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1 – 10 of 135Lydia Mähnert, Caroline Meyer, Ulrich R. Orth and Gregory M. Rose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how users on social media view brands with a heritage. Consumers commonly post opinions and accounts of their experiences with brands on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how users on social media view brands with a heritage. Consumers commonly post opinions and accounts of their experiences with brands on social media. Such consumer-generated content may or may not overlap with content desired by brand managers. Drawing from “The medium is the message” paradigm, this study text-mines user narratives on Twitter1 to shed light on the role of social media in shaping public images of brands with heritage through the lens of the stereotype content model.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a data set of almost 80,000 unique tweets on 12 brands across six categories, compares brands high versus low in heritage and combines dictionary-based content analysis with sentiment analysis.
Findings
The results indicate that both user-generated content and sentiment are significantly more positive for brands low rather than high in heritage. Regarding warmth, consumers use significantly more positive words on sociability and fewer negative words on morality for brands low rather than high in heritage. Regarding competence, tweets include more positive words on assertiveness and ability for low-heritage brands. Finally, overall sentiment is more positive for brands low rather than high in heritage.
Practical implications
Important from co-creation and integrated marketing communication perspectives, the findings provide brand managers with actionable insights on how to more effectively use social media.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first to examine user-generated content in a brand heritage context. It demonstrates that heritage brands, with their longevity and strong links to the past, need to be aware of how contemporary social media can detract from their image.
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Börje Boers, Torbjörn Ljungkvist and Olof Brunninge
The purpose of this study is to explore how the family firm identity is affected when it is no longer publicly communicated.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore how the family firm identity is affected when it is no longer publicly communicated.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study approach was used to follow a third-generation family business, a large Swedish home electronics firm that acquired a competitor and, initially, continued using its family firm identity after the acquisition. This study longitudinally tracks the company and its owning family using archival data combined with interviews.
Findings
The case company decided to stop communicating their identity as a family business. Such a move initially appears counterintuitive, since it potentially threatens the family firm identity and leads the firm to forgo other advantages, e.g. in branding. However, the decision was based on arguments that were rational from a business perspective, leading to a decoupling of family and firm identity.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by showing a decoupling of internally experienced and externally communicated identities. It further contributes to the understanding of the family firm identity concept.
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Mark Buschgens, Bernardo Amado Figueiredo and Janneke Blijlevens
This paper aims to investigate how and when visual referents in brand visual aesthetics (i.e. colours, shapes, patterns and materials) serve as design applications that enable…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how and when visual referents in brand visual aesthetics (i.e. colours, shapes, patterns and materials) serve as design applications that enable consumer diasporic identity.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses an innovative methodology that triangulates 58 in-depth interviews with diasporic consumers, 9 interviews with brand managers and designers and a visual analysis of brands (food retailer, spices and nuts, skincare, hair and cosmetics, ice cream and wine) to provide a view of the phenomenon from multiple perspectives.
Findings
This study illustrates how and when particular applications and compositions of product and design referents support diasporic identity for Middle Eastern consumers living outside the Middle East. Specifically, it illustrates how the design applications of harmonising (applying separate ancestral homeland and culture of living product and design referents simultaneously), homaging (departing from the culture of living product and design referents with a subtle tribute to ancestral homeland culture) and heritaging (departing from the ancestral homeland culture product and design referents with slight updates to a culture of living style) can enable diasporic identity in particular social situations.
Research limitations/implications
Although applied to the Middle Eastern diaspora, this research opens up interesting avenues for future research that assesses diasporic consumers’ responses to brands seeking to use visual design to engage with this market. Moreover, future research should explore these design applications in relation to issues of cultural appreciation and appropriation.
Practical implications
The hybrid design compositions identified in this study can provide brand managers with practical tools for navigating the design process when targeting a diasporic segment. The design applications and their consequences are discussed while visually demonstrating how they can be crafted.
