The development of a brand perception instrument for South African youth

South African youth are a diverse, multicultural heterogeneous cohort differentiated racially, spatially, digitally and socio-economically. This study aimed to develop a quantitative instrument to measure the brand perceptions of 18 to 24-year-old South African consumers communicated on Facebook. Young adults base their perceptions of brands on their touchpoints and other consumer experiences. Therefore, brands need to have a reliable means of measuring the brand perceptions of young adult consumers to avoid negative earned media and reputational damage. Ten factors that explained 62.812% of total variance were extracted after exploratory factor analysis. These factors are brand fan behaviour, shared brandrelated content, value brand influencers, corporate social responsiveness, user-generated content, brand-related content, familial influencers, premium brand influencers, communication expectations and recommending behaviour. Key findings indicate that measuring brand fan behaviour or interactions with brand advocates is critical to building positive perceptions and relationships with 18 to 24-year-old consumers on Facebook. Second, the shared brand-related content factor highlights the critical role brand experiences and customer opinion play on Facebook when shaping the perceptions about brands for young adults via positive and negative earned media

From research excellence to brand relevance: A model for higher education reputation building

Abstract In this article we propose a novel approach to reputation development at higher education institutions. Global reputation development at higher education institutions is largely driven by research excellence, is predominantly measured by research output, and is predominantly reflected in hierarchical university rankings. The ranking becomes equated with brand equity. We argue that the current approach to reputation development in higher education institutions is modernist and linear. This is strangely out-of-kilter with the complexities of a transforming society in flux, the demands of a diversity of stakeholders, and the drive towards transdisciplinarity, laterality, reflexivity and relevance in science. Good research clearly remains an important ingredient of a university’s brand value. However, a case can be made for brand relevance, co-created in collaboration with stakeholders, as an alternative and non-linear way of differentiation. This approach is appropriate in light of challenges in strategic science globally as well as trends and shifts in the emerging paradigm of strategic communication. In applying strategic communication principles to current trends and issues in strategic science and the communication thereof, an alternative model for strategic reputation building at higher education institutions is developed

Book Review: 500 Communication Concepts. English/Afrikaans

Book Title: 500 Communication Concepts. English/AfrikaansBook Authors: Gertruida M. du Plooy1st edition 1991, vi + 177 pp. ISBN 0 70212650 O. Kenwyn: Juta

Brand linkages: winners, losers and how to measure these

Brand owners constantly seek strategies to improve their brand’s popularity. One such strategy is to seek a co-operative relationship with another brand, termed a “brand linkage”. This study represents one of the first attempts at empirical and experimental research on brand linkages in a South African marketing communication environment. One such brand linkage between Engen (a fuel service station) and Woolworths (a speciality food retailer) is examined. Results showed that awareness of the brand linkage did have a marked effect on the overall rating of Engen. Implementing a pretest–posttest control group design, results also showed that there were statistically significant differences between pre- and post-intervention ratings of Engen (the host brand) for the groups that were exposed to a campaign depicting the brand linkage. The research provides practitioners with a measuring instrument that can be replicated easily and provides insight for marketers on leveraging the value of brand linkages

Community perceptions of ward councillors' communication in service delivery protest areas: the desirability of a strategic communication approach

Service delivery protests have increased alarmingly year-on-year. Protests appear to be community members’ only recourse in expressing their frustration concerning the perceived lack of delivery of municipal services. Indications are that a lack of engagement by ward councillors is adding greatly to these frustrations. At the same time, very little is known about how ward councillors communicate. The purpose of the study was to explore ward councillors’ current communication approach as perceived by community members in Sebokeng, known for the prevalence of former violent service delivery protests, and to evaluate the desirability of a strategic communication approach. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with six focus groups of different ages. The findings indicate that ward councillors are perceived as not visible to community members and that interactions with ward councillors are experienced as monologues and top-down. Consequently, community members feel unheard, forgotten, and ultimately disengaged. At the same time, community members express the need to self-organise and collaborate with ward councillors in solving community issues, as long as it is coupled with tangible delivery. The research provides insights into volatile community sentiments suggesting a pattern with previous findings, as well as suggestions for a strategic communication approach that may increase the legitimacy of ward councillors in communities

A measuring instrument for the active consumer stakeholder concept among South African brand leaders

This study argues that consumers no longer take the actions of brand leaders for granted. Instead, they challenge and are inherently active. Although consumers have long been recognised as stakeholders by brand leaders, the question remains as to what extent their voices are heard and to what extent brand leaders recognise them as active stakeholders. The research problem was addressed by linking aspects of corporate social responsibility, corporate social responsiveness, stakeholder theory, stakeholder communication and accountability to develop a reliable measuring instrument for brand leaders to evaluate to what extent they are attuned to the active consumer stakeholder concept and, through further rankings and qualitative analyses, obtain some indication as to what extent awareness of the active consumer stakeholder concept has taken root among a sample of 51brand leaders. Through reliability and cluster analyses, the research succeeded in developing a reliable measuring instrument which reflected most of the theoretical tenets of the active consumer stakeholder concept. Further findings, albeit of a limited scope, suggest an interesting dichotomy between recognition of the active consumer stakeholder concept on the one hand, and a strong profit maximisation view on the other, which could become a platform for further research