Assessing the predictive validity of perceived globalness and country of origin of foreign brands in quality judgments among consumers in emerging markets

Consumers in emerging markets are known to have strong preferences for well‐known foreign brands. Drawing on schema and categorization theories, this study empirically investigates how accessible two components of brand foreignness – globalness and country of brand origin – are in consumer perceptions of brand quality in emerging markets. In addition, we argue that brand globalness can be shaped by inferential reasoning and test how consumer perceptions of brand globalness are affected by both a brand's country of origin and its perceived quality. Two different studies were conducted with young‐adult consumers in China. The study found that in their evaluations of foreign brands consumers are more influenced by country of origin than by brand globalness. It also found that consumers tend to perceive a high level of globalness in high‐quality brands and brands from a favorable country‐of‐origin. Further, this tendency was found to differ between well‐known and lesser‐known brands. These findings confirm the predictive validity of country of origin, but contrast with extant literature on the role of brand globalness as a principal quality cue for foreign brands among consumers in emerging markets. Our findings also imply brand globalness can be an inferred attribute of perceived brand quality and country‐of‐origin image. Keywords: brand foreignness, brand globalness, country‐of‐origin effect, emerging markets.     

Perceived brand authenticity: Examining the effects of inferred dedication and anticipated quality on consumers' purchase intentions and actual choices

This research investigates both the downstream effect of perceived brand authenticity on consumers' actual, consequential choice and the important role of inferred brand dedication in the relationship between perceived brand authenticity, anticipated quality, and purchase intentions. We also investigate the interactive effect of two source-related factors—intrinsic motivation and congruity—on consumers' brand authenticity perceptions. We present findings from three studies using different product categories (utilitarian/consumable: hand sanitizer; hedonic/consumable: chocolate; hedonic/non-consumable: sunglasses). Study 1 shows that consumers use information regarding the intrinsic motivation of those behind the brand and congruity between the brand's actions and what it represents to consumers when forming brand authenticity perceptions and that intrinsic motivation and congruity interact to increase authenticity perceptions. We anticipate that consumers' positivity toward brands perceived as authentic will extend to actual choice through anticipated quality. Study 2 demonstrates that consumers choose authentic brands over inauthentic brands above what chance would dictate and anticipated quality can forecast this choice. Next, we extend our collective process knowledge by exploring an underlying reason why consumers anticipate that brands presented through marketing communications as authentic will have higher quality. We suggest that when managers present brands as authentic, consumers infer greater dedication of those behind the brand and inferred dedication influences anticipated product quality. Study 3 provides support and uncovers a serial mediation process, highlighting the importance of inferred dedication. Specifically, perceived brand authenticity increases consumers' brand dedication inferences, which in turn increases anticipated product quality, and ultimately purchase intentions.     

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。     

Did They Earn It? Observing Unearned Luxury Consumption Decreases Brand Attitude When Observers Value Fairness

People frequently observe others’ consumption, making inferences about both the consumer and the consumed brands. Although these observations are often beneficial for brands, this research demonstrates that observing luxury brand consumers whose consumption arose from unearned (vs. earned) financial resources reduces observers’ brand attitudes when observers place a high value on fairness. When fairness values are high, observers do not perceive luxury brand consumers who use unearned (vs. earned) consumption resources as prestigious, and in turn, lower prestige perceptions adversely affect observers’ brand evaluations for luxury brands. Consistent with our theorizing regarding the signaling of prestige, the joint effect of consumers’ consumption resources and observers’ fairness values on observers’ brand attitudes does not hold for nonluxury brands, which are not associated with prestige and thereby are not denigrated when the consumer is not perceived as prestigious. This research sheds light on the role of moral values in marketplace judgments of luxury consumption and brand attitude by considering the influence of consumption resources on observers’ judgments.     

Brands as intentional agents framework: How perceived intentions and ability can map brand perception

Building on the Stereotype Content Model, this paper introduces and tests the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework. A growing body of research suggests that consumers have relationships with brands that resemble relations between people. We propose that consumers perceive brands in the same way they perceive people. This approach allows us to explore how social perception theories and processes can predict brand purchase interest and loyalty. Brands as Intentional Agents Framework is based on a well-established social perception approach: the Stereotype Content Model. Two studies support the Brands as Intentional Agents Framework prediction that consumers assess a brand's perceived intentions and ability and that these perceptions elicit distinct emotions and drive differential brand behaviors. The research shows that human social interaction relationships translate to consumer–brand interactions in ways that are useful to inform brand positioning and brand communications.     

