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This study seeks to provide analytical insights into corporate brand‐rapture (CBR), its antecedents and consequences, and contributes to methodology for modeling CBRs.

The paper defines the construct and develops a theory that explains how corporate brand‐rapture works and is testable empirically.

CBR merits further investigation as a potentially valid, operational concept in marketing that underpins the conscious and unconscious drivers of the corporate brand's strongest stakeholders and that lays the foundations of research into corporate brand‐rapture communication.

The paper, while remaining conceptual, identifies a dynamic concept of interest to researchers and to corporate brand marketing management and proposes seven fundamental propositions for modeling CBR.

The paper provides researchers and corporate brand marketing with a more rigorous understanding of the foundations of engagement with a corporate brand.

This paper is the first so far on CBR theory and provides insights that are important to corporate brand marketers and their communications strategies.

Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) model, the purpose of this study is to investigate mediating effects of controlled and uncontrolled communications of corporate brand perceptions on consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 271 Australian automobile consumers.

The authors find that while consumer satisfaction is indirectly influenced by corporate-level attributes via controlled and uncontrolled communication, the authors did not find an indirect effect between consumer benefits on consumer satisfaction via controlled and uncontrolled communication. By contrast, the authors find highly significant indirect effects – via controlled and uncontrolled communication as well as consumer satisfaction – for the relationship between, on the one hand, corporate-level attributes and consumer benefits and consumer brand loyalty on the other. Uncontrolled communication was significantly associated with consumer loyalty, a relevant finding that indicates an importance of tracking media coverage and maintaining favorable relationships with the media.

The cross-sectional method limits data collection to one point in time.

This study adds to a better understanding of how to leverage corporate brand through communications in ways that it positively resonates with consumers. A fine-grained analysis of corporate brand attributes and consumer-perceived benefits can aid managers in developing specific and more effective marketing strategies.

The overall thrust of this empirical study, which is to investigate how corporate brand perceptions influence short term (satisfaction) and long term (loyalty) via controlled and uncontrolled communications is original. This study comprehensively conceptualizes and operationalizes the corporate brand as a multidimensional construct consisting of corporate-level attributes and brand-level attributes such as perceived consumer benefits. To examine the hypothesized relationships between and among our constructs, the authors go beyond the commonly studied single mediator model and test a multiple mediator model instead.

Narratives are central to consumers’ understanding of brands especially during change. The financial crisis that began in 2008 offered a changing marketplace from which to develop two managerially useful frameworks of consumer narratives. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Consumer focus groups, interviews with bankers and qualitative consumer surveys were used to gather consumers’ narratives about retail banking. The narratives were examined through frameworks from both the humanities and psychology (narrative identity).

The individual consumer narratives were used to create first a possible cultural narrative or bird’s eye view and later archetypal narratives of groups of consumers for a ground-level view of the changing marketplace.

Like all early research, the findings must be examined in other contexts to improve generalizability.

The narrative results revealed the impact of change on consumers’ identities, views of other entities and retail banking activity to yield managerially actionable information for segmentation, target marketing, branding and communication.

Frameworks are developed for consumer narratives which are shown to be useful tools in examining consumers’ reactions to changing markets and in formulating marketing responses.

The purpose of this paper is to propose future directions for research into stories and metaphors as concise communication tools that are particularly salient for the fast pace of today’s retail sales environment.

A cross disciplinary approach is taken to propose new avenues for sales communication research.

This work highlights research possibilities into the contextually sensitive constructs of stories and metaphors with associated theoretical approaches. This could improve research into stories and metaphors as communication techniques for retail selling.

The findings indicate that stories and metaphors are highly engaging sensemaking tools that salespeople can use in retail sales encounters. The lack of existing literature within the sales domain suggests a significant learning curve in demarcating the use of these tools.

Stories and metaphors are presently used by salespeople but without the benefit of extensive scientific understanding. This paper builds a foundation for research that could bring clarity to the use of these tools in retail selling.

Researchers will benefit from a finer grained conceptualization with which to examine sales communication. The proposed research should get sales practitioners a clearer understanding of using stories and metaphors in sales encounters.

The purpose of this paper is to develop conceptual understanding in the area of customer brand co-creation. The research considers the factors influencing customers to co-create and the impacts of customer co-creation on the brand.

Theoretical development is progressed through conceptualisation of a series of research propositions which consider the antecedents and consequences of brand co-creation. Conceptualisation entails analysing and synthesising previous studies and reasoning new relationships between relevant concepts. Customer brand co-creation theory is improved by operationalizing the concept in a theoretical model.

The Customer Brand Co-creation Model expresses the influence of brand engagement, self-congruity and involvement as antecedents to brand co-creation. Further, the model identifies the moderating effect of brand interactivity and brand communities. Finally, the model actualises the impact of brand co-creation upon brand value and brand knowledge.

The conceptual paper explores an emerging area of research interest. The study provides a level of clarity by defining the brand co-creation construct and developing several research propositions and a conceptual model for advancing knowledge of co-creation.

The research provides new insight for brand managers who may be investing in co-creation programs and exposing their brand, but without understanding the impact of customer brand co-creation. Conceptual development of theory provides initial insight for practitioners and explores outcomes of co-creation.

This work brings together disparate but highly relevant branding theories to progress the co-creation literature and improve understanding of the influence of co-creation upon the brand and customer.