论品牌资产——一种认知的观点

品牌资产是当今营销研究领域的一个重要概念。文章以大量国外相关研究成果为佐证,从人类认知的角度对品牌资产的本质、品牌资产的形成和作用机制进行了系统地分析和论述。文章指出,品牌资产就是消费者关于品牌的知识,包括品牌名字与产品类别、产品评价和关联物(有关产品的信息或线索)的记忆联想;品牌资产是在品牌名字的基础上经过营销活动和消费者产品购买、使用经验的共同作用形成的;品牌资产的价值主要体现在对产品销售的促进和品牌延伸。     

消费者品牌联想的建立与测量

品牌联想即记忆中与品牌结点联结的信息结点,它们构成品牌形象,是品牌资产的重要组成部分,具有网络结构性、聚类性、双向性、隐喻性、内隐性和多维性等特点。品牌联想是消费者购买决策和品牌忠诚的基础,因此企业需要建立独特、强烈、有利和深层次的品牌联想群以区别于竞争品牌。对品牌联想的测量包括识别联想内容及其网络结构。品牌联想概念的界定和维度模型的构建、测量方法的改进等都是将来仍需深入研究的问题     

品牌印象研究述评

品牌印象是消费者基于对品牌信息的感知和体验而在头脑中留下的品牌部分或整体信息。品牌印象形成涉及到类别信息加工和个别化信息加工两方面,其认知加工模式还存在争议。品牌印象实证研究主要存在以品牌主观形象为核心的品牌印象研究和以品牌拟人化特征为焦点的品牌印象研究两条线路。在分析比较的基础上,我们认为无论是品牌形象研究线路还是品牌人格研究线路,探讨的都是品牌的客观特性在消费者头脑中留下的主观印象,其本质都是对消费者品牌印象的研究。品牌印象是品牌与消费者的关系基础。品牌建设的任务就是在深刻把握消费者品牌印象形成机制的基础上,通过调节和控制消费者对品牌的认知、联想、态度、信任和忠诚来积累品牌资产。     

叠音品牌名称对消费者知觉和态度的影响

品牌名称是重要的品牌资产, 在传递品牌价值、构建品牌形象和凸显品牌特征的过程中起到关键作用。以往研究发现, 品牌名称的语义特征和语音特征(元音、辅音)都会对消费者知觉和态度产生影响, 但少有研究考察叠音这种语音结构特征的作用。从婴儿图式的角度, 考察叠音品牌名称对消费者知觉和态度的影响, 并检验其作用机制和边界。具体内容包括：(1)考察叠音品牌名称对消费者品牌知觉(物理特征知觉、心理特征知觉)及其消费者态度的影响及其作用机制。(2)检验内部语音特征和外部线索特征在叠音品牌名称与消费者知觉之间的调节作用。(3)检验产品类型特征和消费者特征在叠音品牌名称和消费者态度之间的调节作用。     

品牌不安全感的危害机制与化解策略

品牌不安全感是指消费者对某品牌存在潜在或现实威胁的主观感知和担忧。以往文献中, 与品牌不安全感有关的研究主要隐含在两个领域：一是以产品伤害危机为中心的品牌心智变化研究; 二是以企业伦理责任为中心的品牌心智变化研究。但这两个领域都尚未揭示消费者品牌不安全感的实质、心理表征、危害机制和预警功能等。品牌不安全感是消费者回避或拒绝某品牌的心理根源之一。因此基于产品伤害事件频发的事实和品牌心智理论, 有必要对品牌不安全感作系统研究, 具体探索品牌不安全感的本质内涵、导致品牌不安全感的威胁源、品牌不安全感的心理表征、危害机制、预防和化解策略、以及品牌心理安全管理理论等问题。     

解释水平对品牌联想和品牌延伸评估的影响

由于人们更加关切与其解释水平相匹配的信息、经验和事物, 解释水平能够系统性地影响人们的判断与决策。本研究将解释水平视为重要的调节变量, 探查它对消费者的品牌联想和品牌延伸评估的可能影响。实验一用于检验来源于个体差异的不同解释水平(高与低)的被试, 对于同一品牌是否产生不同形态(原型性与范例性)的品牌联想以及探查它们之间的相对数量关系。实验二采用2(解释水平：高vs.低)×2(契合类型：原型性契合vs.范例性契合)组内和组间因子混合设计, 用于检验基于时间距离的解释水平是否调节契合类型对品牌延伸评估的影响关系。实验研究结果发现：在接触到品牌名称时, 具有高水平解释倾向的消费者, 将比低水平解释倾向的消费者, 呈现更多的原型性联想; 而具有低水平解释倾向的消费者, 将比高水平解释倾向的消费者, 呈现更多的范例性联想; 在低水平解释条件下, 消费者对范例性契合延伸产品的评估要好于对原型性契合延伸产品的评估; 而在高水平解释条件下, 消费者对原型性契合延伸产品的评估要好于对范例性契合延伸产品的评估。     

