Brand polarization: conceptualisation, antecedents and outcomes

This thesis advances the understanding of brand polarization, a nascent concept in the marketing and branding academic literature. Brand polarization is defined as an affective phenomenon that involves passionate positive and negative feelings and offers a new analytical lens to the consumer-brand relationship knowledge. The current thesis addresses the nature, drivers and outcomes of the brand polarization phenomenon and answers three research questions. To better understand brand polarization, the theoretical development involves a systematic literature review of five related concepts (polarization in political science, polarization in social psychology, brand rivalry, brand love and brand hate) and lie foundation for the development of a new conceptual model. The empirical analysis adopts a sequential mixed-methods research design with a qualitative and a quantitative study, where data is first collected via 22 semi-structured interviews, followed by a survey of 1,238 lovers and haters of polarizing brands in three different product categories. Consistent with the RQ2 and RQ3, the qualitative study utilises semi-structured interviews to identify the key antecedents and outcomes of brand polarization, and these preliminary insights inform the dimensionality of the phenomenon and the finalised conceptual model. Survey data was used to confirm the relationships hypothesised in the conceptual model and answer the RQ2 and RQ3. The thesis findings show the multi-dimensional nature of brand polarization, which consists of brand passion, self-brand benchmarking, intra-group identification and inter-group dissociation, and offer a new reliable measurement for the phenomenon. The results also identify five drivers of brand polarization, namely brand strength, brand uniqueness, association with important issues, ideological compatibility/incompatibility and sense of community. Finally, the evidence supports the role of brand polarization in pairs of oppositional concepts including complimenting and complaining behaviours; brand loyalty and disloyalty; using pro and anti-brand merchandise; participation in a brand and anti-brand community; forgiveness and retaliation behaviours; positive and negative WoM; and defending and attacking the brand. The research offers several theoretical, methodological and managerial implications

Influential factors of loyalty and disloyalty of travellers towards traditional-resorts

With emergence of digital travel platforms, traveler online reviews have become a source of rich information which has a significant role in their perception of the services that influences consumer’s demand for resorts. This study aims to identify and rank influential factors of loyalty and disloyalty of travelers through customer online reviews in traditional resorts using Latent Sentiment Analysis (LSA). Our results indicate factors that creating loyalty and disloyalty toward traditional resorts are different and some of these factors are more significant and different from previous studies in the context of other types of hotels. This study signifies the importance of travellers’ online reviews to the resorts managers and contributes to them to improve loyalty factors and alleviate disloyalty factors

Negative brand engagement in the online context

This thesis advances the understanding of negative online brand engagement. Previous studies mostly presume consumer brand engagement to be positive. However, many studies highlight the importance of negative online brand engagement and appreciate that it can be more common and potentially more impactful or detrimental to both brands and consumers, particularly in the online context, than positive online brand engagement. Negative online brand engagement is relatively new in the field of marketing and branding research, with no agreement on its conceptualisation and robustly developed measurement. The current thesis aims to address the gap in the conceptualisation and operationalisation and identify and test prominent drivers and outcomes of negative online brand engagement. The theoretical development involves a systematic literature review of positive consumer engagement, reviews existing articles on negative consumer engagement and builds the foundation for conceptual model development. The empirical analysis adopts a sequential mixed-methods research design. The qualitative study (online observation, semi-structured interviews) was firstly conducted to identify dimensionality, antecedents and outcomes of negative online brand engagement, and develop the conceptual model. Survey data (N=431) were then used in the measurement development and hypotheses testing. The findings show the multi-dimensional nature of negative online brand engagement, consisting of cognition, affection, online constructive and destructive behaviour. The quantitative results identify six drivers of the phenomenon, namely perceived brand quality, brand failure severity, unacceptable brand behaviour, anti-consumption in general, consumer brand disidentification and oppositional attitudinal loyalty. Finally, the same evidence supports five outcomes including consumers’ intention to participate in anti-brand communities, brand disloyalty, happiness, offline destructive and constructive behaviour. The thesis offers theoretical and managerial implications. It provides an improved, innovative conceptualisation and a valid measurement of negative online brand engagement and identifies its key drivers and outcomes, none of which have been clearly identified in previous studies. These findings also provide strategic implications for managers to develop the appropriate marketing and branding strategies and avoid or manage the effects of negative online brand engagement

The Role of Social Media Activities to Enhance Brand Equity

The direct impact of the economic downturn due to Covid-19 is mainly perceived by Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). This study aims to examine how MSMEs can understand customer needs regarding the provision of social media quality that can improve brand image and brand awareness. The survey was conducted on 145 respondents who had online shopping experience using social media by utilizing the structural equation modeling approach.  Results show that social media quality can increase brand awareness, brand image, and social media marketing activities. Therefore, marketers who use social media can focus on its constituent indicators including content quality, design quality, information quality, interaction quality, contact availability, and contact relevance. Customers will have a high level of brand awareness and a good brand image if marketers can provide social media quality to meet customer demands. While previous studies found that there is a positive relationship between social media marketing activities on brand image and brand awareness, this study shows the opposite result because customers are not affected by the activities carried out by social media. This is considered a usual activity that other marketers also carry out. The implication of this study is that good social media quality is needed to increase brand awareness, brand image, and social media marketing activities

Exploration of Brand Satisfaction on Purchase Decision: Theory of Planned Behavior Perspective