Originality/value
While previous research mainly focused on how consumption from the ancestral homeland occurred, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine how hybrid design compositions that combine a diaspora’s ancestral homeland culture and their culture of living simultaneously and to varying degrees resonate with diasporic consumers.
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Suyash Khaneja and Shahzeb Hussain
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of physical environment design (PED) and its antecedents on consumers’ emotional well-being (EWB). Drawing on place identity…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of physical environment design (PED) and its antecedents on consumers’ emotional well-being (EWB). Drawing on place identity and emotional theories, the study aims to provide a new perspective to retail store experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 800 respondents was conducted in London, out of which 764 responses were constructively used. The data was collected from international retail outlets, and structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.
Findings
The empirical results show that PED has a positive effect on consumers’ EWB. Among the antecedents, visual identity does not have any significant effect on PED and EWB. In contrast, communication had a significant effect on PED but did not have any effect on EWB, and further, cultural heritage had a positive effect on both PED and EWB. Further, moderator analysis identifies the boundary conditions under which specific theories hold.
Practical implications
The value of this paper lies in its potential to be used for creating the perfect design planning in retail stores. Significant implications for managers and researchers are highlighted.
Originality/value
This paper presents an innovative approach to develop the principles of retail store’s PED to support the EWB of consumers.
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Antonio Spiga and Jean-Marie Cardebat
The brand identity–image gap is a well-known marketing field. However, very little academic work has been done within the wine industry regarding collective brands. With the aim…
Abstract
Purpose
The brand identity–image gap is a well-known marketing field. However, very little academic work has been done within the wine industry regarding collective brands. With the aim of filling this gap, this paper analyzes and describes the relationship between identity and the image of Bordeaux wines. It is intended as a collective wine brand.
Design/methodology/approach
From a positivist–functionalist perspective, a 45-question survey has been administered online to N = 53 internal brand operators (winery owners or managers) and to N = 655 external consumers (mainly focusing on 18–25 year-old segment). Nonprobabilistic sampling techniques have been used. Questions were structured within a semantic opposition.
Findings
Data analysis has shown that the nine-dimension model (physical, personality, culture, self-image, reflection, relationship, positioning, vision and heritage) is capable of collecting a richer and more pertinent set of information concerning the brand identity; statistically significant gaps have been found in 25 out of 45 items; counterintuitively, the consumers have a very different opinion about the brand compared with existing ideas. Direct implications are that internal brand operators may suffer from imposter syndrome; information asymmetry may play a central role in brand perception; and the brand lacks symbolic and inspirational functions.
Originality/value
Providing an original model to analyze and evaluate the brand identity–image gap, specifically adapted for collective wine brands, this work contributes to the literature by increasing the knowledge about brand identity issues.
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Vikas Kumar and Vikrant Kaushal
With the increasing competition and rise in the number of brands in almost every product category, consumers need help to figure out authentic brands. Thus, it becomes imperative…
Abstract
Purpose
With the increasing competition and rise in the number of brands in almost every product category, consumers need help to figure out authentic brands. Thus, it becomes imperative for marketers to examine the factors that influence the perceptions of brand authenticity (PBA) and its favorable outcomes for the brand. This paper aims to explore the critical antecedents (i.e. “brand heritage” and “brand nostalgia”) and consequences [i.e. “consumer brand engagement” (CBE) and “perceived brand ownership” (PBO)] of PBA in this study.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 368 responses were collected online through a self-administered survey method and were analyzed using structural equation modeling in AMOS v 25.
Findings
The findings reveal that both brand heritage and brand nostalgia can affect PBA. In addition, PBA engenders CBE and PBO among consumers toward the brand.
Practical implications
The study findings help the marketers to find ways to induce authenticity perceptions among consumers about their brands, which can further translate into PBO and CBE.
Originality/value
This study empirically verifies a model to enhance PBA through brand heritage and nostalgia. Further, it explores CBE and PBO as the potential outcomes of PBA.
