Focal Brand Research Articles

Connecting Customers and Merchants Offline: Experimental Evidence from the Commercialization of Last-mile Stations at Alibaba

Many e-commerce platforms have established extensive networks of stations as their last-mile logistics infrastructure. This study investigates how this last-mile infrastructure may serve as an offline platform to connect customers and merchants in the physical world by leveraging walk-in traffic (organic interaction) and prompting interested customers through online intervention (induced interaction). Using free sample distribution as an example, we designed two large-scale studies in collaboration with Alibaba—an observational study across 1,032 stations and a randomized field experiment among 189,019 customers—to examine the causal effects of organic and induced interactions on customers’ subsequent online purchases from the focal brands, respectively. We found that induced interaction drives significantly more online sales than organic interaction. Under induced interaction, the online intervention effectively increases the number of free samples distributed. Nevertheless, the more significant increase in online sales for induced claimers is not simply due to more free samples distributed but because the induced customers are more interested and more likely to purchase. We identified this phenomenon as a screening mechanism that facilitates an advantageous selection of customers claiming the samples. Customers willing to pay the additional travel cost to claim samples are more likely to purchase the focal brands afterward. Finally, we developed a customized targeting framework using a generalized random forest model to enhance the effectiveness of induced interaction at the last-mile stations. Our study raises a key insight that the “foot-in-the-door” traffic in an omnichannel environment can be fundamentally different depending on whether the offline customers are driven from the online channel.

An approach to brand planning under high competitor set variation

We present a novel approach to enable parsimonious local brand planning in situations where a brand’s competitive set varies substantially across points of sale. We conceptualize the entire assortment of products from all the rivals at a point of sale as a unique, holistic unit of competition that vies with the focal brand for a share of the local market. We then apply a mixture-type model to consumer transactions data to explicate clusters of assortments within which a brand has similar levels of sensitivity to assortment composition and local marketing mix activities. Our results reveal substantial variation in these assortment clusters across brands within a product category. Additionally, we find large variation in the sensitivity of a brand’s share to local marketing instruments, and asymmetry in the effectiveness of these instruments in offensive versus defensive modes. We use these findings to provide guidance for parsimonious local marketing planning in situations where competitive assortments vary across points of sale.

Celebrity endorser scandal: a literature review and future research agenda

PurposeIn recent years, negative spokesperson incidents have raised significant concerns in academia and industry. While several studies have addressed celebrity endorser scandals, comprehensive analyses of current knowledge are lacking. Therefore, this study systematically reviewed the related literature to better understand trends and suggest future research directions for advancing this field.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the theory–context–characteristics–methodology (TCCM) framework to examine 76 articles on celebrity endorser scandals.FindingsUtilizing the TCCM framework, this study presents a comprehensive research framework, revealing that (1) the celebrity endorser scandal effect primarily includes associative learning, attribution of responsibility, and moral reasoning; (2) entertainment celebrities and athletes have received significant research attention; (3) both individual- and relationship-level characteristics serve as crucial moderators, with focal brand and related brand being the primary outcome variables. Additionally, this study outlines enterprise response strategies, encompassing the reformation of existing spokesperson relationships and the establishment of future spokesperson connections; and (4) quantitative approaches dominate the field.Originality/valueThis study integrates and expands existing research on celebrity endorser scandals while proposing future research opportunities to advance the field.

Color congruence on Instagram: the role of flow and aesthetic experience

PurposeSocial media has emerged as a prominent platform for marketers and brands to disseminate brand-related information. This study aims to investigate the impact of color congruence between themes and background on marketing effectiveness, focusing specifically on Instagram.Design/methodology/approachA laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate how color congruence between themes and background in brand posts influences flow and aesthetic experience, subsequently affecting marketing communication parameters such as brand attitude, visit intention, and eWOM on Instagram. Moreover, Adidas Originals was selected as the focal brand, and blue and white color was chosen as the primary color palette for the experimental material.FindingsThis study demonstrates that color congruence, regardless of brand layout or post, significantly influences flow and aesthetic experience, subsequently affecting marketing effectiveness.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the theoretical understanding of congruence theory and social media marketing, providing valuable insights for brands to enhance their communication through photographs and effectively manage their official Instagram accounts.

DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT OF A SUSTAINABLE: MARKETING PROVISION OF ENTERING STRATEGIES ON INTERNATIONAL MARKETS OF CHINESE COMPANIES: A CASE OF BYD AUTO

The formation of powerful companies in the People's Republic of China that possess their own technologies and are able to offer a competitive product on global markets necessitated the formation of integral strategies for entering these markets. The implementation of such strategies requires an effective marketing strategy, one of the key elements of which is the formation of a sustainable brand. Chinese manufacturers have traditionally relied on price advantages to gain a foothold in new markets, but this approach has proved ineffective in the case of high-tech products such as electric cars. Despite large investments, most companies from the PRC have not succeeded in forming a successful brand, so a study of the experience of the BYD AUTO company, which in a short time turned into the world's number one manufacturer of electric cars, reveals the conditions for implementing a successful international expansion strategy. The main challenge faced by the BYD AUTO company was the formation of a sustainable brand that would play a leading role in the promotion of products to international markets. Achieving this goal is facilitated by two key aspects of BYD AUTO's international marketing strategy: firstly, it is the brand's focus on the combination of technological advantages and social responsibility in the form of promoting solutions for transport with environmentally friendly electric motors, and secondly, the coordination of all elements of the marketing policy and orientation around them set of consumer requirements for the company's products and services. Like most Chinese companies, BYD AUTO implemented a step-by-step strategy for entering foreign markets, adapting to the specifics of local markets. The main competitive advantages were the low price of the product and the involvement of a wide partner network from local companies through the financing of joint investment projects. To reorient the strategy to create a sustainable international brand, it is necessary to focus the brand on the company's key values, synchronize this positioning with the expansion of the product range, standardize the service and reconcile it not only to the field of sales, but also to further operation, intensify electronic sales channels, build an adaptive communication system with clients, which is able to maintain communication on a global level.

Sports fashion and sustainability: a perfect match?

PurposeSports fashion is marketed showing happiness, physical performance and self-care. Thus, sports fashion brands should see a good fit with sustainability: future orientation, self-care, care for others and going out for a physical experience, oftentimes in nature. On the other hand, sports fashion is regularly made of non-sustainable materials and produced under difficult work conditions. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.Design/methodology/approachThe paper at hand seeks to investigate sports brands' approach to sustainability by examining their product portfolio and their annual report data, analyzing their status quo and sustainability strategy. A content analysis is conducted employing the brands' annual reports and their online shops as data sources to assess their status quo in terms of sustainability as well as future plans.FindingsResults show that on the ecological side, brands unanimously focus on carbon reduction, organic cotton, recycled polyester, circularity-ready business model innovation and water and toxic waste management. The social aspect may be divided into the focal brand and the supply chain, including similar measures: equality and diversity, the promotion of ethnic and cultural minorities and increased safety and health for workers.Originality/valueThe paper derives development opportunities and pitfalls for sports fashion brands.

Consumers’ digital self-extension and pro-brand social media engagement – the role of culture