反应时技术在品牌联想测查中的应用

反应时技术在以往品牌研究中主要被用来测查品牌名称与产品类别的联系强度。基于品牌名称语义网络的构成,在已有研究的启发下,将反应时测量技术应用于品牌联想结构的测查之中。研究采用了反应时方法和传统的自由联想方法对三个产品种类五个品牌的品牌联想结构进行了探索。两种结果的对比分析验证了反应时方法的可行性,并且在测量的精确性与客观性上,反应时方法具有较大的优势。该测量技术提供的客观量化数据有助于揭示消费者内在的品牌联想结构,在市场研究中具有广泛的应用前景。     

品牌人格研究述评

就像每个人都有独特的人格特征,使自己与别人不同一样,品牌也有自己的人格特征。近年来,市场竞争日趋激烈,出现了越来越多的品牌。同类产品的属性通常类似,这时,“身份”、“形象”或“品牌人格”就成为消费者区分产品的唯一因素。品牌人格概念越来越受到研究者的重视,但由于缺乏统一的概念和测量,研究受到了局限。本文总结了不同研究者提出的品牌人格概念,讨论了品牌人格测量方法和量表,并对今后的研究方向作了探讨。     

低卷入情境中品牌远延伸的成功机制

品牌延伸是近年营销学界的一个研究热点。多数实证研究表明,母品牌认知、母品牌好感、延伸类别与母品牌类别之间的拟合度以及母品牌特定联想对品牌延伸评价有重要的影响作用。然而,已有理论在解释跨类别的远距离延伸的成功机制上比较乏力。本研究采用实证方法对这一点进行了补充。考虑到初始延伸评价所处的低卷入情境,概念层级较高的品牌相关变量在品牌远延伸评价中有重要的影响作用,本研究对三个品牌相关变量：品牌类别固着度、品牌抽象性与功能性特点、品牌声誉的主效应采用三个控制实验进行了测查。实验结果表明,较小的类别固着度,较高的品牌抽象性特点,以及较高的品牌声誉是品牌远延伸获得成功的机制保证。     

品牌延伸中母品牌的作用机制

品牌延伸研究近年来受到了国外营销学界的普遍关注,母品牌在延伸行为中的作用机制是其中的一个热点问题。文章在查阅有关文献的基础上,对该领域影响比较大的两个延伸评价模型,情感迁移模型和联想需求模型,进行了较为深入的介绍、评述和比较。两个模型都从消费者认知的角度来理解延伸评价的形成,其中涉及到刺激泛化、类化和精细计算加工等认知过程。     

熟悉与陌生品牌启动效应的实验研究

本研究应用任务分离法对熟悉品牌和陌生品牌启动效应年龄特征进行研究,结果发现大学生被试外显成绩高于内隐成绩,且两者有显著差异。进而再采用二次比较法同样以大学生为被试,对熟悉品牌启动效应进行实验,结果表明:(1)学习前带符号组与不带符号组的成绩之间都有极其显著的差异,学习后带符号组与不带符号组之间也有极其显著差异;带符号与不带符号的两组学习前后的成绩均有极其显著的差异;在二次比较法的应用过程中我们发现:(2)如果学习前后的被试为同一组,则会产生“学习污染”。以陌生品牌为材料,用二次比较法在老、青、少三组被进行实验,并将三个年龄段的被试随机分成两组:学习前组(A)和学习后组(B),结果显示:(3)陌生品牌中存在着启动效应,不同年龄段的消费者外显记忆有差异,但内隐记忆没有差异。     

How Brands Acquire Cultural Meaning

This article endeavors to advance research on the cultural resonance of brands by building bridges between branding scholarship in the consumer psychology tradition and interpretive research regarding brands and their meaning makers. We adopt a cognitivist conceptualization of cultural meaning and focus on the application of interpretive insights to well‐established constructs in the consumer psychology of brands: brand associations, product category associations, social identity, and self‐identity. This integrative exercise highlights the value of cultural models in explaining the processes whereby brands acquire meaning, and suggests several themes that are under‐valued when considering this process problem through a psychological lens: the motivational underpinnings of myths and other cultural meaning models, the relative value of shared cultural and brand meanings versus idiosyncratic meanings, the power and primacy of category‐level meaning making over brand‐level meaning making, the complex processes whereby brands gain and lose legitimacy, and the influence of lay theories about brands and branding on how consumers co‐create meaning for brands.     

