This article introduces a new determinant of brand extension success, brand extension authenticity (BEA), as a complement to fit. The authors develop the BEA construct and a scale to measure it and ...then demonstrate that BEA captures consumer perceptions of brand extension legitimacy and cultural contiguity along four interrelated but distinct dimensions: maintaining brand standards and style, honoring brand heritage, preserving brand essence, and avoiding brand exploitation. They demonstrate the power of BEA in predicting consumer reactions to brand extensions, particularly among consumers with strong self-brand connections. Not only is BEA distinct from two conceptualizations of fit in brand extension literature—fit as similarity and fit as relevance—but it also moderates the effects of both fit dimensions on brand extension responses. By capturing a cultural and consumer relational perspective that shapes reactions to brand extensions, BEA provides an important, complementary construct for predicting brand extension success and enhancing brand value. Brand managers attentive to BEA may be able to stretch brands further than assessments of fit alone would suggest, but they risk failure in otherwise well-fitting extensions perceived as inauthentic.
In today's increasingly competitive and dynamic marketplace, achieving brand commitment is one of the ultimate goals for brands. Considering the heightened importance and relevance of brand's ethical ...perception and its symbolic benefits, the present research examines the impacts of perceived brand ethicality on brand passion and brand commitment. A conceptual framework was tested using structural equation modeling with responses from 273 apparel shoppers collected by using a structured questionnaire. We find evidence of mediating-moderation effect in which the moderating power of perceived brand ethicality is eliminated in the presence of full mediator, brand passion. Interestingly, in studying the “mediated-moderation” links, we also find the dampening effects of perceived brand ethicality at play. The results of this paper have theoretical contributions and implications for managers.
Brand passion is increasingly seen as the ultimate emotional connection between the consumer and a brand. Limited previous research relied exclusively on Sternberg's triangular interpersonal theory ...in developing the brand passion concept. This research paper integrates consumer brand identity theory, refines the definition of brand passion, and proposes a dualistic approach to brand passion which distinguishes between two different types of brand passion: harmonious and obsessive.
Four separate studies confirm the existence of harmonious and obsessive passion in a consumer–brand context and begin to develop a nomological network of both antecedent and outcome variables for each type of brand passion. This research demonstrates that the conceptualization of consumer passion for a brand is much more complex than previously suggested.
Purpose
The ever-growing popularity of social media platforms is evidence of consumers engaging emotionally with these brands. Given the prominence of social media in society, the purpose of this ...paper is to understand social media platforms from a “brand” perspective through examining the effect of consumers’ emotional attachment on social media consumer-based brand equity (CBBE).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops a model that outlines how emotional brand attachment with social media explains social media CBBE via shaping consumer perceptions of brand credibility and consumer satisfaction. An online survey of 340 Australian social media consumers provided data for empirical testing. The inclusion of multiple context-relevant covariates and use of a method-variance-adjusted data matrix, as well as an examination of an alternative model, adds robustness to the results.
Findings
The findings of this paper support the conceptual model, and the authors identify strong relationships between the focal variables. A phantom model analysis explicates specific indirect effects of emotional brand attachment on CBBE. The authors also find support for a fully mediated effect of emotional brand attachment on social media brand equity. Further, they broaden the nomological network of emotional brand attachment, outlining key outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
This paper offers a conceptual mechanism (a chain-of-effects) of how consumer emotional brand attachment with social media brands translates into social media CBBE. It also finds that a brand’s credibility as well as its ability to perform against consumer expectations (i.e. satisfaction) are equally effective in translating emotional brand attachment into social media CBBE.
Practical implications
Social media brands are constantly challenged by rapid change and ongoing criticism over such issues as data privacy. The implications from this paper suggest that managers should make investments in creating (reinforcing) emotional connections with social media consumers, as this will favorably impact CBBE by way of a relational mechanism, that is, via enhancing credibility and consumer satisfaction.
Social implications
Lately, social media in general has suffered from a crisis of trust in society. The enhanced credibility of social media brands resulting from consumers’ emotional attachments will potentially serve to enhance its acceptance as a credible form of media in society.
Originality/value
Social media platforms are often examined as brand-building platforms. This paper adopts a different perspective, examining social media platforms as brands per se and the effects of emotional attachments that consumers develop towards these. This paper offers valuable insights into how consumers’ emotional attachments drive vital brand judgments such as credibility and satisfaction, ultimately culminating into social media CBBE.
Purpose
There is a rise in interest on the topic of consumer-brand relationships (CBRs) among practitioners and academics. Consumers are said to build relationships with brands that have a ...personality congruent with their own. The purpose of this paper is to investigate two types of brand personality traits, namely, responsible brands and active brands to predict prominent CBR constructs, including brand awareness, brand trust, and brand loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was based on an electronic survey of 339 respondents. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results show that brand personality positively affects the three CBR constructs. Specifically, the focus is shifted to the two major personality dimensions, responsible and active, respectively. The results indicate that an active brand is a stronger predictor of brand awareness compared to a responsible brand. However, a responsible brand is a stronger predictor of brand trust as well as brand loyalty compared to an active brand. Surprisingly, the results display that active brands lower brand trust and brand loyalty.
