Brand Liking Research Articles

Female Portrayals in Advertising and Its Impact on Marketing Communication—Pieces of Evidence from India

Researchers in different parts of the world have shown great concern on gender stereotyping in advertising. However, very few studies have analyzed the effect of such a message strategy on consumers, more so in the case of India. As per the census data, there is an increase in the literacy rate, education status and work participation rate of women in India. Therefore, it is imperative to assess the consumer responses towards the appropriateness of such a message strategy. A structured questionnaire was administered to 450 respondents comprising males and females in the age group of 20–50 years in the Delhi region. Consumer responses were evaluated to understand the effect of female portrayals in advertising on the dimensions of the following: preference for advertisement, attitude towards the advertisement (with respect to ad liking and believability of the ad), towards the brand (with respect to brand liking, brand recall, brand recognition and brand image) and intention to buy. Demographic factors were also evaluated to assess the impact of female portrayals on consumer evaluations. Several hypotheses were developed and tested in this study. Analysis of variance, T-test, correlation and regression were employed to test the hypotheses. Findings of the study indicate that the portrayal of females in advertisements is associated with ad liking, believability of ad, brand liking, brand recognition, brand recall and brand image, and has a lesser impact on intention to buy. The study also reports new findings on female portrayal and communication impact. Implications for marketing practitioners have also been discussed in the article.

An integrated model of firms’ brand likeability: antecedents and consequences

Likeability plays an important role for firms that rely on their brands. However, few studies examine factors influencing customers’ perceptions of likeable firm brands. Adapting a Private Brand model, the current study proposes a model of brand likeability that integrates four key variables measuring customer characteristics, namely price consciousness, perceived quality, perceived risk and familiarity. Using an online survey to collect data, the study employs partial least square-based structural equation modelling for hypothesis testing. Findings reveal that when customers are more familiar with the well-liked brand, they have more confidence in evaluating the quality, reducing perceived risk and price consciousness. In addition, the study highlights an important antecedent to brand likeability perceptions: brand familiarity. Marketers are encouraged to manage brand likeability more systematically to improve customer–brand relationships, brand reputation and differentiate firms’ brand personality. Not managing likeability creates disliked brands, resulting in customer dissatisfaction and negative word of mouth.

A framework of brand likeability: an exploratory study of likeability in firm-level brands

The concepts of brand love and brand attachment have received great attention in branding and consumer behavior research lately. However, the focus of these studies has mainly been the understanding of brands from an affect-based perspective in terms of emotions rather than exploring the consumers' perceptions themselves. This study explores the consumers' perceptions of likeability as an outcome of a firms' branding strategy. Based on forty four in-depth interviews this study submits a conceptualization of brand likeability from the consumers' point-of-view. The concept of brand likeability constitutes three dimensions and 10 sub-dimensions, expanding our knowledge of the construct. The study posits a crucial link between increased positivity and appeal as key in the understanding of the brand likeability concept. Specifically, the exploration of the brands' personification constitutes attractiveness, integrity, and extraversion. The psychological factors which determine the likeability are identified as positive inferences, reference points, and attachment and love. The functional factors which help a brand induce likeability are identified as good services, increased communication, and convenience and smoothness. Lastly, the study finds that fairness is an attribute that affects all dimensions. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Brands as Product Coordinators: Matching Brands Make Joint Consumption Experiences More Enjoyable

People often consume multiple products at the same time (e.g., chips and salsa). Four studies demonstrate that people enjoy such joint consumption experiences more when the products are merely labeled with the same brand (vs. different brands). Process evidence shows that this brand matching effect arises because matching brand labels cue consumers’ belief that the two products were coordinated through joint testing and design to go uniquely well together. This shows that there is no universal answer to which brand a consumer likes the most; it depends on what other brands are consumed with it. More generally, the authors establish that a simple additive model of brand liking cannot fully capture consumption utility and that brands interact and influence enjoyment at the level of the brand combination.

The Brand Likeability Effect: Can Firms make Themselves more Likeable?

In 2011, Lincoln Automobiles, part of the Ford Motor Company and named after President Lincoln, was voted as the most liked company in America. Lincoln's customer satisfaction ratings were the highest they had been in the past 15 years. Although brand managers implicitly emphasise the importance of likeability in branding strategies, brand likeability is a concept that is little researched, particularly at the firm level. The question of ‘what is likeable?’ has not yet been answered thoroughly and few studies have to date examined what causes a firm or brand to be perceived as liked or disliked. This paper aims to provide an understanding of the theories and concepts that explain brand likeability. The comprehensive literature review identifies two dimensions: source stimuli and psychological evaluations. Additionally, the authors propose several outcomes of brand likeability, extending existing knowledge on brand love and attitude research, offering managers defining principles of the Brand Likeability Effect. The proposed implications for managers are in four phases; implementing these into the firm's branding practices increases the likelihood that customers will perceive the firm as being more likeable.

