Arvind Sahay

Brand Relationships and Switching Behaviour for Highly Used Products in Young Consumers

Consumer-brand relationships is an evolving area of study. The purpose of this study is to: establish that brand relationships postulated in the literature exist along all dimensions for young consumers in the emerging market context investigate the influence of peers, family, and brand relationships on switching intentions amongst young consumers examine the impact of price changes on switching intentions in the context of brand relationships. This is an empirical study focusing on the brand relationships amongst young consumers in the age range of 13 to 25 years in an emerging economy. Data were collected from 214 respondents from the SEC A and B categories in a city in Western India through a questionnaire administered in the presence of the researchers. The results indicate that: young consumers do form relationships with brand(s) on all the six dimensions of consumer brand relationship that have been postulated in the literature love and passion dimension of brand relationship is stronger amongst teenagers as compared to young adults. The second part of the paper looks at the influence of the social groups like family and peers on the switching behaviour in presence of brand relationship dimensions where, we found that family has a relatively stronger influence than peers. Finally, it looks at the effect of price comparison on brand relationship. It is found that consumers do compare price irrespective of how strong the brand relationship is. This may be an artifact of the higher price consciousness in the Indian environment that is found amongst consumers across income groups. The future directions and limitations are discussed at the end.

Impact of initial‐trust‐image on shopper trust and patronage intentions

The objective of this study is to examine the role of store image in influencing shopper trust and patronage intentions when 1) the store has never been visited and 2) the store has been visited. This study also identifies three stages through which ‘trust-image’ progresses and uses the first stage to construct and ‘initial-trust-image’ of the store. The experimental study findings provide empirical support that initial-trust-image of the store has significant impact on trust and patronage intentions for some shoppers. Retailers entering the Indian market are advised to be conscious of the symbolic cues that they embed in the store appearance, especially since the initial-trust-image needs to convey more than just competence and expertise. Significantly, the findings also indicate that asymmetric effects of trust operate at the stage of initial-trust – negative initial-image perception causes greater mistrust than positive initial-image causes trust.

Role of affect and cognition in consumer brand relationship: exploring gender differences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore gender differences in consumer brand relationships with respect to affect and cognition, also to examine the difference between genders with respect to the impact of variables such as age and influence of peers and family on consumer brand relationshipsDesign/methodology/approach – For this study, a field experiment approach was used, combined with depth interviews. The experiment was a three‐step process where respondents were first taken through a Resonant Field Imaging (RFI™) in order to identify the types and function of all bio‐energies present in the specific regions of the human brain. In the second step, this was followed by a conversation of about 30 minutes about the respondents most preferred brand. As the final step, a brain scan was again taken to access the bio‐energies in the brain of the respondent subsequent to the conversation about the most preferred brand.Findings – The authors find that while both men and women form relationships with...

Comparing retail formats in an emerging market

Purpose – This study aims to examine the importance of credit and low price guarantee (LPG) on consumer purchase intention across types of retail store formats in an emerging market context. Design/methodology/approach – A 2 (kirana/modern retail)×2 (high/low LPG)×2 (credit/no credit) experimental design was used for this study. A sample of 200 respondents was asked about their purchase intention for a newly introduced hypothetical toothpaste brand and six hypotheses were tested. Findings – Findings show that credit and level of LPG determine consumers purchase intention across store formats. The presence of credit and high LPG increases the purchase intention; however, relatively importance of these two varies by type of store. The absence of credit at kirana store definitely reduces the buying intention, while same is not true for modern retail store, where level of LPG is more important than the credit. Interestingly, buyer is likely to discount high LPG for a months credit offered by a kirana store....

Celebrity endorsements and branding strategies: event study from India

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to evaluate the economic value of celebrity endorsements to Indian firms based on their branding strategy – corporate or house-of-brands – and their “congruence” or “fit” with the celebrity. The overall economic value of endorsements to firms in India, a moderately collectivist culture, is also assessed. Design/methodology/approach – Standard “event study” methodology is used to evaluate the economic value of endorsements under different branding strategies (47 endorsement announcements – 25 corporate brands and 22 house-of-brands). The impact of the level of congruence (assessed using brand personality scales) on abnormal returns is also examined. Findings – Event study results indicate significant positive abnormal returns for corporate brands and insignificant returns to house-of-brands. Moreover, the level of congruence is found to have an insignificant effect on endorsement announcement returns. Overall, celebrity endorsements result in positive economic value t...

