Brand Adoption Research Articles

Market reactions to corporate name changes: evidence from the Toronto Stock Exchange

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine stock price and trading volume reactions to name changes of the Toronto Stock Exchange listed companies. Previous studies present conflicting evidence on reactions to corporate name changes in US and other capital markets.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the event study methodology to calculate abnormal returns and trading volume around the announcement, approval, and effective dates of corporate name changes. It also contrasts abnormal returns between major and minor name changes, signaling focused and diversified strategies, accompanied with a ticker symbol change and without a ticker change, structural and pure name changes, as well as brand adoption and radical name changes.FindingsCompanies tend to experience a significant run-up in stock price in the period preceding the announcement of a name change. The stocks also show a significant positive abnormal return around the effective date. In addition, corporate name changes are associated with significant increases in trading volume for several days starting from the approval date. Most importantly, the type of a name change matters, as reflected in significance levels of abnormal return and trading volume reactions to various types of corporate name changes.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitation of this study comes from the difficulty to precisely identify the date when the market learns about a possible corporate name change.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine market reactions to name changes of Toronto Stock Exchange listed companies. Most importantly, whereas previous studies focus on the announcement day, this paper also considers the approval and effective days. It also contrasts responses between name changes accompanied with a new ticker and name changes without a ticker change.

Hippies, Greenies, and Tree Huggers: How the “Warmth” Stereotype Hinders the Adoption of Responsible Brands

ABSTRACTPast research has highlighted the difficulty faced by responsible consumers, individuals who wish to make environmentally and socially responsible consumption choices. Individual buyers, it is argued, act within a network of structural and social relationships that make responsible alternatives intrinsically hard to pursue. This paper maintains that one such barrier is the perception that users of responsible brands are not worthy of social emulation. Consumers are less likely to adopt brands positioned explicitly on their positive environmental or social credentials because of the stereotypes attached to the users of these products. Two empirical studies demonstrate that users of responsible brands are perceived as stereotypically warm. Warmth, however, is not an appealing feature in a consumption context. Warm groups are not envied and envy plays a central role in fueling a desire to emulate a consumption group. The study is the first to examine the possibility that a group‐level stereotype limits the potential attractiveness of responsible brands. The significant implications of this insight for both scholarly research and marketing practice are examined in detail. The presence of a warmth stereotype, which has a negative influence on the social perception of responsible brands, suggests that the development of niches of responsible or ethical consumers is intrinsically problematic.

내향적 국제화 인식정도가 글로벌 브랜드 태도에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구

국내 콘텐츠 산업의 성장과 함께 글로벌 시장으로써 중국 시장은 여전히 신흥 시장으로서 매력적이다. 그러나 지역적 차이 및 브랜드 태도에 영향을 주는 요인에 대한 연구가 부족하여 본 연구에서는 내향적 국제화와 글로벌 문화수용성을 이용하여 소비자의 글로벌 브랜드 태도에 영향을 주는 요인을 확인하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 본 연구에서는 중국 대도시의 소비자들을 대상으로 편의 표본 추출을 통해 샘플을 추출한 후 PLS를 활용하여 그 관계를 확인하고자 하였다. 연구 결과 소비자의 내향적 국제화 인식정도는 글로벌 문화 수용성에 영향을 미쳤으며 이는 다시 브랜드 태도 및 수용에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다는 사실을 파악할 수 있었다. 본 연구를 통하여 국내 기업이 신흥시장으로 진출하는데 있어서 지역의 내향적 국제화가 중요한 확인사항임을 파악할 수 있었으며 이는 상대적으로 국제화 감각이 높은 중국 연안 도시들이 여전히 글로벌 소비층으로서 주요한 타깃이 되고 있음을 시사하고 있다. 다만 본 연구에서는 중국 내륙까지 포함한 다양한 도시들에서 연구가 진행되지 못하여 향후 내륙 지역 간 소비자들의 비교 연구가 필요할 것으로 판단된다. 향후 국내의 콘텐츠 기업들은 신흥시장으로 진출 및 타깃 공략 전략을 수립하는데 있어서 지역의 내향적 국제화 개념을 활용하여야 함을 주장하는데 의의가 있다. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of regional globalization and its impact to globalized company. As emerging markets evolve from the periphery to the core of marketing practice, we will need to figure out their unique characteristics. Emerging markets are distinctly different from mature markets. Because of market heterogeneity it is important to segment customer and find out their characteristics for the companies. In this research we explores how inward internationalization, susceptibility to global consumer culture affect consumer's brand attitude and adoption of global brand. This study examines various strategic issues in the context of China. The result suggest that inward internationalization is an antecedent factor of susceptibility to global consumer culture and also influence to brand attitude and brand adoption positively. Several implications for Korean content providing companies and marketing strategies are discussed.

