This paper outlines the importance and role of non-product-related brand attributes, e.g., user imagery and usage imagery, in local news media content consumption by a younger audience aged 15-24. ...Due to technological developments, new media content consumption patterns have emerged. New dynamic, interactive, and multiplatform marketplaces have changed how media brands deliver content and how audiences consume it. The main catalysts of change are multiple platforms, on-demand content consumption, and social media platforms. The increasing use of global social networks offers media brands possibilities to distribute content and connect with their audiences, all while creating new challenges and competition in local media. These changes have brought about possibilities of broadening media audiences, as well as challenges, e.g., because of decreasing media brand associations and preference being given to social media platforms and global media brands. Generation Z's traditional media consumption patterns are below average. This audience segment prefers mobile access and online media content on various platforms, uses social media more than other age range audiences, and chooses global media and social media platforms over national media brands. These dynamics increase the challenges for local news media brands in attracting and growing a future audience, as Generation Z consumes fewer national media content in their local or national language, and what they do consume is through the medium of social media. The authors analyse media consumption trends in Latvia and determine how media brands increase their equity and the consumption of media regarding younger audiences. This research was designed to understand media consumption trends via secondary information analyses and employs a quantitative survey to identify non-product-related brand attitudes. The research question of this paper is concerned with defining how media brand associations affect content consumption and engagement. We used regression analyses to predict the most significant correlations between brand attributes and content consumption and concentration. The study focuses on national news media brands.
Superstar and human brand theories predict that the strategic management of athletes as human brands can improve their brand image and increase their market value. This article offers the first ...empirical analysis of whether and how the favorable brand image of a soccer player affects his or her market value by focusing on which performance- or popularity-based attributes affect the favorability of the player's brand image and according market value. Combined primary and secondary data confirm that a positive brand image enhances the market value of human brands; several performance-based (e.g., competences, quality) and popularity-based (e.g., media effectiveness, temper) factors determine this positive brand image. In addition, popularity-based attributes mediate the impact of performance-based attributes on the market value of human brands.
This article discusses the past, present, and future of brand research. We begin by reviewing three historical eras of branding development in the past: the information, attribute, and brand equity ...eras. Each era is marked by an emphasis on a particular concept of brands and a dominant research methodology during that period. We characterize the present of brand research as the branding era, in which brands have become part of the everyday vocabulary, and the concept of “branding” has been embraced by all types of organizations and people. Finally, we share our perspective on the future of brand research by discussing three major shifts in the brand landscape, mostly influenced by technological advancements such as IoT and their capacity to collect granular data at the individual level. We anticipate that new, exciting opportunities in brand research will continue to open up at the intersection of brands, technologies, and people.
•This work introduces hate-acknowledging advertising (HAA) to the marketing literature.•HAA’s messaging focuses exclusively on telling consumers a brand is hated.•HAA is a viable tool for marketing ...polarizing brands.•HAA improves ad credibility, brand trust and PWOM.•The effect on PWOM is driven by the HAA → ad credibility → brand trust pathway.
A number of well-known brands are not only loved by many consumers, but also hated by a sizeable portion of the population and are thus termedpolarizing brands. Because digital media offers consumers nearly unlimited opportunities to voice their hate, managers can no longer ignore vocal haters. However, the current marketing literature offers few strategies for addressing the challenge of brand hate. This paper introduces the concept of hate-acknowledging advertising (HAA), an ad technique in which polarizing brands openly admit that some segment of the population hates them. Over the course of three studies, the data indicates that, compared with supportive advertising, HAA results in higher perceptions of ad credibility and ultimately higher levels of brand trust. Moreover, the improvements in ad credibility and brand trust drive increased consumer intentions to engage in positive word of mouth on behalf of the polarizing brand.
This study theorizes and tests the effects of consumers' personality and social traits on preferences for brand prominence, and it explores the mediating effects of gender and culture. It focuses on ...how consumers' need for uniqueness and self-monitoring affects their choices between luxury brands that shout (are loud) versus those that whisper (are discreet), that is, the degree of brand prominence. This study uses a quantitative methodology to study 215 young consumers from Finland, Italy, and France. The findings show that most consumers in the sample were connoisseur consumers who prefer luxury brands that whisper. Social norms affect luxury brand choices; the Finns were found to prefer discreet visible markings on products more than the French and the Italians did. Finally, more men than women were found to link luxury brands to self-expression and self-presentation; this has marketing implications in terms of segmentation and brand management.
