Brand Power Research Articles

Charismatic Nonverbal Displays by Leaders Signal Receptivity and Formidability, and Tap Approach and Avoidance Motivational Systems.

Status cues and signals act as guidance systems by regulating social approach and avoidance. Applied to leadership, we hypothesized that nonverbal displays conveying the dual-status messages of receptivity and formidability and the approach/avoidance motives they activate set conditions for charismatic, leader–follower relationships. We investigated perceptions of charisma, the nonverbal signals associated with them, the motives they energize, and the relationships they support across levels of analysis. At the social–perceptual level (studies 1a–d), eligible voters rated political leaders’ traits after viewing silent, 30-s videos of speeches presented online. As predicted, perceptions of politicians’ receptivity (warmth and attractiveness) and formidability (competence and power) were independently associated with perceptions of their charisma; perceptions of trustworthiness and authenticity showed weaker or negligible associations. Results were similar when the stimuli were female, Jamaican educational leaders. Leaders’ nonverbal behavior was linked to perceptions of their receptivity, formidability, and charisma in study 2. At the brain systems level, studies 3a and 3b tested predictions that charismatic nonverbal performances stimulate equivalent degrees of approach and avoidance motivation in observers. Brain recordings via electroencephalography (EEG) were made while undergraduates viewed leaders rated high or low in charisma. Discrepancies in alpha activity in the left and the right frontal hemispheres (associated with approach and avoidance, respectively) were relatively diminished when participants viewed highly charismatic political leaders, indicating that approach and avoidance motives are energized in response to charismatic performances. The EEG patterns for Jamaican leaders were similar but not significant. At the group level of analysis, study 4 sought evidence that charismatic leaders create uniquely influential relationships with followers. Video recordings of student leaders interacting with pairs of unfamiliar students during a group decision-making task were assessed for leader receptivity, formidability, and charisma by independent sets of undergraduate judges. Perceptions of student leaders’ receptivity and formidability predicted their charisma, and charismatic leaders were most influential in bringing followers to privately accept a controversial group decision. Across studies, evidence generally supported hypotheses generated from status cues theory: charismatic leadership builds upon the nonverbal projection of dual-status messages and the approach/avoidance motives they engender, setting conditions for a uniquely powerful brand of influence.

A Mixed Methods Approach to Investigating Glocal or Hybrid Brands

The traditional distinction between global and local brands is losing salience driven by globalization and digital technology. Using the paradox theory, this dissertation investigates a third option: brands that are both global and local—something paradoxical. Navigating a brand to be both global and local at the same time has been claimed to offer a successful market approach (Swoboda, Elsner, & Morschett, 2014), but it has significant challenges (Steenkamp, 2017). These challenges include managing the tensions and contradictions of being both old and new, the same and different, or a brand paradox (Brown, Kozinets & Sherry, 2003); combining global and local strategies into a true glocal strategy (Steenkamp 2017; Steenkamp and de Jong 2010). The goal of this study is to use the foundation of prior research on global branding and international marketing strategy to build and empirically test a roadmap to help global and local brand leaders navigate the global marketplace. We employ a mixed-methods approach to develop and validate a new framework called omni-brand orientation for global brands to become locally authentic and local brands to become globally accepted. First, we identify the building blocks of local authenticity and global acceptance through qualitative interviews with 50 top managers from global and local sport brands. This qualitative research uses constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz 2006; Strauss and Corbin 1990) and theoretical sampling, a method based on the classic work of Glaser and Strauss (1967). The research included 50 interviewees (25 leaders from global brands and 25 leaders from local brands) across 24 unique organizations. Second, we validate the framework with quantitative surveys from 259 managers from 96 different brands. The results show that global brands use local insights, learning orientation, social network, and positive affect to build local authenticity, while local brands use innovation capability, brand power, and product performance quality to gain global acceptance.