Reversing the Placebo: Performance‐Branded Experiences Can Undermine Consumer Performance

Products bearing premium brand labels are known to increase perceptions of efficacy and improve objective consumer performance relative to lesser‐branded equivalents, in what is traditionally described as a marketing placebo effect. In this paper, we suggest that experiences bearing these highly regarded brand labels can lead to a reverse effect, such that consumer performance actually declines with their use. Our findings demonstrate across domains of improving mental acuity, learning a new language, and developing financial analysis skills that completing performance‐branded training experiences impairs objective performance in related tasks, relative to lower‐performance‐branded or unbranded counterparts. We posit that branded training experiences can evoke a brand‐as‐master relationship in which consumers take on a subservient role relative to the brand. As a consequence, higher‐performance brands may impose greater demands upon consumers, increasing performance‐anxiety and interfering with an individual's ability to perform effectively. These results document an important ramification of applying branding to learning experiences and identify contexts in which traditionally positive marketing actions can backfire for consumers.     

国外品牌人格研究述评

品牌人格是指消费者所感知的品牌所体现出来的一套人格特征。根据国外文献中存在的品牌人格相关研究这条线索,介绍了品牌形象论及品牌形象维度论两个派系关于品牌人格的定义,基于人格类型论和人格特质论两个理论源泉回顾了品牌人格的维度构成,并分别从消费者视角及企业视角归纳分析了品牌人格的影响作用,最后从研究内容、研究方法及理论借鉴三个方面探讨了现有研究的不足,并展望了品牌人格的研究趋势。     

Brand Personality Structures in the United States and Korea: Common and Culture‐Specific Factors

The symbolic meaning of commercial brands (often called brand personality) can represent the values and beliefs of a culture. When a set of global brands were rated on the same personality attributes in the United States and Korea, 6 common dimensions of brand personality and 2 factors unique to each culture were observed. The 2 culture‐specific factors in Korea (Passive Likeableness and Ascendancy) support our general hypothesis that Korean brand personality structure carries cultural meaning, reflecting the importance of Confucian values in Korea's social and economic systems. Although their cultural meaning is less clear, the 2 unique factors (White Collar and Androgyny) that emerged in the U.S. sample suggest changing cultural values associated with occupational status and gender roles.     

Is Cinderella resurging? The impact of consumers' underdog disposition on brand preferences: Underdog brand biography and brand status as moderators

This research attempts to explore the moderating roles of underdog brand biography and brand status in the impact of consumers' underdog disposition on brand preferences. A total of 218 on‐the‐job graduate students were randomly assigned to a 2 (explicitness of underdog brand biography: implicit vs. explicit) × 2 (brand status: emerging brands vs. established brands) factorial design. Results show that consumers with strong underdog disposition are likely to generate stronger brand preferences for established brands accompanied with explicit underdog brand biographies than emerging brands accompanied with explicit underdog brand biographies; in contrast, consumers with strong underdog disposition are likely to engender no differential brand preferences for emerging brands accompanied with implicit underdog brand biographies over established brands accompanied with implicit underdog brand biographies. Moreover, consumers with a weak underdog disposition are likely to engender stronger brand preferences for established brands than emerging brands, regardless of the explicitness of underdog brand biography. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consumption symbols as carriers of culture: a study of Japanese and Spanish brand personality constructs

This research argues that the meaning embedded in consumption symbols, such as commercial brands, can serve to represent and institutionalize the values and beliefs of a culture. Relying on a combined emic-etic approach, the authors conducted 4 studies to examine how symbolic and expressive attributes associated with commercial brands are structured and how this structure varies across 3 cultures. Studies 1 and 2 revealed a set of "brand personality" dimensions common to both Japan and the United States (Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, and Sophistication), as well as culture-specific Japanese (Peacefulness) and American (Ruggedness) dimensions. Studied 3 and 4, which extended this set of findings to Spain, yielded brand personality dimensions common to both Spain and the United States (Sincerity, Excitement, and Sophistication), plus nonshared Spanish (Passion) and American (Competence and Ruggedness) dimensions. The meaning of these brand personality dimensions is discussed in the context of cross-cultural research on values and affect, globalization issues, and cultural frame shifting.     