Differential impact of advertising and distribution expenditure on Tobin's Q

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of components of marketing expenditures, i.e. advertising and distribution expenditures on intangible value of firm (measured in terms of Tobins Q). The relationship is studied in the context of branding approaches (corporate and house of brands) that various firms follow.Design/methodology/approach – The data are collected from databases of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and from the web site of National Stock Exchange. Time series regression is performed using SPSS software to test the model.Findings – Advertising expenditure has a positive impact on the intangible value of the firm and this relationship is stronger for firms following corporate branding than for firms that follow house of brands strategy. Distribution expenditure has negative impact on the intangible value of the firm and this relationship is stronger for firms following corporate branding than for firms that follow house of brands strategy.Research limitatio...

Price discount framings on product bundles with shipping surcharges in the Indian market

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how consumers process price frames of product bundles (product plus surcharge) and discount offers to weigh contentious positions between the weighted-additive and the reference-dependent models. Further, some research suggests bundling, while others suggest partitioning to be a more effective pricing strategy. This research evaluated the relative influences of different price frames to examine which model is supported and what are the boundary conditions for price framing. Design/methodology/approach – Two online studies were conducted on Indian adults who had prior experiences of online purchases. They were asked to judge attractiveness of bundles (product along with shipping surcharge). Discounts were shown on the product, the surcharge or on the overall bundle either as partitioned prices or as a bundle. Findings – Across two studies on low- and high-priced products, discounts on shipping surcharge increased attractiveness of the bundle compared to a sim...

An Empirical Study of Latitude of Quantity Acceptance (LQA) in an Emerging Economy: India

ABSTRACT This study examines three important research questions. First, is there a latitude of acceptance with respect to small quantity changes? Second, is there an asymmetric effect of quantity changes? Third, is there a differential effect between high-equity and low-equity brands in response to quantity changes which is acceptable to customers? The effect of quantity change on purchase intention was examined through the decrease (increase) in original quantity of high-equity brands (low-equity brands), keeping price constant. ANOVA and ANCOVA were used to estimate the main and interaction effects. Empirical results show that: (a) there is evidence for LQA; (b) the effect of quantity change is asymmetric; and (c) the LQA range is larger for low-equity brands. A lower range of LQA for high-equity brands limits quantity reduction choice as a firm strategy and lowering price by a small percentage is unlikely to be successful for a low-equity brand.

Nocebo effects from negative product information: When information hurts, paying money could heal

Purpose This research aimed to find whether information about a product can give rise to negative perceptions even in inert situations (nocebo effects), and to understand how price levels impact such judgments. Design/methodology/approach In all experiments, participants were exposed to negative product information in the form of potential side-effects. In an initial study, a higher non-discounted versus a discounted price frame was presented for a health drink after customers were exposed to negative aspects. Then, in experiment 1, price (high vs low) and exposure to information (no information vs negative information) was manipulated for skin creams where participants physically evaluated the cream. In experiment 2, price was manipulated at three levels (low, high, discounted) orthogonally with product information (no negative information vs with negative information) to get a more nuanced understanding. Findings In the initial study, after exposure to negative information, the non-discounted group had more positive ratings for the drink. Study 1 showed that reading about negative information resulted in a nocebo effect on perception of dryness (side-effect). Moreover, when no information was presented, perception of dryness by low and high price groups were similar but in the face of negative information, perception of dryness by low-price group was more pronounced compared to a high-price group. Study 2 conceptually replicated the effect and also confirmed that not only discounts (commonly linked with product quality), but absolute price levels also show a similar effect. Practical implications Nocebo effects have been rarely documented in consumer research. This research showed how simply reading generically about potential side effects gives rise to nocebo effects. In addition, even though marketers might find it tempting to lower prices when there is negative information about certain product categories, such an action could backfire. Originality/value To the best of our knowledge, the link between observable nocebo effects and its link with pricing actions is a novel research thread. We were able to show a nocebo effect on product perception after reading about negative information and also find that a higher price can mitigate the nocebo effect to some extent.

Latitude of Quantity Acceptance: Conceptualization and Empirical Validation

As a result of increasing costs, consumer packaged goods companies (i.e., fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies) are facing significant pressure on operating margins. For example, the increasing cost of raw material resulted in a steep decline of almost 50 % in operating profit margins in the second quarter of 2010 for Britannia (Economic Times 2010). Firms have been using innovative strategies to adapt to increasing costs in materials. One such strategy has been to decrease the quantity (weight) of a product packet while keeping the price constant. For instance, Frito Lay has reduced the weight per pack by 10–20 %; Cadbury has reduced the pack size of Bournville chocolate by 17–18 % (DNA Syndication 2011), and ITC has substituted raw material edible oil with butter, reduced the quantity per pack, and also hiked the price of high-margin biscuit packs (Economic Times 2010).