Bashar S. Gammoh

In Good and Bad Times: The Interpersonal Nature of Brand Love in Service Relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address two important gaps in the brand love and consumer‐brand relationships literatures. First, this study aims to investigate several interpersonal antecedents of brand love in a services setting. Second, this study also aims to examine the differential influence of the valence of the service delivery process and the way that brand love develops under qualitatively varied conditions.Design/methodology/approach – A between‐subjects experiment that varied the valence of the service delivery process (positive/negative) in a relational context was designed to examine the influence of interpersonal antecedents across service delivery levels on brand love.Findings – This study provides empirical support for the importance of interpersonal antecedents in driving brand love in service relationships. The results also reveal an asymmetrical pattern of effects between study variables across service delivery levels.Research limitations/implications – These findings can hel...

Multiple brand alliances: a portfolio diversification perspective

Purpose – The paper attempts to examine the effect of multiple brand alliances using a portfolio diversification approach.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports the findings of a four‐level, single factor design study in which 149 randomly assigned participants were exposed to a product concept description for a new product in conjunction with: no ally (control), one ally, three homogeneous allies, and three heterogeneous allies.Findings – Results support previous findings in the literature with regard to the effect of a single brand alliance. However, no support was found for the proposition that consumer evaluations of an unknown focal brand, when three well‐known heterogeneous allies are present, will be higher than when either one well‐known ally is present or three well‐known homogeneous allies are present.Research limitations/implications – Consistent with previous published research and despite diversifying the brand allies; it is impossible to conclude that multiple brand allies provide i...

Building brands through brand alliances: combining warranty information with a brand ally

Purpose – While previous research has shown a positive influence of a brand ally or a warranty, published research has not explored the effects of using multiple types of quality signals. The purpose of this paper is to explore the joint effect of a default‐independent signal (i.e. a brand ally) combined with a default‐contingent signal (i.e. a warranty) on the focal brands evaluations.Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports the findings of a 2 (ally: none vs one) × 2 (warranty: no vs yes) between‐subjects factorial design in which 174 subjects were randomly assigned to experimental conditions.Findings – The studys findings indicate that, individually, both brand alliance and warranty were a significant signal of product quality. However, the use of multiple types of signals, as opposed to one signal, did not add incrementally to consumers perceived quality evaluations of a focal brand. In addition, risk reduction mediated the effects of brand ally and/or warranty on the focal brands evaluati...

The impact of salesperson-brand personality congruence on salesperson brand identification, motivation and performance outcomes

Purpose – This paper focuses on the role of personality congruence, between salespeople’s own personality and the personality of the brand they represent, in driving salesperson identification with the brand and its subsequent effects on important sales force outcomes, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, task self-efficacy and both behavioral and outcome performance. Design/methodology/approach – Data was collected via an online survey from a cross-sectional sample of salespeople. In all, 246 completed the survey. SmartPLS was used to estimate the measurement model and test the hypothesized path relationships using a (partial least squares) structural model. Findings – Results indicated support for all proposed hypotheses in our model. In conclusion, we demonstrate, that the congruency of the salesperson personality with his or her perceived brand personality has a significant impact on the brand identification by the salesperson. This identification has important sales force outcomes, including...

Corporate brands as brand allies

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of the corporate brand in a brand alliance that includes one of the corporation’s product brands.,Using a scenario-based study, 899 participants were randomly assigned to one of 84 unique brand alliance scenarios involving a corporate brand, a product brand ally and a focal product brand; a total of 33 corporate brands were represented. Results were estimated using a three-stage least squares model.,Consumers’ evaluations of a focal brand were enhanced when a corporate brand name associated with a product brand ally was included in the brand alliance. The effect was mediated by attitude toward the product brand ally. The indirect effect of the corporate brand was stronger when consumers had low product category knowledge (PCK).,Consistent with competitive cue theory, the findings suggest that a corporate brand can provide superior, consistent and unique information in a brand alliance.,Practitioners should note that the effectiveness of adding a corporate brand name into a product brand alliance is contingent on the extent of consumers’ PCK.,This paper examines when and why corporate brands are effective endorsers in product brand alliances. This paper adds empirical support to previous assertions that, if managed effectively, corporate brands can be valuable assets that convey unique valuable information to consumers.