PurposeDigital self-expression, recently one of the most important research themes, is currently under-researched. In this context, this study aims to propose a parsimonious research model of self-extension tendency, its drivers and its outcomes. The model is tested in the context of social media engagement intentions (liking, sharing and commenting) with focal brands and across individualist versus collectivist cultures.Design/methodology/approachThe model is tested in two individualist cultures (N = 230 and 232) and two collectivist cultures (N = 232 and 237) by conducting surveys in four countries (Australia, USA, Qatar and India). Nike and Ray-Ban are the focal brands studied, with Facebook serving as the targeted social networking site (SNS) platform.FindingsSelf-monitoring and self-esteem are found to drive the self-extension tendency across cultures, with stronger effects in the individualist culture than in the collectivist culture. The self-extension tendency has a relatively stronger positive influence on social media engagement intentions in the individualist culture than in the collectivist culture. This tendency is also found to mediate the link between self-monitoring, self-extension and social media engagement intentions across both cultures, albeit in different ways. In collectivist culture, self-monitoring’s influence on the self-extension tendency is moderated by public self-consciousness. The study’s findings have important theoretical and practical implications. In individualist culture, self-monitoring’s influence on the self-extension tendency is moderated by public self-consciousness.Research limitations/implicationsThe present findings confirm that the tendency to incorporate the brand into one’s self-concept and to further extend the self is indeed contingent on one’s cultural background. The role of public self-consciousness may vary between individualist and collectivist cultures, something recommended by past research for empirical testing.Practical implicationsManagers can leverage this research model to entice pro-brand social media engagement by nurturing consumers’ digital selves in terms of maneuvering their self-extension tendency and its drivers, namely, self-monitoring and self-esteem. Second, promoting the self-extension tendency and its drivers varies across cultures, with this finding offering practical cultural nuances supporting marketing managers’ decisions.Originality/valueThis is one of the pioneering studies that tests a cross-cultural parsimonious model based on theories of self-extension, self-monitoring and self-esteem, especially within the context of brand engagement intentions on an SNS platform.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Effect of Allied Brands Negative Publicity on Brand Managers' Decision-Making

This study examines why, and under what conditions, managers of focal brands decide to maintain the alliance with the partner brand when the latter is involved in negative publicity. The literature on brand alliances demonstrates the presence of crisis spillover effects on each partner in the case of negative publicity, suggesting dropping the offending brand to avoid any bad associations related to the negative publicity. However, research evidence on such negative effects in the B2B context is scarce. Drawing on attribution theory and reasoning style, this paper shows through two experiments (Study 1, N = 100; Study 2, N = 160) how the high (vs. low) severity of the allied brand's negative publicity activates an internal causal attribution process, which leads managers of focal brands to drop the offending partner. However, when brand managers are characterized by an analytic (vs. holistic) reasoning style, this path is overturned. Adopting a managerial perspective regarding the implications of negative publicity for B2B relationships, this study provides new insights into how the severity of partner brand negative publicity influences managers' decision-making, via casual attribution. The paper thus offers managers actionable guidelines (i.e., enhancing the analytic reasoning style) to reduce the risk of terminating a profitable alliance.

Push it real good: the effects of push notifications promoting motivational affordances on consumer behavior in a gamified mobile app

PurposeThere is clear benefit in designing and sending notifications to users that persuade them to interact with an app and marketer goals. The purpose of this study is to examine how different motivational affordances in notifications affects subsequent app use.Design/methodology/approachThe authors designed three studies to address the purpose: (1) an online experiment to test how individuals perceived notifications, which contained social affordances, progression-based affordances, and a combination of social and progression affordances; (2) a survey to gain a deeper understanding of why certain notification characteristics were effective and to unearth factors that jointly affected notification effectiveness; and (3) an in-app field experiment to test if the findings from studies 1 and 2 held up in a “real world” setting.FindingsThe analysis revealed that progression incentives yielded the greatest increases in user behavior. Neither a social incentive, nor a combination of social and progression affordances was more effective than one progression affordance. This effect was heightened by consumers’ involvement with the focal brand.Research limitations/implicationsThe contribution extends knowledge about the use of motivational affordances to gamify push notifications in high-involvement contexts. This implies that greater attention should be paid to how the: length of push notifications, affordances communicated and degree of consumers’ relationship with a focal brand (i.e. involvement) impact notification effectiveness. These findings set out new avenues to investigate the uses of gamification and services marketing in future research.Practical implicationsThe authors provide marketers with insights into the most effective ways to gamify, structure and time the delivery of notifications. In high-involvement contexts where consumers decide whether to act on a gamified marketing affordance quickly, it pays to use push notifications that feature visible, immediate and tangible rewards. Understanding consumers’ involvement with the brand allows marketers to turn notifications from a potential annoyance into a viable conduit for engagement.Originality/valueThis research extends knowledge on gamification to the domain of push notifications. In doing so, the authors have demonstrated the communicated affordances and wording of the push notifications organizations send affect user behavior. The authors further expand knowledge of the role of consumer involvement on push notification effectiveness while controlling for app usage patterns.

