners in developing brand positioning strategies to fight competitors within and across hotel categories.     

The antecedents of tourists’ gaming spend: does the brand prestige matter?

This study endeavors to empirically analyse the influential effect among brand prestige, service quality, casino visitor satisfaction and spend. Data from 304 tourists who had travelled to Macau and had participated in gambling activities were used and structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis were employed in hypotheses testing. The findings demonstrated that both brand prestige and perceived service quality are determinants of satisfaction and gaming spend, and that brand prestige also affects service quality positively. Furthermore, past experience moderates the service quality and visitors’ satisfaction relationship, also service quality and visitors’ gaming spend relationship.     

Brand personality of tourist destinations: An application of self-congruity theory

The purpose of this research was to investigate the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas and to examine the relationships among destination personality, self-congruity, and tourist’s behavioral intentions. A convenience sample of 382 visitors to Las Vegas was surveyed, and 368 usable questionnaires were analyzed. The findings of the study indicate that tourists ascribe personality characteristics to destinations and that the perceived destination personality of Las Vegas is five dimensional: vibrancy, sophistication, competence, contemporary, and sincerity. These dimensions have a positive influence on tourists’ intention to return and intention to recommend. The study also supports the self-congruity theory within the context of tourism destinations, indicating that both actual congruity and ideal congruity have a positive impact on behavioral intentions. The study concludes that self-congruity is a partial mediator on the relationship between destination personality and tourist’s behavioral intentions. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed within the contexts of destination branding and the self-congruity theory.     

The effects of customers’ perceptions of brand personality in casual theme restaurants

Although existing studies recommend that restaurant chains develop and communicate salient brand personalities, no research to date provides empirical evidence that perceptions of unique brand personality by consumers lead to positive outcomes in the restaurant business. Therefore, using a sample of 336 adults, this research models the causal relationships between brand personality perceptions, brand preference, attitudinal loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth (W-O-M) behavior for the Olive Garden and Chili's restaurant chains. It was found that for both chains, brand personality perceptions have a positive effect on brand preference and attitudinal loyalty, brand preference has a positive impact on attitudinal loyalty, and attitudinal loyalty has a positive influence on positive word-of-mouth (W-O-M) communication. In addition, for the Olive Garden and Chili's brands, it was also found that there is a direct link between brand preference and word-of-mouth behavior.     

Reexamination of attendee-based brand equity

The significance of brand concept has been increasingly recognized in the MICE industry due to its ability to create a compelling competitive edge. Complementing the major limitation of a study on attendee-based brand equity [Lee, J. S., & Back, K. J. (2008). Attendee-based brand equity. Tourism Management, 29(2), 331–344], this study reexamines attendee-based brand equity by additionally sampling regional CHRIE conferences (RCs) and comparing the data with I-CHRIE's annual conference (IC) in the context of our theoretical model. This research not only increases the theoretical validity of the previous model of attendee-based brand equity, but also explores brand equity as captured through the differential brand knowledge effect by comparing IC and RCs.