Brand Representation Research Articles

Dignified Branding: Upholding Authenticity and Integrity in Product Representation

Dignified branding is a concept that emphasizes authenticity, respect for a product's inherent qualities, and transparent communication with consumers. This research paper explores the principles of dignified branding, contrasting it with fake branding practices characterized by deceit and exaggeration. By analyzing the implications of each approach, this study highlights the importance of maintaining integrity in brand representation. It posits that dignified branding fosters trust, loyalty, and sustainable growth, while fake branding undermines consumer confidence and damages brand reputation. The paper concludes that organizations should prioritize dignified branding to create meaningful connections with consumers and uphold their brand's dignity.

What’s a news media brand worth? Investigating the effect of cognitive brand representations on recipients’ quality assessment of news articles

News recipients evaluate the quality of journalistic news articles based on the article’s journalistic quality and its media brand. We argue that differentiating a news media’s brand identity from recipients’ cognitive associations with the brand offers a valuable perspective to understand quality evaluations in a more detailed way. We, therefore, specify the effect of media brands on the quality evaluation by including consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) as a mediator and investigate this mediation effect for five quality dimensions and a global quality measure. Based on a two (high vs low quality) x three (quality brand vs tabloid brand vs control group) between-subject experiment with 469 German respondents, we conducted structural equation modeling to investigate the direct effects of media brands on recipients’ quality assessment of news articles and the mediating effect via CBBE. We found mediation effects of the media brand via CBBE on all quality dimensions and the global measure. In addition, two direct media brand effects with opposite effect directions than expected could be identified. All results are discussed concerning further theory development and practical implications.

Mascot Design as Brand Identity Communication Science Study Program UMSIDA

General background: Mascots serve as effective visual identity elements for various organizations to convey character uniquely. Specific background: The Communication Science Study Program at Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo (UMSIDA) uses "Si Kombi," a character blending human and butterfly features, in colors representing the program's identity. Knowledge gap: Limited research exists on mascots' role in academic branding and public engagement. Aims: This study evaluates "Si Kombi" as a visual tool for building the program's brand and attracting interest. Results: The mascot’s design features two-dimensional elements with dominant colors, enhancing recognition and appeal among potential students. Novelty: Integrating a mascot into academic branding offers a fresh approach to promoting study programs. Implications: This study highlights how mascots can strengthen academic brands, enhance promotion, and foster emotional connections with audiences. Highlights: Brand Representation: "Si Kombi" serves as a unique visual identity for UMSIDA's Communication Science Study Program. Effective Engagement: The mascot enhances public attention, making the program more recognizable to prospective students. Innovative Strategy: Using mascots in academic branding adds a fresh approach to promotional efforts in educational institutions. Keywords: Mascot, Visual Identity, Branding, Academic Promotion

Pengunaan NARS Power Players Sebagai Virtual Brand Ambassadors Untuk Memengaruhi Konsumen

Virtual brand ambassadors have become a new type of brand spokesperson with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI). NARS Cosmetics, a pioneering cosmetics company, has introduced their own virtual brand ambassadors known as NARS Power Players. However, the existing literature has not yet answered whether the attributes of virtual entities can shape consumer response. The novelty of this research lies in its focus on NARS Cosmetics' virtual brand ambassadors, the NARS Power Players, which are a new phenomenon in the field of brand representation. While virtual brand ambassadors have emerged with AI technology, there is a gap in the existing literature regarding how the attributes of these virtual entities specifically impact consumer attitudes. This study addresses this gap by investigating the influence of credibility, attractiveness, congruence, and human-likeness of NARS Power Players on consumer attitudes. Additionally, the study incorporates several relevant theories, including Stimulus-Response Theory, Source Credibility Model, Source Attractiveness Model, Match-up Hypothesis, and Uncanny Valley Theory, to provide a theoretical framework for understanding the impact of virtual brand ambassadors. The use of quantitative methodology and the specific focus on NARS Power Players contribute to the novelty of this research, offering insights that can further enhance our understanding of consumer responses to virtual brand representatives.This study used quantitative methodology by distributing online questionnaires to 112 respondents. The results showed that the credibility, congruence, and human-likeness of virtual brand ambassadors had a positive and significant influence on consumer attitudes. However, attractiveness did not have a significant influence on consumer attitudes. Researchers can further explore this topic by conducting investigative qualitative research on consumer perceptions and comparative analysis with human endorsers and non-human endorsers.