Consumer evaluation of net utility: Effects of competition on consumer brand selection processes

This study explores how brand-related information is integrated within a competitive environment. Specifically, we develop a structural equation model of competition between two brands, which includes each brand's price-quality characteristics (i.e., net utility). The model simultaneously tests how the net utility of the focal and competing brands affects consumers' attitudes, intentions, and choice regarding the focal brand. This study extends existing research with the findings that price-quality evaluations of a focal brand and net utility perceptions of competing brands influence consumers' attitudes, intentions, and choice regarding the focal brand. Thus, in order to attract consumers to their brands, marketers should focus not only on improving the performance and net utility of their own brands, but also on studying competing brands in the marketplace.     

Message strength and persuasion when consumers imagine product usage

This paper analyzes the effects of message strength on brand attitude when consumers simulate product usage. The relevant literature suggests that advertising message strength does not matter when consumers imagine product usage, but previous studies do not consider the potential moderating effects of involvement and product category knowledge. The results of this research demonstrate that among high‐involvement consumers who perceive their knowledge in the product category as limited, imagining product usage does not reduce the relevance of a strong advertising message. This paper also shows that overall, imagining product usage positively affects brand attitude – regardless of message strength, involvement, and self‐perceived knowledge. An important practical implication arises from the study. Marketers should encourage mental simulation in their advertisements, but be careful not to set a good argument aside if the product/service is highly relevant to potential customers and the potential customers do not perceive themselves as very knowledgeable about the product category. This finding is particularly relevant to complex or relatively new products, because here, the group of consumers who are highly involved but do not perceive themselves as very knowledgeable may be large. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Do ad metaphors enhance or dilute the consumers' brand preferences? Exploring the moderating role of goal orientation

This research aims to explore the impacts of ad metaphors and goal orientation on the relationship between brand commitment and attitudes toward the competitor brands. Results show that prevention‐focused consumers with high brand commitment do not exhibit differentially favorable attitudes toward the competitor brands, regardless of ad metaphors. In contrast, prevention‐focused consumers with low brand commitment exhibit more favorable attitudes toward competitor brands advocated by highly metaphorical ads than those advocated by low metaphorical ads. Moreover, promotion‐focused consumers exhibit more favorable attitudes toward competitor brands advocated by highly metaphorical ads than those advocated by low metaphorical ads, regardless of brand commitment.     

Spanish consumers' perceptions of US apparel speciality retailers' products and services

Apparel speciality retailers' success in international markets is contingent upon their knowledge of culturally‐defined values, norms and behaviour that influence consumer decision making and impact acceptance of products and services. An integrated theoretical framework of retail internationalisation guided this investigation of the viability of the Spanish market for US retailers. This study examined consumers' store patronage and apparel purchase behaviour, acceptance of US apparel brands, perceptions of retailers' products and services, and perceptions of the impact of foreign retailers on local communities. Data were collected from 375 consumers in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. The influence of retailer characteristics on consumers' store patronage varied by age and income. Product characteristics that influenced apparel purchases varied by gender, income and age, while acceptance of US brands differed by gender and age. The perceptions of Spanish, European and US retailers differed regarding quality, fashionability, product assortment, extent and quality of customer service, convenience of location, payment options, national brands and store layout. Consumers' acceptance of US apparel brands was a function of age, household income, apparel product country of manufacture and price. Perceptions of US retailers were a function of household income, selected apparel characteristics and consumer acceptance of US apparel brands. Differences among perceptions of the impact of retail development were found by city. The findings provide insights into the opportunities and challenges for US apparel speciality retailers as they contemplate entry into the Spanish market. The affinity for US apparel among young Spanish consumers, particularly males, suggests optimism regarding opportunities in this market. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dimensions of brand purchasing behaviour: consumers in the 18–24 age group

This paper reports the results of a study of brand selection and loyalty within the 18–24 age group. The study explores brand loyalty behaviour across different product categories, and investigates the dimensions that drive loyalty behaviour within this age group. First, the construct of brand loyalty is defined, followed by an overview of key research in the area. Finally, the study itself is detailed. The study concludes that there is a significant difference in the degree of brand loyalty exhibited by the 18–24‐year‐old respondents across product categories. The dimensions of brand selection also vary by product type. Brand heritage in terms of parental influence was evident in coffee and toothpaste purchase, with brand as a reflection of self‐image being something that is important to clothing brands. Value and variety are important attributes of cereal brand selection. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.     