Country Brand Equity: The Decision Making of Corporate Brand Architecture in Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions

Cross-border merger and acquisition (CBM&A) is a dominant and sustainable antagonistic strategy, but a relevant concern like a country has inadequately been emphasized over the five decades of acquisition studies. Therefore, this article attempts to examine the impact of country brand equity (CBE) on corporate brand architecture (CBA) in post-CBM&A. It first originates a hypothetical model esteeming Resource-Based View (RBV) and Industrial Organization (IO) theory following the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) paradigm. Then, it tests the model conducting a web survey on 124 acquiring corporates from 29 countries that accomplished CBM&A transactions between 1990 and 2014. The empirical findings clarify that the market aspect, such as the acquirer’s more substantial country brand equity, indirectly leads to the high degree of CBA standardization in the host market through prioritized intangible and strategic resources—corporate reputation and corporate brand management system. Individually, the acquirer’s corporate reputation cumulatively yields a high degree of CBA standardization with corporate brand power, which has only a direct effect. On the other hand, the corporate brand management system leads to a high degree of CBA standardization cumulatively with corporate reputation. It is deemed that the research findings as a whole reveal a framework for the application of country brand equity and corporate brand architecture in post-CBM&A.

Bridging brand and experience design

While true, the idea that brands are defined by experiences masks a complex set of dynamics that dramatically affects the development of branded experiences. This paper explains the different evolutions of branding and experience design to show how the converged field of brand experience design inherits ideas from each former discipline in non-intuitive ways. The central shift in thinking is that experiences are defined by brands rather than the other way around. A strong brand — one with a clear and compelling purpose, one with a clear set of emotional associations — is essential for a strong brand experience; therefore, branding practitioners and designers must strengthen their brands in order to deliver powerful brand experiences. Contrary to popular opinion, experiences by themselves will do little to strengthen a weak brand. In addition, this paper presents a set of concrete tools and techniques to help brand experience designers build this new thinking into their work.

Think Global and Buy Global: The Influence of Global Identity on Indian Consumers’ Behaviour toward Chinese Smartphone Brands

The objective of this study is to examine Indian consumers’ global identity, ethnocentrism and animosity between India and China – two countries that have a diverse economic, cultural, political, and historical background. This research examines Indian consumers’ willingness to buy (WTB) Chinese smartphone brands. The conceptual framework proposed, explores the predictive power of global identity, ethnocentrism, animosity and brand’s perceived quality (BPQ) on Indian consumers’ WTB Chinese smartphone brands. The study examines the uncertainty that prevails in the minds of the consumers before buying a product from a country for which different feelings exists. Data from a survey of 861 respondents from India was collected to test the research model and was analyzed through PLS based SEM. The study establishes the significance of the proposed framework which is able to predict 61% of the variance of Indian consumers’ willingness to buy Chinese smartphone brands. Moreover, Indian consumers’ WTB Chinese smartphone brands are positively influenced by global identity and negatively by animosity and ethnocentrism. Earlier research has analyzed the contribution of ethnocentrism and animosity in the realms of different nations like China and USA but the current research explores the influence of global identity, ethnocentrism and animosity between India and China.

How Sarah Kauss turned her drinking bottle start-up S’well into a $100m enterprise: Teaching business case study

This case study tracks the entrepreneurial journey taken by female founder Sarah Kauss in developing a categorydefining premium drinking bottle. S’well was created using a low budget, word-of-mouth community and unpaid celebrity endorsement strategy. It was established as a fashion power brand through carefully crafted, high end, retail and charity collaborations. Historically, portable water storage had been framed as merely functional products. Former Manhattan accountant Sarah Kauss helped redefine the category as a modish accessory solution that also countered the environmental problem of disposable plastic waste, using a double organic business strategy. S’well has been flatteringly described by Vogue as a true original with a delicious Midas touch, and CNN as ‘hands down the best water bottle for temperature control’ (S’well.com, 2020). However, plagued by brand-damaging counterfeiters and losing traction from the historically powerful co-created social media promotions, was it time for an important third pivot? This armchair teaching case study was developed from the lead author’s digital marketing coursework, as part of the Royal Holloway BSc Management programme at Kaplan Singapore. The case was designed for use in marketing, strategy and entrepreneurship under- and postgraduate modules.

Identifying Dynamic Competition in Online Marketplaces Through Consumers’ Clickstream Data

Whilst brands on online marketplaces constantly face the challenge of identifying the market structure and analyzing the competitive power, the topic of dynamic brand competition has received scant attention. To address this lacuna, we model the competitive power of brands on online marketplaces through consumers’ consideration sets. Grounded on network theory, we use a large empirical dataset from one of the biggest online marketplaces in China. We explore the relation between network position and competitive power of brands through the local and global centrality and closure, and depict the redistribution of market-share of related products after adjusting the length of the production line. We show that on the context of online marketplaces the span of structural holes of a brand negatively influences its competitive power, while betweenness and degree centrality demonstrate a positive impact. We further show that intra-brand relations have a significantly greater impact on competitive power compared to the inter-brands ones, while intra-brand relations represent the main reason for the fluctuation of competitive power over time. Our study contributes to the literature on dynamic brand competition on online marketplaces, while we also draw an agenda for future research on this topic.