High-tech lust [Editorial

The author thinks we shouldn't be thinking brand liking or brand love, but be defining lust. Lust can be defined as: overwhelming desire or craving. When we couple it technology it is an overwhelming desire or craving to be with our device, all the time. She has seen first-hand and on numerous occasions, people become strongly agitated or extremely fidgety, emotionally fall apart, and constantly crave to be reunited their high-tech device when they have left it behind or it is misplaced. She cannot describe it in any other way than there every thought is obsessed by its absence. Desires and cravings if not tempered can work to have negative consequences. The folly is in that we are willingly beckoning in these times without thinking about the social implications for us and for future generations. Rather than lusting for our high-tech gadgetry we should be lusting for life - there is a difference. When high-tech lust turns ugly it becomes high-tech disdain. We can develop a dislike, and even disgust for technological apparatus. We may even seek in-part or total separation away from it. It becomes the opposite of brand love; it becomes brand hate. Some parents regret the day they handed their child an Internet-enabled computer, registered an e-mail address or bought a smartphone for them. But we should never be surprised at the usage patterns of the younger generation. They are only mimicking our behaviors and at even greater speeds.

Winning hearts, minds and sales: How marketing communication enters the purchase process in emerging and mature markets

Consumers differ in the way their minds and hearts respond to marketing communication. Recent research has quantified effectiveness criteria of mindset metrics, such as brand consideration and liking, in the purchase process for a mature market. This paper develops and illustrates our conceptual framework of how mindset effectiveness differs between an emerging market and a mature market. We propose that the responsiveness, stickiness and sales conversion of mindset metrics depend on the regulative, cultural and economic systems that provide structure to society. In particular, we focus on regulative protection, collectivism and income. First, we propose that a lack of regulative protection leads consumers to be more attentive to, and thus more aware of, marketing communication. Second, we propose that consumers living in a collectivist culture are less responsive to advertising in their consideration and liking of the advertised brand. Finally, we propose that lower income among consumers reduces the sales conversion of brand liking.We examine our predictions empirically with data for the same brands during the same time period in Brazil and the United Kingdom. First, we find that brand liking has a higher responsiveness to advertising, a higher stickiness and a higher sales conversion in the U.K. than it does in Brazil. Thus, the advice to focus on the emotional brand connection is more appropriate in the analyzed mature market versus the emerging market. In contrast, knowing the brand is more important to purchase in Brazil and is more responsive to advertising. These first findings establish an intriguing research agenda on winning hearts and sales in emerging and mature markets.

Tiptoe or Tackle? The Role of Product Placement Prominence and Program Involvement for the Mere Exposure Effect

Based on the mere exposure effect (Zajonc 1968), the mere unreinforced presentation of product placements can increase brand liking. In an experiment, we manipulated visual placement prominence and placement frequency for an externally and internally valid stimulus. As results indicate, a mere exposure effect can only be observed for frequently presented subtle placements that are embedded in a program that is watched with moderate or high involvement. No such effects could be observed for prominent placements. The results are discussed in their importance for placement effects research and marketing practice.

A new C-OAR-SE-based content-valid and predictively valid measure that distinguishes brand love from brand liking

This article provides a new, C-OAR-SE-based, contrastive measure that distinguishes “brand love” from “brand liking.” The new measure is tested in an empirical study conducted among German university students about brands of products that they buy in four diverse product categories. From a consumer perspective, the incidence of consumers who have a loved brand in the category was found to be only 17 % for laundry detergent, 18 % for coffee, and 26 % for computers, peaking at 45 % in the fashion clothing category — findings that suggest that over half of young consumers do not acquire the state of brand love. Turning alternatively to a brand perspective, the findings indicate that, in general, about one in four of the brand’s customers will come to love the brand. Loving the brand, versus merely liking it, clearly pays off behaviorally — thereby demonstrating very good predictive validity for the new contrastive measure. Brand purchase or usage rate and brand recommendations were found to be approximately doubled for those who love the brand in comparison with those who merely like it.

Emotional connections in higher education marketing

PurposeThrough examination of a case study this paper aims to describe a brand re‐positioning exercise and explore how an emotionally driven approach to branding can help create meaningful connections with potential undergraduate students and can positively influence choice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper's approach is a case study description with quantitative analysis in support.FindingsThe use of an emotionally driven branding concept has positively impacted business development and brand likeability within a UK university.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is specific to one case study and evaluation of success remains relatively early. Initial implications relate to the potential use of emotion in higher education marketing communications and how the use of emotion acted as an enabler of more rational decision‐making processes within the case university context.Originality/valueAn exploration of issues related to the marketing of higher education services is of great importance at this time. The case study described offers value and learning for readers of the journal from both a theoretical and practical perspective.