Keep It Simple? Consumer Perceptions of Brand Simplicity and Risk

Evoking simplicity in marketing communications has become popular among marketing practitioners, but little is known about its effects on consumers and firms. The current work focuses on consumers’ perceptions of the simplicity or complexity of brands and a previously overlooked consequence of those perceptions. Results from six experiments and analysis of a proprietary customer satisfaction dataset from Consumer Reports (N = 147,600) show that when consumers think brands are simple, they judge them to be less likely to experience product or service failures. Although these lower risk judgments could be positive for brands, they can also lead consumers to punish simpler brands more in the event of failures. Results also suggest that consumers’ simplicity/complexity perceptions reflect the dimensionality of their mental representations of brands, and the relationship between simplicity and lower risk is attenuated when additional brand dimensionality is framed in terms of redundancy. The findings cast doubt on the degree to which evoking simplicity is a uniformly positive marketing strategy and encourage practitioners to more thoughtfully consider simplicity's implications for consumer and firm welfare.

PENGARUH SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING, BRAND IMAGE DAN BRAND AMBASSADOR TERHADAP KEPUTUSAN PEMBELIAN

The development of the skincare industry has made competition very tight. It takes a unique approach that companies use to compete and attract customers to use their products. The purpose of this research is to study and explain how the use of social media, brand image, and brand representation influence consumer decisions to buy Ms. skincare products. glow. A total of 85 units of respondents were selected purposively based on the criteria that they had purchased Ms. skincare products. Glow more than once. Based on multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS 23.0, this study shows that social media marketing has a positive and significant impact on consumer decisions to buy skincare products Ms. Glow in Denpasar City. In addition, the use of brand image and brand ambassadors also has a positive and significant impact on consumer decisions to buy Ms. skincare products. Glow in Denpasar City. However, the use of brand ambassadors has the greatest impact on consumers in deciding to buy Ms Glow skincare products.
 Keywords: social media, brand, purchase decision

Бренд Wellness: языковая репрезентация в медиадискурсе

The article deals with the detection and analysis of the language means of Wellness brand representation in the media discourse. The aim of the article is to identify the peculiarities of language representation of the Wellness brand in the texts of media discourse, represented by printed publications (newspapers and magazines about health, fashion, beauty, psychology of family life, etc.). and audiovisual content on the Internet (podcasts about Wellness and healthy lifestyles, official English and Russian-language websites of government health programs, clinics and companies whose products and services are related to the promotion of Wellness in the service market), as well as blogs on fitness, healthy eating, meditation, psychological trainings that promote the principles of a healthy lifestyle. The goal is achieved by referring to modern scientific, both domestic and foreign research in the field of Wellness. The relevance of the presented research is determined by the need to understand which language means help to form a positive image of the Wellness brand in the open media space, which branding practices are the most successful, due to what means and speech strategies. The novelty of this study is that for the first time the Wellness brand is studied from the perspective of sociolinguistic and linguistic analysis of texts, aimed at promoting not only beauty services, but the health of the nation in the harmonization of the physical, social, spiritual, mental, emotional and intellectual aspects. The result of the research is the revealing the differences in the representation of Wellness in English- and Russian-speaking linguistic cultures of media space, effective language means of Wellness brand representation, productive appeals to stereotypes in creating advertising descriptions of Wellness products, and also the role of precedence in informing the public from different platforms - from printed media to official websites and Internet-communities.

A Comparative Analysis of E-Cigarette and Cigarette Posts on Instagram.

E-cigarette use has grown rapidly over the past decade and become a threat to public health. Marketing-especially through social media-has contributed significantly to this growth, which suggests that regulating content in social media will be critical in supporting efforts to reverse this trend. A content analysis was performed to compare 254 e-cigarette posts on Instagram with 228 cigarette posts on the same platform. The majority of e-cigarette posts were from e-cigarette companies (40.9%) and industry people (18.5%), whereas the majority of cigarette posts were from laypeople (76.8%). More e-cigarette posts than cigarette posts appeared to have a marketing intent (56.3% vs. 1.3%), and brand representation in photographs/videos was more frequent in the e-cigarette posts than in the cigarette posts (63.0% vs. 15.8%). Further, compared with the e-cigarette posts, the cigarette posts were more likely to portray daily life (73.2% vs. 41.3%) and humans (80.3% vs. 43.7%) in the photograph/video. The cigarette posts also portrayed smoking much more often than the e-cigarette posts portrayed vaping (67.1% vs. 21.3%). The study findings broaden the field's understanding of cigarette and e-cigarette content on Instagram and social media, and have implications for monitoring and regulating content for e-cigarettes and cigarettes.