A study on the dynamics between the moral reasoning process and celebrity image and their impact on consumers’ support for celebrity comebacks after a transgression

A study on the dynamics between the moral reasoning process and celebrity image and their impact on consumers’ support for celebrity comebacks after a transgression

Reverse (brand) anthropomorphism: the case of brand hitlerization

Purpose Although marketer-generated brand anthropomorphism impacts on positive company returns is studied broadly, consumer-generated brand anthropomorphisms that focus on demonizing and hitlerizing brands is not extensively studied. This study aims to examine these consumer interpretations of the evil, its symbols and personifications of brands as evil, with a new concept: “reverse brand anthropomorphism.” Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a literature review of brand anthropomorphism and the application of the concept of evil. This paper also uses a qualitative analysis with consumer interviews to explore the proposed reverse brand anthropomorphism concept. Findings This study’s findings reveal that consumers see corporations as consciously evil, loosely as an embodiment of Adolf Hitler. Consumer interviews points out that corporate brand power aimed at controlling consumer value systems is associated with “evil,” an evil that secretly aims at possessing consumers and controlling their consumption practices. The findings of this study indicate that consumers also develop their own alternative moral market value systems, ones parallel to religious morality. Although “evil” imagery is often found distractive and disrespectful by consumers, the younger generation accept it as a new and alternative form of market speech. Originality/value This is the first study to introduces and conceptualize a “reverse brand anthropomorphism” concept with examples of consumer brand hitlerization semiotics. Further, this study is also the first study to discuss evil in a consumption context.

Putting tatars on the map: The place branding versus soft power of Tatarstan

This article investigates one of the most relevant cases of Place Branding within the Russian Federation and provides a review of different efforts developed by the Republic of Tatarstan government to position itself in the global scene, to ‘put Tatars on the map’. Place Branding and Marketing initiatives such as ‘Invest in Tatarstan’, ‘Made in Tatarstan’, ‘Visit Tatarstan’ and the emergence of Kazan, Tatarstan’s capital, as ‘Sports Capital of Russia’ have been crucial tools for identifying and highlighting Tatarstan’s geographical location, promoting its economic potential and increasing the number of tourists to the Republic. It has helped to increase awareness among business and industry circles, sport fans and tourists worldwide. However, the Republic is facing deeper political challenges, including the alarming situation of the decreasing number of native speakers of the Tatar language, which might even bring into question the nation’s long-term future. Could the soft way be a constructive and effective alternative strategy? Could Soft Power be introduced to ‘win hearts and minds’ of the international community, and even Tatarstan’s own inhabitants by introducing alternative values based on political tolerance, by further applying Tatarstan’s culture as a Soft Power tool, using movies/films, museums, education and the media? This paper investigates a scarcely studied subject, namely Tatarstan’s tools of Place Branding, and indicates the potential influence of Tatarstan applying Soft Power.

Understanding the virtual tours of retail stores: how can store brand experience promote visit intentions?

PurposeAs consumers spend more time shopping online, traditional retailers are facing a decline in on-site shoppers. To help the industry in the omnichannel era, we propose that a virtual tour of a store could affect brand equity and promote store visit intentions, based on a well-established brand experience account.Design/methodology/approachThe virtual tour stimuli were created using 360-degree photos of real stores. Participants explored the store virtually and then completed an online survey. With 240 responses drawn from the general population in the US, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used.FindingsResults showed that store brand experiences significantly affected consumers and the four brand experience dimensions exerted differentiated effects. Sensory and behavioural experiences directly increased intentions to visit the store, whereas intellectual and emotional experiences promoted visit intentions via enhanced brand equity.Originality/valueThis is the first retail study investigating a virtual tour through the lens of brand experience. It is also one of a handful that examined the distinctive effects of the four brand experience dimensions, which deserve scholars’ attention and further inquiry. The virtual tour can be a powerful branding tool in the online-dominant retailing era. Retailers can employ a virtual tour not only to increase brand equity but also to cultivate consumers’ intentions to visit their stores. Furthermore, the use of 360-degree interactive media to evoke the virtual experience of a store renders higher generalizability and extendibility in future research and practice.

