Adam Marquardt

Measuring brand equity for logistics services

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a test of scales that measure brand equity and its two dimensions – brand image and brand awareness – in the context of logistics services. The scales are tested with both logistics service providers and customers.Design/methodology/approach – Measurement items are adapted from existing scales found in the marketing literature. Academic colleagues and logistics practitioners reviewed the items for face validity and readability. The scales are evaluated for reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity using data collected in a mail survey of logistics service providers and customers.Findings – Findings suggest that brand awareness, brand image, and brand equity scales are valid and reliable in the context of logistics services.Research limitations/implications – While there is a substantial research stream that examines branding of consumer goods and an increasing literature on industrial and service brands, little is known about branding in ...

LOV Measures: Using the List of Values to Measure Symbolic Brand Equity (An Abstract)

In recent years, it has become increasingly accepted that brands possess the capacity to convey different sets of benefits to different consumers and that these benefits can be functional, experiential, and/or symbolic in nature. While our understanding of functional and experiential branding has grown considerably over the past quarter of a century, our knowledge of symbolic branding lags behind. Relatedly, although a considerable amount of research has been conducted regarding brand personality as an effective evaluation tool for predicting perceived brand benefits and acceptance, to date no studies have employed brand values for the same predictive capacity. As codeterminants of lifestyle, both brand personality and brand values are integral to the formation of consumer attitudes, behavior, and lifestyle. By examining the predictive capacities of Kahle’s List of Values (LOV) framework and Aaker’s Dimensions of Brand Personality framework, this study conceptualizes symbolic brand equity and then uses linear regression modeling to evaluate the List of Values (LOV) as a measurement framework for assessing symbolic brand equity, as well as its relative effectiveness in measuring symbolic brand equity as compared to the Dimensions of Brand Personality framework. While Aaker’s Dimensions of Brand Personality framework continues to be an effective framework for assessing brand equity in general, study findings reveal that Kahle’s List of Values framework outperforms the Dimensions of Brand Personality framework when measuring symbolic brand equity. Correlations are drawn between brand values and brand personality, as well as within the LOV instrument itself. Theoretical and managerial implications of consumers’ brand values and brand personality evaluations are also discussed.

Reconceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Time and Key Temporal Factors in Modern Marketing: A Conceptual Framework of Holistic Time—Abstract

Historically, when issues of time and temporality were considered within marketing and other contexts, they were viewed in a defined and discriminant manner as reflected through clock and/or calendar time, i.e., objective time. While the use of objective measures has traditionally been appropriate when considering time, anecdotal evidence and recent work across multiple disciplines suggest the value of applying alternate, nonlinear temporal frameworks (Kaufman-Scarborough 2006; Lee and Liebenau 1999; Mosakowski and Earley 2000). These discussions suggest that while objective time remains situationally relevant, it is in itself an insufficient means by which to examine antecedent, focal, and outcome variables and that the use of alternate temporal conceptual frameworks should provide additional insights.

The Current State of Logistics Services Branding

In 1962, Peter Drucker prophesized the importance logistics services were to have, when he suggested distribution was “one of the most sadly neglected, and most promising areas of American business,” and an area that provided substantial opportunity (p. 3). Since Drucker’s prognostication, logistics services have evolved into an industry that supports not only the United States economy (2002 U.S. logistics costs totaled

Values Shopping: Empirically Examining the Influence of Brand Values on Consumer Brand Attitues

910 billion and 8.7% of the total U.S. GDP (Delaney 2003)), but also the world’s economy. Logistics services have received increasing attention as a tangible way for firms to achieve and sustain a competitive advantage. Combined with the current trend of developing closer relationships with fewer suppliers, this means that logistics firms must strive to distinguish themselves from others offering similar services. One way in which logistics services providers can accomplish this is by developing a superior brand.

Relational Resources as a Builder of B2B Service Brand Equity

Existing research supports the critical influence that consumer-brand relationships have on consumer attitudes toward the brand (Fournier 1998; McAlexander, Schouten and Koenig 2002); however, the rationale underlying this occurrence is not fully understood. A popular explanation for how consumer attitudes toward a brand are shaped focuses on the important role of a brand’s personality (Helgeson and Supphellen 2004; Supphellen and Gronhaug 2003). Despite the important role that a brand’s personality plays, brand personality is not sufficient to fully explain the variance related to consumers’ attitudes toward a particular brand.

University Branding: The Contribution of Intercollegiate Athletics

Existing literature supports the notion that sellers’ corporate and product brands are valuable, enabling resources that serve to build and reinforce firm-level competitive advantages (Aaker 2004). These brands act as key signaling mechanisms, which convey critical and differentiating information to current and prospective customers (Kirmani and Rao 2000). Such differentiation serves to reinforce brand positions, rewarding firms with competitive advantage, performance, growth, and profit (Aaker 2004, 1996; Keller 2008).

Branding a B2B service: Does a brand differentiate a logistics service provider?

A recent ESPN campaign included a mock Duke University advertisement that conveyed the significant contribution of intercollegiate athletics to institutional brand equity at even the most prestigious academic institutions. The ad positioned Duke’s athletic feats as more relevant and important to prospective students and their parents than the school’s academic reputation; yet, with the exception of Alessandri (2007), the literature has not explicitly considered the contributions of intercollegiate athletics in building University brands. To date, authors that have studied brand equity in intercollegiate athletics have almost universally considered branding as it relates to building team brand equity (Gladden, Milne & Sutton, 1998; Ross, 2006), as opposed to the contribution of athletic brands to institutional brand equity.