EXPRESS: Befriending the Enemy: The Effects of Observing Brand-to-Brand Praise on Consumer Evaluations and Choices

2021 ◽  
pp. 002224292110530
Author(s):  
Lingrui Zhou ◽  
Katherine M. Du ◽  
Keisha M. Cutright

Consumers have grown increasingly skeptical of brands, leaving managers in a dire search for novel ways to connect. The authors suggest that focusing on one’s relationships with competitors is a valuable, albeit unexpected, way for brands to do so. More specifically, the present research demonstrates that praising one’s competitor—via “brand-to-brand praise”— often heightens preference for the praiser more so than other common forms of communication, such as self-promotion or benevolent information. This is because brand-to-brand praise increases perceptions of brand warmth, which leads to enhanced brand evaluations and choice. The authors support this theory with seven studies conducted in the lab, online, and in the field that feature multiple managerially-relevant outcomes, including brand attitudes, social media and advertising engagement, brand choice, and purchase behavior, in a variety of product and service contexts. The authors also identify key boundary conditions and rule alternative explanations, further elucidating the underlying mechanism and important implementation insights. This work contributes to our understanding of brand perception and warmth, providing a novel way for brands to connect to consumers by connecting with each other.

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 1029-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lili Wang ◽  
Ying Ding

Purpose Focusing on firm-initiated brand communities, the purpose of this paper is to systematically examine the influence of brand community rejection on consumer evaluations and document the underlying mechanism involved. Design/methodology/approach Four empirical studies were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Using a similar 2 × 2 study design, different subject samples and different product categories, Studies 1-3 investigated whether a brand community rejection strategy impacted strong brands differently than weak brands. Furthermore, Study 3 measured reactance as a moderator to explore the underlying process of the impact of a brand community rejection strategy on brand evaluations for different types of brands (i.e. strong vs weak). Study 4 used a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design to examine whether justification would eliminate the negative impact of brand community rejection on subsequent brand evaluations for a weak brand. Findings Across the four studies, the findings consistently suggest that rejection from firm-initiated brand communities harms weak brands but not strong brands. In addition, by incorporating psychological reactance as a moderator of this effect, the authors uncover the process underlying the interaction between brand community rejection and brand strength. Furthermore, the paper examines the reasons that justify rejection to find a solution that eliminates the negative impact of brand community rejection on brand evaluations for weak brands. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research provides the first investigation of the effects of a brand community rejection strategy for different brands. The findings could advance the social exclusion literature and shed new light on brand community research.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
JungHwa (Jenny) Hong ◽  
Jie Yang ◽  
Barbara Ross Wooldridge ◽  
Anita D Bhappu

Purpose Brand storytelling has been found to be an effective marketing tool. Unlike a brand story that originates from a firm, consumers’ brand storytelling is created, developed and shared by consumers. This research aims to examine whether consumers’ brand storytelling leads to increased favorable brand evaluations and compares its effects on consumer cognition and emotions, to a brand story generated by a firm. Design/methodology/approach Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. In Study 1, a 2 (story: consumers’ brand storytelling vs brand story by a firm) × 2 (product: coffee shop vs airline mileage programs) between-subjects design was used. Studies 2 and 3 replicated Study 1 and investigated different measurements of the constructs using different brands. Additionally, a mediation analysis was conducted. Findings The results show that consumers’ brand storytelling increases favorable brand attitudes. Consumers present deeper cognitive processing and higher experienced positive emotions when they read consumer brand storytelling as compared to a firm-created brand story, leading to a more favorable brand attitude. Originality/value There is a lack of empirical research investigating how consumers’ brand storytelling is different from brand stories created by firms, and how consumers’ brand storytelling influences brand attitudes. This study extends the literature by clarifying how consumers respond to consumers’ brand storytelling and evaluates brands by exploring the underlying mechanism for the effect of brand storytelling via consumers’ cognitions and emotions.


