Brand Self Research Articles

Japanese trendy dramas: new imaginaries of Japanese women in Tokyo Love Story

ABSTRACT During the bubble era (1986–1991) Japanese television dramas attained their golden age, brought about by the innovative narrative formula of ‘trendy dramas’ – love stories that displayed a trend towards urban, consumer-oriented, glamorous lifestyles [Lukács, Gabriella. 2010. Scripted Affects, Branded Selves: Television, Subjectivity, and Capitalism in 1990s Japan. Durham: Duke University Press]. Drawing from media anthropology, cultural studies, and gender studies, this paper explores the ways in which trendy drama discourses redefined the politics of Japanese women’s identity and to what extent they reproduced patriarchal views towards women’s selfhood. Through an ethnographic study of one of the most popular trendy dramas, Tokyo Love Story (TLS) [1991. Produced by Ōta Tōru, featuring Suzuki Honami, Oda Yūji, Arimori Narimi, and Eguchi Yōsuke, aired January 7, 1991, on Fuji TV], involving qualitative questionnaires, and analysis of newspaper articles, I will argue that TLS not only contributed to the redefinition of the modern and urban woman, but was also a pioneer in reinventing Japanese womanhood for the future generations.

How to make users fall in love with a mobile application: A moderated-mediation analysis of perceived value and (brand) love

PurposeThe study aims to examine the indirect relationships via application (app) brand self-relevance emotions and self-relevance that underlie the relationships between perceived value of mobile apps and (brand) love with respect to mobile apps. The study further investigates the moderating role of user–app relationship duration in the formation process of brand love for mobile apps from a dynamic and long-term perspective.Design/methodology/approachA multiple moderated-mediation model is developed and empirically tested with a sample of 396 users of popular Chinese mobile educational apps.FindingsThe study reveals that utilitarian value exhibits positive indirect relationships with brand love for mobile apps through increased positive self-relevance emotions. All three types of perceived value of mobile apps (utilitarian, hedonic and social) affect app brand love positively via self-relevance. These three types of perceived value were found to be serially linked to brand love through self-relevance and self-relevance emotions. Furthermore, empirical evidence is found for the moderating effects of user–app relationship duration.Originality/valueBy testing mechanisms simultaneously in an integrative model, this study investigates the reasons for app brand love that attract a user into a lasting relationship with an app and extends knowledge of the app brand love building process in inducing strong and positive brand–self connections. Our study also makes practical contributions by offering insights into delivering the most desired benefits to mobile app users according to different contextual conditions, in order to attract and retain users in a more cost-effective manner.

Loving neoliberalism? Digital labour and aspirational work on streaming food TV

ABSTRACT This paper considers the changing textual meanings, industrial practices and platform infrastructures of food TV as it moves from network television to on-demand streaming platforms. Using Netflix cooking competitions Sugar Rush and Crazy Delicious as case studies, it shows how streaming TV normalises the tenets of the aspirational, branded self to such an extent that the work of self-production is presented as both self-evident and a pleasurable form of leisure. The paper argues that streaming reality’s persistent reframing of labour as leisure allows services to profit from contestants’ pre-existing identities and content (including from other platforms, most notably Instagram), just as its algorithmic logics extract value from the labour of audiences. Netflix food programmes highlight a significant expansion in the forms and types of unpaid labour taken for granted on contemporary reality TV, whereby the invisibilisation of work on-screen increasingly mirrors the invisibilisation of work in Netflix’s own platform logic.

A Multidimensional Fuzzy Quality Function Deployment Design for Brand Experience Assessment of Convenience Stores

In the past, few studies have explored brand attachment and how to deliver the content of a strategic management program through brand experience. The purpose of this study is to construct an integrated model of consumer brand attachment and brand experience. It also applies the fuzzy quality function deployment (FQFD) method to develop a value competitive strategy model of convenience stores. The respondents were split across two stages. In the first stage, 265 consumers were surveyed on the importance of brand attachment; in the second stage, 38 experts and scholars were invited to evaluate the content of a strategic management program. The results showed that for three convenience store brands, the levels of brand attachment of the young and older customer groups each had their own advantages and must be strengthened. Taking 7-Eleven as a practical implications example, we can learn from the analysis that young customers believe “brand prominence” is the most important factor, followed by “brand passion”, “brand affection”, and “brand–self connection”. As for older customers, the order from most to least important was “brand–self connection”, “brand affection”, “brand prominence”, and “brand passion”. The originality value is that this study extends previous research findings in measuring and building brand attachment frameworks and importance assessments while providing a sound demonstration of enhancement strategy solutions.

Investigating The Antecedents of Consumer Brand Engagement to Luxury Brands on Social Media

The purpose of this study is to analyze the antecedent consumer involvement and brand self expressiveness and brand community identification of the three dimensions of consumer brand engagement (CBE) (cognitive, emotional, behavior) in the luxury brand on social media. The data was collected through an online questionnaire which was filled in by 125 respondents who have experience in buying luxury brands using purposive sampling. The empirical study was conducted using structural equation modeling SmartPls. The results of the study stated that Consumer Involvement has a negative impact, brand self expressiveness and consumer brand identification have a positive impact on dimensions of CBE. Tests were also conducted to see the consequences of CBE, namely an increase in brand image and brand loyalty. Managers of luxury brand companies must increase CBE by utilizing and managing consumers following social media and creating communities to make it easier for consumers to get to know the advantages of luxury brand products. This study is a pioneer, as it extends the consumer engagement model to the social media context luxury brand by adding brand community identification as an antecedent CBE. Keywords: consumer brand engagement, brand image, brand loyalty, luxury brand, social media

How may I help you? Driving brand engagement through the warmth of an initial chatbot message

Despite the growing number of brands that rely on chatbots to address customer service inquiries that once required human intervention, academics and practitioners are only beginning to acknowledge the role of chatbots in brand-building activities. Chatbots can initiate online conversations, thereby often serving as a consumer’s first brand impression. However, little is known about how managers can strategically tailor a chatbot’s initial message to foster consumer–brand connections and, ultimately, engagement. Three studies demonstrate that when chatbots initiate a conversation using a warm (vs. competent) message, brand engagement increases, as assessed using both computerized text analysis and traditional scale measures. Brand–self distance mediates this effect, such that a warm (vs. competent) initial chatbot message makes consumers feel closer to the brand. Further, the authors identify brand affiliation as a theoretically relevant moderator. This research thus offers managers insight into how initial chatbot messages can attract and engage consumers.

Evaluation of the impact of brand self media content marketing on consumers' brand attitude

Traditional media often charge different percentages of service fees when providing services for brands, which to a certain extent increases the operating costs of brand owners. However, in modern society, after consumers' attention is tilted towards online platforms, the effectiveness of traditional marketing channels for brand owners gradually decreases, so self-media platforms and self-media content start to become the new marketing communication carriers. In terms of the overall development trend of the advertising industry, advertising agencies and media are the main components of the industry, and self-publishing platforms have become the main channel of communication between the platform transformation and consumers, and there is also a close link between the marketing process and consumers' attitude towards brand loyalty.

Destinasyon Aşkının Destinasyon Sadakati Üzerindeki Etkisi: Bozcaada Örneği

It is very important that destinations create loyalty to be able take part in global competitive environment and attract more visitors. Destination is one of the important brand concepts that help differentiate destinations and positively affect destination loyalty. Therefore, in order to create successful sense of loyalty on the tourists, destinations should concentrate on concept of a sense of love which can have positive effect on the tourist behavior. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to determine the effect of destination of local tourists for Bozcaada on destination loyalty. In this context, 183 online surveys were collected from local tourists using convenience sample method. For the purpose of the study, explanatory factor and multiple regression analysis were applied to test structures and research hypothesis. As result of this study, the “passionate love” factor of destination has positive effect on destination loyalty and “emotional commitment and brand self” factor of destination has no significant effect on destination loyalty.

