The impact of different fit dimensions on spillover effects in brand alliances

Brand alliances represent a popular business strategy in many industries, because firms hope to evoke positive consumer evaluations of both the alliance’s product and the partner brands. However, extant research offers mixed findings regarding the effects of a brand alliance on its partner brands (i.e., spillover effects). In response, this study separates spillover effects into the effects of the alliance product on the partner brands (brand alliance effects) and the effects between partner brands (brand contrast effects), while also noting the potential moderating impact of perceived attitude- and product-based fit between partner brands on resulting spillover effects. Two experimental studies consistently reveal the existence of brand contrast effects; furthermore, the partner brand’s attitude-based fit reduces undesired brand contrast effects and positively moderates spillover effects in brand alliances, whereas product-based fit does not. Therefore, a third study identifies relevant drivers of partner brand’s attitude-based fit for different brand alliances (i.e., co-branding, ingredient branding, and joint advertising). The findings have notable implications for the design and management of brand alliances.     

品牌联合的研究进展

通过从影响消费者对品牌联合态度评价的因素、品牌联合的反馈效应以及影响合伙品牌对品牌联合的相对贡献3个方面,对国内外品牌联合的相关研究进行了总结,并在此基础上提出了进一步研究的方向,以推动品牌联合研究在国内的开展。     

从社区认同到品牌认同：如何基于在线社区提升品牌的消费者心智份额？

随着在线社区的兴起，如何在社区中开展网络营销活动，不断提升消费者的品牌认同感，通过品牌的有效定位以占领更多的消费者心智份额日益受到越来越多品牌的关注和重视。本文将基于RAS信息接收-接纳(Receipt-Accept-Sample)模型，针对不同类型的消费者群体从社区平均心智份额与社区消费者心智份额两个角度探讨基于在线社区的消费者品牌认同提升效果，并根据品牌发布广告的信息复杂度与信息强度来揭示广告信息特征对消费者品牌认同提升效果的影响，进而提出在线社区消费者品牌认同提升的品牌定位实施策略建议。研究发现：(1)在线社区消费者的平均心智份额呈现曲折上升态势，品牌有必要适时调整支撑品牌定位的营销组合策略；(2)消费者的心智资源不会被某一品牌所独占，品牌无法获取所有消费者的认同；(3)品牌定位应是简单明了且易于理解；(4)在提升消费者的品牌认同时，应基于消费者个性展开提升而非消费者的能力与意识；(5)在线社区消费者品牌认同提升过程中始终存在被竞争品牌攻击与反超的风险，品牌可能会流失已经夺取的心智资源；(6)即使品牌重启新的品牌定位战略，也无法全部挽回因竞争品牌反击而遭受的损失。本文在验证以往品牌认同与品牌定位理论相关结论同时，也获得了现有理论中未曾揭示的研究发现，为品牌开展有效品牌定位，扩大消费者心智份额，提升在线社区消费者品牌认同提供了借鉴。     

Consumer perceptions of luxury brands: An owner-based perspective

To deepen theoretical and practical understanding of consumers' perceptions of luxury brands, prior marketing literature has investigated the financial, functional, individual, and social dimensions of the luxury value construct. However, it has not considered the owners of luxury brands or detailed the moderated effects of luxury value on related attitudinal outcomes. To address this gap, this study draws on an existing second-order conceptualization of luxury value to introduce and empirically examine an extended conceptualization of the owner-based luxury value (OBLV) construct. The study draws on brand equity theory to offer a conceptual model of the attitudinal outcomes of OBLV in terms of brand loyalty, brand attachment, brand community behavior, and brand engagement. Using unique data from 452 actual owners of three luxury brands (Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and Prada), the authors confirm the predicted attitudinal outcomes of OBLV and reveal moderating effects of awareness of counterfeit existence. Their findings provide new insights and implications for luxury brand research and luxury brand managers. The research provides a richer understanding of OBLV and yields important managerial insights into how to influence luxury-seeking consumers' perceptions of, and attitudes to, luxury brands.     

