Arjun Chaudhuri

The Chain of Effects from Brand Trust and Brand Affect to Brand Performance: The Role of Brand Loyalty

The authors examine two aspects of brand loyalty, purchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty, as linking variables in the chain of effects from brand trust and brand affect to brand performance (market share and relative price). The model includes product-level, category-related controls (hedonic value and utilitarian value) and brand-level controls (brand differentiation and share of voice). The authors compile an aggregate data set for 107 brands from three separate surveys of consumers and brand managers. The results indicate that when the product- and brand-level variables are controlled for, brand trust and brand affect combine to determine purchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty. Purchase loyalty, in turn, leads to greater market share, and attitudinal loyalty leads to a higher relative price for the brand. The authors discuss the managerial implications of these results.

How Brand Reputation Affects the Advertising-Brand Equity Link

ABSTRACT A model of the process of brand equity is proposed that depicts brand reputation as a mediator of the effect of brand advertising, brand familiarity, and brand uniqueness on brand equity outcomes. Brands are used as the unit of analysis in determining the relationships between consumer-level perceptions of brands and market-level data on brand advertising and brand equity outcomes such as market share and relative price. Path analysis of the brand-level data strongly validates the model. It is also shown that brand reputation is a separate construct from brand attitudes and that it performs better than brand attitudes in explaining the effect of brand advertising on brand equity outcomes.

Consumption Emotion and Perceived Risk: A Macro-Analytic Approach

Abstract How is emotion in the consumption experience linked to perceived risk? The author postulates that negative emotions are positively related to perceived risk and positive emotions are negatively related. The results of two macro-analytic studies are reported in this regard. Previous investigations have used individual consumers as the units of observation and have therefore limited the generalizability of their results to a few products at best. In contrast, the studies reported in this article attempted to determine the relationships between consumption emotion and perceived risk with products, and services as the units of observation. In study 1, evidence is presented using an aggregative data set of 146 products and services that were randomly selected from the SIC manual. A field survey of 30 actual users was conducted for each of the 146 products and services, and 4,380 respondents were surveyed. The mean of the 30 responses was used as the aggregate score for each variable for a particular product. Findings suggest that emotional factors account for a significant and substantial portion of the variance in perceived risk even after the effects of other factors (product involvement and perceived differences between alternatives) are taken into account. In study 2, 89 products from the original set were further analyzed in a structural model. The endogenous variables of perceived risk, brand loyalty, and information search were newly measured by a phone survey of 2,670 respondents. It is found that perceived risk mediates the effect of negative emotion and perceived differences on brand loyalty and information search.

A Macro Analysis of the Relationship of Product Involvement and Information Search: The Role of Risk

The relationship of the importance and hedonic dimensions of product involvement to information search is analyzed. Four different models of the role of perceived risk in this relationship are compared and tested. It is expected that perceived risk will mediate the effect of the dimensions of product involvement on information search. Previous investigations have used individual consumers as the units of observation and have, therefore, limited the generalizability of their results to a few products at best. In contrast, the study reported in this paper attempts to determine the relationships of interest with products as the units of observation. It is found that perceived risk fully mediates the effect of the importance dimension of product involvement on information search but not of the hedonic dimension. The effect of hedonic involvement on information search is direct.

Does Brand Loyalty Mediate Brand Equity Outcomes

A causal modelling approach is used to analyze the direct and indirect influences of brand attitudes, habit and brand loyalty on brand equity outcomes such as market share, shelf facings and price. Hypotheses concerning these relationships are developed and tested in two separate studies. The first study surveyed shoppers at a campus store while the second study surveyed mall shoppers. Results indicate that brand attitudes are directly and indirectly related to market share and shelf facings but only indirectly related to price, with the indirect path occurring through brand loyalty. The results are shown to replicate adequately when using different samples of shoppers and products. The implications of the study are discussed in terms of their significance for managers.

Product class effects on perceived risk: The role of emotion

Abstract The article investigates a model of perceived risk. Evidence for the model is presented using an aggregative data set of 89 product categories which were randomly selected from the SIC manual. Results indicate that luxuries and necessities are both significantly related to perceived risk but in very different ways. It is also demonstrated that positive and negative emotional factors make a substantial contribution as mediators of product class effects on perceived risk. Once again, the effects on perceived risk are very different for each of the mediating factors.

Brand equity or double jeopardy

Discusses and contrasts the theories of double jeopardy and brand equity. A model of attitudes, habit, brand loyalty and brand equity outcomes is proposed in order to reconcile the two theories. Results of a study designed to test the model are presented. Results indicate support for both theories of brand equity and double jeopardy since both direct and indirect relationships were found between attitudes/habit and brand equity outcomes. The indirect relationships were mediated by the concept of brand loyalty. Implications for managers are discussed.

Emotion and reason in persuasion: Applying the ARI model and the CASC Scale

Abstract Whereas practitioners in advertising and marketing clearly appreciate the importance of affect and emotion, traditional academic approaches to the analysis of persuasion tend to stress rational “central route” or “systematic” processing. However, the notion of two sorts of cognitive process—one rational, the other affective—has gained increasing support. This paper presents a view of the conceptualization and operationalization of the interaction of affect and reason based upon MacLeanss triune theory of the brain, distinguishing reptilian, individualist and prosocial biological emotions, as well as “higher level” social, cognitive and moral emotions. The interactive role of affect and reason in involvement is described by the affect–reason–involvement (ARI) model, and emotions are operationalized by versions of the Communication via Analytic and Syncretic Cognition Scale (CASC Scale) tuned to the requirements of a given area of investigation. Examples of studies analyzing emotional factors in response to common consumer products and condom use/nonuse are presented.

Media differences in rational and emotional responses to advertising

This study develops and tests hypotheses concerning the relationship of different media to psychological outcomes. Specifically, it is postulated that print media are related to analytic cognition (reason) and electronic media to syncretic cognition (emotion). Two hundred and forty magazine and television advertisements are analyzed both in terms of their attributes and the reactions they evoke. Media differences are found for both emotional and rational responses and the main effects of media, product category and advertising strategy variables are seen to account substantially for the variance in analytic and syncretic cognition. Of special relevance to advertisers is the finding that the choice of media is the best predictor of emotional response among all the variables in the study.

The Diffusion of an Innovation in Indonesia

Traces the diffusion of palm oil by a joint venture company in Indonesia during the early 1980s. The diffusion framework provided by E.M. Rogers is examined in this context. The author relates his personal observations over the course of two years and arrives at certain conclusions. In keeping with Rogers′ framework, characteristics of the innovation and change agent effort were critical in the diffusion. However, Rogers′ two‐step model of diffusion was not relevant in this case. A one‐step model of diffusion is recommended for the marketing of industrial products where knowledge of the innovation is considered to be proprietary information and is not spread through interpersonal networks.