Guest editorial

Citation

Vaidyanathan, L.L.P.a.R. (2015), "Guest editorial", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 32 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-08-2015-042

Guest editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Consumer Marketing, Volume 32, Issue 5

Despite over a decade of exhortations that marketing shift their focus almost exclusively from the USA and examine the unique challenges of emerging markets (cf. Steenkamp, 2005), it is fair to say that there has not been a rapid rise in research focused on marketing in emerging markets. The papers in this special issue highlight some of the research presented at the 2014 Annual Conference of the Emerging Markets Conference Board in India. The conference is run annually by the Emerging Markets Conference Board and has the goal of bringing together “marketing scholars and practitioners from around the world to discuss contemporary issues and challenges in emerging economies.” Although international marketing has grown as a field over the last several years, we have been relatively slow to delve into the challenges of emerging markets. According to Burgess and Steenkamp (2006, p. 338), “we need to conduct more research in [emerging markets], both to advance marketing as an academic discipline and maintain its managerial relevance.” It is important to observe that while we use the term emerging markets as the umbrella for these papers, we do so with a cautionary note. As Jagdish Sheth noted at this very conference, “all markets are always emerging”, and it is not always clear how we apply these labels. Nonetheless, through the lens of the authors, this conference allowed us to see into the lives of many consumers who are rarely, if ever, represented in our literature. We hope this collection will provide an enticing glimpse into the fruitful opportunities to expand our view of consumers from a largely Western and the USA perspective to a more encompassing global view.

The conference included scholarly research on a wide range of topics – from the antecedents of trust in baby care products to how consumers react to market prices. The common thread through the research presented here, which makes it unique from most of the papers in the mainstream marketing journals is that they all examine consumers and organizations in emerging economies. Although the research methods and techniques vary and are adapted to adjust to the difficult data collecting conditions in emerging markets, the authors have all persevered and collected their data in the emerging markets they are interested in understanding. They have all attempted to provide insights into consumers and marketing in emerging markets, which require a significant rethinking of the marketing perspective (Sheth, 2011). The collection here is also unique in that it addresses issues facing both big emerging markets (e.g. India) and smaller emerging markets (e.g. Vietnam). The papers also embrace the important idea that an emerging market is not a single homogeneous entity, but made up of disparate groups of consumers with differing needs (Cui and Liu, 2000; Sheth, 2011).

We lead off the special issue on consumers in emerging economies with a paper entitled “Antecedents and moderators of brand trust in the context of baby care toiletries”, by Neha Srivastava, Satya Ghushan Dash and Amit Mookerjee. This study extends our understanding of consumers’ cognitive and affective brand trust in an interesting and important context – a diverse sample of 507 mothers in Mumbai, India, who have a child under the age of three and have used baby care toiletry brands in the last six months. Mothers understandably are concerned about making choices that are best for their babies and so the risk of poor decisions is viewed as high. The authors predict and support that brand predictability and brand innovativeness influence cognitive brand trust, while, not surprisingly, brand intimacy influences affective brand trust. However, in addition, they illustrate that cognitive brand trust partially mediates the relationship between brand predictability and affective brand trust, at least for product choices perceived as risky. That is, they suggest that the way to a mothers’ heart is first through having a predictable high quality experience and only then do they form affective bonds with the brand. This is consistent with other work in emerging markets that highlights the significance of product quality in driving brand preferences, especially global brand preferences (c.f. Erdem and Swait, 1998; Tsai, 2005). Future research could explore how cognitive and affective brand trust influences use of global and local brands in this context. For example, some research suggests that local brands are perceived as more down-to-earth and reliable (Schuiling and Kapferer, 2004) than global brands. The dual influence of predictability and innovativeness on cognitive brand trust is also interesting and worthy of additional exploration, as companies may sometimes feel compelled to trade-off between predictability and innovativeness, especially in a category such as baby toiletries where price points are likely to be consequential. An additional and interesting aspect of this paper is that it explores how mothers’ personality characteristics moderate the relationship between brand predictability, brand innovativeness and brand intimacy and cognitive and affective brand trust. Perhaps not too surprisingly, they support that agreeableness moderates between brand intimacy and affective brand trust and conscientiousness moderates between brand predictability and cognitive brand trust. The authors do not support openness as a moderator between brand innovativeness and cognitive brand trust as might be predicted. This portion of the paper is useful in situating brand trust as shaped by the personalities of the mothers. Although this is not surprising, it is often an untold part of the story of how trust comes about. What for us is most enchanting about this project is the willingness of so many diverse mothers to share how they are making brand choices for their babies. Such diversity offers numerous opportunities for future research. For example, research could explore how younger and first mothers might differ from more experienced and older mothers.