Effects of the Above the Influence Brand on Adolescent Drug Use Prevention Normative Beliefs

Health brands are based on the relations between individuals and health behaviors and lifestyles. Brands can be measured by the brand equity construct validated in previous studies. The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign brands alternative, non–drug use behaviors as a behavior change strategy. This study goes beyond previous campaign evaluations, which did not include specific brand equity measurements. Using data from a nationally representative media tracking, this study examined the relation between antidrug campaign brand equity and adoption of targeted attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Data were gathered before the relaunch of the campaign, and follow-up data collected 3 months later. On the basis of factor analysis, the authors developed a higher order antidrug brand equity factor and regressed campaign outcomes on that factor in multivariable models. The authors observed significant effects of higher brand equity on higher levels of targeted antidrug attitudes and normative beliefs at follow-up. The authors also observed some counterintuitive relations (i.e., less positive attitudes at follow-up). They interpreted these results in light of the changing messages and campaign strategy. The authors conclude that antidrug brand equity is an important construct for understanding campaign effectiveness. The present campaign shows signs of changing targeted antidrug attitudes and beliefs among youth with brand equity.

Prekių ženklo kūrimas ir stiprinimas elektroninės rinkodaros priemonėmis

The changing buying habits of customers and the tendency of the growing number of purchasers on the internet force companies to move their business or part of their processes to the electronic environment, and this causes the need to evolve a marketing strategy and its implementation measures. Electronic marketing has recently forced specialists in this field to look for new ways to satisfy the needs and expectations of customers, which often are associated with intangible attributes, such as brand. However, the lack of e-business managers, focusing on brand meaning to the company, is obvious. Quite often it is limited only to advertisement. But this is only one of the possible electronic marketing tools used in brand building and its enhancement process. Still there is a lack of detailed analysis of electronic marketing tools used in brand building and enhancement in the electronic environment. So, the goal of this paper was to present brand building and enhancement with the electronic marketing tools process model. It was done via analysis of brand peculiarities in the electronic environment and the strategic brand building and enhancement process. The suggested model helps to understand the electronic marketing tools position, objectives and functions in brand building and enhancement context. Detailed analysis of brand in the electronic environment showed that its essence and significance remains the same as in the traditional environment, but differs in implementation. Brand idea is developed not only considering consumer perceptions and values, but also organization strategy, culture and values, which matches its employers’ perceptions and values towards brand. Brand essence is implemented via such brand components as 1) brand name, sign of ownership, legal protection; 2) functional capabilities; 3) emotional value; 4) risk reducing; 5) shorthand notation; 6) service components. Brand in the electronic environment is influenced by such factors as 1) interactivity; 2) personalization (customization); 3) relevance of information about the brand; 4) website design and 5) functionality; 6) online service; 7) online brand communities; 8) customer revisits and 9) relationship with brand users. According to the findings above, the theoretical model was made to implement cyclic brand building and enhancement of the electronic marketing tools process. The process consists of six stages— 1) brand idea sources analysis and brand idea identification, 2) brand components selection, 3) factors influencing brand in electronic environment evaluation, 4) electronic marketing tools selection, 5) brand experience creation, 6) brand review, development and enhancement. This process is endless; at the end of one cycle it has to be revised and adopted to the situation that the brand is in at that moment. This constant brand adoption will create positive brand experience for customers and enhance the value of brand. But it will happen only if the companies do so strategically with a comprehensive approach.

Understanding the Factors That Affect the Adoption of Innovative High-Technology Brands: The Case of Apple iPhone in Malaysia

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine how innovation attributes, social influence, and perceived risk can affect technology brand adoption. The impact of innovation attributes, social influence, and perceived risk on iPhone adoption has been tested through series of tests (i.e., reliability, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlations, multiple regression analysis, and moderation effect of gender). The sample consists of 134 Malaysian students. Results revealed the importance of relative advantage, trialability, and social influence as key constructs in adoption intention. The study also showed that gender of the consumer has no moderating effect on the adoption intention. Practical guidelines are provided to marketing managers on how to use those factors to increase the adoption of new brands among customers.

Building bank brands: How leadership behavior influences employee commitment

Front line employees are critical to service brand success, as their performance brings brand promises to life. Banking employees, like others, must remain committed to their employers, to live the brand, particularly during periods of economic uncertainty and customer frustration. Employees' commitment influences their brand adoption and brand-supporting behavior during service encounters. Effective leadership fosters employee commitment and brand supporting behaviors. This study examines the nature of employee commitment in banking, distinguishing between affective, continuance and normative commitment. The study explores bank leaders, examining whether initiating structure leader behavior or considerate leader behavior is most effective in encouraging employee commitment. Data from a sample of 438 employees in a leading Irish bank reveals the optimal leadership style for employee commitment.

