Brand Strength Research Articles

Drivers of International E-Tail Performance: The Complexities of Orientations and Resources

Retail e-commerce (e-tail) continues to grow as an important channel of distribution in the global business environment. In this article, the authors present and test a conceptual model of the relationships among firm orientations, strategic resources, and international e-tail performance. Specifically, they investigate the ability of important e-tail firm resources—brand strength and supplier relations—to mediate the effects of market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and foreign market orientation on revenue growth and firm performance relative to objectives. Using survey responses from a cross-national sample of 174 marketing and e-commerce decision makers, the authors find support for the role of brand strength and supplier relations as mediators between market and foreign market orientations and firm performance. The study provides managerial insights into the types of orientations and resources that can help drive e-tail performance and contributions regarding the indirect effects of orientations on international marketing performance.

Adhesion of different brands of glass ionomer cements to a ceramometal alloy

The aim of the study was to assess, compare and evaluate the adhesive strength and compressive strength of different brands of glass ionomer cements to a ceramometal alloy. (A) Glass ionomer cements: GC Fuji II - GC Corporation, Tokyo; Chem Flex - Dentsply DeTrey, Germany; Glass ionomer FX - Shofu-11, Japan; MR dental - MR Dental Suppliers Pvt. Ltd., England; (B) ceramometal alloy - Ugirex III; (C) cold cure acrylic resin; (E) temperature cum humidity control chamber; and (F) Instron universal testing machine. Four different types of glass ionomer cements were used in the study. From each type of the glass ionomer cements, 15 specimens were made to evaluate the compressive strength and adhesive strength, respectively. Fifteen specimens were further divided into 3 subgroups each having 5 specimens. For compressive strength, specimens were tested at 2, 4 and 12 hours by using Instron universal testing machine. To evaluate the adhesive strength, specimens were surface treated with diamond bur, silicone carbide bur and sandblasting, and tested under Instron universal testing machine. It was concluded from the study that the compressive strength as well as the adhesive bond strength of MR dental glass ionomer cement with a ceramometal alloy was found to be maximum compare to other glass ionomer cements. Sandblasting surface treatment of ceramometal alloy was found to be comparatively more effective for adhesive bond strength between alloy and glass ionomer cement.

Effects of Country Variables on Brand Strength: Moderating by Brand Life Cycle and Cultural Identification

Effects of Country Variables on Brand Strength: Moderating by Brand Life Cycle and Cultural Identification

Interdependence of personality traits and brand identity in measuring brand performance

Brand personality is an attractive and appealing concept in the marketing of today. Consumers perceive the brand on dimensions that typically capture a person's personality, and extend that to the domain of brands. The discussions in the paper are woven around the issues concerning brand strength, brand identity and cognitive relationship between the consumer personality attributes and brand perceptions. Human personality traits that affect the brand performance are critically examined and role of emotions and attitudes including personality, image, reputation and trust (PIRT) in measuring the performance of brand is argued in the paper. An emerging brand strategy concept in context to bottom of pyramid market segment is also discussed illustratively in this paper.

A resource-based view of e-tailer performance: an international study

Worldwide, e-tailing has grown considerably over the past few years, with growth rates exceeding those of traditional retailing. This study builds on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm (Barney, 1991) in identifying resources less susceptible to imitation by examining the effects of resources (brand strength, market orientation, distribution effectiveness, foreign market know-how and willingness to cannibalise) on e-tailer performance. A cross-national survey of e-tailers was conducted to assess these relationships. The results of the regression analyses show that the resources in this study, with the exception of distribution effectiveness, are predictors of e-tailer performance although their relative strength varies across samples. These results have implications for both academics and practitioners. For academics, the findings suggest that resources that are relatively inimitable drive e-tail performance. Identifying other such resources provides direction for future research. For managers, this study demonstrates the importance of investing in resources that are not observable to the competition, thus enabling an e-tailer to build and sustain a competitive advantage.

Run Happy: entrepreneurship at Brooks Sports

Bothell, Washington-based Brooks Sports is an athletic footwear and apparel company with the vision 'to be the brand leader in performance running and one of the most admired companies in the world'. Brooks Sports engages in a range of entrepreneurial activities in the sport marketing area and has recently garnered first place in both the brand strength and marketing strength forecasts in the specialty running industry. This case study reviews the five dimensions of entrepreneurial activity at Brooks Sports (technological innovation, distribution, advertising, sponsorship and international entrepreneurship), beginning with the corporate history.