消费者品牌忠诚对品牌商再制造市场策略的影响

独立再制造商IR的市场进入给品牌商带来了显著的竞争压力。品牌忠诚源于消费者对某个产品品牌的信任和特殊情感,在产品选择中具有明显的倾向性和排他性,进一步增加了品牌商市场策略的复杂性。针对这一现象,本文采用博弈论结合数值仿真研究了消费者具有品牌忠诚特性下的品牌商再制造市场策略问题。建立并求解了IR不进入且品牌商不再制造（n）、IR不进入且品牌商再制造（nR）、IR进入且品牌商不再制造（nr）、IR进入且品牌商再制造（nrR）四种市场模式,对模型结果进行了灵敏度分析,并探讨了各成员的模式偏好。研究表明：新产品价格、品牌再制品价格、一般再制品价格均与品牌忠诚度正相关;品牌忠诚度的提高一定增大品牌商的利润,但不一定会降低IR利润;当新产品制造成本较高时,品牌商的模式偏好始终为nR$\succ$nrR$\succ$n$\succ$nr,较低时模式偏好受到消费者品牌忠诚度的大小的影响;nr和nrR模式下,品牌忠诚度仅可能提高品牌消费者剩余,但会降低普通消费者剩余、总消费者剩余和社会总福利。     

Product and service innovation with customer recognition

Product and service innovation is important for brands to succeed in a competitive marketplace. As information technology advances, customer recognition becomes a growing industry trend; that is, brands track customers' purchase history, recognize and price discriminate between repeat and new customers.The trend of customer recognition has changed the nature and intensity of competition between brands. In this article, we examine how customer recognition and the associated changes in competition affect brands' incentives to invest in product and service innovation. We find that when brands have similar equity, customer recognition increases brands' incentives to invest in product and service innovation. However, when brands have sufficiently different equity, customer recognition leads the stronger brand to invest more and the weaker brand to invest less in product and service innovation. In addition, extant literature suggests that customer recognition reduces brand profits. In contrast, we find that customer recognition can increase the weaker brand's profit but decreases it more for the stronger brand. Thus, collecting customers' purchase history data for customer recognition can be beneficial for weaker brands but detrimental for stronger brands.     

本土品牌逆袭与消费者偏好逆转的纵向扎根研究

  如今的中国市场，诸多行业本土品牌崛起甚至逆袭，消费者对全球品牌与本土品牌的偏好相应逆转。已有研究较为全面地揭示了全球品牌和本土品牌偏好的驱动因素，但本土品牌逆袭过程中全球品牌与本土品牌偏好的驱动因素是否相同、本土品牌逆袭与消费者偏好逆转的互动影响路径是怎样的，对这些问题缺乏探讨。         在梳理相关研究的基础上，以手机行业为研究对象，采用扎根理论的研究方法，通过对网络讨论数据的初始编码、聚焦编码和理论编码，首先研究全球品牌与本土品牌偏好的驱动因素的异同，然后结合对讨论数据的纵向统计结果，研究本土品牌逆袭过程中品牌逆袭与消费者偏好逆转的互动影响路径。         研究结果表明，本土品牌逆袭中，全球品牌与本土品牌偏好的驱动因素模型具有相似的结构，功能价值和社会价值的测量受个人因素调节而影响消费者偏好，但测量功能价值或社会价值的具体因素在全球品牌与本土品牌中存在差异。品牌逆袭有助于提升综合国力、促进消费者成熟，进而驱动消费者偏好逆转；消费者偏好逆转则通过反馈路径帮助品牌进一步逆袭。具体的，消费者对产品特质更加重视，全球品牌的原产国效应和符号价值表现力减弱，本土品牌的口碑效应和符号价值表现力增强，同时消费者的民族主义增强而爱国绑架感减弱，这些因素通过感知价值带来消费者偏好逆转。综合而言，本土品牌逆袭和消费者偏好逆转是互动提升的关系。         研究结果丰富了全球品牌和本土品牌的相关研究，为全球品牌和本土品牌的建设提供了实践启示。产品特质是影响消费者偏好的主要因素，并对其他驱动因素有支撑作用。所以全球品牌和本土品牌都要重视产品的创新和研发，还要根据各驱动因素的变化调整其营销策略。     

虚拟品牌社群认同对品牌忠诚的影响

通过对来自电子消费产品虚拟品牌社群的324个社群成员样本进行基于结构方程模型的数据分析,探讨了社群成员对虚拟品牌社群的认同(包含品牌认同和群体认同)影响品牌忠诚的作用机理,并考察了社群成员的参与程度的调节作用。研究结果显示,社群成员对虚拟品牌社群的认同通过社群意识和品牌承诺这两个变量,对品牌忠诚存在不同程度的影响,其中品牌认同通过品牌承诺对品牌忠诚产生间接影响,品牌认同对品牌忠诚的影响程度要大于群体认同对品牌忠诚的影响程度。另外社群成员的参与程度作为调节变量在品牌认同和社群意识之间以及群体认同和社群意识之间有调节效应。     

