Alokparna Basu Monga

Brand Concept Maps: A Methodology for Identifying Brand Association Networks

Understanding brand equity involves identifying the network of strong, favorable, and unique brand associations in memory. This article introduces a methodology, Brand Concept Maps, for eliciting brand association networks (maps) from consumers and aggregating individual maps into a consensus map of the brand. Consensus brand maps include the core brand associations that define the brands image and show which brand associations are linked directly to the brand, which associations are linked indirectly to the brand, and which associations are grouped together. Two studies illustrate the Brand Concept Maps methodology and provide evidence of its reliability and validity.

Cultural Differences in Brand Extension Evaluation: The Influence of Analytic versus Holistic Thinking

Consumers evaluate brand extensions by judging how well they fit with the parent brand. We examine this process across cultures. We predict that consumers from Eastern cultures, characterized by holistic thinking, perceive higher brand extension fit and evaluate brand extensions more favorably than do Western consumers, characterized by analytic thinking. Study 1 supports the existence of these cultural differences, with study 2 providing support for styles of thinking (analytic vs. holistic) as the drivers of cultural differences in brand extension evaluations.

Doing Poorly by Doing Good: Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Concepts

Although the idea of brand concepts has been around for a while, very little research addresses how brand concepts may influence consumer responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Four studies reveal that communicating the CSR actions of a luxury brand concept causes a decline in evaluations, relative to control. A luxury brand’s self-enhancement concept (i.e., dominance over people and resources) is in conflict with the CSR information’s self-transcendence concept (i.e., protecting the welfare of all), which causes disfluency and a decline in evaluations. These effects do not emerge for brands with openness (i.e., following emotional pursuits in uncertain directions) or conservation (i.e., protecting the status quo) concepts that do not conflict with CSR. The effects for luxury brand concepts disappeared when the informativeness of the disfluency was undermined but were accentuated in an abstract (vs. concrete) mind-set. These findings implicate brand concepts as a key factor in how consumers respond to CSR activities.

Blending Cobrand Personalities: An Examination of the Complex Self

This research examines the role of self-complexity in influencing consumer responses to cobrands with trait associations to two distinct brand personality dimensions versus one distinct brand personality dimension. Three experiments reveal that consumers whose complex self becomes activated prefer cobrands that exude both sophistication and excitement to those that exhibit either sophistication or excitement. Caucasians, who have a more complex independent self, tend to evaluate a sophisticated and excited personality cobrand more favorably when primed on independence, whereas Hispanics, who have a more complex interdependent self, tend to evaluate this cobrand personality combination more favorably when primed on interdependence. This research also suggests that this self-complexity-driven process is conscious in nature.

The asymmetric effect of portfolio and image abstractness

This research distinguishes between abstract brand concepts built through the development of diverse product portfolios (i.e. portfolio abstractness) and those built through establishing human-like images (i.e. image abstractness), and investigates the joint effect of the two types of brand abstractness on building brand equity.,The three studies presented use experimental design with participants in a laboratory setting and members of an online participant panel.,Three studies demonstrate that while building abstractness by expanding a brand’s product portfolio can generate favorable brand evaluations, this positive effect is marginal compared to when the brand is imbued with human-like characteristics. Furthermore, the favorable effects on brand equity because of abstractness associated with a human-like brand image are evident in protection from brand dilution in the face of negative publicity.,The findings suggest that a consideration of different forms of abstractness is key to unlocking the complexities of understanding customer-based brand equity.,This research shows that although building abstractness through a diversified product portfolio or a symbolic, human-like brand image can favorably impact customer-based brand equity (i.e. attitudes and responses to negative publicity), the former strategy has a marginal effect compared to the latter.,This is the first research to conceptualize brand abstractness as stemming from broad portfolios or from human-like brand images. Additionally, it provides a holistic understanding of how these two forms of abstractness jointly influence brand evaluations and responses to negative publicity.