Yonghwan Chang

The effect of perceived brand leadership on luxury service WOM

Purpose Despite the remarkable growth of the luxury industry, a phenomenon referred to as luxury fever, as well as the growing interest in word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing in the industry at hand, little is known about how consumers’ perceived leadership of luxury brands dynamically influences their WOM behavior. This paper aims to examine the moderating role of a type of luxuries (accessible vs inaccessible) in the relationship between the four dimensions of perceived brand leadership – quality, value, innovativeness and popularity – and consumers’ WOM recommendation intention. Design/methodology/approach The current research is based on survey data gathered from 333 actual customers who attend five golf clubs located in North Florida. An innovative data analysis procedure that combines structural equation modeling with propensity score analysis to estimate the moderating effects, controlling for selection bias, is presented. Findings Quality was the significant predictor of WOM among consumers of inaccessible luxuries (private club). In contrast, financial value and popularity were key factors in predicting WOM of individuals who chose accessible luxuries (public club). Originality/value This paper attempts to shed new light on the field of strategic luxury marketing by addressing differential consumption decision-making processes corresponding to hierarchically constructed luxury services. In addition, an innovative way is suggested to achieve covariates’ balance in the examinations of latent variables and multisampling models for observational research.

The relative effects of game outcome and process on fans’ media consumption experiences

ABSTRACT Research question: The purpose of the current research was to examine the interaction effects between the positivity of game characteristics and different types of social experiences on fans’ evaluations of their retrospective media consumption experiences. Research method: The combination of game characteristics and the type of social experience were both manipulated variables. In the positive (negative) outcome but negative (positive) process condition, participants were asked to recall their favourite team’s game in which the team won (lost) but the game was boring (exciting). Furthermore, in the solo (joint) context condition, participants were asked to recall a game that they watched by themselves (with others). Results and findings: The results indicated that sport fans evaluated their retrospective media consumption experiences more favourably when the game outcome was positive (but the process was negative) compared to a game in which the game outcome was negative (but the process was positive). Interestingly, however, in the joint context, their retrospective evaluations of their media consumption experiences became more favourable when the game process was positive (but the outcome was negative) compared to a game in which the game process was negative (but the game outcome was positive). Implications: Because sport spectating is naturally a social form of consumption (i.e. people watch games with others), marketers should devote greater effort in enhancing the process of the game to maximise fans’ overall evaluation of the media consumption experience.

How Does the Negative Impact of an Athlete’s Reputational Crisis Spill Over to Endorsed and Competing Brands? The Moderating Effects of Consumer Knowledge:

Despite some of the recent examinations of an athlete’s reputational crisis (ARC), their negative spillover effects on endorsed and competing brands have been overlooked. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between perceived severity, athlete endorser credibility (i.e., incompetence, untrustworthiness), and attitudes towards endorsed and competing brands. To enhance theoretical understanding of the phenomenon, the moderating role of consumer knowledge was also tested. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 339). A multigroup structural equation model was employed to test the hypothesized model. Results indicated that the severity of an ARC is associated with the perceived incompetence and untrustworthiness of focal athletes. Perceived incompetence is associated with negative evaluation of an endorsed brand. Furthermore, this impact is significantly stronger for consumers with greater knowledge of the athletes than those who are less knowledgeable. Interestingly, competitor brands received negative impact indirectly from the athlete endorsers’ incompetence. This spillover effect is also manifested differently depending on the level of consumer knowledge.

Examining the Visual Map of Athlete Endorsement Effectiveness: A Case Of 2010 FIFA World Cup

Celebrity endorsement is considered an effective promotional tool by marketers worldwide. Researchers have found that celebrity endorsements result in favorable advertisement ratings and product evaluations, which ultimately have a substantial positive impact on financial returns for the companies (Silvera and Austad, 2004). Particularly, sport celebrities have been considered to be attractive endorsers because they represent healthy, strong, vigorous, enthusiastic and energetic images that many agencies/companies pursue to be associated with (Bush, Martin, and Bush, 2004). A sports celebrity endorser is a famous athlete or coach who uses public recognition to recommend or co-present with a product in an ad (Bush, Martin, and Bush, 2004). Indeed, most top professional athletes, who maintain endorsement contracts as one main source of income, reach considerably higher level of financial success than other athletes without contracts. Interestingly, however, not all athletes reap similarly lucrative benefits from such endorsement contracts. Numerous highly successful athletes occasionally fail to make endorsement contracts due, in part, to awkward match, or mismatch between a product and the athletes’ image. Hence, the strategic match or fit between athlete endorser and product brand is considered to be one of the most important aspects in maximizing endorsement effectiveness in product, brand or company marketing goals such as enhancement of corporate image (Daneshvary and Schwer, 2000; Smith, 2004; Till and Busier, 1998). Accordingly, this study attempts to develop the Model of Strategic Match in Athlete Endorsement (MSMAE), a systematic evaluation tool for assessment of strategic match or fit between athlete celebrities and products/brands. Specific aim of this study is to examine the image match between an athlete endorser and product by using a three-dimensional visual map.