参与农产品区域公用品牌提升的三方演化博弈

农产品区域公用品牌建设在乡村振兴中发挥着重要作用,如何提升农产品区域公用品牌一直是各方关注的焦点。本文运用演化博弈方法,探讨了在提升农产品区域公用品牌过程中,不同场景下各参与主体如何进行策略选择,并用数值仿真对相关结论进行分析。研究结果表明：演化稳定策略受政府补贴力度、奖励、收益和成本的影响;合适的补贴力度有利于三方的共同参与,即农产品生产企业提升产品质量、品牌运营公司积极运营、地方政府严格监管;品牌运营公司给予企业的奖励应在一个合理的范围,同时上级政府增加对地方政府的奖励,也有利于三方共同的参与;降低参与成本和提升参与收益有利于激励农产品生产企业和品牌运营公司参与提升农产品区域公用品牌。     

How can perceived consistency in marketing communications influence customer–brand relationship outcomes?

This paper examines the impact of perceived consistency in marketing communications on customer–brand relationship outcomes. The perception of consistent message and image through different marketing communication tools is one of the basic principles of the integrated marketing communications (IMC) approach. Although literature suggests that IMC might have an influence on customer–brand relationship outcomes, empirical evidence that supports this assumption is still weak and inconclusive. Three main brand relationship outcomes are established for the purpose of the study, i.e. trust, commitment, and loyalty. The relationships between perceived communication consistency and brand outcomes are examined in a hospitality context on a sample of 452 respondents who had to evaluate fast-food brands. Structural Equation Modelling was employed as the main technique for data analysis using Partial Least Squares (PLS). Results reveal that communication consistency has a strong direct impact on brand trust and brand loyalty. Although its influence on affective brand commitment is found to be positive, it is not statistically significant. The interrelationship between three brand relationship outcomes is also corroborated. The study contributes to our understanding of the role of IMC in the relationship marketing paradigm and provides deeper insights into the impact of communication consistency on different relationship outcomes with fast-food brands.     

“名字”,还是“卖点”,消费者如何加工双重信息?

在营销实践中存在大量的仿洋和仿古品牌名称,因为品牌名称作为信息确实会影响消费者的认知和态度。基于信息加工的角度,本文探讨了消费者如何加工品牌名称等多重信息。通过实验研究发现品牌名称与产品功能诉求在互补型匹配时传播效果更好,而且其效果具有一般性。这一结果有助于在更抽象的信息加工层面理解仿洋和仿古品牌名称的应用效果,因而更好地调控消费者的反应。     

Meaning threats heighten consumer attachment: implications for global brand management

Global brand consumers have become more prone to engage in variety-seeking and loyalty-switching behavior, so global brand managers are in urgent need to develop effective strategies to reinforce brand loyalty and lower the propensity of consumer defection. As a growing body of research indicates, consumer attachment and brand loyalty are closely correlated. The current study, linking the concepts of fluid meaning compensation and consumer attachment, unravels a novel loyalty-reinforcing avenue. Three experiments, manipulating scenarios of meaning threats commonly seen in everyday life (sense of absurdity, anxious uncertainty and social exclusion) on global brand consumers, verify that meaning threats heighten attachment of consumers toward their most attached brands. More importantly, this finding applies to global brand consumers across product or service brand categories with luxury or non-luxury brand positions. Hence, maximizing the fluid meaning compensation function of attached brands is conducive to reinforcement of global brand loyalty. Academic and strategic implications are gleaned from the research result for global brand management.     

Consumer trust repair: A critical literature review

Consumers are fundamental to organisational functioning and survival. Their loyalty, commitment, product acceptance and good long-term relationships with firms and brands are underpinned by their trust. Unfortunately, over the last decade or so, we have witnessed some of the more spectacular violations of consumer trust in the history of business. This has led to negative consequences, such as loss of competitive advantage, rage, lack of commitment and decrease in turnover. Consequently, study of trust repair has become an important theoretical concern for a growing number of trust scholars. This article reviews and synthesises existing theory and research on the topic. It first sketches general characteristics of the consumer trust repair literature, including its meta-theoretical underpinning. It then identifies specific strategies associated with consumer trust repair and synthesises them into five categories of trust repair strategies. In addition, this paper highlights theoretical processes that explain why/how trust repair strategies work. Third, the paper proposes six fruitful avenues for future research. This study contributes to the field of consumer trust repair research by critically reviewing and synthesising emerging theory and research on strategies associated with consumer trust repair, by showing why and how these strategies work and by identifying most fruitful research areas.     