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Customer co-creation behaviors significantly affect a firm's performance and sustainable growth. This study tested the mediating role of corporate reputation in the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
Customer co-creation behaviors significantly affect a firm's performance and sustainable growth. This study tested the mediating role of corporate reputation in the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and two types of customer co-creation behaviors: customer citizenship behavior and customer participation behavior. The study also investigated the moderating effect of self-corporate brand connection on the corporate hypocrisy–corporate reputation relationship and the indirect relationship between corporate hypocrisy and customer co-creation behavior through corporate reputation.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a two-wave research survey with 346 Korean bank customers and tested our hypotheses using PROCESS Macro.
Findings
Corporate reputation mediated the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and customer citizenship/participant behavior. The negative effect of corporate hypocrisy on corporate reputation was more pronounced when self-corporate brand connection was high. Self-corporate brand connection further moderated the indirect effect of corporate hypocrisy on customer citizenship/participant behavior through corporate reputation.
Originality/value
The results clearly explain how corporate hypocrisy affects customer co-creation behavior. This study advances corporate hypocrisy and corporate reputation research by proposing and verifying a moderated mediation model.
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Jorge Nascimento and Sandra Maria Correia Loureiro
This study aims to offer the intellectual structure and dynamics of the sustainability branding field, involving the identification of influential authors and journals, current…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to offer the intellectual structure and dynamics of the sustainability branding field, involving the identification of influential authors and journals, current and emerging themes, theories, methods, contexts and future research directions.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conducted a bibliometric approach of 1,509 articles retrieved from Scopus to analyze the evolution of the knowledge of sustainability branding and suggest future research. The analysis used various methods such as performance analysis, keyword analysis, cluster analysis and bibliographic coupling.
Findings
The topics of corporate image, philanthropy and stakeholder pressures were core in the foundation phase. Then rose the topics of sustainable development goals and global supply chains. Green marketing and the new paradigms of circularity, ethical consumerism and hyperconnected societies emerged more recently. Six thematic clusters represent the field’s knowledge structure: (1) corporate branding and reputation, (2) sustainable business development, (3) sustainable branding and ethical consumption, (4) corporate social responsibility, (5) brand equity and green marketing and (6) sustainability branding in hospitality and tourism.
Practical implications
This paper provides readers with an overview of sustainability branding core themes, key contributions and challenges, which can be used as a toolkit for brand management studies and practice.
Originality/value
The study’s uniqueness lies in bibliometric analysis (combined with network analysis and science mapping techniques) of the sustainability branding field from the identification and evolution of the thematic clusters to propose future research directions.
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Jiarui Li and Jiyun Kang
Luxury brands struggle to communicate their sustainability commitments to consumers due to the perceived incongruence between “luxury” and “sustainability”. This study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
Luxury brands struggle to communicate their sustainability commitments to consumers due to the perceived incongruence between “luxury” and “sustainability”. This study aims to provide luxury brands with insights on how to engage consumers with different social value orientations (SVOs) to make sustainable luxury purchases in a compatible manner. It investigates the relationships between personal values (symbolism/universalism), SVOs (pro-self/prosocial orientation) and behavioral intentions toward sustainable luxury brands. It further explores whether these relationships may differ when consumers view themselves as individuals (salient personal identity is activated) versus group members (salient social identity is activated).
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 (N = 419) used an online experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to either salient personal or social identity conditions to test the proposed model. Study 2 (N = 438) used a fictional brand to further validate the findings. Hypotheses were tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) and multi-group SEM.
Findings
Results indicate that prosocial orientation significantly increases consumers’ behavioral intentions toward sustainable luxury brands. Interestingly, pro-self-orientation can also drive intentions to support sustainable luxury brands when consumers’ personal identity is salient. Salient social identity can further strengthen the relationship between prosocial orientation and sustainable luxury behavioral intentions.
Originality/value
This study presents a novel, inclusive definition of sustainable luxury brands and adds theoretical rigor to the SVO framework by revealing the moderating role of salient identities, contributing to the body of knowledge in luxury brand research.
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