Ravi Pappu

Consumer‐based brand equity: improving the measurement – empirical evidence

Purpose – The present research aims to improve the measurement of consumer‐based brand equity. Current measurement of consumer‐based brand equity suffers from limitations, including: a lack of distinction between the dimensions brand awareness and brand associations, the use of non‐discriminant indicators in the measurement scales and of student samples.Design/methodology/approach – Based on the recommendations of extant research, the scale constructed to measure consumer‐based brand equity in this study included brand personality measures. Brand associations were measured using a different set of items. Unlike many of the previous studies that had used student samples, the present study used a sample of actual consumers from an Australian state capital city. Confirmatory factor analysis employing structural equations modelling was used to measure consumer‐based brand equity in two product categories and across six brands.Findings – Results support the hypothesised four‐dimension model of consumer‐based b...

Consumer‐based brand equity and country‐of‐origin relationships

– The objective of the present research is to examine the impact of the country of origin of a brand on its consumer‐based equity., – Brand equity was conceptualized in this paper as a combination of brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality and attitudinal brand loyalty. A doubly multivariate design was incorporated in a structured questionnaire to collect data via mall intercepts in an Australian capital city., – Multivariate analysis of variance of the data indicated that consumer‐based brand equity varied according to the country of origin of the brand and product category. This impact of country of origin on brand equity occurred where consumers perceived substantive differences between the countries in terms of their product category‐country associations., – An important direction for future research would be to examine how the consumer‐based equity of a brand would be affected, if the country of origin were changed from a country with weaker association with the product category to a country with strong association with the product category. The results would be useful to MNCs contemplating international manufacturing., – Marketing managers operating in the international context must identify the sources of brand equity, and understand the importance of incorporating country of origin into their brand equity measurement. Further, the results suggest that, when a brand offers a variety of product categories, brand managers should monitor and track the brands consumer‐based equity for each product category., – The present study is one of the first to empirically examine and confirm the impact of country of origin on the consumer‐based equity of a brand.

Celebrity endorsement, brand credibility and brand equity

Purpose – This research aims to examine the impact of celebrity credibility on consumer‐based equity of the endorsed brand. The mediating role of brand credibility and the moderating role of the type of branding (parent versus sub‐brand) employed by the endorsed brand on the endorser credibility‐brand equity relationship are also to be examined. The endorser credibility‐brand equity relationship was developed using associative learning principles whereas the brand signalling theory is applied to examine the mediating role of brand credibility.Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual framework was tested using a field experiment. Data were collected using a mall‐intercept approach at a shopping centre from a sample of consumers in a metropolitan Australian city. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling.Findings – Results suggest endorser credibility has an indirect impact on brand equity when this relationship is mediated by brand credibility. This mediating relationship was moderated...

Does brand equity vary between department stores and clothing stores? Results of an empirical investigation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether retailer brand equity levels vary between department store and specialty clothing store categories.Design/methodology/approach – Retailer brand equity is conceptualized in this paper as a four‐dimensional construct comprising retailer awareness, retailer associations, retailer perceived quality and retailer loyalty. Categorization theory is used to explain the differences in retailer equity across the two different store categories. A doubly multivariate design is incorporated in a structured questionnaire used to collect data via mall‐intercepts in an Australian state capital city.Findings – Results suggest that retailer brand equity varies significantly between department store and specialty store categories. Department store brands yielded significantly higher ratings for all the retailer brand equity dimensions than specialty store brands.Originality/value – Researchers have argued that retailers possess brand equity. However, extant research d...

How does brand innovativeness affect brand loyalty

Purpose – This paper aims to examine how consumers’ perceptions of innovativeness affect an important brand performance metric: consumer brand loyalty. Specifically, the mediating role of perceived quality in this relationship is explained using signaling theory. Design/methodology/approach – The conceptual model was tested in two empirical studies for three global consumer electronics brands in two product categories. Data were collected using a mall-intercept approach from consumers at a major shopping precinct in a metropolitan city. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings – The results provide compelling evidence for the proposed mediation relationship. Study 1 shows that perceived quality fully transmits the impact of brand innovativeness on to brand loyalty. Study 2 confirms this mediation relationship. Practical implications – The results can help product managers in their brand management and promotion of new products. Originality/value – Emerging research on consumer-l...