Crossing Bridges: Assembling Culture into Brands and Brands into Consumers' Global Local Cultural Lives

Fournier and Alvarez (2019—this issue) and Batra (2019—this issue), respectively, offer interpretive and psychological perspectives on how brands acquire cultural meanings. In this commentary, we discuss the opportunities for leveraging these two perspectives, and use an assemblage theory lens to uncover the dynamics of how cultural models articulated through cultural myths, metaphors, ideologies, and cultural objects circulate through the brand assemblage and through the consumer assemblage. We offer a bridge‐crossing approach to research opportunities bringing both a socio‐historical‐cultural approach and psychological approach to understand how cultural meanings are assembled into brands and how consumers assemble brands into their lives.     

Narrative Processing: Building Consumer Connections to Brands

This article proposes that narrative processing creates or enhances self‐brand connections (SBC) because people generally interpret the meaning of their experiences by fitting them into a story. Similarly, in response to an ad that tells a story, narrative processing may create a link between a brand and the self when consumers attempt to map incoming narrative information onto stories in memory. Our approach rests on the notion that a brand becomes more meaningful the more closely it is linked to the self. We conceptualize this linkage at an aggregate level in terms of SBCs, that is, the extent to which consumers have incorporated the brand into their self‐concepts. The results of an experiment show that narrative processing in response to a narratively structured ad is positively related to SBCs, which in turn have a positive relation with brand attitudes and behavioral intentions.     

Brands as intentional agents: Our response to commentaries

We are grateful for the stimulating and hospitable welcome to us as guests in consumer psychology. As sojourners, we share a keen interest, but know that we come to visit without knowing the territory intimately. Granted, Chris Malone is an experienced, senior marketing practitioner who now owns a research-based consulting firm with a particular interest and specialization in this area. In addition, Nicolas Kervyn, trained as an experimental social psychologist, has worked and consulted in marketing. Susan Fiske, trained as an experimental social psychologist, had kibitzed in consumer psychology since she first served on the JCP board as an assistant professor. However, none of us has imperialist ambitions in consumer psychology. We are happy nonetheless to offer our framework as what seems to us a potentially useful complement to prior and ongoing related work. These exceptionally thoughtful commentaries broaden and inform our framework (Kervyn, Fiske, & Malone, 2012--this issue). In return, we offer some responses regarding our own view of the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework (BIAF), its parent, the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), and relationships with the commentators’ own contributions.     

Images of Success and the Preference for Luxury Brands

This research examines the impact of media depictions of success (or failure) on consumers’ desire for luxury brands. In a pilot study and three additional studies, we demonstrate that reading a story about a similar/successful other, such as a business major from the same university, increases consumers’ expectations about their own future wealth, which in turn increases their desire for luxury brands. However, reading about a dissimilar successful other, such as a biology major, lowers consumers’ preferences for luxury brands. Furthermore, we examine the role of ease of imagining oneself in the narrative as a mediator of the relation between direction of comparison, similarity, and brand preference.     

Contrast and Assimilation Processes in Consumers' Evaluations of Dual Brands

This study extends the branding literature by examining the psychological processes by which consumers evaluate brand alliances. The theoretical basis for this study is the development of models of context effects in brand evaluations (Meyers-Levy & Sternthal 1993 and Levin & Levin 2000). Of particular interest is how dual branding (two restaurant brands with shared features) influences transfer of affect between brands. Although there was a contrast effect in both the separate and dual brand conditions, this contrast effect was significantly reduced in the dual brand condition. Marketing implications of forming brand alliances are discussed.     

Children's Understanding of the Instrumental Value of Products and Brands

Gelman and Echelbarger (2019—this issue) provide a valuable discussion about children's understanding of the inferred or nonobvious features of objects, which has implications for how children value products. We further this conversation by examining how children value products and brands as a means for meeting important goals, which we refer to as instrumental valuation. Specifically, we examine developmental trends in instrumental valuation for three goals—self‐concept development, self‐presentation, and happiness. Across these areas, we find that children place greater value on products and brands for meeting these goals as they grow older, particularly during late childhood and early adolescence. We conclude with a discussion of how age differences in instrumental valuation add to the general conversation about how children of different ages value objects.