Veronica Gabrielli

SME practice towards integrated marketing communications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover and empirically test the gap between the theory and practice of integrated marketing communications (IMC) in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).Design/methodology/approach – The paper follows a quantitative approach, using the questionnaire technique. Questionnaire items emerged from a literature review and a qualitative step (in‐depth interviews). The questionnaire was submitted to a sample of 210 manufacturing firms. Factor and cluster analysis were performed in order to give a descriptive overview of different communication behavioral profiles within SMEs.Findings – The sample shows evidence of a certain ability in marketing communication management on the part of SMEs. A group of virtuous firms able to employ a great variety of communication tools, to define in‐depth and consistent messages and to declare ambitious and long‐term goals appears. However, these firms do not adequately manage the internal organizational process aimed at marketing ...

Consumption practices of fast fashion products: a consumer‐based approach

Purpose – The aim the present study is to investigate the consumption practices of fast fashion products. During the introductory stage of this phenomenon, most academic literature has focused its attention on structural and industrial aspects of the fast fashion phenomenon. Now that the phenomenon has been present as a part of individuals’ daily lives for some years, the time is ripe for taking a closer look at consumers’ standpoint.Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative technique of focus groups was chosen to carry out the research study within Italian consumers. The decision to exploit this methodology was largely guided by the exploratory purposes of this study and by the willingness to analyze the phenomenon of fast fashion and the consumption practices by adopting a social perspective.Findings – Results of the exploratory study show an overview of the phenomenon of fast fashion from the standpoint of the consumers and especially of the way they “live” fast fashion and integrate these products...

Online brand community within the integrated marketing communication system: When chocolate becomes seductive like a person

This study proposes brand communities as an effective tool within the integrated marketing communication (IMC) system. The paper utilizes the Brand Concept Map quali-quantitative technique in order to represent and compare mental association texture within one group of non-members of a brand community versus one group of people engaged in the same community. Brand stimulus is Nutella (chocolate cream) which boasts a crowded and lively online brand community: Nutellaville. Results show that brand community is effective in terms of contribution, commonality, and complementarity within the IMC system. In particular, Nutella brand image within the online community participants is composed of some mental associations overlapping other communication tools (commonality), and by new mental associations (complementarity) referred to the brand image dimension named ‘brand as person’ (seductive, popular, reassuring); second, this anthropomorphism effect solves the issue of sense of guilt excited by chocolate (contribution).

Consumers’ awareness of luxury brand counterfeits and their subsequent responses: when a threat becomes an opportunity for the genuine brand

Purpose Taking the consumer perspective, this paper aims to investigate the effect of counterfeiting awareness on consumer advocacy behaviour towards the brand in a specific context, that is, the luxury brand context. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted two surveys among actual and potential consumers of the original brand. Study 1 demonstrated the mediating role of customer-based brand equity between the consumers’ awareness of brand counterfeits and their advocacy behaviour towards the genuine brand. Study 2 showed the moderating role exerted by consumers’ emotional attachment to the brand in this framework. Findings This work showed specific mechanisms underlying consumer responses to counterfeits, revealing a wide framework able to uncover important positive spillover effects on counterfeited brands. Research limitations/implications This framework should be tested on additional brands and integrated with further processes and individual variables to extend our knowledge about consumer responses to counterfeits. Originality/value This research recognises counterfeiting as a consumer-led process. The results showed the ambivalent nature of counterfeiting, that is, a threat and an opportunity for the counterfeited brand. In fact, actual and potential consumers are prone to protect the genuine brand. The consequent advocacy behaviour is stimulated by the attempts of consumers of fakes to take possession of the brand experience, and these activate actions of self-protection among consumers of the original brand. Interesting managerial implications are drawn.

Brand architecture shift and corporate brand equity: an exploratory study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of a shift in brand architecture strategy on corporate brand equity. The change is from a house of brands to a branded house approach in which the corporate brand is prominent. The study proposes two alternative approaches in order to explore how consumers build the corporate brand equity from single product brand equities in the portfolio: the dilution process or the bookkeeping/subtyping cognitive process. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 150 Italian consumers. All the items were related to a real corporate brand – Procter & Gamble (P&G) – and to seven of the product brands in its portfolio. The choice of the Italian context and the P&G brand was motivated by the fact that P&G has recently adopted a shift in its brand strategy, starting to give prominence to the corporate brand in its communication campaign in Italy. Findings The dilution process does not describe the effect of a change in strategy on corporate brand equity, but the bookkeeping/subtyping cognitive process does. This suggests that consumers tend not to revise corporate brand equity when they perceive many product brands behind it. Originality/value The value of the present paper is to deal with a relevant and current topic: the brand architecture dynamism. This research is an exploratory step to satisfy the need for theory-based research on consumer responses to the shift in the brand portfolio architecture strategy.

Counterfeiting of Luxury Brands: Opportunity beyond the Threat

Luxury has traditionally been associated with exclusivity, status and quality. During the seventeenth century, luxury was found in extraordinary commodities, such as rare pearls, perfumes, and spices from the Caribbean. During the nineteenth, with the rise of world trade, the concept of luxury became attached to the products of great craftsmen: ChristianDior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci. More recently, in the industrialized world, luxury has increasingly been perceived in terms of the brand: carefully crafted symbols which go beyond the material to invoke a world of dreams, images and signs [5].