Why do undergraduate marketing majors select marketing as a business major? Evidence from Australasia

This research examines the reasons behind marketing majors’ decision to select marketing as a major, where students have the option to select more than one major toward their undergraduate degree. Results of surveys conducted at two universities, one in Australia and one in New Zealand, provide some new findings as well as extending findings from earlier studies. This research complements existing studies on the topic by providing empirical evidence from Australasia. The results also suggest that marketing is the most popular first-choice major for Australasian marketing majors.

Brand innovativeness effects on perceived quality, satisfaction and loyalty

Research on the interface of innovation and branding is limited. For example, managers receive little guidance regarding how consumers’ perceptions of a brand’s innovativeness affect firm performance metrics such as consumer brand loyalty. Moreover, research examining linkages between innovativeness and customer satisfaction is considered critical. Hence, this study provides a conceptual framework for these relationships using associative network theory and brand signaling theory. Structural equation modeling is employed to test the conceptual framework using data collected from a consumer sample (N = 355). Results contribute to branding and innovation theories by uncovering the indirect effect of brand innovativeness on customer satisfaction via perceived quality. The study advances innovation research by uncovering the mediating role of perceived quality in the relationship between brand innovativeness and brand loyalty. Unlike the majority of studies which examine innovativeness from a managerial perspective, we conceptualize innovativeness from the consumer’s perspective, and at brand level. The results can help new product managers better understand complex routes through which consumer perceptions of innovativeness affect perceived quality and customer satisfaction and thereby brand loyalty.

Multiple Celebrity Endorsement

The use of multiple celebrity endorsers, to advertise a single brand, is becoming increasingly common. While the idea of using multiple endorsers is not entirely new, research on the topic is scant. This research contributes to the celebrity endorsement literature by introducing a previously unexplored dimension of source congruence: portfolio-brand fit. This research conceptualises fit as a multidimensional construct and offers empirical evidence for its impact on consumer brand evaluations. The conceptual model is based on information processing models. The conceptual model was tested in two different presentation formats for a fictitious brand in an experiment using a consumer sample. We measured the key variables using seven-point scales. Data were collected using online surveys. We tested the hypothesised model using SEM. The results provide support for the predicted effects. Results show that fit affects consumer attitudes toward multiple celebrity endorsement positively and attitudes toward the endorsed brand indirectly. Fit affects clarity of positioning of the endorsed brand differently in different presentation formats. The results suggest that managers should consider portfolio-brand fit in selecting the endorsers and should consider the potential impact on the brand’s positioning when choosing multiple celebrity endorsement. Marketing practitioners should also consider the differential effects of fit in different types of multiple celebrity endorsement.

Consumer innovativeness effects on retail extension evaluations

Retail firms are continually seeking ways to grow their business, sell more products, extend into new markets and so increase the equity of their brands. One successful growth strategy to achieve such objectives is brand extension. Despite considerable research in the area of brand extensions, there is surprisingly little research on how consumers view retail extensions. This study examines how consumer innovativeness affects their evaluations of two important components of the brand equity of retail extensions. The proposed conceptual model was tested for two global retailers that offered retail extensions of varying level of similarity to the parent retailer: McDonald’s (who have extended their brand into McCafe) and KMart (who have extended their brand into KMart Tyre and Auto Service). Participants (n1= 255, n2 = 250) were adult consumers who evaluated the store retailer brand and its retail extension on perceived quality, brand loyalty and reported their innovativeness. The results indicated that perceptions of quality mediated the impact of customer innovativeness on brand loyalty. These effects were stronger where the retailer-extension pair was similar rather than diverse.

Celebrity portfolio effects on consumer brand evaluations

While much of the research on celebrity endorsement has focused on the retrospective evaluation of the brand in the context of a single celebrity endorsement, relatively less attention has been given to the effects of multiple celebrity endorsement. Previous research conceptualizes multiple celebrity endorsement simply as multiples of single celebrity endorsements, which has only considered the dyadic relationships between the celebrity endorser and the brand. The present research provides an improved conceptualization from a brand portfolio perspective and introduces the notion of celebrity portfolios. The present research explicitly considers the holistic evaluation of the celebrity portfolio instead of assuming independent evaluations. More importantly, the present research examines the interaction effects among the celebrities in the portfolio, on consumer brand evaluations which have not been considered in the current literature. Specifically, celebrity portfolio congruence is conceptualized as a three-dimensional concept by introducing two new dimensions of congruence: portfolio-brand congruence and celebrity-celebrity congruence. The results provided convergent evidence that the consumers evaluate celebrity portfolios holistically and support the interaction effects between the celebrities. The findings suggest that the impact of the number of celebrities used in a portfolio is more complex than previously assumed, in which, more is not necessarily better.