The impact of brand evangelism on oppositional referrals towards a rival brand

2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 538-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francois Marticotte ◽  
Manon Arcand ◽  
Damien Baudry

Purpose This study aims to build on the notion of brand evangelism developed by Becerra and Badrinarayanan (2013) by examining how brand relationship variables regarding one brand (i.e. brand loyalty, brand community identification and self-brand connection) influence oppositional referrals to a rival brand (i.e. desire to harm and trash-talking) in the high definition (HD) videogame console industry. Design/methodology/approach A survey of online communities devoted to video gaming was conducted using a sample of 809 respondents, all owners of either a PlayStation or an Xbox. Findings The results show that the desire to harm the rival brand is strongly and positively associated to participation in trash-talking. Brand loyalty is connected to both dimensions of oppositional brand referrals. Consumers’ connection with the brand affects trash-talking only indirectly through the desire to harm. No association is found between identification with the brand community and oppositional brand referrals. Originality/value This study is the first to demonstrate the mechanism linking brand relationship variables regarding a focal brand with consumers’ disparagement of a rival brand, showing that a desire to harm plays a central role. Just as the desire for retaliation drives negative word-of-mouth in the context of an unsatisfactory experience with a brand (Grégoire and Fisher, 2006), the desire to harm drives trash-talking against a rival brand by brand evangelists. This study improves our understanding of the relationships consumers build with their preferred brands and how this relationship may influence their rejection of competing brands with which they do not have direct experience.

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rania B. Mostafa ◽  
Tamara Kasamani

PurposeBased on the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model, the aim of this study is to explore the impact of brand experience (BE) on brand loyalty, with the mediation effect of emotional brand attachment (EBA) dimensions, specifically brand passion, self-brand connection and brand affection.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilized a sample of 278 smartphone users in Lebanon. A questionnaire was used for data collection and a mediation analysis was employed to test the hypothesized relationships.FindingsThe findings revealed that experiential brands promote long-lasting brand loyalty through building brand passion, self-brand connection and brand affection.Practical implicationsTo achieve a long-standing brand–consumer relationship, marketing managers should enhance and augment experiential marketing practices as this triggers deep emotional links and builds strong emotional ties with customers.Originality/valueIn contrast to previous studies on BE and loyalty, this research contributes to the literature by deepening the impact of emotions from the EBA perspective, specifically brand passion, brand affection and self-brand connection and posits the latter as mediators to the link between the BE and brand loyalty in the smartphone industry.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minh T.H. Le

Purpose The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, it aims to clarify the moderating role of self-esteem (SE) and susceptibility to normative influence (SNI) in the relationship between brand love and brand loyalty. Second, the study proposes modeling the mediation role of brand love and outlining how SE and SNI affect the consumer-brand relationship. Finally, the study explores the impact of brand love on brand loyalty: the moderating role of self-esteem and social influences, as the literature regarding this is still lacking. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected via an online survey, which yielded 218 responses. Structural equation modeling was used to predict the research model. Findings The findings indicate that both SE and SNI mediate the relationship between brand love and brand loyalty. Additionally, consumers love the focal brands positively relates to SE and SNI. In return, SE and SNI lead to brand loyalty. The tight relationship of SE and SNI affects the connection between brand love and brand loyalty. Research limitations/implications The data has been collected in Vietnam, which creates a limitation regarding the study’s cross-cultural nature and the economic context. Thus, the study should be conducted in different cultures and economies (both developing and developed countries) to enhance the generalizability in consumer-brand relationships. Practical implications Brand managers should conduct more advertising in brand communities to enhance the influence of SNI and emphasize unique features of the brands, to attract consumers through the overlap of SE. Social implications The findings can contribute to enhancing unique brand identity and self-motivation will increase consumer loyalty, increasing the revenue of a specific brand. Moreover, as acceptable peers contribute to making purchase decisions, boosting the brand community will maintain current consumers and attract additional potential consumers from the current consumer relationships. Originality/value This study contributes to consumer psychology by indicating both SNI and SE as the mediators in the relationship between brand love and brand loyalty and how the consumer-brand relationship can be enabled.


