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This paper aims to explore the impact of brand authenticity dimensions (i.e. aesthetic, symbolism, heritage, originality, quality commitment and virtue) on consumer engagement in the context of social media. This study answers to the need of scholars to understand consumer behaviour towards family and non-family firms’ brand authenticity constructs and for practitioners to find the correct levers to increase consumer engagement.

Top 10 European family firms with a retrievable Facebook (FB) page from the Global Family Business Index have been selected. Then, the study analysed family firms’ social media consumer engagement versus their non-family business direct competitors on a sample of 21.664 FB posts over a four-year period, leveraging multi-group analysis.

The results outline that three out of six brand authenticity dimensions posted on FB are statistically arousing more interactions respect to non-authenticity-related contents when posted by family firms. However, there are no statistically significant findings when brand authenticity content is posted by the non-family competitors.

This research is helpful for practitioners and entrepreneurs who might want to strengthen their social media brand strategies. With this regard, the study provides insights on which elements of brand authenticity are perceived by consumers as more engaging and which levers to use when communicating the familiness of the company.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is one of the earliest studies crosscutting the family business and brand authenticity literature streams to conduct an empirical analysis based on official FB data with a data set of over 20,000 observations. Moreover, this study assesses that not every dimension of the brand authenticity construct is relevant in the context of social media and that its effectiveness depends on the firms’ familiness.

This study examines handmade clothing consumption as a means of self-expression by exploring the interrelationships between consumers' self-expression, brand love and word of mouth.

Using a descriptive research design, data were collected from 295 respondents in South Africa who posted about fashion on social media and who had bought handmade clothing in the 6 months prior to data collection. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the interrelationships between consumers' self-expression, brand love and word of mouth.

Brand love intervenes between consumers' self-brand connections and word of mouth about handmade clothing. More specifically, brand love strengthens positive word of mouth online and mitigates negative word-of-mouth intentions following a handmade clothing product failure scenario.

The study enlightens scholarly understanding of consumers' self-expression motivations for using ready-made handmade clothing that results in brand love and positive word of mouth.

Handmade clothing marketers who tap into consumers' self-expression and who can establish brand love among consumers can similarly create beneficial consumer–brand relationships.

Consumers often use handmade clothing for the purpose of self-expression, which provides subsequent spin-offs for brands in the form of brand love and positive word of mouth. Objective self-awareness theory provides a parsimonious lens to reveal the important role that brand love plays as a mechanism to explain the linkage of consumers' self-brand connections to word of mouth about handmade clothing.

The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of sound branding by developing a new conceptual framework and providing an overview of the research literature on non-musical sound.

Using four mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive types of non-musical sound, the paper assesses and synthesizes 99 significant studies across various scholarly fields.

The overview reveals two areas in which more research may be warranted, that is, non-musical atmospherics and non-musical sonic logos. Moreover, future sound-branding research should examine in further detail the potentials of developed versus annexed object sounds, and mediated versus unmediated brand sounds.

The paper provides important insights into critical issues that suggest directions for further research on non-musical sound branding.

The paper identifies an unexploited terrain of possibilities for the use of sound in marketing and branding.

The paper identifies a subfield within sound-branding research that has received little attention despite its inevitability and potential significance.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an innovative branding method based on the hermeneutical approach and interpretive theory, to respond to the need of a simple and effective tool to build corporate identity through an industrial brand identity design and, being a new business, has been considered the brand perception of their stakeholders as the main input to analyze.

The case study of a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME), that produces nanomaterials for the business-to-business (B2B) industrial market, is used to design the new hermeneutic branding method. The methodology process has been structured in four phases that have marked the investigation and that correspond to four different levels of knowledge that, in succession, between them, constituted the so-called hermeneutic circle.

This new approach allowed us to understand the social phenomenon related to the brand: its characteristic, context and the brand itself. Though hermeneutic analysis has confirmed that business strategy is only part of a more complex system of brand management, it must also consider the competitive environment and the views of the stakeholders.

This paper contributes to research on industrial branding by adopting the hermeneutical approach in managerial practice. This paper is the first of its kind in detail modelling the design phases of a B2B brand, providing an operational tool for marketing specialists.

There is a lack of research studies in the methods for designing industrial brands. The contribution of this paper lies in proposing a new interpretative approach that, acknowledging the different expectations of the stakeholder in the supply chain, allows to draw a B2B brand that communicates the system values of the product and company.

Researches on the impact brand equity have grown considerably in recent years, as it has been shown to have significant impact on a company’s financial performance. This paper aims to empirically test the relationships between brand concepts and brand equity, while exploring the mediating roles of emotional attachment and customer commitment.

The research investigates the effect of brand concept on the customer–brand relationship and brand performance. Additionally, it examines how the relationship between brand concept and brand equity is mediated by customer–brand relationships such as emotional attachment and commitment.

The results empirically demonstrate the important contribution of the three brand concepts to brand equity. The results empirically demonstrate the important contribution of the three-brand concept to customer commitment and to brand equity that has been predicted by prior research.

The main contribution of this study is to demonstrate the effects of the brand concepts related to aesthetic, functional and symbolic benefits on brand equity. From this, brand equity may be viewed as a link in the path of effects that indirectly connects brand concepts with market performance. Brand concept, emotional attachment and customer commitment are relevant constructs underlying brand equity, and commitment and loyalty are key mediating variables in relational exchanges.

This paper aims to analyze different brand clarity levels (BCLs) of local, global and glocal types of brands in fast-moving consumer goods from the consumer's perspective. The study also intends to identify whether the consumer's previous experience with such brands may impact BCL.