The spillover effects of positive and negative buzz on brand attitudes

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the effects of buzz about the focal brand on competing brands’ attitudes.Design/methodology/approachBrand-related buzz can be defined as “a general sense of [positive or negative] excitement about or interest in [a brand], as reflected in or generated by word of mouth” (Oxford dictionary). The authors investigate the spillover effects of such positive and negative buzz on brand attitudes of 648 brands in 43 categories over five years.FindingsThe authors find that spillover effects are widespread across product categories and affect competing brands through (negative) halo effect and (unfavorable) preference substitution. The authors do not find evidence of positive spillover effects for non-focal brands.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors provide generalizable evidence that positive and negative buzz spills over competing brands’ attitudes for hundreds of brands across the largest sectors of the US economy. Interestingly, positive and negative buzz have asymmetric effects on consumer attitudes. These effects vary by consumer attitude metric and are moderated by brand news intensity, strength and similarity.Practical implicationsFirst, marketing managers should monitor the buzz of competing brands. Second, if managers are concerned with impressions, they should intervene when there is a negative buzz about competitors (halo effect). Third, managers should stimulate positive buzz to negatively affect their competitors’ purchases. Fourth, managing a smaller brand has advantages regarding impressions and recommendations, while news intensity can shield from negative spillover effects for impressions. Finally, brand similarity amplifies the spillover effects across the board.Originality/valueThis paper provides evidence that spillover effects are pervasive and urges marketing managers and academics to incorporate competing buzz in their frameworks and strategies.

Getting political: The value‐protective effects of expressed outgroup outrage on self‐brand connection

AbstractBrands are increasingly engaging in social marketing campaigns that take stances on important social issues. Such campaigns can garner considerable awareness and effectively encourage consumers to purchase the focal brand. However, they can also outrage other consumer segments who disapprove of the brand's social stance. While social campaigns that outrage consumer groups would normally be undesirable, our research investigates how they can alternatively have a positive impact for brands that support the attacked value. This prediction is based on the premise that outrage expressed towards a social campaign threatens the value involved, causing consumers who want to defend that value to engage in symbolic protective responses by strengthening self‐brand connections and increasing purchase intentions. Five experiments validate this theorizing, and further show that these social threat effects are moderated by the type of outgroup that expressed the outrage and the level of viral support the expressed outrage received. Implications for the social marketing and brand relationship literatures are discussed.

Reframing the practice of volunteering as a collective endeavour through a focal brand community

PurposeNonprofit organisations (NPOs) are an increasingly fundamental part of our society. Meeting rising demand requires NPOs to attract enough resources, especially volunteers, to enable service delivery. This paper aims to adopt a novel theoretical lens to reframe this marketing challenge to inform practice and extend theory.Design/methodology/approachPractice-based exploration of a volunteer-enabled NPO, parkrun, through in-depth interviews and secondary source analysis.FindingsThe research identified that the brand community connects volunteers through three inter-connected levels. The big idea of parkrun, the focal brand, resonated with people through being “on their wavelength”, something they believed in. The local, physical event meant engagement was “on their patch”, anchored in place. Finally, the brand community enables people to volunteer “on their terms”, with fluid roles and flexible levels of commitment.Research limitations/implicationsNot all NPOs have service beneficiaries who are able to volunteer, services with different volunteering roles, or operate through a local physical presence. However, taking a focal brand approach to consider the brand community through which people volunteer for an NPO, the practices that reinforce that community, and how to offer volunteers significantly greater flexibility in both role and commitment presents an opportunity for NPOs to rethink how volunteering works for them in the future.Practical implicationsClear recommendations for practice include the opportunity to integrate service beneficiary with service delivery enabler (volunteer) to strengthen the implicit social contract, increasing participation to deepen the social identity felt towards the brand, and key practices that reduce barriers to volunteering.Originality/valueThe paper extends volunteering theory from the traditional individual needs approach to a focal brand community perspective. The marketing challenge of attracting volunteer resources to NPOs is understood through rethinking the boundaries between service beneficiaries and service enablers, anchored in social identity theory. It provides clear recommendations for practice through reframing the recruitment challenge.