Characteristic of Social Media Marketing Strategy and Customer-Based Brand Equity Outcomes: A Conceptual Model

Existing research support the importance of social media marketing in building brand equity and creating communities around the brand. Still, the questions of what kind and what level of social media marketing activities are needed to help firms build customer-based brand equity (CBBE) are not properly addressed. Yet, these insights are extremely important for any company to develop its social media marketing strategy effectively. This paper extends the extant literature by addressing the questions of choices, conditions, and potential impacts of different social media channels on CBBE. More specifically, this study develops a conceptual model to examine the differential influence of the following four dimensions of social media marketing strategy: variety, diversity, intensity, and connectivity on different components of CBBE model. Examining the differential influence of these dimensions of social media marketing strategy on CBBE is important and holds significant implications.

Antecedents of Belief in Global Citizenship: A Two-Country Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT This research contributes to the existing literature by investigating the antecedents of belief in global citizenship. Previous literature in global brand management has provided strong evidence of the importance of perceived quality and social prestige of global brands in influencing consumers’ evaluations of global brands. Accordingly, the authors’ model focuses on the perceived quality and social prestige of global brands as antecedents of consumers’ belief in global citizenship. In addition, they examine the direct and indirect effects of consumer ethnocentricity and cultural openness on consumers’ belief in global citizenship. They empirically examine this framework within a rich cross-cultural context using samples from the United States and India (developed and developing countries). The proposed model suggests that perceived quality and social prestige of global brands are mediators of the relationship between ethnocentricity and cultural openness and consumers’ belief in global citizenship. They followed Gerbing and Andersons two-step approach to develop a measurement model with an acceptable fit to the data and then conducted a structural model to test the hypothesized relationships. The authors conducted χ2 difference tests to examine the structure of their hypothesized relationships across the United States and India. The results support partial mediation for perceived quality and social prestige of global brands on the relationship between ethnocentricity and cultural openness and consumers’ belief in global citizenship. Furthermore, they demonstrate some interesting differences in the relationships in the model across the two samples.

The role of salesperson brand selling confidence in enhancing important sales management outcomes: a social identity approach

Purpose The purpose of the study is to address the gap in understanding how the brand influences sales outcomes by focusing one’s attention on the salesperson perceptions of the brand and the salesperson brand selling confidence. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a cross-section survey of professional salespeople. SmartPLS was used to estimate the measurement model and test the hypothesized path relationships. Findings The study’s results indicate that salespeople who believe in the strength of the brands they represent are more likely to identify with the brand, are more confident in selling the brand and, overall, tend to perform better, have higher job satisfaction and are more committed to their companies. Originality/value This paper contributes to the sales literature by further exploring the relationship between the brand and sales function in the firm. This area has recently received academic attention but has not yet considered the mediating processes that connect the two areas. This study identifies perceptions of brand strength and brand selling confidence as mechanisms that mediate the impact of brand on sales outcomes.

Consumer Attitudes Toward Human-Like Avatars in Advertisements: The Effect of Category Knowledge and Imagery

ABSTRACT Despite the importance and the growing use of avatars in online and offline advertising, investigations on the effectiveness of avatar-based advertising remains scant. This article attempts to narrow this gap by examining several factors that influence consumers’ evaluations of human-like avatar-based ads. Based on mental schema theory, the authors theorize that avatars elicit categorization tension, a feeling of incongruence between avatar and expected human features. This tension is reflected in negative attitudes toward the ad and low purchase intention. Two experiments supported these contentions and demonstrated how product category knowledge and imagery moderate these effects. This investigation contributes to theory by employing a mental schema framework to explain and predict how and when consumers form positive evaluations of human-like avatar-based ads. The research findings also offer several recommendations for advertising professionals. The findings suggest that human-like avatars are more likely to generate negative evaluations among novice or less knowledgeable consumers. To minimize this effect, advertisers can encourage consumers to imagine the consumption experience.

A New Perspective of Salesperson Motivation and Salesforce Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Salesperson-Brand Identification

The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically test the mediating role of salesperson brand identification in the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivational dispositions and three salesforce outcomes–sales performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. We find salesperson brand identification mediates salesperson motivation’s impact on outcomes for extrinsically motivated salespeople. We combine motivational and social identification theories to provide a better understanding of the relationship between salesperson innate motivational dispositions and salesforce management outcomes. We provide additional insight as to how salesperson identification with the brand can boost performance, gain commitment, and increase job satisfaction among salespeople.