Original design manufacturer's warranty strategy when considering retailers' brand power under different power structures

AbstractIn recent years, the original design manufacturer (ODM) has increasing interests in multichannel cooperation with different retailers. This paper considers the problem in which the ODM cooperates with two competing retailers. The manufacturer produces two substitute products and markets them through two competing retailers. For both products, the manufacturer bundles them with basic warranties and the retailers brand them with their own branding. We quantitatively model the product demands and derive the optimal decisions under two common supply chain power structures: manufacturer Stackelberg and retailer Stackelberg. We observe that when the competition between the two retailers becomes fiercer, the manufacturer charges more for both products, the product substitutability and supply chain power structures do not affect the products' price and warranty decisions, and there does exist a brand ratio interval in which the product branded by the high‐reputation retailer will not get a better warranty from the manufacturer, violating the signalization of the warranty. The leader gets the power to get higher profit while the total profit of the whole supply chain remains the same under both power structures.

Storynomics Tourism as an Effective Marketing Strategy on Tourism Destination (Case Study on Tangkuban Parahu, West Java-Indonesia)

The purpose of this study is to find out how the storynomics tourism approach can be used as an effective tourism marketing destination. In this case, Tangkuban Parahu in West Java, Indonesia. Tangkuban Parahu has historical and folklore values that are trusted by the wider community so that this will build the branding power of the destination. The challenge is how this message can be conveyed to tourists not only convey the value of myth but also packaged in other forms so as to provide educational value to each visitor. The research method used is qualitative descriptive. Data collection is done through observation, documentation, and interviews. The results show that the storynomics approach can be used as an effective strategy in marketing the Tangkuban Parahu destination, which can indirectly increase interest in visiting the place.

The reverse Napoleon effect: The brand appreciation of looking up by tall people

AbstractIntegrating the embodied cognition framework with research on the self, this study shows that head canting (the vertical tilt of the head to look up vs. down) interacts with a viewer's physical height to influence perceived brand power and behavioral intentions. Three studies use a variety of brand cues in both laboratory and field contexts to test the effect of head canting on brand power evaluations, the role of a person's physical height as a moderator and boundary condition, and the mediating role of consumer–brand identification. Study 1, an experiment, showed that tall, but not short individuals, evaluate a brand as more powerful when looking up (rather than down) at a brand story from a standing position, with differences in brand power impacting brand attitudes and choice. Study 2 replicates these findings with 30 brands, consumers positioned in a seated position, and brand logos. Both studies rule out the construal level as a process mediator. Study 3 further examines the process and demonstrates that the interaction of head canting with a person's height impacts consumer–brand identification, which mediates brand evaluations. These findings add a brand management and physical‐self perspective to previous embodiment research by specifically examining the effects of sensorimotor experiences.

The Relationship between Elements of Marketing Mix and Brand Equity

Today, achieving the stable competitive advantage is one of the most important tools in the business world. To this aim, with creating and using the powerful brand equities, the firms have entered into different competitive fields. Perceive importance which lies on effect of selected marketing mix elements on Brand equity in current situations within competitive markets helps the decision makers to get more information on how to use selected marketing mix elements, and choose a mix of these elements which leads to increasing brand equity, and in the end leads to profitability, because from managerial perspective, brand equity proposes competitive advantage for the company. The paper aims to investigate the relationship between elements of marketing mix and brand equity.

"What Makes You Beautiful"--Analysis of Translation Strategies on Cosmetic Brands from Perspective of Marketing

As a result of the economic globalization, as meanwhile, the development of Chinese economy and the improvement of people’s living standards, skincare products have become necessity. A large amount of skincare products from all over the world poured into our market, which is the communicative tool among different languages as well as the key to the market, instructions of skin-care products has become more crucial, thus much attention is also attached to their translations. A powerful brand identity of a cosmetic product is critical, because it can determine whether the product can survive the competition or be knocked out. Foreign skincare merchants have cudgeled their brains for earning money here. Obviously, translation of the brands should be a priority. The study attempts to explore the translation strategies of European and American cosmetic brands through case study, which aims to help cosmetic products achieve successful marketing in Chinese market. As meanwhile, the translation strategies also be discussed the cosmetic products’ special efficacy and conclude principles of translating European and American cosmetic brands to realize successful marketing in China.