Avoidance or trash talk: the differential impact of brand identification and brand disidentification on oppositional brand loyalty

Purpose Oppositional brand loyalty (OBL) has become widespread and has thus received growing scholarly attention in recent years. Although opposition behaviors have distinct manifestations, their differential antecedents remain underexplored. Drawing from the identity-based motivation model, this article aims to examine the impact of brand identification and brand disidentification on the two distinct dimensions of OBL (i.e. brand avoidance and trash talk) according to their different intensity and activation levels (passive or active). In addition, article aims to examine the moderating role of perceived inter-group rivalry. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected survey data and obtained 392 valid questionnaires from smartphone users. Structural equation modeling was used for hypothesis testing. Findings The results show that brand identification has a significant positive effect on avoidance of rival brands, but not on trash talk; brand disidentification has a significant positive effect on both avoidance and trash talk of rival brands; and perceived inter-group rivalry positively moderates the relationship between brand disidentification and trash talk, but does not alter the relationship between brand disidentification and brand avoidance. Originality/value This study extends the literature on OBL by investigating differential antecedents of two distinct dimensions of brand opposition. It provides more complete understanding of the formation of OBL by examining the role of users’ relationship with a focal brand, its competing brand and inter-group relationship.

Exploring Antecedents and Outcomes of Customer Engagement Among Elite Football Fans

As Customer Engagement (CE) drives brand loyalty and word-of-mouth, it is fundamental to the success of brands. Yet, while previous studies have examined the nature of CE, few have explored CE toward actors other than the focal firm or brand. Therefore, this study analyses and compares antecedents and outcomes of two types of CE: CE with a focal brand (CEF), and CE with other customers (CEC). 2031 customers of Swedish elite football were surveyed and analyzed in a SEM-model. Among others, the results indicate that CEC is more important to brand-loyalty and word-of-mouth than CEF.

Compound Brands and the Multi-Creation of Brand Associations: Evidence from Airports and Shopping Malls

The authors identify a new type of brand concept, which they term as a compound brand. Compound brands have their brand associations multi-created such that the focal brand entity, their tenants, and ancillary entities all act as sources of primary brand associations. To test the possibility of compound brands, two potential compound brands are studied, airports and shopping malls. This was completed by undertaking 480 semi-structured interviews (240 for each entity) to identify the underlying brand association structure and which associations are important for consumer brand choice. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Participant responses support that compound brand association structures are created by the focal branded entity (e.g., an airport), its tenants (e.g., shops and restaurants), as well as ancillary entities (e.g., location and customers). The contributions of tenants and ancillary entities towards the brand association structures of airports and shopping malls were also statistically significant with large effect sizes. A continuum exists as to how much of the compound brand’s association structure is created by its tenants, with statistically significant differences between airports and shopping malls in terms of how much tenants contribute to overall brand association structures for the compound brand.

The impact of online brand community members, brand identification and community identification on participation: The moderating effects of frequency

The effect of online brand communities’ value creation practices on brand identification and community identification was examined using social identity theory as a theoretical background of this study. In examining their relationship, this study defined the practices that relate to the focal brand as both brand use and impression management whereas the practices that relate to the community were defined as both social networking and community engagement. The effects of the two identification constructs (brand and community identification) on participation and their impact on brand awareness were also tested. The effects of frequency as a moderating variable on the relationship between brand identification community identification and participation were also revealed. Structural equations modeling was used to analyze the data collected after an online survey was done. Among the value creation practices, this study revealed that the impression management practice had a significant effect on brand identification and the community engagement practice had a significant effect on community identification. Test results have also shown that community identification has a significant effect on participation. Frequency moderated the relationship between brand identification and participation. In the high frequency group, brand identification had a significant effect on participation whereas in the low frequency group, the effect was not significant.

