Mikael Andéhn

The variable nature of country-to-brand association and its impact on the strength of the country-of-origin effect

Purpose Recent research has shown that the country-of-origin (COO) effect – the influence on consumers’ attitudes and purchase behavior derived from a brand’s perceived association with a country – is inextricably linked to consumer perception. The purpose of this paper is to examine this shift by considering origin as a characteristic derived from perceived association and also by proposing that this association varies by degree, rather than simply acting as a binary attribute in its effect on consumer attitudes. Design/methodology/approach Data from a test series in which respondents (n=100) rated 38 brand-country pairs were put to split-half multi-group analysis tests to capture the moderating influence of association strength (AS) on several facets of country image (CI) simultaneously. Findings AS is a variable that exerts a moderating influence on how different dimensions of CI influence consumers’ evaluation of brands. Research limitations/implications The findings indicate that origin, as a characteristic, should be considered an association that is variable by degree and not as dichotomous. The implications of such a shift are broad, not only for the theoretical understanding of the COO effect but also for marketing and brand management practice. Accounting for AS allows for more accurate prediction of how consumers will react to COO. Originality/value The paper explicitly demonstrates that the strength of country-brand association moderates COO’s influence on brand equity. Such a relationship had previously only been theoretically implied but had not been empirically tested across multiple categories of products on multiple levels of CI.

Place Branding in Systems of Place – on the Interrelation of Nations and Supranational Places

The pervasive managerial logic of branding has established a stable foothold in the context of place management. Yet the question of whether places, such as cities, regions and nations, can be effectively managed using marketing techniques remains elusive, as place brands and company brands have been observed to differ in various ways. A key characteristic of this difference is the possibility of a company brand of being created from scratch and having its associations and characteristics carefully tailored to suit the needs of its authors. While the control of a company brand can easily be lost and its meaning relies on a reading of the brand by anyone receiving its message, the control that can be exerted over which meaning is attributed to a company brand appears almost absolute when compared to a place brand. A place is a brand often long before it is formally branded. A place brand – like a city, region or nation brand – is per definition attached to a system of geographical abstractions in quasi-cartographic form in which each city, region or nation is understood in relation and contrast to other geographical entities. For those who seek to alter perceptions about a place, this presents a challenge, since the role of a place in this system of geographical abstractions constitutes a piece of information more vital than any other in defining the place. Our understanding of places cannot be separated from their scale, and any effort at managing the reputation and meaning of a certain place will be interpreted in an unintended way due to interrelations between these abstract representations. For instance, a particular region is likely to be seen as part of a bigger context – for instance, the nation. Most of the time, the nation is in turn also part of a higher-order place (e.g. the European Union or Africa). Using the example of nation branding for Sudan and Slovenia, one can identify supranational places such as “sub-Saharan Africa” or “Eastern Europe”, carrying their own highly salient and often negative meaning in much of the Western world. We explore how association to a system of place is thought to influence the prospects of branding campaigns and introduce and discuss how reassociation can serve as means of mitigation of negative supranational belongingness. In doing so, we discuss also the challenges of interregional branding in this regard, where perceptions of two (or more) different nations interfere.

Against the implicit politics of service-dominant logic

Few recent topics in marketing have met such immediate popularity and critique as Vargo and Lusch’s service-dominant logic (SDL). While many have criticized SDL scholarship for a lack of cultural sophistication, coherence, and relevance, it has nevertheless maintained and expanded its own distinct stream of ideas. Recently, Vargo and Lusch have proposed that SDL could be extended into a theory of society. We criticize this notion by contrasting their views on commodity value with Marxist and post-Marxist literatures, finding SDL ill-equipped to understand consumer culture, but also continuing to propagate simplistic and misguided views of “value” in commodity markets. We conclude by challenging SDL’s suitability as candidate for all-encompassing social theorizing because of its tacit neoliberalism.

More than meets the eye: videography and production of desire in semiocapitalism

ABSTRACT In the light of the recent proliferation of interest in videographic methods in marketing and consumer research, we wish to make a call for thinking critically about the medium. In this article, we challenge traditional means of semiotic analysis and consider contexts outside aesthetic symbolism that take into account wider agencements of videographic inquiry. We sensitise thinking about videographic production to include a broad scope of influence beyond production and spectatorship. By positing a mode of desiring relationalities in ‘semiocapitalist’ markets, and through the illustrative example of pop-music videos, we show how videography not only produces symbols, but also has the tendency to discipline the viewer into particular subjective positions. We hope to add to the conceptual toolkit of aspiring video scholars and encourage them to be increasingly critical and reflexive about their potential impact.

Evaluating Roadside Noise Barriers Using an Annoyance Reduction Criterion

The effectiveness of noise barriers is typically assessed as the reduction in A-weighted sound pressure level (LA). This research indicates that this may not be a valid indicator of the corresponding annoyance reduction. Road traffic noise was recorded behind a noise barrier (barrier sounds) and at a location with no barrier (non-barrier sounds). The barrier sounds, recorded 10–45 m from the road, and non-barrier sounds recorded 50–200 m from the road were of similar LA. Despite this, participants in a listening experiment found the barrier sounds to be more annoying than the non-barrier sounds, an annoyance-difference corresponding to a 3-dB increase in LA. The Loudness level (ISO 532B) and a low-frequency corrected sound pressure level (LA) were found to be better than LA as indicators of the barriers annoyance-reduction efficiency.