Twenty-eight global and local brands were used to test the hypotheses by conducting a survey with 400 consumers in the emerging economy of Iran. The authors applied a quantitative technique of brand classification, previously proposed in the literature. After categorizing the brands as local, global or glocal, one-way ANOVA, Tukey post hoc and t-test analyses were performed to identify whether the different types of brands had different BCLs.

The results showed that brand clarity was significantly higher for local bands than for global or glocal brands and that it was higher for glocal bands than for global brands. Furthermore, the consumer's prior experience with a brand had no impact on BCL for different types of brands.

For global brand managers, it is essential to know that local brands in Middle Eastern emerging markets may have more brand clarity than global brands. Therefore, if global brands intend to enter these markets, adopting a glocal positioning appears to be a helpful strategy. Besides, the results suggest that managers should analyze brand categorization from the consumer's perspective, i.e. from a subjective instead of an objective perspective.

This was the first study analyzing the BCL of local, global and glocal brands and identifying significant differences in their BCL.

Do consumers rate reviews describing other consumers' sensory experience of a product (touch, smell, sight, hear and taste) as helpful or do they rate reviews describing more practical properties (product performance and characteristics/features) as more helpful? What is the effect of review helpfulness on purchase intention? Furthermore, why do consumers perceive sensory and non-sensory reviews differently? This study answers these questions.

The authors analyze 447,792 Amazon reviews and perform a topic modeling analysis to extract the main topics that consumers express in their reviews. Then, the topics were used as regressors to predict the number of consumers who found the review helpful. Finally, a lab experiment was conducted to replicate the results in a more controlled environment to test the serial mediation effect.

Contrary to the overwhelming evidence supporting the positive effects of sensory elicitation in marketing, this study shows that sensory reviews are less likely to be helpful than non-sensory reviews. Moreover, a key reason why sensory reviews are less effective is that they decrease the objective perception of the review, a less objective review then decreases the level of helpfulness, which decreases purchase intention.

This study contributes to the interactive marketing field by investigating customer behavior and interactivity in online shopping sites and to the sensory marketing literature by identifying a boundary condition, the authors’ data suggest that sensory elicitations might not be processed positively by consumers when they are not directly experienced, but instead communicated by another consumer. Moreover, this study indicates how companies can encourage consumers to share more effective and helpful reviews.

The objective of this paper is to compare the effects of two types of celebrities (Instagram celebrity vs. traditional celebrity) on users' willingness to look for product information (promoted products). User “likes” (user's intention to give “like” the promoted brand post) and Instagram involvement are examined as applied moderators in the proposed theoretical model of this research.

203 participants contribute to an experimental study and were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (Instagram celebrity vs. traditional celebrity). An American-South African woman as a traditional celebrity and an American woman as an Instagram celebrity were selected for this study.

The outcomes demonstrate the power of Instagram celebrity in excess of the traditional celebrity. In addition, the findings indicate how users are more eager to “like” the post promoted by the Instagram celebrity. It also confirms that highly involved users (vs. lowly involved users) have a greater effect on the relationship between the Instagram celebrity and users' willingness to look for the product information.

Managerial implications for social media marketing and Instagram marketing campaigns are provided. From the view of marketing planning, the findings speak to the potency of campaigns using Instagram celebrity as an effective branding strategy.

This research in addition to highlighting the role of user “like” and user involved with Instagram, contributes to a better understanding of the importance of the promoted product information search in online marketing campaigns.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the effects of the fit between two types of opinion leaders (influencer vs celebrity) and the products promoted in a fashion marketing campaign on user engagement (willingness to like and share the fit posts). Instagram involvement is examined as an applied moderator in the proposed theoretical model of this research.

To test the hypotheses of the research, an experimental study was conducted. The sample was formed by female participants who were randomly assigned to one of the two conditions (fit of influencer–product vs fit of celebrity–product).

The results showed the superiority of the fit of influencer–product over the fit of celebrity–product on users’ engagement. It also indicates that highly involved Instagram users (vs lowly involved Instagram users) moderate the more prominent effect of the fit of influencer–product post on users‘ engagement.

The research helps brands to increase their knowledge of marketing campaigns formed through the fit of the opinion leaders with the products promoted.

This research in addition to highlighting the role of users involved with Instagram contributes to a better understanding of the importance of promotional post fitting.

The aim of the study was to determine the region brand’s strength by measuring the awareness of the regional brand elements, associations and the perception of the region’s promotional activity in the corporate customers’ group.

To obtain the necessary data, this study conducted computer-assisted web interviewing on a sample of 151 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) registered in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship and engaged in furniture production and food and beverage production. Statistical data analysis included Pearson and Spearman’s rank correlation and chi-square tests.

The survey showed a high number of brand associations with the region of Mazovia, but the level of brand recognition was low. The awareness of the region’s logo among SMEs shows the strongest correlation with the belief that promotional activities increased the scope of company operations. Moreover, this evidences the perceived utility of the brand among those customers.

The regional authorities should invest more in the frequency of promoting the region among certain strongly engaged user groups to increase their brand awareness level. Furthermore, local authorities should try establishing an umbrella brand that would cover several sub-brands promoting separate industries in the region.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in Poland that focused on regional branding effects among entrepreneurs and using a quantitative method. The relationship between the studied entrepreneurs’ willingness to use the Mazovia brand and their range of operations indicates that some enterprises already enjoy greater trust thanks to the brand, which increases their loyalty toward the region.