Fanning the flames: Transmitting negative word of mouth of rival brands

Brands’ negative word of mouth (NWOM) generated by their unsatisfied consumers is increasingly transmitted by fans of competing brands. Although extant research has examined the generation of NWOM because of consumers’ negative consumption experience, little is known about the role of fans of rival brands in spreading NWOM of a focal brand and how the focal brand can mitigate this rival NWOM transmission. This research aims to investigate why fans who highly identify with rival brands are willing to transmit the focal brands’ NWOM and how the focal brand can mitigate the NWOM transmission. Through four studies comprising two surveys and two experiments, this article shows that consumers’ identification with rival brands leads to the NWOM transmission of focal brands, and that schadenfreude mediates the effect. Furthermore, NWOM transmission can be attenuated when the focal brand has responded to the original NWOM in an empathic way. This study enriches the word-of-mouth literature and offers important managerial implications.

Does a corporation’s food recall strategy affect its brand image and consumers’ intention to purchase? A study in the context of cereal recall in China

PurposeFood recalls are more potentially harmful than other product recalls. This research aimed to investigate the effect of the recall strategies of food corporations on their brand image and consumers’ purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a between-subjects experiment of 2 (corporate recall strategy: voluntary recall, mandatory recall) *3 (food recall level (severity): high, medium, low), and recruits 224 consumers involved in cereal product recall in China. The authors inductively examine the effects of voluntary and mandatory recall on consumer perception and behavior intentions in the recall process.FindingsVoluntary recall (vs. mandatory recall) will improve corporate brand responsibility image (vs. brand ability image) and consumers’ purchase intention to focal brand (vs. competitive brand and organic brand). Perceived corporate legitimacy and food safety play a mediating role. The former has a greater positive impact on brand image, and the latter has a more significant favorable influence on purchase intention. Furthermore, recall level has a moderating effect on the association between corporate recall strategy and perceived food safety, but is not significant in the effect of corporate recall strategy on perceived corporate legitimacy.Originality/valuePrevious inconsistent conclusions cannot effectively guide food corporations to manage recall strategies. This paper demonstrates the response mechanism of the recall strategy from the perspective of corporate social responsibility, which is beneficial to food safety crisis management and research.

Sincere or exciting? Brand personality and argument quality on brand attitude

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether strong arguments provided in a commercial perform the same for exciting and sincere brands. Across three experiments, we vary brand personality (exciting versus sincere brands) and supporting argument quality (strong vs. weak), and find that consumers have more favorable attitudes toward sincere brands when the argument quality is strong rather than weak, but strong/weak argument quality does not influence consumers' attitudes toward exciting brands. The findings contribute to the existing literature on the elaboration likelihood model, sheds new light on the interaction between brand personality and argument quality, and suggest ways for advertising managers to customize content messaging in their commercials depending upon the personality of the focal brand's audience.

Deal or deny: The effectiveness of crisis response strategies on brand equity of the focal brand in co-branding

A brand alliance puts the focal brand at risk of being penalized for a crisis occurring at the partner brand. Such a crisis may weaken the focal brand’s equity unless it responds effectively. However, there is no consensus on the effectiveness of the response strategies at mitigating damage to brand equity. Building on attribution theory, this paper examines the effectiveness of the focal brand’s response strategy as a function of perceived brand integration between the brands in an alliance. The experiments, operationalized as (1) self-reported answers to intention measuring scales and (2) behavioral response in the form of written product reviews, reveal that the perceived integration is a significant moderator, determining the effectiveness of response strategies (deal vs. deny) on brand equity. Consequently, this paper has both theoretical and managerial implications for how to effectively respond to a crisis, while proposing an agenda for future research.