Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2012), "Editorial", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 21 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbm.2012.09621gaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Product & Brand Management, Volume 21, Issue 7

A company that is seeking a competitive advantage for their brand(s) in the global marketplace today must first thoroughly understand what drives a consumer to choose a particular brand. Consumer perception is of prime importance in a company’s quest in an attempt to gain a foothold in the marketplace. A company also has to be cognizant of what factors affect not only multi-line brands, but attempts at brand extension as well. There are not that many companies that can claim to have “global brands” that are accepted (with some modifications to their products for the countries that they are successfully marketing to), so it is incumbent upon brand managers to better understand how consumers see their products.

Vukasovic examines brand extension with developing an innovative product in a new product category. Results of this study show positive influence of the parent brand on the brand extension to the new product category. Brand managers need to consider potential reciprocal effects in assessing the benefits of extension introduction. Also, the role of brand extensions in enhancing the appeal of the parent brand among prior nonusers of the parent brand has been overlooked as an important added benefit of the extension strategy.

Ozcan and Sheinin examine how consumers understand and judge multi-attribute products that are perceived as either more or less complete in terms of feature coverage in a category. Complete products are used to reduce the need of developing and managing expansive and expensive line-extension portfolios. With this information, brand managers can have a better understanding of how consumers judge complete products, and can also ascertain under which circumstances more complete products are preferred.

Kemp, Childers and Williams examine the concept of place branding and propose that internal stakeholders, specifically a city’s residents, are relevant and crucial to the brand building process. The authors’ research has special implications for (destination) places and municipalities that are in the process of developing branding strategies for their locales as well as those interested in achieving a competitive advantage with existing brand management systems.

Narteh and Odoom investigate the determinants of automobile brand choice on Ghana. The authors hypothesized that consumers of automobiles in this sub-Saharan African region make their purchases based on a multiplicity of factors, such as emotional connections, the attributes of a car, external influences, awareness, as well as accessibility.

Kuikka and Laukkanen explore the antecedents of brand loyalty in the chocolate market. The results suggest that in the chocolate market, brand satisfaction is the most significant factor for brand loyalty followed by brand value and brand equity. In addition, the moderator effect of hedonic value shows that the effect of brand satisfaction on attitudinal loyalty is significantly stronger among consumers with high hedonic value compared to consumers with low hedonic value.

In this issue you will also find our Pricing strategy & practice section as well as our Book review section.

Richard C. Leventhal