2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 617-634
Author(s):  
Jisun Lee ◽  
Lana Chung

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze how brand authenticity (BA) as perceived by consumers who take health functional foods (HFF) strengthen the brand relationship quality (BRQ) and positively affects brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach The five sub-dimensions of BA perceived by HFF consumers, elicited through a focus group interview, were conceptualized as a second-order reflective construct. To identify the influences of the sub-dimensions of BA on each construct of the BRQ and the influence on brand loyalty though mediating BRQ, an empirical analysis was done using partial least squares-based structural equation modeling. Findings All the sub-dimensions of BA positively affect each of the BRQ s (brand satisfaction, brand trust and brand commitment) excepting product authenticity on brand commitment, and originality on brand trust. The impact of BA positively affects brand loyalty by mediating brand relationship qualities. Originality/value It is found that BA is an important antecedent for forming BRQ with consumers in the HFF industry, in which building trust with consumers is important. BA is an important factor in brand management of HFF.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 704-724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linlin Liu ◽  
Renjing Liu ◽  
Matthew Lee ◽  
Jiawen Chen

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explain whether consumer engagement in social media brand communities (SMBCs) motivates consumer brand loyalty; and second, to explore the antecedents of consumer engagement by developing a model based on personal engagement theory. Design/methodology/approach Online survey data from 279 brand community members of Weibo (one of the most popular social media websites in China) were used to test the proposed model. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares was performed to test both the measurement model and the structural model. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the interaction effects. Findings The findings show that three factors, namely, recognition, community identification and self-efficacy, had significant positive effects on consumer engagement in SMBCs, which consequently enhanced brand loyalty. Self-efficacy moderated the effects of both community identification and recognition on consumer engagement. The impacts of three factors on consumer engagement are contingent upon the type of SMBCs. Originality/value This study extends and advances the literature on consumer engagement by explaining consumer engagement in SMBCs from a new theoretical lens. This study also enriches personal engagement theory by investigating the effects of the interaction between different conditions of engagement. In addition, this study contributes to brand loyalty literature by providing empirical evidence of the impact of consumer engagement on brand loyalty. Finally, this study contributes to the online brand community study by introducing personal engagement theory into SMBC context, and examining the moderating role of SMBC types.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Deori ◽  
Vinit Kumar ◽  
Manoj Kumar Verma

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to evaluate certain characteristics of the videos of the software Koha and DSpace posted on YouTube. Since YouTube has the potential to provide the content creator to share their knowledge and experience through their content which has become much more beneficial to the information seeker. Nowadays, people search for queries or tutorial videos on YouTube very often to earn a better understanding of the term. Sentiment analysis of the viewers' opinion of the videos is another purpose of this study.Design/methodology/approachDataset for evaluating the characteristic of the videos of Koha and DSpace was extracted by using Webometric Analyst by creating YouTube API. Once retrieval of data was completed, a manual verification was enhanced to filter out spam videos unrelated to the scope. After the confirmation of authentic relatable videos, seeking the video's id as query, the comments per video were extracted using Webometric Analyst. For opinion mining, the Parallel Dots API web service was used in Google Sheets as an addon function. The sentiment, multilingual sentiment, emotion, intention and word frequency of the viewers' opinion was examined with the help of certain default functionalities.FindingsWebometric Analyst extracted a total of 461 and 397 videos of Koha and DSpace, respectively, uploaded on the YouTube platform. The findings of the study indicate that the growth rate of videos on Koha is decreasing, while the number of videos uploaded on DSpace is gradually increased in the last 10 years. The highest number of videos posted in 1–20 min duration category with mostly high definition (HD) with standard YouTube license and prominently in the English language. The sentiment analysis of the total extracted comments on Koha and DSpace videos found to be 2043 and 862 comments, respectively, among whom “Positive” comments are mostly found and with “Happy” emotion can be highly detected with most supportive “Feedback” intention on both Koha and DSpace videos. The top word frequency signifies that the users of both the software are using the comments section of the videos on YouTube to ask and provide troubleshooting help to each other.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study has some limitations too; the dataset for the study includes only those videos whose title, description or keywords sections had the query terms “Koha” or “DSpace” there are chances that some videos would have been left out from the dataset related to these software.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to evaluate the characteristics and sentiment of both the videos Koha and DSpace. Through this, the popularity, likeness and dislike and the impact of the contents of the videos uploaded will be disclosed, and creators can make an improvement by referring this, and the seekers will adapt to the use of correct and authentic information.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael SW Lee ◽  
Ian Soon

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the phenomena of Apple iPhone jailbreaking, a novel scenario where a company actively oppresses and discourages the co-creation of value and customisation of its products by loyal consumers. Design/methodology/approach This paper conducted a qualitative content and thematic analysis of online jailbreaker discourse to understand the motivations and reasons driving consumers to resist a brand to which they remain extremely loyal. Findings Three themes explain jailbreaker motivations: enhanced experience, individual right of self-expression and anti-hegemony. Further two themes explain the differing motivations driving hacktivists to create the “exploits” that are subsequently used by jailbreakers (liberating the masses; status and notoriety). Finally, an integrative conceptual model is provided to showcase how disparate theories of consumer behaviour are synthesised during this novel phenomena. Originality/value In contrast to previous work, the consumer activists featured in this paper are devoted to the brand and product they are resisting. Rather than switching to an alternative brand, these jailbreakers and hacktivists remain loyal to the product in a genuine effort to help the brand. Even more interesting is the brand actively oppressing these loyal consumers’ attempts to modify and, in some cases, improve their products. Overall, this paper highlights the contradictory relationship between Apple and some of its consumers and demonstrates how brand loyalty, dissatisfaction, resistance/activism and co-creation can co-exist within the same consumer–brand relationship.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Junyun Liao ◽  
Lu Wang ◽  
Minxue Huang ◽  
Defeng Yang ◽  
Haiying Wei