Halal vaccination purchase intention

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically examine the determinants of purchase intention of Halal vaccination and compare the results between Muslim consumers in Malaysia and Pakistan. It focuses on analyzing the influence of various factors on the purchase intention of Halal vaccination and determining whether the relationships are significantly different in the two Muslim-majority countries.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on the extended theory of planned behavior and self-congruity theory. The variable of religiosity was added with the three variables of the theory of planned behavior, i.e. attitude toward Halal vaccinations, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. It shows the congruity between Muslim consumer and Islamic brands and proposes a wider range of determinants in the framework. The study’s sample size was 378, and the respondents were Muslim consumers in Malaysia and Pakistan. Purposive sampling technique was used to extract the sample from three cities in each country. Partial least square (PLS) was used to statistically analyze the data using PLS–structural equation modeling approach. The measurement model was analyzed, and invariance of the measurement model was established. Afterward, the hypotheses were tested, and multi-group analysis was performed through Henseler’s multi-group analysis (MGA) and Permutation test.FindingsThe results indicate a lack of significant relationships between the independent variables and the purchase intention of Halal vaccination except in the case of subjective norms. This construct has a significant but inverse relationship in the case of Pakistan’s Muslim consumers, which can be attributed to the presence of consumer skepticism regarding the issue of Halal vaccination. The MGA results reveal a statistically significant difference in the influence of religiosity on purchase intention between the two countries, depicting differences in the brand–self congruity perceptions of consumers in the two countries.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size was relatively small due to the limited time duration.Originality/valueThe area of Halal vaccination has been given limited attention in academic literature. This study addresses this area that has limited research and is greatly attractive to a large number of brands targeting the Muslim consumer market. The results of the study can form a foundation for creating the branding strategy of this product category and assessing its demand in various Muslim markets.

“Between a Regular Person and a Brand”: Managing the Contradictions of the Authentic Self-Brand

ABSTRACT Drawing on qualitative research on personal style blogging, I examine how the marketization of self through the process of self-branding impacts self-presentation, particularly the performance of authenticity. My research suggests that one of the challenges to performing authenticity is due to the contradiction between the qualities associated with authenticity and the work which goes into performing a self which appears worthy of visibility. This research complicates analyses of branding which focus on authenticity as the source of branded value, while also elucidating the mechanisms by which performing branded selves impacts self-presentation.

스포츠의류 선호브랜드의 자아이미지 일치성과 브랜드신뢰, 브랜드팬쉽 및 브랜드충성도의 관계

스포츠의류 선호브랜드의 자아이미지 일치성과 브랜드신뢰, 브랜드팬쉽 및 브랜드충성도의 관계

Landscapes for “likes”: capitalizing on travel with Instagram

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to articulate how ideological representations of the landscape are deployed on social media for the aggrandizement of self. One of the most common forms used in this practice is a visual motif termed the promontory witness [Smith, Sean P. 2018. “Instagram abroad: performance, consumption and colonial narrative in tourism.” Postcolonial Studies 21 (2): 172-191. doi:10.1080/13688790.2018.1461173], which draws on the semiotic canons of the colonial picturesque and the Romantic sublime to showcase a lone tourist, poetically emplaced at a point of vantage above an otherwise empty landscape. The motif’s prominence on Instagram may be attributed to three outcomes afforded by the platform: a mediated travel habitus hegemonically informs prevailing aesthetic norms, the scalability of embodied performances entrenches the motif’s narrative underpinnings, and the monetizable market of Instagram encourages neoliberal notions of the branded self. A case study of four promontory witness images seeks to demonstrate the ideological valences of this motif and the ways in which landscape is commodified as a tradeable good on Instagram’s marketplace.

Predicting continuance intention toward mobile branded apps through satisfaction and attachment

An increasing number of companies have created branded apps to communicate with and satisfy the needs of target audiences. The interactive features of smartphone apps strengthen the brand–consumer relationship and help consumers develop positive brand attitudes. However, few studies incorporate the brand–consumer relationship into the branded apps context. Through integrating brand attachment into the expectation confirmation model, the current study investigates the antecedents of continuance intention toward branded apps. Data collected from 497 users of MyStarbucks are analyzed by using structural equation modeling. The findings reveal the brand attachment–satisfaction relationship is nonrecursive and that both these factors positively influence continuance intention. Expectation confirmation also influences brand attachment and perceived usefulness. Moreover, perceived usefulness influences continuance intention directly or indirectly through satisfaction. Finally, brand–self congruity influences brand attachment, whereas perceived complementarity influences satisfaction and perceived usefulness.

