How Online Trust and Online Brand Equity Translate Online- and Omni-Channel-Specific Instruments into Repurchase Intentions

This study examines omni-channel retailers’ online activities, which previous brick-and-mortar firms’ find challenging, but they are increasingly competing with online players. Therefore, the role of major online-specific instruments such as online aesthetic appeal and omni-channel-specific instruments such as online-offline integration is studied. A framework is proposed in which online trust, as a key mediator in online studies, translates instruments into repurchase intentions. However, the authors also study online brand equity, believing in its strength for repurchasing in competing, reciprocal mediation. They test indirect effects of the instruments in a sequential mediation study and reciprocal effects of trust and brand equity in a cross-lagged panel study based on longitudinal data of consumer evaluations of fashion retailers. Importantly, cross-channel repurchase intention is differentiated. The results provide new empirical evidence of a different relative importance of the instruments and of online trust versus online brand equity. The findings have direct implications for managers interested in understanding which instruments most affect consumer outcomes.

Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis

Abstract_dt.

The Internationalization of German Marketing Science

In the 1970s, marketing science in Germany was limited to the German-speaking world. My early appeal to publish in English and to change the language of German journals to English met with strong opposition from established professors. Today, 40 years later, a considerable number of German-speaking marketing scientists belong to the international top group in the Hirsch-index ranking. German journals are now publishing in English, but the transition came late, and it will be difficult to acquire A-journal status. In terms of inbound internationalization a lot remains to be done.

Development and Analysis of a Sales-Based Leading Indicator for Economic Developments

As official statistics concerning macroeconomic changes are often presented with delay, economic barometers with the ability to forecast developments have a high relevance for managerial and political decision makers. Despite the sales function being frequently named as one central source of information for business forecasts, it is often neglected in this context. The aim of this paper is the development of a sales-based leading indicator using a first empirical validation with a sample of 3,584 respondents over a period of 15 quarters (2017-2020). Through an explorative study, the authors demonstrate that this indicator has the capacity make predictions about GDP developments. The paper provides first results showing specific circumstances under which the forecast is stronger. This paper offers an alternative perspective for the development of a leading indicator, therefore provides an important addition to this research field. It shows that sales executives are important to be considered in this context.

What Consumer Responses Make a Brand Experience Create Brand Attachment?

Consumer brand attachment is a relevant driver of brand profitability because it increases, for example, purchase intention, positive word-of-mouth, and the willingness to pay a price premium for the brand. Hence, understanding the factors determining consumers’ brand attachment has generated great interest within the marketing discipline. In the process of attachment formation, marketers consider consumers’ experiences with a brand relevant. However, the literature has not provided marketers with an integrated representation of what to consider when creating brand experiences that are supposed to create brand attachment. A consumer’s brand experience is a subjective internal response to contact with a brand-related stimulus, such as a brand’s product, service, advertisement, social media activity, store, or event. For example, test driving a brand’s car, contacting a brand’s service desk, and dancing at a brand event are brand moments that elicit subjective brand experiences. Although the literature presents several characteristics of brand experiences that may positively affect brand attachment, it does not specify the fundamental underlying factors by which a brand experience produces the feeling of brand attachment. This article extends the literature by identifying the internal responses to a brand moment that are relevant for its attachment creation. First, this paper describes how humans create attachment. We explain that consumers do not permanently feel attached to their attachment objects, such as brands, but construct and feel the feeling of attachment at times of a related need. To construct the feeling of brand attachment at a time of need, consumers use activated thoughts and feelings, that is, retrieved episodic memories related to the brand, memories of feelings related to the brand, and/or semantic memories about the brand’s characteristics. Then, this research focuses on consumers’ individual episodes with a brand and the question of what inner responses to such brand moments cause or support the creation of brand attachment. We infer that the extents to which a brand experience includes pleasure, perceived distinctiveness, and arousal determine its attachment creation. Hence, pleasure, perceived distinctiveness, and arousal are the internal responses to a brand moment that create attachment. We present two empirical studies. Our research seeks to provide value to marketing practice because the creation of brand attachment is highly relevant to marketers. We recommend that marketers use the three experience responses identified in this research (pleasure, perceived distinctiveness, and arousal) as a guide when creating marketing activities intended to strengthen brand attachment. The more pleasure, perceived distinctiveness, and arousal the target group experiences, the more the brand moment creates brand attachment. Marketers may use the items that we propose to assess (or pre-test) the extent to which an activity evokes the responses relevant for attachment formation. Since pleasure/displeasure and arousal constitute core affect, they can represent any prototypical feeling that a brand moment elicits without measuring such specific feelings (Russell and Barrett 1999). For example, high pleasure (displeasure) and high arousal can form delight (anger), whereas high pleasure (displeasure) and a moderate level of arousal can form satisfaction (dissatisfaction) (Oliver et al. 1997). Finally, we point out that marketers may misinterpret studies that have suggested that, for example, sensory experiences and intellectual experiences create brand attachment or related constructs (e.g., Chen and Qasim 2021; Iglesias et al. 2019). Since most experiences that marketers create are, on average, pleasurable, positive relationships between such experiences and attachment make sense (empirically). However, this paper argues and demonstrates that brand experiences do not create brand attachment because consumers had, for example, a strong sensory experience but because (and only if) the experience contained pleasure.

The Interface Between Marketing and Sales: The State of the Art and a Research Agenda

Marketing and sales often have to work hand in hand. Therefore, several studies have investigated the drivers and consequences of the quality of cooperation between the two departments. We review empirical research on the effect of the quality of cooperation on business performance and on the drivers of the quality of cooperation, to achieve two objectives. First, we summarise the most important findings on the marketing–sales interface in a compact and structured way to give guidance to managers on how to facilitate high-quality cooperation. Second, we identify the major gaps in the literature and outline a research agenda with suggestions for future research on how to address them.

Emoji Your Story: The Advertising Effectiveness of Emoji-Based Narratives

Emojis are often used as single symbols to express emotions. Moreover, they serve as paralanguage in mass media and digital communication. Emojis are also used to tell narratives in advertising. Thus far, the latter usage of emojis has not been investigated. In two studies, we investigated the effectiveness of emoji-based narratives compared with textual narratives. Based on the data obtained from a thought-listing task, we found that consumers focus on solving the emoji puzzle when emojis are presented, whereas textual narratives are seldom replicated in such detail and induce additional thoughts about product features. We found the following five mediating effects: emoji-based narratives influence brand attitudes and the propensity to follow recommendations (provided in social-marketing campaigns) through 1. higher levels of narrative transportation, 2. higher perceptions of ad originality, 3. lower message comprehensibility, 4. stronger curiosity, and 5. lower perceptions of brand/organization trustworthiness. In total, emoji puzzles proved to be advantageous compared with textual narratives, with one exception: if the ad promoted advice that had no immediate and direct relevance for to the consumers’ lives (e.g., avoiding the use of animal-tested cosmetics and contributing to the preservation of the Amazon rainforest), the participants showed a low propensity to solve the emoji puzzle.