Brand Reputation and the Cost of Capital: Evidence of Adopting a Brand Name as the Corporate Name

This paper studies how the capital market perceives brand name adoption. I distinguish between brand adoption and radical type of corporate name change. A brand adoption name change occurs when the firm adopts one of its well-established brands as its new corporate name and a radical type occurs when the new name is semantically unrelated to firm history. Improved profitability and increased net investment accompany brand name adoption. After controlling for changes in the competing information sources, the accompanying improved economic performance, and the endogeneity of the decision to adopt a brand name, I find that, while there are no intertemporal variations in the cost of capital for a radical name change, a brand name adoption is associated with a lower cost of capital following the name change, suggesting that brand reputation is a valuable asset.

Understanding the adoption of new brands through salespeople: a multilevel framework

So far there has been scant empirical attention paid to the role of the sales force in the adoption of new brands in the early implementation stages. We test a framework of internal (sales manager and salespeople) brand adoption using an empirical multilevel study. Our findings suggest that the construct of expected customer demand (ECD) plays an important role in sales force brand adoption. First, ECD directly influences salespeople’s and sales managers’ brand adoption. Second, ECD serves as a cross-level moderator of new brand adoption transmission. We find the influence of sales managers’ brand adoption on salespeople’s brand adoption to be stronger when salespeople’s ECD is lower.

Reconsidering Adoption Behavior: Models Beyond Diffusion

Classic diffusion theory is effective and useful at describing adoption of innovative technologies. However, innovation adoption is not the only kind of adoptive behavior. Communication specialists encourage the adoption of brands, fads, political positions, and behaviors that are not necessarily innovative. Although rooted in prior research, this article discusses an alternative model for the adoption called resonance that is designed to be more inclusive. Resonance proposes two forces at work: a motivating force and a receptive mass. The two work together to create the adoption event. The motivating force provokes the event and the receptive mass supplies the energy.

Adoption of New Brands from Multi-Branding Firms by Chinese Consumers

The increasing importance of branding has brought about much academic interest since the early 1980s. So far, however, the area where the most has been achieved is in brand extensions, and academic achievements in other aspects of branding have been modest (Barwise 1993). Multi-branding, as a very important branding strategy, helps the company target different market segments, spread risk, and meet the consumer's need for variety seeking. This paper attempts to explore how consumer knowledge of the multi-branding company, its product and its existing brands could be transferred to purchase intention of the company's new brand.

Trend Forecasting — Kids Marketing

Up to the moment consumer intelligence on kids and young people seems to be an increasing obsession these days for brand owners and advertising agencies. They're seemingly desperate for insider information and intelligence on the life of the latest generation — referred to as everything from N‐Geners to Millenials — who rather than challenge society like their forbears seem to define it, in these youthful times. Nowadays everyone from the President (be he Gore or Bush), to Hip‐Hop artists wears Levis and Gap. The last decade saw the commercialization of youth culture (how alternative is a bank sponsored dance lent at an MTV festival?), the alternative and underground became mainstream and the social construct, which stated that you were only young between the ages of 16–24, has been disproved. Teenagers, whilst being in the spotlight as never before, have increasingly had their culture stolen from under their noses by older (and younger) people, whilst ten year olds are demonstrating brand adoption and rejection attitudes that we'd have associated with a fifteen year old, only a short time ago. To clarify the current Life of Kids it is therefore necessary to gain the latest real‐life case histories and learning's, as opposed to mere statistics that give us huge amounts of cold data re: population demographics, growth rates, income levels, behaviour patterns and the like. Therefore, the first global kids marketing conference was held in Lisbon in October, where leading industry figures from the brand owner and agency sides came together to share information. Speakers included those from MTV, Leo Burnett, BMRB International, Cartoon Network, Polaroid, Informer, Chupa Chups, Applied Research & Consulting, B2B, Pokemon and the author.

The Strategic Response by Pharmaceutical Firms to the Medicaid Most- Favored-Customer Rules

In 1991 a most-favored-customer (MFC) rule was adopted to govern pharmaceutical prices paid by Medicaid. Theoretical models show that an MFC rule commits a firm to compete less aggressively in prices. I find that the price of branded products facing generic competition rose (4% on average). Brands protected by patents did not significantly increase in price. Generics in concentrated markets should display a strategic response to the brand's adoption of the MFC; I find that generic firms raise price more as their markets become concentrated. Hospital prices show little change. The results suggest that the MFC rule caused higher prices for some pharmaceutical customers.

Inducing Multiline Salespeople to Adopt House Brands

How can multiline providers induce their salespeople to sell house brands? Using both unobtrusive measures (archival data) and direct questions, the authors model the extent to which salespeople adopt house brands, as well as the salesperson's perception that selling house brands can pose contractual hazards and his or her dependence upon the employer. Results indicate that adoption of house brands is most pronounced for salespeople who are habitually successful, are more dependent on the firm, or receive high levels of company training. In contrast, salespeople who resist house brands perceive that selling these products threatens their customer bond, have greater experience as a salesperson, and are more oriented to external than to internal sources of information. The authors discuss implications of the findings in terms of developing ways for multiline providers to manage independent-minded salespeople.