Judging a Book by its Cover: The Influence of Implicit Self‐Theories on Brand User Perceptions

Do people judge others based on the brands they use? Prior research finds evidence to this effect, yet we argue this phenomenon is far from universal. Drawing on research on implicit self‐theories, we find that only entity (but not incremental) theorists are prone to judging people based on their brand use (Studies 1 and 2). We show that entity theorists infer that people use brands to signal who they are to others, thereby forming perceptions of these people based on the personality of the brands they use, but incremental theorists are reluctant to make inferences about brand users’ signaling motives (Studies 3, 4, and 5). When tendencies to make signaling inferences are reduced, entity theorists no longer judge people based on their brand use (Studies 3 and 4). Furthermore, even incremental theorists judge people based on their brand use when given the information that their brand use is not driven by situational forces, but is potentially driven by a signaling motivation (Study 5).     

Brand personality,self‐congruity,and preference: A knowledge structures approach

Using the construct of brand personality to measure automobile and soft drink personalities, two studies represented self‐congruity by combining brands and the self‐image into Pathfinder associative networks (Schvaneveldt et al., 1989 ). Self‐congruity, the number of links between the self and each brand, was predictive of preference and ideal brand. Because brand personality and self‐image are knowledge structures, and facets of brand personality also describe the self, self‐congruity can be represented and measured in networks. This approach could be helpful to marketers studying how the self is related to each brand and how brands interrelate. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predicting domain‐specific risk taking with the HEXACO personality structure

Although risk taking traditionally has been viewed as a unitary, stable individual difference variable, emerging evidence in behavioral decision‐making research suggests that risk taking is a domain‐specific construct. Utilizing a psychological risk‐return framework that regresses risk taking on the perceived benefits and perceived riskiness of an activity (Weber & Milliman, 1997 ), this study examined the relations between risk attitude and broad personality dimensions using the new HEXACO personality framework (Lee & Ashton, 2004 ) across four risk domains. This personality framework, which has been replicated in lexical studies in over 12 natural languages, assess personality over six broad personality dimensions, as opposed to the traditional Five‐Factor Model, or “Big Five.” Through path analysis, we regressed risk taking in four separate domains on risk perceptions, perceived benefits, and the six HEXACO dimensions. Across all risk domains, we found that the emotionality dimension was associated with heightened risk perceptions and high conscientiousness was associated with less perceived benefits. We also report several unique patterns of domain‐specific relations between the HEXACO dimensions and risk attitude. Specifically, openness was associated with risk taking and perceived benefits for social and recreational risks, whereas lower honesty/humility was associated with greater health/safety and ethical risk taking. These findings extend our understanding of how individuals approach risk across a variety of contexts, and further highlight the utility of honesty/humility, a dimension not recovered in Big Five models, in individual differences research. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Keeping It Real: How Perceived Brand Authenticity Affects Product Perceptions

This article examines the effects of firm motivation (an intrinsic or extrinsic interest in their product) on perceptions of brand authenticity and anticipated product quality. Specifically, studies 1 and 2 show that an intrinsic motivation increases authenticity perceptions which, in turn, increase perceived product quality, even for negatively regarded products. Studies 3a and 3b demonstrate that motivation affects perceived product quality (through perceived authenticity) by influencing deliberate attribute‐level inferences consumers make about the product, and Study 4 demonstrates that the positive effect of intrinsic motivation (through authenticity) disappears in the presence of objective product attribute information, when such inferences are no longer necessary. These findings suggest that authenticity perceptions are malleable, and they shed light on the mechanism through which brand authenticity leads consumers to anticipate that a brand's products will be higher in quality.