The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of the rebranding process on private label performance output, namely, on brand equity. More specifically, the study aims to investigate the ...performance of brand equity constructs (brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality and brand loyalty) before and after the rebranding process. A questionnaire was administered to 466 shoppers, who put forth their perceptions, of the brand’s image, before and after the rebranding. When analyzed altogether, brand equity constructs have not suffered significant changes, meaning that previously existing brand equity had successfully been transferred onto the new brand; however, new brand equity was not created in the process. Consumers do still associate the private label brand image with its previous brand identity. Nevertheless, their ability to easily identify the various brand tiers was improved with the new image. Consumers associate the rebranded image with being “innovative” and “original” and describe the previous image as “inexpensive” and “trustworthy”. Brand awareness and loyalty are the factors that relate the most to consumers’ perceptions of the brand before its rebranding. This study contributes to the brand management literature by providing a new look into the under-researched problem of rebranding and brand equity, empirically validating the real-life market case.
This paper examines the impact of perceived consistency in marketing communications on customer–brand relationship outcomes. The perception of consistent message and image through different marketing ...communication tools is one of the basic principles of the integrated marketing communications (IMC) approach. Although literature suggests that IMC might have an influence on customer–brand relationship outcomes, empirical evidence that supports this assumption is still weak and inconclusive. Three main brand relationship outcomes are established for the purpose of the study, i.e. trust, commitment, and loyalty. The relationships between perceived communication consistency and brand outcomes are examined in a hospitality context on a sample of 452 respondents who had to evaluate fast-food brands. Structural Equation Modelling was employed as the main technique for data analysis using Partial Least Squares (PLS). Results reveal that communication consistency has a strong direct impact on brand trust and brand loyalty. Although its influence on affective brand commitment is found to be positive, it is not statistically significant. The interrelationship between three brand relationship outcomes is also corroborated. The study contributes to our understanding of the role of IMC in the relationship marketing paradigm and provides deeper insights into the impact of communication consistency on different relationship outcomes with fast-food brands.
This study scrutinizes how places meaningfully burnish corporate brand attractiveness and identification. To date, extant research adopts a mono-lateral, rather than multi-lateral perspective. ...Marshalling the corporate brand identification theoretical perspective, the findings make a theoretical advance by explicating how a nascent corporate brand can be enhanced through its positive associations with places. The research setting for this study was a newly-established business school and the research focused on international postgraduate students who are a key business school constituency. In this study, the tripartite place associations which meaningfully enhanced customer corporate brand attractiveness and identification were found to be country, city, and corporate locale.
•Despite an inferior market position, weak brands are often chosen over strong brands.•Through fMRI and behavioural studies, we explore choice processes underlying weak brand choices.•It is found ...that weak brand choice involves an assessment of value/worth, including cognitive control over feelings of conflict, error-commission, and regret.•By uncovering affective and higher-order cognitive processes of brands choices, this research contributes to literature on brand management, consumer-based brand equity and choice conflicts.•This research also suggests the ways in which firms can leverage a weak brand position, without contesting strong brands on advertising/promotion.
Despite the advantages of strong brands over weak brands, consumers often choose weak brands. The authors test two competing explanations that can explain weak brand choices, by exploring the underlying strong/weak brand choice processes. We test these explanations in a simultaneous evaluation and choice-based scenario, using brands from several product categories. Through an fMRI study (and related behavioural studies), we found significant activation in Rostral Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC), Dorsal ACC and Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) for weak brand choices. Our results suggest that weak brand choice involves an assessment of value/worth, including cognitive control over feelings of conflict, error-commission, and regret. Brain-behaviour correlation analyses, response times in a lexical-decision task, and choice responses in behavioural studies support these inferences. We contribute to the understanding of consumer-based brand equity, brand-affect associations, and joint/separate product evaluations, and also suggest actionable insights for firms/managers to leverage weak brands’ position.
There is a vast literature on optimizing store brand quality, but it does not address the individual and joint effects of sourcing and pricing power; this is the focus of our paper. We study a ...retailer’s store‐brand quality‐positioning problem under three sourcing structures and two types of price leadership. The three sources are in‐house (IH), a leading national‐brand manufacturer (NBM) with a competing product, and a strategic third‐party manufacturer (3M). We consider two forms of price leadership, Manufacturer‐Stackelberg (MS) and Retailer‐Stackelberg (RS). We fully characterize the retailer’s optimal quality levels and their relative values across the six scenarios, as well as equilibrium prices, retail profits, consumer welfare, and supply chain profits. Among other things, we find that the retailer chooses lower quality when sourcing from NBM than from other sources to benefit from quality differentiation as there are few other points of leverage. On the other hand, she chooses a higher quality when sourcing from 3M vs. producing IH because, despite the double marginalization, a higher‐quality store brand induces greater competition between 3M and NBM, which benefits the retailer. We also show that the power to decide the source is more important to the retailer than having pricing power.
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