Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore brand transformation and the value slippage that can ensue.

This is a conceptual paper drawing upon a solid bibliographic base; its intended contribution is to create a linkage among constructs. It mobilizes a socio-economic framework which enables the multiple transformations of the brand to be monitored. Two case vignettes of Nutella brand are used to discuss this brand transformation framework.

The framework identifies four key brand transformation practices: brand appropriation by consumers forming a brand community, brand “surfeiting” through brand community actions, brand genericization throughout the society and brand regeneration in the market. The discussion highlights four categories of value slippage effects that enable us to ascertain whether the use value generated by the brand community slips – or does not – to another actor who captures it in the form of use or exchange value.

This paper is a conceptual paper.

The challenge for the firm is, therefore, to play an active role in these dynamics to gain ownership of new value that emerges beyond its confines and to offer its shareholders and/or external investors with new spaces within which to grow the value of their capital.

Value slippage concerns the way any actors involved in these processes, particularly brand community members, exploit brand transformation for their own benefit.

To analyse the power that a virtual brand community exerts over a brand of a mass‐marketed convenience product. To draw implications about the strategy that a company can employ facing this power shift. To track emerging trends in virtual brand communities applied to convenience product (as opposed to niche or luxury goods).

Case study of the web community “my Nutella The Community” promoted by the firm Ferrero in Italy. The study applied multiple methods and was conducted through interviews with key informants, netnography and document analysis.

The virtual community that gathers around a convenience product brand shows a new form of sociality and customer empowerment: it is not based on interaction between peers, but more on personal self‐exhibition in front of other consumers through the marks and rituals linked to the brand. The company should play the role of non‐intrusive enabler of these personal expressions, reducing its control over the brand's meanings.

The literature on brand community has traditionally focused on communities born around niche or luxury brand (Harley Davidson, Mercedes, Saab). The paper deals with a mass marketed convenience product like Nutella (the worldwide famous hazelnut spread), showing noteworthy differences that would advance current knowledge on brand communities and customer empowerment.

This paper aims to illuminate mechanisms through which memorable experiences with brands create lasting preferences. It is based on the proposition that intense positive (negative) affective consumption in the consumer’s youth creates powerful imprints, which influence brand preference (distaste) throughout life.

Autobiographical memories with Nutella are retrieved from three different user groups, i.e. heavy-, light- and non-users. The retrieved memory narratives are analysed using conditioning theory, i.e. operant, classical or no conditioning are identified and compared across groups.

The research’s central proposition is affirmed, yet the dominant form of conditioning mechanism differs per group. Operant conditioning outperforms classical conditioning in creating strong and lasting preferences. Heavy- and non-users predominantly exhibit in-tensely positive and negative operant conditioning, respectively. Light-users on the other hand recall less affectively intense consumption experiences, mainly featuring classical conditioning. The light-users’ recollections suggest a mere exposure effect to be more appropriate in describing the preference formation in this user group.

Users not having experienced affectively intense consumption, i.e. light-users, are likely to be influenced in their preference over time through other factors, which this paper does not focus on.

Memory elicitation and exploration provides valuable insights to shape both promotional as well as advertising strategies.

The study extends existing theory on conditioning in marketing by first using a novel qualitative approach to analyse conditioning procedures in real-life settings, and second, it highlights operant conditioning’s superior ability in creating lasting preferences.

This paper aims to advance theory‐building in the area of food consumption research, by exploring how consumers experience chocolate consumption in different contexts and by viewing these inductive findings in the light of the relevant existing body of knowledge.

A qualitative study is conducted on a non‐student sample of Italian consumers. The qualitative diary research technique is used as it is particularly suitable to capturing sensations, feelings, thoughts, and behaviours related to various chocolate consumption contexts. Content analytical and interpretive principles are followed in the production of the study findings.

Chocolate generates rich and complex consumption experiences as a function of various contextual forces. Seven main contextual chocolate consumption categories are identified: context of physiological need, context of sensorial gratification, context of memories and nostalgia, context of escapism, context of materialism, context of chocoholism, and context of interpersonal and self‐gifts. On the basis of these chocolate consumption categories and ideas from past consumer behaviour research, four more general contextualized chocolate consumption experience types are extracted: chocolate consumption experience as medicine, as mind manoeuvring, as regression and as ritual enhancement.