Process of Telling the Brand Story through Space Design in Interior-Brand Interaction: The Case of Decovita Etiler Showroom Store

The design of spaces that create an interaction area with the brand concept that makes an organization visible and unique plays an essential role in brand success. Especially in showrooms where human interaction is at the maximum, the design of the space-brand connection is critical. The process of telling the brand story through space requires analysis and research to understand the brand's values, history, culture, and vision to be reflected in the space. The stages of designing the brand-space interaction were analyzed through Decovita Showroom Store. As a result, the examined design stages start with evaluating the brand's story and the concept development phases. Then, the concept idea is designed by focusing on the brand's abstract representations, which leads to the color-texture choices and detailed decisions to be made through the space fiction.

Brands, pseudo-brands, and quasi-brands in the multi-level macroecosystem of nation branding

Goal: to apply an integral approach to building a model of a multi-level macroecosystem of nation branding based on: analyzing of options for representing the brand phenomenon in the context of the modern international division of labor; applying the brand concept behind the borders of markets for goods/services and relationships between their producers, sellers and consumers. Methodology: the theoretical research was carried out on the basis of a semantic-conceptual analysis of publications relevant to the purposes of the article concerning issues of brand representation, the country-of-origin effect, pseudo-foreign brands and the ecosystem approach in economics. Findings: three aggregated categories of brands were identified, their definitions were developed and relevant examples in various areas of the country’s socio-economic life were considered, as well as the feasibility of an ecosystem approach to country branding was substantiated. Originality and contribution: for the first time, along with the category of true brands of goods/services and corporations, quasi-brands and pseudo-brands are comprehensively considered (with special attention paid to the state and prospects of pseudo-foreign branding in Russia); in addition, an original model of a multi-level macro-ecosystem of country branding and a corresponding definition of the latter are proposed. Besides, the identification of complex connections between brands of these three categories made it possible to propose the author’s model of a centralized multilevel macroecosystem of nation branding and an original definition of the latter.

Framing as a tool of influencer marketing in the management of marketing communications and brand representation

Topicality of the selected issue is due to the change in the orientation of brand communications in the information space from rational economic goals and values to behavioral economic ones, as well as the probability of incorrect decoding of the information message by the recipient of the information. The aim was to create a model of representative marketing communications transition from the formation of meanings to the formation of trends by using framing as an impact marketing tool. To accomplish the tasks set, the work uses the selection of general scientific and special methods and techniques of scientific research, such as the method of semantic, morphological, comparative and critical analysis, the ontology construction method, system-structural and functional approaches, simulation modeling, etc. The brand phenomenon is considered from the point of view of social constructivism, as a result of which seven principles of brand existence in the concept of communications with society have been identified. Two types of frameworks, which are used when building a narrative in the context of representative brand actions, have been substantiated theoretically. The methodology for using these frameworks is considered from the position of marketing, logical, communicative and social metrics included extensional and intensional equalities, as a result of which a model, that allows determining the transformation of brand communications into meanings or trends and its trendy potential, has been built. The following framing tools have been analyzed and adapted for marketing purposes: Overton Window, Hallin’s Spheres, Opinion Corridor, Spiral of Silence, Echo Chamber and Epistemic Bubble. Reframing is considered from the point of view of culture, namely the processes of inculturation. The difference of approaches has been revealed and a model of the transition of using framing tools from constructing meanings to constructing trends has been built. This model allows to minimize the problem of incorrect decoding of information during representative and communicative actions of the brand

Identifying Market Structure: A Deep Network Representation Learning of Social Engagement

With rapid technological developments, product-market boundaries have become more dynamic. Consequently, competition for products and services is emerging outside the product-market boundaries traditionally defined based on Standard Industrial Classification and North American Industry Classification System codes. Identifying these fluid product-market boundaries is critical for firms not only to compete effectively within a market but also to identify lurking threats and latent opportunities outside market boundaries. Newly available big data on social media engagement presents such an opportunity. The authors propose a deep network representation learning framework to capture latent relationships among thousands of brands and across many categories, using millions of social media users’ brand engagement data. They build a brand–user network and then compress the network into a lower-dimensional space using a deep autoencoder technique. The authors evaluate this approach quantitatively and qualitatively and visually display the market structure using the learned representations of brands. They validate the learned brand relationships using multiple external data sources. They also illustrate how this method can capture the dynamic changes of product-market boundaries using two well-known events—the acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon and the introduction of the Model 3 by Tesla—and how managers can use the insights that emerge from this analysis.

