Dwight Merunka

The impact of country of design and country of manufacture on consumer perceptions of bi‐national products' quality: an empirical model based on the concept of fit

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to decompose the concept of country of origin (COO) and test the influence of country of design (COD) and country of manufacture (COM) on consumer evaluations of bi‐national products (products designed in one country and manufactured in another). In addition to global country images, the paper aims to introduce the concept of “fit” or the logical connection between product categories and the COD or COM.Design/methodology/approach – Relationships between constructs (perceived product quality, COD image, COM image and perceived fits) are hypothesized and data are collected via survey on the Tunisian market. Each of the 389 respondents evaluated different combinations (COD/COM) for two product categories (automobiles and television sets). All hypotheses are tested using multiple regression analysis.Findings – The paper finds that the concept of fit between country image (both COD and COM) and product category is an important determinant of product evaluations. For produ...

The role of brand love in consumer‐brand relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model of brand love that includes both its antecedents and its consequences. The model is rooted in a causal approach and features established consumer‐brand relationship constructs (brand identification, brand trust and brand commitment).Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model and associated hypotheses are tested with a sample of 1,505 consumers. Data were analysed through partial least squares structural equation modelling.Findings – The results demonstrate strong relationships between the two antecedents (trust and identification) and brand love, and between brand love and its consequences (brand commitment, positive word of mouth, and propensity to pay a higher price for the brand).Originality/value – Through the causal approach and proposed nomological model, the authors discriminate brand love from three important relational constructs (i.e. brand trust, brand identification and brand commitment) and establish the relationships ...

Recherches sur la Marque: quelques dangers, quelques directions

thème de la marque est important. Elles s’organisent autour de quelques thèmes : les extensions de marque, le capital de marque, le nom de marque, les relations des consommateurs aux marques et toujours la fidélité à la marque. Un point très positif de ces recherches est qu’elles correspondent à des préoccupations réelles et stratégiques des managers. Le caractère opérationnel et appliqué des recherches suscite d’ailleurs des développements issus à la fois du monde universitaire et du monde professionnel (e.g. « Conversion model » – Taylor Nelson Sofres –, « BrandForce » – IPSOS, « Brand Dynamics » – Millward Brown, « Brand Intelligence » – Yankelovich Partners, « Brand Asset Valuator » – Young & Rubicam). Malgré des avancées importantes, il paraît utile de souligner quelques problèmes essentiels auxquels les chercheurs (et les sociétés d’études) sont confrontés, ce qui débouche sur quelques voies de recherche.

Health and Pleasure in Consumers' Dietary Food Choices: Individual Differences in the Brain's Value System

Taking into account how people value the healthiness and tastiness of food at both the behavioral and brain levels may help to better understand and address overweight and obesity-related issues. Here, we investigate whether brain activity in those areas involved in self-control may increase significantly when individuals with a high body-mass index (BMI) focus their attention on the taste rather than on the health benefits related to healthy food choices. Under such conditions, BMI is positively correlated with both the neural responses to healthy food choices in those brain areas associated with gustation (insula), reward value (orbitofrontal cortex), and self-control (inferior frontal gyrus), and with the percent of healthy food choices. By contrast, when attention is directed towards health benefits, BMI is negatively correlated with neural activity in gustatory and reward-related brain areas (insula, inferior frontal operculum). Taken together, these findings suggest that those individuals with a high BMI do not necessarily have reduced capacities for self-control but that they may be facilitated by external cues that direct their attention toward the tastiness of healthy food. Thus, promoting the taste of healthy food in communication campaigns and/or food packaging may lead to more successful self-control and healthy food behaviors for consumers with a higher BMI, an issue which needs to be further researched.

The brand origin meaning transfer model (BOMT): an integrative theoretical model

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how brand origin (BO) cues affect the consumer’s association of a new brand with BO learning and the subsequent effects on brand image (BO semiotics). An integrative theoretical framework is proposed that includes both processes. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed model is based on analogical learning theory and triadic semiotic theory. Findings – Two types of BO knowledge form BO meanings in consumer minds: country-related categories and exemplar brands, which have a classification and/or inferential role. The brand cues (indexes or icons) used by consumers to identify BO generate one or the other type of BO knowledge. Indexes trigger the classification function of country-related categories while icons trigger the inferential role of country-related categories and exemplar brands. BO knowledge informs the meaning transfer when consumers interpret the meaning of a new brand, leading to either a transfer of relations or a transfer of attributes to the new brand. Practical implications – Marketers should monitor BO exemplar brands that consumers use as meaning sources and carefully select the signs used in their communications to evoke BO. Originality/value – The proposed framework contrasts with dominant categorisation perspectives, re-establishing the dual role of categories and emphasising the relevance of brand cues in BO identification and BO exemplar brands in the BO meaning transfer process. A meaning-centred perspective is adopted to integrate BO identification and the related transfer mechanisms.