Past research has not explored how different chocolate consumption contexts shape and define these experiences, even though contextual variation in food consumption experiences is recognized as important. The nuances of chocolate consumption in various contexts are explored to the unprecedented depth, a conceptually novel typology of contextualized chocolate consumption experiences is presented, the field of application of self‐congruity theory is expanded and the profiles of chocolate consumer segments identified by past research are enriched.

Based on Greimas' contributions in 2002 and on qualitative research, this paper aims to focus on a semiotic analysis of the meaning of nostalgia related to products and brands.

This paper involves a two‐stage interview process. Informants were interviewed first in T1 (July‐August 2005) about products and brands connected to nostalgic feelings. They were re‐interviewed a year after in T2 (June‐July 2006). Pictures of products and brands evoked in T1 were shown and informants where asked what came to mind when they where exposed to such material. Based on the transcription of the interviews, a three‐step content analysis was performed: a first reading of the corpus made it possible to identify the two dimensions of time that structure the informant's discourse: “continuity” and “discontinuity”. Then a lexical analysis of the vocabulary associated with nostalgic experience was computed. Finally, a semiotic analysis of the texts was performed.

The two opposing dimensions of a semiotic square, “continuity” versus “discontinuity” provide a structure for understanding the most important features of nostalgia: “long‐standing nostalgia” (continuity) and “first‐time nostalgia” (discontinuity). This provides a typology of four nostalgic moments: everyday past, uniqueness, tradition and transition which are linked to specific brands and objects.

Since this typology is qualitative, it must be confirmed on a larger scale in order to be implemented by managers in the marketing decision‐making process.

These four distinct moments enable a researcher to propose a typology of brands, products or objects that when considered in association, can provide a better understanding of emotional attachment.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and explore how young children relate to brands. The paper specifically attempts to explore their favourite and everyday brands with which they interact, understand the phenomenon of intergenerational transfer of brands, and study how child consumers experience and cope with brand transgressions.

This is a qualitative study where 20 in-depth interviews were conducted among young Indian children in the age-group of 8–12 years. For data analysis “iterative method” is used. Inspiration was taken from Spiggle’s (1994), Ereaut’s (2002) and Holt and Thompson (2004).

Children’s relationships with brands are mainly characterised by four categories: their favourite brands, everyday brands, intergenerational brands and brand transgressions. Children’s favourite brands can be categorised in fantasy, yummy, identity construction, social bonding, technology and trusted brands. Parents have a big influence on kids’ lives leading to intergenerational brand-transfer. Children consumers also reveal having experience brand transgressions, more importantly, they also show signs of brand forgiveness.

This qualitative study has addressed the pressing need to understand child understands of brands. This is one of the very few empirical studies that have investigated child consumer behaviour regarding their association with brands.

Product success is contingent on forecasting when a product is needed and how it should be offered. Forecasting accuracy is contingent on the correct forecasting technique. Using supermarket data across two product categories, this chapter shows that using a bevy of forecasting methods improves forecasting accuracy. Accuracy is measured by the mean absolute percentage error. The optimal methods for one consumer goods product may be different than for another. The best model varied from sophisticated, most such as autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and Holt–Winters to a random walk model. Forecasters must be proficient in multiple statistical techniques since the best technique varies within a categories, variety, and product size.

The sales volume of organic food products in Germany has been increasing consistently over recent years, yet only a small number of households is responsible for the majority of organic purchases. Even these so-called “regular” organic food buyers spend, on average, less than half of their budget on organic products. The present study aims to analyse the reasons why these consumers do not purchase particular products in organic quality, in order to uncover product gaps and purchase barriers.

The investigation is based on computer-aided, personal interviews among regular organic food buyers, which were conducted in retail and organic food stores across Germany. Altogether, 817 interviews were carried out. To minimize regional variation in the data-set, stores were selected from north, south, west and east Germany in equal proportions.

The most important reasons for not purchasing organic products among regular organic food consumers were price, insufficient availability, and the quality of the product. Since product-specific analysis was carried out in this study, the results indicate that the relevance of reasons varies from product to product and according to shop types.

To the authors' knowledge, no research to date has dealt with an analysis of product-specific purchase barriers in the context of regular organic food buyers. Furthermore, in contrast with other studies, a preceding analysis of panel data identifying product groups with the lowest organic market shares builds the basis for a well-grounded survey. The explorative character of the study results in unique findings on consumer purchase behaviour related to specific products in a variety of predefined product categories.