Mind-Set Metrics in Market Response Models: An Integrative Approach

Demonstrations of marketing effectiveness currently proceed along two parallel tracks: Quantitative researchers model the direct sales effects of the marketing mix, and advertising and branding experts trace customer mind-set metrics (e.g., awareness, affect). The authors merge the two tracks and analyze the added explanatory value of including customer mind-set metrics in a sales response model that already accounts for short- and long-term effects of advertising, price, distribution, and promotion. Vector autoregressive modeling of the metrics for more than 60 brands of four consumer goods shows that advertising awareness, brand consideration, and brand liking account for almost one-third of explained sales variance. Competitive and own mind-set metrics make a similar contribution. Wear-in times reveal that mind-set metrics can be used as advance warning signals that allow enough time for managerial action before market performance itself is affected. Specific marketing actions affect specific mind-set metrics, with the strongest overall impact for distribution. The findings suggest that modelers should include mind-set metrics in sales response models and branding experts should include competition in their tracking research.

Branding and brand equity measurement in the beer industry of Thailand

The objective of this research is to investigate a new concept model of brand equity measurement in the economy beer industry of Thailand by using five factors of brand equity which are brand awareness, brand liking, brand purchase intention, brand satisfaction and brand loyalty along with the consumer behavior. The respondents are 379 males and females who have at least occasionally had a beer during the past few years. The findings show that males are more likely to drink beer regularly and in larger quantities. The average respondent seems to drink beer in order to relax and socialize at parties. Respondents recognize Leo beer more than the other two brands in this study. Descriptive statistics and statistical analysis are presented for individuals, managers, as well as for advertising and marketing professionals. Suggestions and links for personal brand building are also offered.

The battle of brands in the Swedish market for consumer packaged food: A cross-category examination of brand preference and liking

In a very dynamic industry such as the retail industry, it is important to get an overall view of differences in brand strength between international vs domestic brands, store brands vs manufacturer brands and single-category vs extended multi-category brands. We propose that a fruitful approach to obtain a nuanced comparison of brand strength at a general level, across categories and brand strategies, is to combine the measures brand preference and brand liking. By doing so, three different types of brand strength emerge. The results, based on a web survey conducted with 4 × 500 Swedish consumers, show that although the domestic brands are dominating in terms of presence (as expected), there is no support that domestic brands generally are more liked or preferred than international brands. Moreover, the analysis shows that manufacturer brands out-perform store brands in terms of preference, and that single-category brands appear to be stronger than multi-category brands.

The Effectiveness of Using a Global Look in an Asian Market

<h3>ABSTRACT</h3> Adopting a global look has been an important strategy for marketing in multinational and local markets. This research explored the use of two global-look strategies in Taiwanese advertising: the use of Western models and English brand names. First, a content analysis revealed that Western models were used to promote products in 46.81 percent of magazine advertisements, whereas English brands were featured in 53.90 percent of the advertisements. Variables such as distribution area and product categories were shown to influence the use of these strategies. Second, an experiment examined the advantages and disadvantages of adopting global-look strategies in advertising. The use of Western models and English brand names enhanced the perceived globalness of the brand and encouraged participants to infer that the product originated from a developed Western country. However, a global look is not always persuasive. On the one hand, using Western models enhanced the perceived quality of the product. On the other hand, participants showed an “in-group bias” by rating products with Chinese brand names, as opposed to English brand names, higher on brand friendliness, brand trust, self-brand connections, and brand liking. The findings are discussed in terms of the implications for marketing.

Brand equity: extending brand awareness and liking with Signal Detection Theory

Brand equity, which is a central topic in modern marketing, may be assessed from three perspectives: customer mind set, product market outcomes and financial market outcomes. Brand awareness (memory) and brand liking are elements of customer mind set brand equity. The factors determining brand awareness and likeability are also determinants of the change in financial brand equity. In order to understand these factors, Signal Detection Theory is employed for finding the components of brand awareness and likeability. Signal Detection Theory has a strong tradition in psychology, but is under‐represented in marketing and consumer behaviour. This study extended the concept of brand awareness to ‘awareness sensitivity and bias’ and the concept of ‘brand likeability’ to ‘liking sensitivity and bias’ using Signal Detection Theory. The effect of divided attention on the extended components was investigated in three laboratory experiments. It was found that, in the attended mode compared with the unattended mode, consumers perform better in preserving a favourable brand awareness and have a conservative reaction tendency. This effect of attention occurs in building brand awareness for short presentations, but not for long presentations. These findings may serve as guidelines for a strategy formulation for enhancing customer mind set brand equity.