The Impact of Customer-Company Identification on Consumer Reactions to New Corporate Initiatives: The Case of Brand Extensions

Purpose – Customer‐company identification (CCI) refers to a social relationship between a company and its customers. Prior research highlights the positive consequences of CCI but does not study the process by which CCI shapes both positive and negative consumer reactions to new company initiatives. This study aims to elaborate this process by modelling the mediating consequences of CCI (commitment to the company and feeling of belonging to an in‐group) on consumers’ responses to brand extensions.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 291 respondents, spanning two companies and four brand extension scenarios. The model parameters were estimated through partial least squares path modelling.Findings – CCI leads to commitment to the company and to a related group, through identification processes. Both forms of commitment influence consumer reactions to new corporate initiatives. The effect of company commitment is stable; in‐group commitment is more influential in forming consumer responses ...

The impact of territory of origin on product authenticity perceptions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of territory of origin (TOO) associations for consumers’ perception of product authenticity and empirically tests the chain of effects, from TOO associations to perceived authenticity, and to consumers’ self-brand connections. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental method and a partial least square approach were adopted. Hypotheses were tested on data collected across 665 Chinese consumers. Findings – Results demonstrate that TOO exerts a positive impact on perceived product authenticity, which in turn leads to stronger consumers’ self-brand connections. In addition, compared with country of origin (COO) information, TOO has a unique positive impact on perceived authenticity and a direct positive effect on consumers’ self-brand connections. Also, the positive impact of TOO on perceived authenticity is enhanced through consumers’ familiarity with the TOO and through congruence between the product category and the TOO. Research limi...

Editorial: Marketing communications and consumer behavior: Introduction to the special issue from the 2009 La Londe conference

Research Conference in Marketing organized by the Aix Graduate School of Management (I.A.E. Aix-en-Provence), University Paul Cézanne in Aix-Marseilles (France). This conference known as the “La Londe Conference” is devoted to Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior on a biennial basis. The La Londe conference encourages intense discussions of specialized topics in consumer behavior and communications among a relatively small group of specialized scholars in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. Those who have participated to the La Londe Conference also know the exchange value of the coffee breaks on the terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the Porquerolle islands. The La Londe conference is truly international. It is chaired by both a European chair and an American chair. Søren Askegaard (University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark) and M. Joseph Sirgy (Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, United States) chaired the 2007 conference. A total of 74 manuscripts were submitted and double-blind reviewed by both members of the permanent scientific committee of the conference and ad-hoc reviewers carefully selected by the co-chairmen and the coordinator. Thirty paperswere presented at the conference. In addition, the thought-provoking keynote address by Jan-Benedict E. M. Steenkamp (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) stimulated reflections and discussions concerning the process of researching fruitfully in consumer behavior/marketing communications fields. Jan-Benedict Steenkamp shared his outstanding research experience in a talk entitled “The Survey Research/ Theory Testing Paradigm.” He presented the major methodological breakthroughs he contributed himself over the past two decades. His research has enabled researchers to develop more reliable and valid research instruments and results in “domestic” and international contexts. He also shared his view concerning the future of consumer behavior research and new methodological developments. The eight papers of the special issue follow the dual theme of consumer behavior and marketing communications. The first three papers address consumer behavior related issues with a psychological orientation. Karolien Poels and Siegfried Dewitte (“Hope and Self-regulatory Goals Applied to an Advertising Context: Promoting Prevention Stimulates Goal-Directed Behavior”) are adding to the emerging stream of research in

When is Consumer Desire Driven by Difficulty of Recall? The Effects of the Type of Information and Time Pressure

Past research demonstrates that the difficulty of recalling past consumption of a preferred product influences desire through the use of the difficulty-of-recall inference. However, the analysis of boundary conditions is neglected. Across three studies, we examine the role of the type of information (semantic or episodic) and time pressure. Study 1 demonstrates that the difficulty of recalling past consumption influences desire positively when consumers recall semantic information. However, Study 2 shows that this influence is not replicated when consumers recall episodic information. Finally, Study 3 demonstrates that under time pressure, this positive influence is reestablished. Our results expand current knowledge about the role of processing difficulty of recall in consumer behavior.

Engaging Customer Preference Through Trade Credit: An Investigation of the Impact of Payment Terms on Brand Equity

Since organizations rarely collect immediate payment from business-to-business sales, trade credit structures financial and sales relationships between suppliers and customers (Asselbergh 1999). In this context, managing days’ sales outstanding (DSO), or the average number of days a company takes to collect revenue from business customers after a sale, represents a critical financial and marketing issue. If DSO indicates how quickly a company turns sales into cash (Bragg 2005), its extension also favors business opportunities and product quality demonstration when more generous payment terms are granted to customers (Emery and Nayar 1998; Smith 1987). Thus, trade credit can be viewed as a lubricant that facilitates sales through the attraction of customers’ business (Cheng and Pike 2003; Emery and Nayar 1998), or the signal of brand quality through additional time for the customer to test the product (Long et al. 1993). This research examines the extent to which credit terms offered by salespeople influence customers’ average payment delay and their perception of the supplier’s brand equity (i.e., brand attitude, brand trust, brand preference).