“Celebrate your bloom story”

Using 27-year-old Canadian beauty blogger Estée Lalonde as a site of automedia analysis (Maguire 2015), this paper argues that through the enactment of domestic femininity in the public sphere, social media influencers embody postfeminist ideals of individual empowerment while selling their branded selves through networked intimacy (Abidin 2015; Gill, 2016). Methodologically, I approach the case study with an understanding of the intersection between online platforms of the intersection between online platforms, life writing, and constructions of the self. Using cross-promotion, scheduled posts, and self-branding, influencers create a cohesive branded self, emphasizing perceived authenticity and a sense of community among followers. The exercise of self-branding is used to gain cultural and material capital (Hearn, 2008). Understanding postfeminism as an analytical lens through which we can problematize media texts (Gill, 2016), I argue that influencer marketing privileges a one-dimensional, postfeminist representation of an empowered young woman following her life’s passion (Duffy & Hund, 2015).

The Relationship between Employee Self-Concept, Brand Identity, Brand Pride and Brand Citizenship Behavior and Customer Satisfaction

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between employee self-concept, brand identity, brand pride and brand citizenship behaviour and customer satisfaction. This study uses data from the service employees and customers in the hotel industry in Isfahan in 2016. The 357 customer-employee pairs filled out a questionnaire. A structural equation modelling technique using SPSS and AMOS software was used to analyse data of the questionnaire. The results of this study show consistency of brand and actual self and ideal self of employees had a positive and significant effect on brand identification and brand pride. Moreover, brand identification had a positive and significant effect on brand pride. Brand identification and brand pride had a positive and significant effect on brand citizenship behaviour which led to customer satisfaction.

Turning brand credibility into positive word-of-mouth: integrating the signaling and social identity perspectives

Drawing upon signaling theory and social identity theory, we developed a theoretical model that illuminates the role of brand credibility as an important basis on which customers form and signal their brand-related self and social identities via positive word-of-mouth (WOM). The proposed model was empirically tested using time-lagged data from a sample of 249 students of a top university in a metropolitan city. The findings show that the credibility of a brand is of paramount importance for the customer in developing a sense of oneness with the brand as well as a sense of affinity with other users of the brand. Our study also offers the new insight that brands serve as symbolic devices that customers use in their evolving thought processes that create a link between personal identity and social identity. In addition, brand–social connection is essential in spreading positive WOM. Finally, our findings support a sequential mediation model in which brand credibility is positively related to brand–self connection and brand–social connection, which in turn are positively associated with positive WOM.

Animating creative selves: Pen names as property in the careers of Canadian and American romance writers

ABSTRACTMost romance writers in Canada and the United States in the first decade of the 21st century wrote under at least one, and as many as three or four, pen names. In doing so, they typified the ideal of a middle‐class worker who is both a business and a brand. Yet writers went beyond the singular branded self to develop multiple brand names. Prompted by publishers, writers developed pen names as forms of property that, like brands, could be used to mediate between producer and consumer. These newly developed properties were created according to specifications that reflected the gendered and racialized structure of mass‐market publishing. This process of property creation and animation was imagined to create value for writers and publishers in an uncertain, recession‐era economy. [authors, branding, gender, labor, romance, United States, Canada]

Consumer preference for national vs. private brands: The influence of brand engagement and self-concept threat

Previous research on self-brand connections has not considered the inclusion of brand categories (e.g., national and private brands). The current work examines consumers’ preference for national and private brands and their tendency to include brands as part of their self-concept (measured by the brand engagement in the self-concept (BESC) scale and manipulated using a tagline). Study 1 revealed higher BESC consumers to prefer national (vs. private) brands. Study 2 identified a boundary condition for our initial study by demonstrating consumers higher in BESC to prefer national brands (relative to private brands) less when presented a self-concept threat. Additionally, results showed lower BESC consumers deferring to national (vs. private) brands when facing a self-concept threat. Finally, Study 3 results were consistent with Study 2 findings when brand engagement was manipulated (vs. measured). Our work suggests that when a self-concept threat unrelated to the branded self is presented, the central importance of brands, for those consumers more highly engaged with brands, will decrease to the point of impacting preferences.

도시브랜드에서 브랜드 개성 및 자아 일치성이 도시태도에 미치는 영향

도시브랜드에서 브랜드 개성 및 자아 일치성이 도시태도에 미치는 영향

도시브랜드에서 브랜드 개성 및 자아 일치성이 도시태도에 미치는 영향

도시브랜드에서 브랜드 개성 및 자아 일치성이 도시태도에 미치는 영향