Real Men Don’t Buy “Mrs. Clean”: Gender Bias in Gendered Brands

Our article examines how products are valued differently depending on if the product has a male or female brand representation and if the consumer is male or female. This research extends previous research that categorizes brands as “gendered” (masculine vs. feminine) using stereotypical gender representations (“soft” vs. “hard”) by showing that male and female brand names are evaluated with a bias that favors male brands. Across five studies (online, field), using a mixed-method approach (implicit association test [IAT], experiments, sales data), we examine gender-neutral product categories (champagne, chips, tea, board games) that have male or female brand representations. We find that men devalue brands with female names, whereas women made no such distinctions, which we explain is due to gender bias created by the “precarious manhood” principle. This bias by men can be overcome using agentic brand descriptions. This research has implications for brand management, marketing communications, and public policy.

DESTINATION BRANDING REPRESENTATIONS USING SOCIAL MEDIA: EXPLORING KERALA AND TAMIL NADU

This paper is presented in two parts. A brief discussion on past research on destination branding which have used social media posts is followed by an exploratory study of content and images of Kerala and Tamil Nadu Tourism Corporations posted on their official Facebook pages. It aims at connecting with the destination branding representations of Kerala and Tamil Nadu Tourism Corporations as destinations of choice. The Facebook posts of these destinations were systematically analyzed using the content analysis technique. The analyses are presented under seven themes or categories which were derived from research articles published in the past. Analyses reveal that the posts focused on varying tourist attractions in each. Description of posts, hashtags used photos and videos in posts, activities, likes and comments and few others were analyzed. Kerala portrays the events of each season with photos, videos and leaflets such as boating championship among other attractions of the natural surroundings. Tamil Nadu on the other hand portrays a lot of temple tours offered as packages alongside historical places, natural surroundings and cultural aspects. These findings show that these posts present a lot of information on experiencing Kerala or Tamil Nadu and convey brand representations. Both destinations fair differently on the categories. Detailed information about transport, stay, best time to visit is not given on the tourism products and services for either destination. The information may be linked to providers of various services and packages so that it helps travelers plan their trip and translate into reality the experiences as depicted in the posts, photos and promotion videos.

Chatbots for Brand Representation in Comparison with Traditional Websites

<p class="0abstractCxSpFirst">Chatbots have gained enormous popularity in recent years. IT giants such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook have taken an interest in automated conversations. Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are playing an increasingly important role in smartphone usage and communication in general - perfect conditions for chatbots. This paper provides an introduction of recent chatbot development in general and in customer environments. As part of this work, a chatbot was developed for the Austrian IT company CodeFluegel GmbH. The chatbot, named Theodore, provides information about CodeFluegel via Facebook Messenger and webchat, similar to the existing company website. The design process and implementation of the chatbot as well as architectural considerations are explained throughout this document. In a user study, participants perform typical tasks with the website and the chatbot. The usage of both platforms is evaluated in order to identify advantages and disadvantages as well as differences compared to the other technology and to draw conclusions. Findings to this study indicate promising prospects for chatbots as alternative touchpoints for customers and others and a way to replace and enhance traditional websites.</p>

#BABIESOFINSTAGRAM: THE DIGITALLY MEDIATED LIVES OF ‘ASPIRING’ BABY MODELS AND BRAND REPS

This paper is part of an on-going study of baby accounts created by ordinary parents to reach audiences outside friends and families. More specifically, the aim is to provide insights on the growing phenomenon of commercial forms of sharenting where parents seek money–making opportunities through the lives and images of children. A qualitative exploratory approach is used to shed light on the practices used by parents to try to garner the attention of brands on Instagram. Content analysis is carried out of 308 posts and the baby accounts behind these posts. Findings reveal that accounts in our sample are predominantly used to seek financial opportunities in the fashion industry. This is observed in the post images where brands are tagged and children appear in carefully staged poses that emphasize the baby’s looks and the clothes worn. The choice of hashtags added to the posts suggest a willingness to participate in baby model contests and brand representation searches. The commercial motivations of these accounts is also evident in the profile description, where parents indicate that the child is ‘an aspiring baby model’ or that the account is open to brand collaborations. This investigation extends emerging research on the growing presence of children on digital spaces when profit is involved. We discuss privacy issues surrounding the intensely mediated lives of children who are commodified to obtain rewards such as brand partnerships and free or discounted products or services.