PurposeIn an online brand community (OBC), consumers as a group occupy a dominant position, and their horizontal interactions are pivotal for the consumer–brand relationship. However, little is known about the effect of group characteristics on brands. To partially fill this gap, this study examines how group characteristics influence brand loyalty from the perspective of social identity theory. Specifically, by collecting data from an online survey, this paper investigates the effects of group similarity, group receptivity and group involvement on brand loyalty, the mediating role of community identification and the moderating effect of tenure in a community.Design/methodology/approachData from 482 brand community members were analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results show that group similarity, group receptivity and group involvement increase brand loyalty; furthermore, the effect is mediated by community identification. Moreover, group receptivity is more effective in fostering community identification of short-tenure members, whereas group similarity plays a more important role for long-tenure members.Originality/valueThis paper enriches the brand community literature from a group perspective and provides implications for how brand communities develop customer loyalty strategies.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 119-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Vaux Halliday ◽  
Alexandra Astafyeva

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise millennial cultural consumers (MCCs) to bring together strands of consumer theory with branding theory to consider how to attract and retain younger audiences in arts organisations. Within that the authors single out for attention how “brand community” theory might apply to MCCs. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a conceptual paper that reviews and comments on concepts relevant to helping arts organisations develop strategies to attract and retain younger consumers in their audiences. Findings – Thoughtful conceptual insights and four research propositions for further work by academics and/or practitioners on Millennials and the art and culture world are derived from this review and commentary. Managerial implications are also drawn out. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the knowledge development of such concepts as value and brand communities. It also provides an explanation of these concepts conncecting academic thought on value with pressing management challenges for arts organisations, suggesting ways to apply brand community thinking to innovatiely conceptualised MCCs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 579-590
Author(s):  
Jessica Keech ◽  
Maureen Morrin ◽  
Jeffrey Steven Podoshen

Purpose The increasing desire of consumers for socially responsible luxury products combined with fluctuating supplies in consumer markets are leading various industries to seek alternative sources to be able to meet the needs of its customers. One possible solution that may meet the demands of the future is lab-grown products. Because these products confer multiple benefits, this study aims to investigate the most effective ways to appeal to consumers by aligning the benefits of the products with their values as marketers seek to find effective promotion for these items. Design/methodology/approach We examine the effectiveness of an ethical positioning strategy for two types of luxury lab-grown (synthetic) products among high versus low materialism consumers in three experiments. Findings Findings suggest that a positioning strategy stressing product ethicality is more effective for low materialism consumers, whereas the strategy is less effective, and may even backfire, for high materialism consumers. The impact on social status consumers perceive from a lab-grown product explains why this effect occurs among low materialism consumers. Therefore, marketers should take caution and use specific appeals for different segments based on values such as consumers’ materialism levels. Originality/value If lab-grown products represent the wave of the future, it is important to understand how consumers will respond to this emerging technology and how promotion strategies may enhance their evaluation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-328
Author(s):  
Ian Pepper ◽  
Ruth McGrath

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of an employability module, the College of Policing Certificate in Knowledge of Policing (CKP), on students’ career aspirations, their confidence and wish to join the police along with the appropriateness of the module. This will inform the implementation of employability as part of the College of Policing-managed Police Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF). Design/methodology/approach A three-year longitudinal research study used mixed methods across four points in time to evaluate the impact on students studying the employability module. Findings The research suggests that the employability-focussed CKP was useful as an introduction to policing, it developed interest in the police and enhanced the confidence of learners applying to join. Lessons learnt from the CKP should be considered during the implementation of the PEQF. Research limitations/implications The ability to generalise findings across different groups is limited as other influences may impact on a learner’s confidence and employability. However, the implications for the PEQF curriculum are worthy of consideration. Practical implications As the police service moves towards standardised higher educational provision and evolution of policing as a profession, lessons can be learnt from the CKP with regards to the future employability of graduates. Originality/value Enhancing the employability evidence base, focussing on policing, the research identified aspects which may impact on graduates completing a degree mapped to the PEQF. The research is therefore of value to higher education and the professional body for policing.


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