The impact of sensory branding (five senses) on consumer: A case study on KFC (Kentucky fried chicken)

Sensory branding is based on the idea that consumers are most likely to form, retain and revisit memory when their all five senses are engaged during the process of buying products or services. By going beyond the traditional marketing media of only sight and sound, brands are now taking advantage of all other senses to establish a stronger and longer-lasting emotional connection with consumers. This marketing strategy appeals to multiple senses and the efforts are multiplied, creating powerful brands with lasting consumer connections. This study reveals the impact of sensory branding on consumers of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). This study analyses all five senses applied to KFC to identify the impact of each sense on consumer. The study was conducted using survey method and respondents were the people who have eaten KFC at least once in one of the thirteen outlets in the city of Hyderabad, India. A sample of 116 respondents was taken for analysis. The study concluded with the impact of sensory branding strategy by KFC and brings out the results, which can be adopted by marketers for the other products of same genre.

Employee Advocacy as a Marketing Strategy to Power Brand Promotion: an Employee Perspective

Employee Advocacy is an emerging and cost-effective concept of employee amplification to market products and services by enabling employees to build and share the company's brand contents through social media platforms. The paper summarizes the available research-based contents as well as articles and blogs of experts in the field of digital and social media marketing. The study primarily intended to assess employees’ awareness and perception of various aspects of employee advocacy. It has identified forms and types of contents shared and social media platforms now used by the employees in the automotive sector for leveraging brand promotion and communicating with the target market. The study has been designed as a descriptive research paper based on the empirical data collected from a sample of 102 employees from automobile showrooms in the southern districts of Kerala using a snowball sampling technique. A questionnaire was drafted with the help of google forms and administered among the respondents via email and WhatsApp. Two-dimensional plot of correspondence analysis, Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis H test was applied to present and describe the empirical data and to draw inference about the significance of the difference in the awareness and perception of employees about the aspects of employee advocacy on brand promotion in terms of demographic factors. Awareness level and understanding of the elements of employee advocacy is found very low and significantly different among employees according to the designation. This paper also indicates that the social media policies and guidelines of the companies were not rightly imparted to the employees. That’s why the involvement and creative use of the potentials of social media platforms by the employees were not up to a remarkable level. Employees perceived that employee advocacy as a cost-effective brand promotion strategy for the future, and it demands the employer’s motivation, recognition, and rewards for inspiring employees to be brand ambassadors. This research addressed a relatively new concept in which there has been no extensive empirical researches and calls on the attention of the market as well as academic researchers for contributing the unexplored areas of the novel and powerful idea for utilizing human resources in a platform where they are interested and involved. Keywords: content marketing, digital marketing, employee amplification, employee engagement, social media marketing.

Современное состояние стратегии развития конгрессно-выставочного туризма в Санкт-Петербурге

The research features the efficiency of the strategy development of congress-exhibition sector in St. Petersburg. The paper also describes the system weaknesses in the context of brand destination formation for business tourism. A powerful brand of an attractive touristic destination requires permanent diversification and improvement of the product. Business tourism is a highly remunerative segment in tourism industry. Therefore, its development is relevant for regional economy. Infrastructural environment is the determining factor for market capacity calculation. It remains important for strategic development initiatives in the sphere of positive image formation and high-quality services delivery. The methodological background included system approach to the local investment climate, which resulted in the development and classification of St. Petersburg congress-exhibition market. This approach is able to confirm direct or indirect connection between city ranks in the affected industry, as well as the actual implementation of strategic governmental initiatives. However, global strategies in the congress-exhibition service market cannot be applied to the current state of the industry in St. Petersburg. The new strategy can be implemented only after the development of a unified indivisible system approach to recording and classifying events at the congress-exhibition market. In addition, the local business processes have to be improved by applying effective experience of competitive destinations.

Critical Success Factors of Medical Tourism: The Case of South Korea.

The purpose of this study was to identify the key success factors of medical tourism using the case of South Korea. Medical tourism refers to the phenomenon of travelling across national borders intentionally to access a variety of medical treatments, especially modern medical treatment. Through conducting semi-structure face-to-face in-depth interviews with the service suppliers of Korean medical tourism, it was discovered that Korean medical tourism has been facilitated by the effect of Hallyu and advanced Korean brand power. More importantly, tourism activities for companions and extra support for patients’ convenience are identified as important success factors of Korean medical tourism, suggesting that the medical tourism industry not only includes medical services but also involves tourism perspectives, supporting the patient and their companions to stay in a comfortable and pleasurable environment. This study generated results which are valuable for both academic and industry perspectives, as this is a field which has not been extensively researched. Medical tourism representatives in other countries can consult these findings to develop the industry.