The second paper in this issue, “Does outcome quality matter? an investigation in the context of banking services in an emerging market”, by Sonali Jain and Sanjay K. Jain on outcome quality focuses on the measurement and application of outcome quality (over functional quality) in the context of the Indian banking sector. Not only does it contrast the American perspective on service quality with the European perspective, but also discusses which conceptualization better fits the banking industry in an emerging market. Of particular interest is the authors’ separation of the target banks into Indian banks and foreign banks in India. As other articles, including ones in this issue, have shown, the perceptions of consumers in emerging markets of foreign brands can affect not only their evaluations of the brands, but also their behavior with respect to the products and services offered. Although the differences between the perceptions of the two groups were minor, it points to an important dimension often overlooked, as researchers study consumer perceptions in emerging markets with both domestic and international brands. This study focused on one industry in one emerging market, and the results do highlight our need to re-examine conceptualizations of key marketing constructs as we study consumer behavior in emerging markets.

The third paper by Jagrook Dawra, Kanupriya Katyal and Vipin Gupta entitled “Can you do something about the price?” – Exploring the Indian deal and bargaining-prone consumer” also forces us to confront the fact that emerging markets may consist of retail structures and consumers who react quite differently to prices and deals. The fact that emerging markets contain retail systems dominated by small neighborhood stores and consumers who tend to be more bargaining-prone lead to some interesting implications for consumer marketing. Further, culturally, consumers in many countries, including India, China and the Middle East, actually view haggling as an enjoyable way of establishing a longer-term relationship with the retailer. The study also shows that the relationships between value consciousness and bargain-proneness may be different in emerging countries and cannot be assumed to translate from western countries. The paper points to some interesting directions for additional research on the relationship between the customer and retailer when a deal is reached as the result of a haggling session.

The fourth paper in the issue is by Hai Chung Pham and Barry Richards entitled “Western Brands in the Minds of Vietnamese Consumers”. The intent of this research project is to explore more fully the process of global/local blending in a unique emerging market, where change has taken place very rapidly, and over 67 per cent of the Vietnamese population is under 39 years old. Again, one of the most impressive features of this paper is the sheer diversity and magnitude of data it draws on to attempt to uncover the complex process of identity work through consumption among the Vietnamese in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. In their survey, they asked 610 full-time students at both public universities and private-owned universities between 18 and 35 old years to spend 15 to 20 minutes imagining and writing a story about consuming Western brands. They were asked to write the stories that first came to mind. Amazingly, they received 600 responses. The themes they uncover support and resonate with other research in emerging market contexts (c.f. Strizhakova et al., 2011; Ustuner and Holt, 2010). However, the texture of the accounts is still quite compelling and captures how nuanced and heterogeneous the experience of global brands is across different contexts. For example, the authors note, the term “hàng xin” (which in Vietnamese slang has a combined meaning of original, good, beautiful, luxurious and expensive) was used by several subjects to describe the quality and safety they associate with Western brands. In addition, the authors uncover consumer concern with ethical consumption that is often not associated with emerging economies. Although the themes, in and of themselves, are perhaps not too surprising, the articulation of these themes in a different context can help provide a more nuanced appreciation of differences in brand meaning making across emerging market contexts.

We conclude the issue with a paper entitled “Marketing sustainability in the luxury lodging industry” by Meghna Rishi, Vinnie Jauhari and Gauray Joshi. The quest for environmental sustainability is one of the twenty-first century’s most important challenges (McKibbon, 2010). This paper focuses on the hospitality and tourism industry in India and specifically focuses on what has been termed the transition generation (25-44 years of age) to better understand how sustainability efforts in this industry can succeed with this generation (Sinha, 2011). One contribution of this paper is to provide a thorough literature review of prior work in this domain. We were surprised by the amount of work that has been done in India and other emerging economies on green tourism. This review will provide other researchers with a good grounding in themes from prior published works. In addition, the authors take on the ambitious task of doing a thematic analysis on interviews and focus groups that include mostly transition-generation customers about their attitudes and preferences toward sustainability in the luxury lodging industry, but also incorporating some perspectives and insights from two industry professionals. The scope of the project is laudable, and while it has significant limitations in terms of how informant themes are developed and reported, we feel that it is an important area for future research and we commend the authors for taking on such an ambitious project. We hope it will inspire future research.

We are proud of the fact that this is the first issue of the Journal of Consumer Marketing focused on issues related to emerging markets and hope it will provide an imperative for additional research by marketing scholars on this growing area.

Linda L. Price and Rajiv Vaidyanathan

References

Burgess, S.M. and Steenkamp, J.B.E. (2006), “Marketing renaissance: how research in emerging markets advances marketing science and practice”, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 337-356.

Cui, G. and Liu, Q. (2000), “Regional market segments of China: opportunities and barriers in a big emerging market”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 55-72.

Erdem, T. and Swait, J. (1998), “Brand equity as a signaling phenomenon”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 7.

Schuiling, I. and Kapferer, J.-N. (2004), “Real differences between local and international brands: strategic implications for international marketers”, Journal of International Marketing, Vol. 12 No. 4, p. 97112.

Sheth, J.N. (2011), “Impact of emerging markets on marketing: rethinking existing perspectives and practices”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 75 No. 4, pp. 166-182.

Steenkamp, J.B.E. (2005), “Moving out of the US silo: a call to arms for conducting international marketing research”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 69 No. 4, pp. 6-8.

Tsai, S.-P. (2005), “Utility, cultural symbolism and emotion: a comprehensive model of brand purchase value”, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 22.