Marshall Field's becomes Macy's: understanding retail brand

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the controversy surrounding the 2006 extension of the Macy brand to the Marshall Field's stores. Initial reactions, as well as on‐going resistance, to the re‐branding provide a means of understanding of the strength of retail brand, how it is established and whether “symbols and traditions” may be separated from retail brand per se.Design/methodology/approachThe effort of Federated Department Stores (later Macy's Inc.) to rebrand Marshall Field as Macy's offers a unique opportunity to understand retail brand. This paper relies on news accounts for a chronology of events leading up to and following the Marshall Field's re‐branding as Macy's. In addition, analysis of postings to the customer‐originated fieldsfanschicago blog is used to understand, from the consumer's viewpoint, how retail brand is formed and to consider the strength of retail brand.FindingsThe paper concludes that retail brand may be as strong as product brand, that personal experience, as well as retailer‐controlled variables, is strongly associated with retail brand, and that retailer “symbols and traditions” are an integral component of retail brand.Originality/valueThis paper examines retail brand in the context of the extension of family brand. The use of blog posts permits a first‐hand account of how customers perceive retail brand and of how intense their attachment to such brands may be.

The Rugby Player and the Handbag

Research into the determinants of online auction prices has tended to group them into buyer factors, seller factors and site factors. A case is presented which records how a $30 handbag was sold for $ 22,750 in an online auction shortly after a national sport final. Analysis of the case indicates additional factors which can exert a considerable influence on the final auction price. A model is proposed which depicts five groups of factors impacting the final price: buyer factors, seller factors, site factors which are expanded to include timing of the “action”, and site brand strength; product factors which include product features, brand strength, and brand extension/association; and promotion, which includes media publicity. While not all factors will impact on every auction, due consideration should be accorded each of them.

Measuring the Contributions of Brand to Shareholder Value (and How to Maintain or Increase Them)

Since 1993 Young & Rubicam has invested over $130 million in collecting and interpreting data on consumers' perceptions of some 44,000 product and service brands in over 50 countries. At the core of Y&R's research effort is the Brand‐Asset® Valuator (or “BAV”), a model that converts the firm's hoard of data on global consumer perceptions and behavior patterns into assessments of brand strength and value. When combined with the findings of independent research by academics in marketing and finance (using Compustat data on corporate operating and stock‐price performance), the BAV's assessments of brand values can be used to quantify the contributions of brands to both corporate earnings and market values.One of the main findings of this research is that brands contribute to the market value of companies by increasing not only current earnings, but the price‐to‐earnings (P/E) multiples that investors assign to current earnings. Such increases in P/E multiples in turn reflect investors' expectations for lower risk, higher growth or both.At the same time, more recent consumer surveys (conducted in 2005‐2007) provided indications of brand “erosion” even as the markets were pushing up share prices, presumably with the expectation that intangibles like brand would continue to drive operating earnings in the future. For the leaders of consumer‐related corporations, the resulting “disconnect” between stock prices and brand values points to a continuing challenge for brand management.Building brand value is important for both finance professionals trying to increase shareholder value and marketers trying to build brand strength and increase sales and margin. The aim of the authors' research is to bring these two groups—finance and marketing— closer together by demonstrating the role of marketing strategy and brand equity in driving shareholder value.

One brand perception? Or many? The heterogeneity of intra‐brand knowledge

PurposeWhat customers associate with a brand is the result of what they have felt, learnt, seen and heard about the brand. This knowledge impacts the attitudinal and behavioral brand response of customers (and vice versa). This paper aims to identify how customer segments of one brand characterized by different levels of behavioral and attitudinal response intensity differ in terms of content and structure of brand associations..Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports findings of two single‐brand studies, each comparing brand associations of customer groups with different brand response intensity levels: one in a business‐to‐customer (B2C) setting where knowledge is determined via brand‐to‐association retrieval, one in a business‐to‐business (B2B) setting with benefit‐to‐brand retrieval.FindingsThe findings show that consumer segments with differing behavioral and attitudinal brand response intensity show unique brand knowledge patterns. Consumers with high response intensity elicit more (favorable) brand associations, and elicit the brand more frequently when stimulated with the brand name. In addition, identical brand associations are rated differently favorable depending on the intensity of brand response.Practical implicationsTo learn about the strength of a brand, organizations may complement frequently used comparisons with competing brands by investigating what distinguishes brand knowledge of various customer segments that differ with respect to their relationship with the focal brand. This allows targeting various segments more specifically.Originality/valueThis paper adds to our understanding of brand strength by comparing multiple intra‐brand segments and by understanding how their brand knowledge differs depending on their attitudinal and behavioral brand response. Such a perspective may provide more useful insights to fostering brand response than studying inter‐brand differences.