Brand satisfaction is prominent to bridge purchasing decisions, and it is often linked with perceived value, social media marketing, and brand trust. This study explores the mediating role of brand satisfaction in the relationship between perceived value, social media marketing, brand trust, and purchase decision. The convenience sampling technique was used to collect the data. A self-administered survey from 226 consumers who were sampled in Semarang was involved in this study, and further data was processed using PLS-SEM software. The findings show that perceived value, social media marketing, brand trust, and satisfaction simultaneously have a positive and significant impact on consumer purchasing decisions. The role of brand satisfaction is proven to bridge the relationship between perceived value and the role of social media in purchasing decisions. However, there are negative results related directly or indirectly through brand satisfaction, from brand trust to purchasing decisions. In addition, social media marketing has no impact on brand satisfaction. The findings indicate that brand decisions have yet to become a benchmark for consumers to determine purchasing decisions for shampoo products. The usefulness of this research can trigger product business owners to observe consumer behavior continuously amid fast-moving product innovation competition.Keywords: Perceived value, Purchase decision, Social media marketing, Brand satisfaction, Brand trus

Exploring the role of music on young health and fitness club member loyalty: an empirical study

The importance of music in the advertising industry has been long established and is well known to induce consumer emotion, enjoyment, attention and recall. This research aims to develop this positive association theme by investigating whether the type of music played in studio classes would have any impact on the loyalty attitudes of young health and fitness club members toward classes and their service provider. This study was exploratory in nature and thus employed a qualitative research methodology were 18 in-depth interviews were conducted. A non-probability, judgment sample of 16-24 year old health and fitness club members who had a particular interest in studio classes was conducted. The findings indicated that young health and fitness club members were music conscious and that current studio class music was considered by respondents to be standardised. Furthermore, incorporating different music genres in classes can act as a point of consumer differentiation between service providers, therefore, resulting in higher levels of customer loyalty. As the research is based on a non-probability sample, the findings of this paper need to be considered with caution. However, the research may provide some insight or inspiration for future researchers to develop, and or, replicate the findings in order to produce generalisations on the role that music in studio classes can play in developing young consumer loyalty

Critical review of the e-loyalty literature: a purchase-centred framework

Over the last few years, the concept of online loyalty has been examined extensively in the literature, and it remains a topic of constant inquiry for both academics and marketing managers. The tremendous development of the Internet for both marketing and e-commerce settings, in conjunction with the growing desire of consumers to purchase online, has promoted two main outcomes: (a) increasing numbers of Business-to-Customer companies running businesses online and (b) the development of a variety of different e-loyalty research models. However, current research lacks a systematic review of the literature that provides a general conceptual framework on e-loyalty, which would help managers to understand their customers better, to take advantage of industry-related factors, and to improve their service quality. The present study is an attempt to critically synthesize results from multiple empirical studies on e-loyalty. Our findings illustrate that 62 instruments for measuring e-loyalty are currently in use, influenced predominantly by Zeithaml et al. (J Marketing. 1996;60(2):31-46) and Oliver (1997; Satisfaction: a behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York: McGraw Hill). Additionally, we propose a new general conceptual framework, which leads to antecedents dividing e-loyalty on the basis of the action of purchase into pre-purchase, during-purchase and after-purchase factors. To conclude, a number of managerial implementations are suggested in order to help marketing managers increase their customers’ e-loyalty by making crucial changes in each purchase stage

Brand cynicism: Start to develop a scale

We are living in an era of great cynicism. It is everywhere and brands aren’t immune. In fact, they may be more vulnerable to cynicism since their presence and value is completely dependent on how they are perceived by consumers. However, despite its growing relevance, this is a very under-researched phenomenon and many aspects remain unclear. Therefore, this paper attempts to conceptualize and measure Brand Cynicism through the development of a first scale that aims to be extremely valuable for managers who want to understand and manage such phenomena in their industries. Firstly, the relevant literature for the proposed theme is presented. Then, a qualitative exploratory analysis is performed in order to obtain the items that will belong to the future scale. Upon completion of this analysis, quantitative analysis takes place and the generated items are subjected to analysis. A two-dimension scale is identified: detachment and doubtfulness. Furthermore, the relationship of the scale with important variables is assessed: Consumer cynicism, Consumer Embarrassment, Consumer Rebellion and Brand Equity. The findings reveal that brand cynicism is positively influenced by Consumer embarrassment, Consumer Cynicism and consumer Rebellion but there is no statistical evidence that Erand Cynicism influences Brand Equity. This dissertation concludes with a brief discussion about the results, achievements and implications of the study, and suggestions for future research.Vivemos numa época de grande cinismo. A sua presença está em todo o lado e as marcas não estão imunes. Na verdade, estas podem ser mais vulneráveis ao cinismo visto que a sua presença e valor está dependente da forma como estas são percecionadas pelos consumidores. No entanto, apesar da sua crescente relevância, este é um conceito bastante recente e muito aspetos permanecem por explorar. Por conseguinte, com esta dissertação pretende-se conceptualizar e medir Brand Cynicism (o sentimento de cinismo face às marcas) através do desenvolvimento de uma primeira escala que poderá ser extremamente valiosa para gestores/marketeers que pretendem perceber e lidar com este fenómeno. Primeiramente, a revisão literária relevante para o tema proposto é apresentada e de seguida é feita uma análise exploratória qualitativa de forma a obter os itens que irão fazer parte da futura escala. Após a conclusão desta análise, segue-se a fase quantitativa onde estes itens serão submetidos a análise e onde é identificada uma escala com duas dimensões: detachment (desapego) e doubtfulness (dúvida). Seguidamente, a relação da escala com variáveis de interesse é testada: Consumer cynicism, Consumer embarrassment, Consumer rebellion e Brand equity. Os resultados mostram que Brand Cynicism é positivamente influenciado pelas três primeiras. No entanto, não há evidência estatística que esta influencie Brand equity. Conclui-se esta dissertação com uma breve discussão sobre os resultados obtidos, implicações para a área do Marketing e algumas sugestões para pesquisas futuras