Partial Comparative Messages in Competition

Partial comparative messages comprise a mixture of comparative and non-comparative claims. This study demonstrates how the extent to which non-comparative (NC), partial comparative (PC) and complete comparative (CC) messages influence consumer preference depends on the comparisons (i.e. NC, PC or CC) made by the messages promoting the two competing brands. A 3 (brand A used NC, PC or CC message) × 3 (brand B used NC, PC or CC message) design was used. Two studies (n=284, 283, respectively) show that participants preferred (1) the first brand they saw when both brands were promoted by NC messages, (2) neither brand when both brands were promoted by messages containing comparative claims, (3) the brand promoted by a PC message when the other brand was promoted by an NC message, and (4) the brand promoted by an NC message when the other brand was promoted by a CC message.     

品牌质量差异、消费者产品涉入程度对品牌敏感的影响研究

品牌敏感是消费者品牌行为研究方面的一个新课题,它反映了消费者在购买决策过程中对品牌的重视程度.同一产品类别不同品牌之间的质量差异和消费者的产品涉入程度被认为是品牌敏感的两类主要解释变量.本文利用结构方程模型进行的实证分析表明,品牌质量差异和消费者产品涉入程度总体上对品牌敏感起正向影响作用,但该作用因产品类别而异,因产品质量和产品涉入程度的维度而异.     

Supply Chain Conflict Due to Store Brands: The Value of Wholesale Price Commitment in a Retail Supply Chain*

Store brands are of increasing importance in retail supply chains, often causing channel conflict, as the retailer's product directly competes with the manufacturer's national brand. Extant research on the resulting channel interactions either assumes the national brand manufacturer can credibly commit to maintaining a wholesale price or that he lacks such ability. However, these two scenarios imply very different supply chain interactions, as only a national brand manufacturer with commitment ability can strategically adjust a national brand wholesale price to prevent a store brand introduction by the retailer. We specifically analyze the impact of this assumption on the manufacturer, the retailer, and the customers. We determine when long‐term contracts that provide the manufacturer with such commitment ability can improve supply chain profitability.     

Brand management: Unveiling the delusion of control

Mainstream brand management literature views brands as products or organisations carrying brand names and brand managers as being in control of brand-related actions and outcomes. By contrast, recent empirical research shows the substantial influence of stakeholders on brands. Together with brand management, stakeholders shape brands by participating in brand-related interaction. European brand research accordingly treats brands as ongoing and complex processes in constant flux. Nevertheless, literature suffers from a significant lack of theoretical underpinnings for understanding brands as complex processes; in this respect, building on European philosophy is a fruitful avenue. This paper introduces the metaphor of the rhizome and draws on European process philosophy to further develop an integrative processual understanding of brands. Brand management claiming control over brands as processes turns out to be a delusion.     

基于社会资本理论的虚拟社区感研究

从社会资本理论的角度分析了影响虚拟社区用户社区感的因素,提出的研究模型认为,虚拟社区感由成员感、影响力和沉浸感3个维度构成,它们受到4个因素的正向影响,包括用户参与虚拟社区的程度、对社区其他成员的熟悉感、感知到的与其他成员的相似性以及对其他成员的信任.其中,社区用户的成员感调节熟悉对影响力和沉浸感2个维度的影响.从淘宝社区获得的数据验证了大部分假设,最后对数据分析结果及应用进行了讨论.     

The double-edge sword effect of interorganizational trust on involvement in interorganizational networks: The mediator role of affective commitment

Some organizations collaborate with other partner organizations to reach common goals, establishing interorganizational networks. The governance of the network is often enacted by an interorganizational governing team composed of the directors or top managers of the partner firms. This team plans, manages, and supervises the advancement of the network’s common goals. The success of the network depends, to a large extent, on the involvement of the members of the governing team. In this study, we tested a multilevel model of the antecedents of the involvement of governing team members in the management activities of interorganizational networks. We examined whether the relationship between team interorganizational trust, as a team level construct, and individual involvement in management activities is partially mediated by individual affective commitment. Using a sample of 101 respondents belonging to 28 interorganizational governing teams, we tested a multilevel mediation model. Results showed, as expected, a positive indirect effect of team interorganizational trust on individual involvement through individual affective commitment. However, unexpectedly, team interorganizational trust also showed a negative direct relationship with individual involvement. Based on our findings, we highlight the need to also consider the “dark side” of interorganizational trust, and we propose potential mediators to explain the unexpected negative relationship.     

品牌的阴阳二重性——品牌形象的市场研究方法

品牌形象研究一直以来都是市场研究中最重要的领域之一。然而,品牌形象如何运作,它与品牌资产的关系是怎样的,它的组成要素以及形成来源是什么,这些问题作为品牌形象研究的前提,首先必须解决。本文旨在解决这些问题,并对品牌形象研究从定性及定量研究角度提供了一些具有代表性的方法。