Third -Party Organization Endorsement of Products: an Advertising Cue Affecting Consumer Pre-Purchase Evaluation of Goods and Services.

Observation of advertising in current use suggests that a new type of ad is emerging as a product positioning tool. The new ad features third-party organization (TPO) product endorsement as one of the elements of the ad (e.g. Car of the Year award by Motor Trend magazine, and 4-star mutual fund rating from Morningstar). Marketers appear to be using favorable TPO statements about their products to enact their positioning strategy. This dissertation proposed that TPO endorsements are perceived by consumers as extrinsic quality cues, similar to the established quality cues of brand, price, retailer reputation, and warranty. This proposition was supported by arguments from the source credibility literature, the principle of cognitive consistency, economics of information theory, signal theory, and consumer uncertainty literatures. In two experiments, TPO endorsement was compared to celebrity endorsement for its ability to affect dependent variables related to product quality and ad informational value. Additionally, factors that may moderate the TPO endorsement---product quality perception relationship (brand, credibility of the TPO) were also tested. Each experiment consisted of 8 factorial cells (3 factors at 2 levels each) plus 2 control cells. In all, data was collected from 466 student subjects. Compared to credible celebrity endorsements, ads containing credible TPO endorsements for the same product significantly enhanced consumer perceptions of product quality and information value of the ad. This effect was more pronounced for desktop computers (a tangible product) than auto insurance (an intangible product). For computers, endorsement cue interacted with brand cue such that the perceived quality of a low image brand was enhanced to a greater degree than that of a high image brand going from celebrity endorsement to TPO endorsement. It is concluded that TPO endorsement functions as an extrinsic quality cue in advertising. To consumers, TPO endorsement is beneficial because it may communicate experience and credence characteristics of products prior to purchase. For marketers, TPO endorsement may be useful in positioning products against the competition

Developing and validating measures of facets of customer-based brand equity

This article presents four studies that develop measures of core/primary facets of customer-based brand equity (CBBE). Drawing from various CBBE frameworks, the facets chosen are perceived quality (PQ), perceived value for the cost (PVC), uniqueness, and the willingness to pay a price premium for a brand. Using numerous advocated scale developmental procedures, the measures of these facets showed evidence of internal consistency and validity over 16 different brands in six product categories. Results also suggest that PQ, PVC, and brand uniqueness are potential direct antecedents of the willingness to pay a price premium for a brand, and that willingness to pay a price premium is a potential direct antecedent of brand purchase behavior. © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved