Brand relationships through brand reputation and brand tribalism

The academic research on branding of consumer products and services is increasingly considering the degree of connectedness between consumers and brands as a key issue of investigation. The literature in this area investigates the nature and the strength of the relationship that consumers develop with brands, as well as the trend of joining brand tribes or brand communities in order to demonstrate and share with others their feelings towards and preference to brands. However, the impact of the overall perceptions of the brands in the form of its reputation and brand tribalism on brand relationships is so far unexplored in the existing literature. Using data collected from 912 respondents, this paper explores the importance of the long term brand reputation and brand tribalism on the strength of brand relationships. The findings suggest that brand tribalism is a better predictor of the strength of brand relationships than the long term brand reputation itself.     

An empirical investigation of the relative effect of trust and switching costs on service loyalty in the UK retail banking industry

The crisis in the UK financial services industry has led to retail banking customers treating transactions with growing scepticism. Retail banks are having to work very hard to regain customer trust. Despite recent research in marketing that acknowledges the importance of service loyalty to service firms, studies that have examined the relative effects of trust and the different types of switching costs on attitudinal and behavioural loyalty are scant. Therefore this article aims to build a model to examine the strength of the relationships between these constructs. Using survey data collected from a convenience sample of 290 retail banking customers in the United Kingdom, the article reveals that the main drivers of attitudinal loyalty are trust and relational switching costs. In contrast, the main drivers of behavioural loyalty are trust, relational switching costs and attitudinal loyalty. Interestingly, financial and procedural switching costs exert no significant effect on either attitudinal or behavioural loyalty. Trust and relational switching costs exert a stronger effect on attitudinal than behavioural loyalty.     

The derived demand for faculty research

Estimation of the demands for many services supplied by government and charitable organizations are hampered by two practices common to the supply of these services. The suppliers often employ non‐price rationing of these services, and they price discriminate. The supply of college training, for example, is rationed on the basis of academic ability as well as willingness to pay, and more able students are typically quoted lower net prices (associated with scholarships) than less able students. This paper suggests a method for dealing with both practices in the analysis of cross‐sectional data. This methodology is used to investigate the question of why university faculty members are expected to do research as well as teach. One answer supported by our empirical work is that the customers (e.g., the students) demand it. Thus, controlling for price and non‐academic features, better students will choose to attend a university where more scholarly research is performed. Moreover, our empirical findings also support a strong negative link between faculty time devoted to teaching and the supply of research. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Introduction: Special issue on advances in brand management

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research contains 13 articles presented at the Spring 2007 Thought Leaders International Conference on Brand Management. Following a blind reviewing process 69 papers were presented at the conference then authors were invited to revise their papers for inclusion consideration for this special issue. A further round of blind reviewing resulted in the selection of those 13 articles. This introduction presents a review of the research into brand management.     

Managing the consumer-based brand equity process: A cross-cultural perspective

Most consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) models are linear and fail to capture the complexity of the brand equity construct and its benefits in terms of key consumer behavioral outcomes. More complex and dynamic models focusing on CBBE as a process often lack empirical support particularly from more than one country. This study builds on and extends previous research by empirically examining the configural nature of the CBBE building process cross-nationally, and by investigating differences vis-a-vis key consumer behavioral outcomes (namely, willingness to pay a price premium, brand recommendation and repurchase intention). These differences are postulated and explained through culture theory particularly the cultural dimension of individualism/collectivism. Using fuzzy-set/Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fs/QCA), survey data from Greece and Germany support the robustness of the extended CBBE model. The model shows that overall brand equity and consumer behavioral outcomes are created through the brand building, brand understanding, and brand relationship blocks, and identifies core causes and common patterns across countries providing a useful diagnostic tool for international brand management.     

Investigating the Influence of a Joint Sponsorship of Rival Teams on Supporter Attitudes and Brand Preferences

The sponsorship of football is a multi‐million pound industry. Sponsors hope that supporters' enthusiasm for their team will translate into long‐term benefits for the sponsor. However, the intensity of team rivalry means that a sponsorship may also alienate opposing supporters. The rival Glasgow clubs, Celtic and Rangers, therefore undertook a joint sponsorship arrangement with the communications company NTL. This paper investigates how the benefits obtained compared to those that may have been expected from a single sponsorship. While the sponsorship was very effective in creating awareness for NTL, ambivalent attitudes were found towards the company. The most committed supporters were the least accepting of the sponsorship and the expected positive relationship between support for the club and brand preference for NTL was not found.     

Introduction: Thought leadership in brand management

This special issue contains eight articles developed from presentations at the fourth annual Thought Leaders' International Conference on Brand Management, held in Birmingham, UK in April 2008. Following a blind reviewing process, 65 papers were accepted and presented at the conference and all authors had the opportunity to revise their papers for possible inclusion in this special issue. A further round of double blind reviewing resulted in the selection of these eight articles. This introduction presents an overview of this thought-leading research into brand management.     

All customers are not treated equally: Financial exclusion in isolated Greek islands

Most of the previous research on banking examined only the banking needs of core customers. The views of people experiencing financial exclusion are unknown, but some of the excluded customer segments may have been habitually overlooked by financial service providers. This study investigated the financial needs and the views on ATM usage of a sample of 359 people living in remote Greek islands, who have never experienced financial inclusion. Furthermore, the views of inhabitants who have always lived in the area and are used to this situation are contrasted with the views of those who have lived for a part of their lives in other regions. The results show that they all express some dissatisfaction about the financial services provided. Moreover, those who have lived elsewhere express more dissatisfation with the provided services.     

Are the determinants of bank loyalty brand specific?

One of the primary concerns of companies is to develop loyal customers, and banks are no exception. Past research attempted to examine the role of satisfaction, perceived quality and image, as drivers of bank brand loyalty. However the characteristics of specific bank brands were not taken into consideration. Using data collected from a sample of 216 retail bank customers, banking with five different banks in Athens Greece, this paper investigates whether similar antecedents could be used to predict brand loyalty in various institutions. The results imply that, depending on the bank, different drivers could influence in a dissimilar manner the formation of loyalty and therefore further research is needed to generalise the suggested models.