Inclusive identities: re-imaging the future of the retail brand?

Purposeto examine consumers' perceptions of retail brand representations of gender-oriented and/or sexuality-oriented identities. The authors explore the value of developing more progressive, inclusive brand values to support more effective retail brand communications and imagery.Design/methodology/approachPhoto elicitation, utilising LGBTQIA+/sexuo-gendered imagery from retail brand marketing communications, facilitated discussion within focus groups representing various genders, age generations and sexualities.FindingsYounger generations indicate a preference for fluid gender and sexuality and endorse retail brands that represent this progressive understanding. Gender and age moderate preferences for representative imagery, with older males more resistant to sexuo-gendered messages and females of all ages more accepting.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited in generalisability, geography and demographics. The focussed approach did, however, enable collection of rich, insightful data to underpin evaluations of communicative brand values.Practical implicationsThe inclusion of diverse and fluid sexuo-gendered identities within the brand values of retailers would enable effective targeting of consumers across a range of more traditional cohorts.Social implicationsThe evolving ideology towards inclusiveness, identified within the generational cohorts, demonstrates social change through progressive acceptance of more fluid gendered and sexual identities.Originality/valueThe research adopts a novel approach to examining diverse, sexuo-gendered imagery within gendered and generational cohorts, offering qualitative examples of a progressive social ideology.

Learning Visual Elements of Images for Discovery of Brand Posts

Online Social Network Sites have become a primary platform for brands and organizations to engage their audience by sharing image and video posts on their timelines. Different from traditional advertising, these posts are not restricted to the products or logo but include visual elements that express more in general the values and attributes of the brand, called brand associations. Since marketers are increasingly spending time in discovering and re-posting user generated posts that reflect the brand attributes, there is an increasing demand for such discovery systems. The goal of these systems is to assist brand experts in filtering through online collections of new user media to discover actionable posts, which match the brand value and have the potential to engage the consumers. Driven by this real-life application, we define and formulate a new task of content discovery for brands and propose a framework that learns to rank posts for brands from their historical timeline. We design a Personalized Content Discovery (PCD) framework to address the three challenges of high inter-brand similarity, sparsity of brand--post interactions, and diversification of timeline. To learn fine-grained brand representation and to generate explanations for the ranking, we automatically learn visual elements of posts from the timeline of brands and from a set of brand attributes in the domain of marketing. To test our framework we use two large-scale Instagram datasets that contain a total of more than 1.5 million image and video posts from the historical timeline of hundreds of brands from multiple verticals such as food and fashion. Extensive experiments indicate that our model can effectively learn fine-grained brand representations and outperform the closest state-of-the-art solutions.

Transformational retailing and the emergence of a modern brand: Liberty of London, 1875–1900

ABSTRACT This article considers the role of a transformational retail setting in the development of an iconic brand identity in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The focus of this research is Liberty of London. Through experiential engagement and augmented admission, Liberty created a retail environment that challenged existing practices. Coupled with the development of a brand identity enhanced through authoritative advocacy and consumers’ allegorical encounters with the firm’s core brand message, Liberty achieved the symbolic substantiation of a distinct taste regime through the market-mediation of authenticity. We discuss how brand representation in a transformational retail setting in the metropolitan market of the late nineteenth century legitimised and structured consumer expectations in a context of growing middle class demand for merchandise with enhanced aesthetic qualities and associated lifestyle values.

Márka és márkanév

Although several million brand names exist worldwide, brand names remain an underresearched area of (applied) linguistics. The main goal of the dissertation is to show how linguistic research can contribute to a better understanding and the successful management of brand names. The dissertation is separated into two main parts. In the first part brand names are analysed through the lens of various linguistic subdisciplines emphasising how brand names can be the subject of linguistic research – e.g. whether or how to translate brand names, how foreign-language displayinfluences brand perception and how sound symbolic effects are connected to brand names. The second part of the book describes the cognitive position of brand names. In order to scrutinise their mental position associations to brand names were collected. The analysis of the data shows that brand names occupy a unique position in the mental lexicon. To emphasise the importance of brands as mental constructs, two new concepts are coined: cognitive brand representation and cognitive brand name representation. The linguistic endeavour undertaken in the book is supported by two chapters that place the findings into the context of brand research. An introductory chapter shows the marketing functions of brand names, while a closing chapter points out – based on the findings – how linguistic knowledge can help create brand names and how linguistics can help enhance the efficiency of brand management techniques.