Corporate brand reputation and the adoption of innovations

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how the strength of a corporate brand influences the adoption of an innovative service, and the main components of the construct: corporate brand (CB).Design/methodology/approachA real‐world, online, information acceleration experiment was conducted where the marketing mix and competitive environment was held constant for a new service from three different CBs. Respondents indicated their likelihood of buying from each of these and their perceptions of them.FindingsThe study finds that there was a significant relationship between CB strength and respondents' likelihood of adoption of the service. The CB construct was found to comprise two factors: conative and cognitive, where the former was more influential on adoption probability.Research limitations/implicationsA limited set of variables commonly associated with brands was taken to be representative of CB. Further research would be needed to more generalise the findings and more fully examine the CB construct for its components.Practical implicationsA competent marketing mix is not sufficient on its own to gain the adoption of an innovative service: a strong CB is influential. The emotive rather than factual associations with the CB may well be a more influential on adoption decisions.Originality/valueAn indication of the scale of the CB effect on innovation adoption is given. CB is indicated to have two components: emotive and factual. Those managing the potential launch of an innovative service and who may have several corporate brands to choose from to use would be aided by this research.

Searching for competitive advantage with the aid of the brand potential index

PurposeIn recent years, the world food market has undergone an accelerated process of concentration and consolidation. These intensive processes increase the competitive advantage of operating activities on the global market and are the result of numerous changes in the period of new economy. What is the meaning of brand management and how is it dealt with in practice? What is the importance of positioning in the light of brand image and identity? Which are the ways to measure the brand strength with the aid of the brand potential index (BPI) and to identify the characteristics (key drivers) which have the greatest influence on brand strength? All these are questions for which this paper seeks to provide answers.Design/methodology/approachThe answers to the research questions were gained using the GFK target positioning research with which a brand analysis of high‐volume products was carried out in the light of its key characteristics: brand as a product, opportunities and risks involved in the brand on the market, competition analysis, analysis of brand's personality, target group analysis (market segmentation), and marketing cluster analysis.FindingsBased on the case study, the paper demonstrates the applicability of the research in the process of brand evaluation, determining the positioning and communication guidelines on the example of food products brands.Originality/valueThe paper is important in identifying the sources of brand value.

Brand positivity and competitive effects on the evaluation of brand extensions

The dominant approach in brand-extension research has focused on the role of fit in the extension evaluation process. Overemphasis on fit has resulted in research designs that involve singular evaluation of the extension without considering how competing brands in the target category might affect the evaluation of brand extensions. Singular evaluations are known to result in brand positivity effects; that is, brand extensions are evaluated more favorably than is warranted. This research finds that singular evaluations do indeed lead to brand positivity effects. However, brand positivity effects are mitigated when respondents were provided with competitive information along with target-category structure and comparative/non-comparative brand positioning statements. Results also suggest that parent brand-extension fit, though an important determinant of an extension's assessment, plays a less critical role in a comparative evaluation context when an extension's brand strength is accounted for in relation to its competition in the target category. Therefore, the findings stress the importance of both competition and parent-brand fit in making informed positioning decisions and more realistic predictions of extension success. The research demonstrates when, how and to what extent comparative evaluations result in lower extension ratings and provides managerial strategies to introduce an extension effectively.

Consumer responses to brand elimination: An attributional perspective

While research on innovation and new product development abounds in the literature, studies on firms deleting brands from their portfolio are virtually non-existent. This paper provides a pioneering examination of how brand elimination might influence consumer evaluations of the firm. As compared to a widely-held belief that brand elimination would adversely affect firm image, we propose that in situations where brand elimination can be viewed as the firm's effort to improve performance, consumers will rate this action favorably, with concomitant outcomes relating to firm evaluation. These ideas are supported in three studies. Study 1 finds that elimination targeting a weak (vs. strong) brand is more likely to be associated with eliminate-to-improve attributions, and consequently, more favorable evaluations. Study 2 shows that explanations provided by the firm (as against explanations generated internally by the consumers) help consumers make positive attributions for elimination targeting a strong brand, but lower evaluations when a weak brand is being eliminated. Study 3 establishes that loyal consumers are more likely to assess the applicability of an ‘eliminate-to-improve’ attribution and give favorable evaluations only when the eliminated brand is weak. Non-loyal consumers in general respond favorably to the elimination, regardless of brand strength. Future directions for brand elimination research are discussed.