Leadership ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 174271502098322
Author(s):  
Steve Kempster ◽  
Doris Schedlitzki ◽  
Gareth Edwards

In this short article, we explore and problematise the axiomatic assumption of follower in the field of leadership studies notably the leader–follower axiom as the essential foundation of much leadership theorising. We do so, firstly by drawing on our experiences of exploring followership conceptually, and secondly, by reviewing conversations with executive MBA students. From these sources, we argue that the absence of identifications with followership offers a challenge to leadership assumptions around the socio-materiality of followers and their relations with leaders within organisational contexts. This leads us to questions like: what if follower identifications do not typically exist or are rejected in everyday organisational working contexts – despite discursive labelling of individuals as followers or following practices? Would or should leadership research and its examination of leader–follower dynamics fundamentally change and in what ways? We explore these questions and suggest very different orientations that might appear with regards to notions of the leadership relationship, leading and following dynamics, practice-based attention to leadership and perhaps very different approaches to leadership development. Such a (re)appraisal of the leadership lexicon may move notions of follower identification out of social constructions of organisational leadership and towards social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) – where the phenomenon of being a follower is ever present, but is redefined as a phenomenon of vicarious fantasy associated with interest, curiosity and entertainment.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Maosheng Yang ◽  
Shangui Hu ◽  
Bagna Essohanam Kpandika ◽  
Lei Liu

BACKGROUND: Social attachment has been identified as a key antecedent motivating users’ social media involvement. However, there is a scarcity of research investigating whether and how three dimensions of social attachment exert impacts on users’ continuous usage intention of social media. OBJECTIVE: Based on structural equation model analysis, the current research clarifies the relationships between social attachment, affective commitment and social media continuous usage intention, which unveils the underlying mechanism through which three dimensions of social attachment influence users’ continuous usage intention of social media. METHODS: A survey was conducted with 536 informative responses obtained from TikTok public users for hypothesis testing analysis. RESULTS: Results indicate that three dimensions of social attachment (social connections, social dependence and social identity) are all positively related to users’ continuous usage intention of social media. Affective commitment partially mediates the relationship between social attachment and users’ continuous usage intention of social media. CONCLUSIONS: The current research makes an in-depth study about the underlying mechanism whereby social attachment exerts impacts on social media continuous usage intentionand provides several managerial and theoretical implications. Future research directions are discussed as well.


Author(s):  
Shan Shan Teh ◽  
Daisy Mui Hung Kee ◽  
Munazza Zahra ◽  
Gadi Dung Paul

Objective - This study investigates the relationship between social media and innovation performance among SMEs in Malaysia. This study also extends social media literature by investigating the underlying mechanism of open innovation in the relationship between social media and innovation performance. Methodology/Technique - A questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. A total of 173 samples from data collection were then used to test the hypotheses by using the SPSS and SmartPLS software. Finding - The result has revealed that social media has a significant effect on innovation performance. Besides, outbound innovation is also found to mediate the relationship between social media and innovation performance. Novelty - This study contributes to the literature on social media and innovation by providing new evidence regarding outbound innovation impact on performance among SMEs. It also provides a great idea of social media's importance to SME managers in improving innovation performance in an organization. Type of Paper - Empirical. Keywords: Social Media, Innovation Performance, Open Innovation, Smes, Malaysia JEL Classification: URI: http://gatrenterprise.com/GATRJournals/GJBSSR/vol9.2_4.html DOI: https://doi.org/10.35609/gjbssr.2021.9.2(4) Pages 143 – 151


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 393-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siegwart Lindenberg ◽  
Linda Steg ◽  
Marko Milovanovic ◽  
Anita Schipper