Practical implications
This finding informs brand managers that projecting active brand personality leads to higher awareness. However, projecting more responsible brand leads to greater trust and loyalty. The study highlights that having one personality may not be sufficient to develop an enduring CBR, but a brand personality must “evolve” and progress as the relationship develops over time. Such dynamic brand personality may provide a more long-lasting brand strategy and a greater source of competitive advantage.
Originality/value
The present study contributes to the marketing literature in three different ways. First, this study adds to the body of knowledge on the relationship between brand personality and CBR constructs using the new measure of BPS. Second, this study assesses the individual level of the new BPS, particularly responsibility and activity, on the three CBR constructs, and in doing so, the study responds to previous studies’ calls to assess the individual capacity of the brand personality dimensions to get consumer preference or loyalty. Third, the study displays which ones of the two dimensions in the new BPS (i.e. responsible and active) may be better predictors to the three CBR constructs.
This paper proposes a social identity perspective of customer–brand relationship and integrates brand identity and identification with value, trust and satisfaction in predicting brand loyalty. Two ...studies' empirical results support this path to brand loyalty framework. The results offer several theoretical implications. First, this research confirms the presence of significant direct and indirect effects of brand identity and brand identification on traditional antecedents of brand loyalty (i.e. perceived value, satisfaction, and trust). Second, the research suggests that social identification perspective of brand loyalty can integrate with other perspectives to model the consumer's psychological path to brand loyalty. Third, the research confirms the pivotal role of brand identification in brand loyalty development and stresses the mediation effect of brand identification on the effects of brand identity on the path to brand loyalty.
A steady demand for green products from concerned consumers has led companies to introduce new product lines that match or exceed consumer environmental concerns. Nonetheless, not all the ...organizations were able to achieve significant returns on their investments in green products. These failures are generally attributed towards companies' inability to overcome consumer scepticism towards the performance of functional and green attributes of their brands to generate a positive green image and green value in consumers mind. Therefore, the question arises that does the success in promoting green brand image and value depend on consumer existing perceptions about the brand quality and credibility? This study analyzes the influence of brand perceive quality and credibility on consumer perceptions towards a brand green image, green value and green equity. A theoretical model with hypothesized relationships is developed and tested to answer these research questions. Data have been collected from the consumers of electrical and electronic goods. The hypothesized relationships were tested with the help of structural equation modeling procedure. The results suggest that brand perceived quality and its overall credibility does have a significant influence on generating a greener image, green perceive value and green brand equity.
Batra et al. (Journal of Marketing 76, 1–16, 2012) created a new conceptualization of brand love but did not develop a pragmatically useful measure for studies where questionnaire length is a ...constraint. The current research develops a more parsimonious brand love scale, with three nested versions of 26, 13, and 6 items, respectively. This research also validates the scales, and in so doing conducts several important validity tests not considered by Batra et al. The 26-item scale is able to predict consumer loyalty, word of mouth, and resistance to negative information, with an R² of .90, after correcting for measurement error.
Determinants and outcomes of brand hate Hegner, Sabrina M; Fetscherin, Marc; van Delzen, Marianne
The journal of product & brand management,
01/2017, Volume:
26, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss the concept of brand hate. The authors present a taxonomy of the main determinants and outcomes of brand hate and empirically assess our ...model.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey design using cross-sectional primary data from 224 German consumers was used. Hypotheses related to determinants and outcomes of brand hate were tested by means of structural equation modelling.
Findings
Findings show that brand hate is triggered by three determinants (negative past experience, symbolic incongruity, ideological incompatibility) and leads to three behavioral outcomes (brand avoidance, negative word-of mouth, brand retaliation).
Originality/value
This paper explores and outlines theoretically and empirically the determinants and outcomes of brand hate. It also provides a useful taxonomy of brand hate.
In the past two decades there has been a growth in the rate at which consumers join, companies use, and researchers study brand communities. Given the expansion of brand communities, scholars ...insistently analyze why individuals join and stay in them. However, no study concurrently examines the links among the members’ integration, participation and commitment to a brand community. Furthermore, research conceive brand communities as homogenous. Whether the feelings and behaviors of members of different kinds of communities, and specifically consumer-run and company-managed brand communities, are comparable is unknown. Using a sample of 2167 consumers of a leading motorcycle brand, this study examines the members’ integration, participation and commitment to consumer-run and company-managed communities. The findings reveal that consumer-run communities stimulate higher levels of integration, participation and commitment than the company-managed communities, but that the mechanisms connecting integration, participation and commitment are invariant across the two types of community.
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