Engaging Consumers Through Branded Smartphone Applications: A Study of Self-Congruenvy and Customer Brand Engagement

Recent development in mobile technology provides marketers with the opportunity to further connect with customers. The aim of this research is to examine the influence of brand-self fit on customer brand engagement, thus provide a better understanding of how consumers are influenced by branded smartphone applications. Relevant literature on brand-self fit and customer brand engagement is reviewed to build a conceptual framework describing the role of smartphone branded applications upon which propositions are developed

The importance of service quality in British Muslim’s choice of an Islamic or non-Islamic bank account

Using an extended SERVQUAL model, this study identifies and compares the importance of service quality to Muslim consumers with an Islamic or non-Islamic bank account in a non-Muslim country, Britain. Eight group discussions and survey with 300 Muslims were conducted. Five dimensions of service quality were identified, i.e. Responsiveness, Credibility, Islamic Tangibles, Accessibility and Reputation. These differ in structure and content from the original SERVQUAL developed in the west and the subsequent CARTER model constructed in a Muslim country. In addition, significant differences were found in the importance rating of items by respondents holding an account with an Islamic bank compared to those with a non-Islamic bank account. This study is one of the first to identify and compare the importance of service quality between Islamic and non-Islamic bank account holders in a western non-Muslim country. The results advance our understanding of the impact of culture on SERVQUAL. The study provides insight into Muslims’ bank choice and helps bank managers of both Islamic and non-Islamic banks to focus their attention on the service quality dimensions that matter most to Muslim customers

Leveraging research on activation: Quester and thompson’s (2001) impact on the field of sponsorship

© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016. Sponsorship activations-that is, the ancillary marketing communication actions purported to enhance the association between sponsees and sponsors-are what make sponsorships come to life. Activations are generally considered to be critical elements of a sponsorship strategy; for some, perhaps even more so than the sponsorship itself. The work of Quester and Thompson (2001) was a landmark contribution to the study of sponsorship activation on conceptual, empirical, and methodological grounds. It led the way to a host of studies and, to this day, still strongly influences sponsorship research. This chapter highlights why at the time Quester and Thompson (2001) was a significant leap forward in the context of the existing sponsorship literature, calling attention to the fact that this article presented the results of the first study to put to the test the common belief that increasing the intensity of sponsorship activation is beneficial for sponsors. This chapter also makes the point that the rigorous methodological approach of Quester and Thompson (2001), which cleverly addressed issues of both internal and external validity, enhanced the impact of their research in the field of sponsorship. Finally, the chapter discusses the research studies that followed up on Quester and Thompson’s (2001) study, the current research topics that echo its contribution today, as well as the future research directions that it suggests

The complementarity factor in the leveraging of sponsorship

© International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship. All rights reserved, The complementarity factor stipulates that a sponsorship leveraging strategy can lead to suboptimal consumer responses unless advertising complements, rather than reinforces, the nature of the event-sponsor relationship. Study 1 showed that the best strategy when the sponsor is an official product provider for the event is to leverage the sponsorship through advertisements that emphasise its overall image and value as opposed to its products. However, the reverse is true when the sponsor is an official event partner, where a product-oriented sponsorship leveraging yields the best outcomes. Study 2 replicated the complementarity factor effect using a different event and different set of stimulus brands. It showed that consumer attributions, with respect to the sponsor’s motivations, are the key mediating psychological mechanism

Power imbalance issues in athlete sponsorship versus endorsement in the context of a scandal

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contrast athlete endorsement vs athlete sponsorship from a power imbalance perspective when a scandal strikes the athlete. Design/methodology/approach: A first study was conducted with a probabilistic sample of 252 adult consumers where the type of brand-athlete relationship (endorsement or sponsorship) and the level of congruence between the two entities (low or high) were manipulated in a mixed experimental design. A second study with a probabilistic sample of 118 adult consumers was conducted to demonstrate that consumers perceive that the balance of power between the brand and the athlete is not the same in endorsement and sponsorship situations. Findings: The results of the first study showed that when an athlete is in the midst of a scandal, the negative impact on the associated brand is stronger in the case of an endorsement than in the case of a sponsorship. However, this occurs only when the brand-athlete relationship is congruent. The results of the second study showed that the athlete's power relative to the brand is greater in an endorsement than in a sponsorship context. Research limitations/implications: The findings suggest that a company that worries about the possibility that the athlete with whom it wants to build a relationship be eventually associated with some negative event (e.g. a scandal) should consider sponsorship rather than endorsement as a strategy. Originality/value: This study is the first to compare the athlete endorsement and sponsorship strategies in general and the first to put forward the notion of power imbalance in brand-athlete partnerships, its impact on how the two entities are represented in consumers' memory networks and the consequences on brand attitude when the athlete is associated with a negative event. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

The sponsorship-advertising interface: Is less better for sponsors?

Purpose: The objective of this article is to explore the general idea that there is a limit to the extent to which consumers make goodwill assumptions when sponsorship is used in combination with advertising. Design/methodology/approach: An experiment was conducted where the number of different sponsorship activities by the same sponsor (i.e. one or two) in a sport event was varied in the context of an ongoing advertising campaign. Findings: The results show that when brand advertising is used during a sport event, it is more beneficial for the brand to either be the official sponsor of the event or to be the official provider of products that are integrated in the event than to apply these two sponsorship strategies at the same time. Research limitations/implications: Future studies should be conducted with representative samples of consumers and a larger array of sponsored entities such as different sports events, art events, athletes, and cultural organizations. In addition, these studies should incorporate the measurement of consumers' inferences during exposure to marketing communication stimuli. Originality/value: The study is the first to explore the sponsorship-advertising interface in order to provide insights on the conditions under which the combination of these two forms of marketing communication will lead to optimal benefits in terms of brand equity. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Legitimacy and sincerity as leveraging factors in social sponsorship: an experimental investigation

© 2019, © 2019 Advertising Association. The research presented in this manuscript examines how social sponsorship can be made more commercially effective. To this end, the effects of two leveraging factors are explored by means of an experiment: the extent to which the social sponsorship is seen by consumers as legitimate, and that to which the sponsor is perceived as sincere. The results show that these two factors have a positive and statistically significant impact on consumers’ intentions to purchase the sponsor’s products. In addition, they show that the sponsor’s perceived sincerity increases when the sponsorship is combined with philanthropic investments, either in sequence (i.e. philanthropy followed by sponsorship) or simultaneously, and that the legitimacy of a sponsorship is enhanced when the cause and its sponsor are congruent. These results are discussed in the context of the literature on social sponsorship, and managerial implications for firms that contemplate using social sponsorship as a marketing communication strategy are derived