Consumer Evaluation of Brand Extensions: An Empirical Assessment in the Indian Context

Marketers are increasingly leveraging the strength of Brand to enter into various product categories. Using an extensive survey, the authors examine the evaluation of brand extensions for real brands in hypothetical product categories. Comparison of success evaluation is obtained for the following products: Lux and Nirma brands into deodorant, Amul and Maggi brands into potato chips; LIC and Reliance into banking sector; Tata Motors (four wheeler) venturing into bikes (two wheeler); and Bajaj Auto Limited (two wheeler) entering in car. The findings show that extensions into similar categories tend to be more readily accepted. These findings are consistent across various product and service categories. Based on regression analysis, the study identifies brand relevance success factors. The findings indicate that success of brand extensions depends not only on strong parent brand associations but also on extendable category borrowed brand association.

Gruppenvergleiche bei hypothetischen Konstrukten — Die Prüfung der Übereinstimmung von Messmodellen mit der Strukturgleichungsmethodik

Bei einem Vergleich von Gruppen anhand hypothetischer Konstrukte muss gewährleistet sein, dass die Messmodelle in den Gruppen gleich sind. Andernfalls besteht die Gefahr, dass falsche Rückschlüsse über die Unterschiede auf der latenten Ebene gezogen werden. Dieser Beitrag bietet einen state-of-the-Art zur Überprüfung der Messinvarianz mit der Mehrgruppenanalyse konfirmatorischer Faktormodelle. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf der Ermittlung nichtinvarianter Indikatoren, wobei unterschiedliche Ansätze zur Identifikation latenter skalen sowie die wesentlichen Teststrategien verglichen werden. Die empirische studie zur Invarianz eines Messmodells der psychologischen Markenstärke („Brand Potential Index“) zeigt, dass bei einem Vergleich loyaler und nichtloyaler Konsumenten die Indikatoren Kaufabsicht und Weiterempfehlungsbereitschaft nichtinvariant sind. Aufgrund der Messinvarianz der übrigen Indikatoren sind aber sowohl Vergleiche auf der latenten Ebene als auch direkte Mittelwertvergleiche für die invarianten Indikatoren zulässig.

Operationalising Young and Rubicam's BAV<SUP align=right>™</SUP> as a consumer-based brand equity measure

This paper aims to operationalise Young and Rubicam's brand asset valuator (BAV) in the form of a consumer-based brand equity measure. Brand value is conceptualised as a multidimensional construct of higher-level abstraction relative to its various dimensions consisting of brand differentiation, relevance, esteem and knowledge. This relationship is built employing higher order structured equation modelling on the data collected, and the study concludes that all four dimensions of the BAV are positively correlated and significantly loaded on to two second-order factors, namely brand strength and stature, which load on to a third factor that we term brand value.

Interdependence of Personality Traits and Brand Identity in Measuring Brand Performance

Brand personality is an attractive and appealing concept in the marketing of today. Consumers perceive the brand on dimensions that typically capture a person's personality, and extend that to the domain of brands. The discussions in the paper are woven around the issues concerning brand strength, brand identity and cognitive relationship between the consumer personality attributes and brand perceptions. Human personality traits that affect the brand performance are critically examined and role of emotions and attitudes including personality, image, reputation and trust (PIRT) in measuring the performance of brand is argued in the paper. An emerging brand strategy concept in context to bottom of pyramid market segment is also discussed illustratively in this paper.

Cognitive and Affective Reactions of U.S. Consumers to Global Brands

The authors find that U.S. consumers hold contradictory notions of what characterizes a global brand beyond its wide recognition, availability, and standardization across markets. In particular, they find that the association of brand globality with higher quality is not as strong as the literature has proposed and that affect directly influences how people perceive global brands. The initial results imply that previous research on globality effects may have confounded brand globality and brand strength and that the latter is responsible for the quality effect. A follow-up study shows that for most consumers, brand globality is associated with positive affect and that this affect is also reflected among consumers who are explicitly against global brands. The authors conclude that response to global brands is driven more by affect and less by cognition.

Finitely Loyal Customers, Switchers, and Equilibrium Price Promotion

This present paper aims to provide some new perspectives on how firms' price promotional decisions may depend on different levels of brand loyalty and switcher population. We present a duopoly model with a segment of price‐sensitive switchers and a segment of customers who are loyal to one of the two brands but have limited brand loyalty. Our unique equilibrium splits into three types, depending upon configurations of brand strength and switcher population. The type of equilibrium for high brand loyalty corresponds to the one in Narasimhan. The remaining two types for intermediate and low brand loyalty demonstrate strikingly different properties. First, the strong brand has a higher price range and a higher regular price. Second, the strong brand has a higher (lower) average promotional depth than the weak brand when the switcher population is small (large). Third, both brands promote equally frequently when brand loyalty is relatively low.