The most investigated form of moral hypocrisy is pragmatic hypocrisy in which people fake moral commitment for their own advantage. Yet there is also a different form of hypocrisy in which people take a moral stance with regard to norms they endorse without thereby also expressing a commitment to act morally. Rather they do it in order to feel good. We call this hedonic moral hypocrisy. In our research, we posit that this kind of hypocrisy comes about when people’s overarching goals are shifted in a hedonic direction, that is, in the direction of focusing on the way one feels, rather than on moral obligation. Hedonic shifts come about by cues in the environment. People are sometimes sincere when expressing a moral stance (i.e. they mean it and also act on it), and sometimes, when they are subject to a hedonic shift, they express a moral stance just to make them feel good. This also implies that they then decline to do things that make them feel bad, such as behaving morally when it takes unrewarded effort to do so. In two experimental studies, we find that there is such a thing as hedonic moral hypocrisy and that it is indeed brought about by hedonic shifts from cues in the environment. This seriously undermines the meaning of a normative consensus for norm conformity. Seemingly, for norm conformity without close social control, it is not enough that people endorse the same norms, they also have to be exposed to situational cues that counteract hedonic shifts. In the discussion, it is suggested that societal arrangements that foster the focus on the way one feels and nurture a chronic wish to make oneself feel better (for example, in the fun direction through advertisements and entertainment opportunities, or in the fear direction by populist politicians, social media, economic uncertainties, crises, or wars and displacements) are likely to increase hedonic hypocrisy in society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Enrique Orduña-Malea ◽  
Cristina I. Font-Julian ◽  
José Antonio Ontalba-Ruipérez ◽  
Raúl Compés-López

Globalisation, the Internet and social media have changed the kind of actors with influence in the wine industry and the way these actors create signals to communicate credible information about experience and trust attributes. Among the most prestigious experts in the world of wine are the Masters of Wine (MW). Although initially devoted to international trade, they have spread their activities and their opinion is more and more appreciated by producers and consumers. The main objective of this article is to determine this community of experts’ behaviour on Twitter. In order to do so, four factors (presence, activity, impact and community) have been considered. All Twitter profiles belonging to users awarded with the MW qualification were identified and analysed. In addition, a set of 35,653 tweets published by the MWs were retrieved and analysed through descriptive statistics. The results show MWs on Twitter as high attractors (number of followers), moderate publishers (original contents published), moderate influencers (number of likes and retweets), and low interactors (number of friends and mentions to other users). These findings reveal that the MW community is not using Twitter to gain or reinforce their reputation as an accredited expert in the wine industry, giving more influential space on Twitter to consumers and amateurs.


EL-Ghiroh ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-151
Author(s):  
Pasiska Pasiska ◽  
Zainal Azman

In this paper, we will review the phenomena that are present in this nation: this phenomenon is none other than the existence of a movement that is able to hegemony the community for love for the homeland carried out by former HTI residents, the method used in the research is descriptive qualitative research about what happens in everyday life, either in social media and phenomena that exist in society. As for the form of Reidology with the character education approach, the character education in question combines the concept of Islamic education in Islamic schools and education in state defense whose output gives birth to the nation's children, especially former HTI residents to return to love the Republic of Indonesia. Why is this important to do, so that there are no longer Indonesian citizens who are in crisis of nationalism and play an active role in filling this independence from a development perspective in their own way.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 63-79
Author(s):  
Anna Miotk ◽  

The text analyzes social media in terms of the possibility of conducting a democratic debate through them. Initially, their users had great hopes to do so. Social media were to be not only a tool for expressing opinions or presenting statements but also for disseminating the model of liberal democracy. However, the business model of these media, as well as content filtering algorithms, introduced to protect users against information overload, prevented this from happening. To prove this thesis, the author referred to Sunstein's public forum doctrine and proved that social media do not constitute its equivalent. Although the media provided a space for discussion, they did not ensure equal access for senders of messages to recipients and recipients to a variety of content. The topic of the negative impact of social media on liberal democracy is already raised in English scholarship (and is already present in Poland through its translations) and it is also gradually gaining academic currency among Polish researchers. What constitutes a novel contribution to the already available research is the presentation of social media in the context of the utopian high hopes the media initially raised.


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