A Receiver Perspective on Knowledge Sharing Impact on Consumer–Brand Relationship in Virtual Communities

The virtual community offers groups of consumers a knowledge-shared platform, wherein shared brand information influences the brand cognition of others. Using stimulus–organism–response (SOR) model, this study constructs a research framework for the influence of knowledge sharing on consumer–brand relationship in virtual communities. The empirical analysis shows that knowledge-sharing quality has significant positive effects on the sense of virtual community, as does the sense of virtual community on the consumer–brand relationships. This study supports the strengthening of consumer–brand relationships and the enrichment of following research on knowledge sharing of the consumer in virtual communities. Thus, companies should encourage consumers to actively participate in brand activities and focus on the development of consumer–brand relationships during participation in brand promotion.

Effect of Online Cosmetics Information on Brand Trust and Continuous Purchasing Intentions Online

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the impact of online cosmetics information, brand trust, and continuous purchasing behavior through in-depth research between brands, including purchase intentions and changes in perception of online shopping for cosmetics brands.Methods: A total of 1,300 surveys were distributed online in the last six months, excluding unfaithful respondents and missing values, and statistical processing was conducted using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) 22.0 and Amos 21.0.Results: This study analyzed the relationship between eight variables of reliability, positive emotion, negative emotion, purchase credibility, purchase intent, brand attitude, brand information, and information credibility. The results indicated that the higher the positive emotion, the higher the brand information, purchase intention, information reliability, purchase reliability, and brand attitude. Findings also suggested that the higher the negative emotion, the lower the intention of purchase, information reliability, purchase reliability, and brand attitude. The most influential factor of negative emotion was information reliability. The results of the reliability analysis demonstrated that higher reliability increased brand information, purchase intention, information reliability, purchase reliability, and brand attitude; reliability had the greatest impact on information reliability.Conclusion: When providing online cosmetics brand information, marketers need to strategize regarding brand advertising considering the online and mobile environment and user characteristics, actively proposing and managing contents and advertising that can effectively deliver the main ingredients and effects of non-advertising brand products and continuously provide objective and reliable cosmetics brand information.

Understanding a consumer's path to purchase jeans in a social media context

Consumers are increasingly depending on online and social platforms to find product and brand information while fashion brands seek to further engage with consumers online. This study proposes a five-construct structural model to measure the influence of product involvement, fashion brand involvement, altruistic involvement, and online brand engagement on purchase intention in a social media context. Through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a sample of 799 shoppers in North America were empirically tested to validate the findings drawn from the model. From the six hypotheses presented, all were accepted; including three hypotheses which were an extension of previous research. The findings confirm a consumer’s journey is prevalent and future testing of the model in new applications will help to enhance and progress social media studies around involvement and engagement. Keywords: Social Media, Product Involvement, Fashion Brand Involvement, Altruistic Involvement, Online Brand Engagement, Purchase Intention, PLS-SEM

Understanding a consumer's path to purchase jeans in a social media context

Consumers are increasingly depending on online and social platforms to find product and brand information while fashion brands seek to further engage with consumers online. This study proposes a five-construct structural model to measure the influence of product involvement, fashion brand involvement, altruistic involvement, and online brand engagement on purchase intention in a social media context. Through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a sample of 799 shoppers in North America were empirically tested to validate the findings drawn from the model. From the six hypotheses presented, all were accepted; including three hypotheses which were an extension of previous research. The findings confirm a consumer’s journey is prevalent and future testing of the model in new applications will help to enhance and progress social media studies around involvement and engagement. Keywords: Social Media, Product Involvement, Fashion Brand Involvement, Altruistic Involvement, Online Brand Engagement, Purchase Intention, PLS-SEM

Reading Food Experiences from the Face: Effects of Familiarity and Branding of Soy Sauce on Facial Expressions and Video-Based RPPG Heart Rate

Food experiences are not only driven by the food’s intrinsic properties, such as its taste, texture, and aroma, but also by extrinsic properties such as visual brand information and the consumers’ previous experiences with the foods. Recent developments in automated facial expression analysis and heart rate detection based on skin color changes (remote photoplethysmography or RPPG) allow for the monitoring of food experiences based on video images of the face. RPPG offers the possibility of large-scale non-laboratory and web-based testing of food products. In this study, results from the video-based analysis were compared to the more conventional tests (scores of valence and arousal using Emojis and photoplethysmography heart rate (PPG)). Forty participants with varying degrees of familiarity with soy sauce were presented with samples of rice and three commercial soy sauces with and without brand information. The results showed that (1) liking and arousal were affected primarily by the specific tastes, but not by branding and familiarity. In contrast, facial expressions were affected by branding and familiarity, and to a lesser degree by specific tastes. (2) RPPG heart rate and PPG both showed effects of branding and familiarity. However, RPPG heart rate needs further development because it underestimated the heart rate compared to PPG and was less sensitive to changes over time and with activity (viewing of brand information and tasting). In conclusion, this study suggests that recording of facial expressions and heart rates may no longer be limited to laboratories but can be done remotely using video images, which offers opportunities for large-scale testing in consumer science.

Biomarketing: Understanding Brand Perception through Biological Process, and User-Friendly Materials and Platforms

This work provides a cogent review of biomarketing. Biomarketing is an emerging discipline that crisscross the fields of management and science. Biomarketing is defined as the marketing of bio-relevant products and services within the global biosphere. Biomarketing pose that the interactions between salespeople and customers can be studied from a biological perspective. The emerging research in marketing studying buyer–seller interactions has explored the role of genes, hormones, and pleasure and pain processes. Clarity in health communication aid customer understanding of brand information. Brand management is explicitly focused on the application of all relevant marketing techniques in order to boost the perceived value of bio-relevant product to the customers. Biomarketing companies are different from regular marketing agency in that they know the physician and the science.

The Influence of Social Media on Consumer Purchase Intentions: Like Behavior as a Moderator

his study aims to analyze the effect of e-WOM, brand image, brand awareness on perceived value and purchase intention with liking behavior as moderation. The object of this research is the Lactona brand on social media. Valid respondents in this study amounted to 145 respondents. Data were collected through an online questionnaire. Consumers often use social networking sites that are studied through electronic word of mouth references, consumers can easily obtain various types of brand information that drive purchase intention. Based on the perspective of consumer behavior, a research model was developed to determine what factors influence consumer value perceptions and purchase intentions on social media. Of all the variables, only liking behavior is insignificant. The results of this study can be used as a reference for further research on research development.

Effect of Branding and Familiarity of Soy Sauces on Valence and Arousal as Determined by Facial Expressions, Physiological Measures, Emojis, and Ratings

Food experiences can be summarized along two main dimensions: valence and arousal, which can be measured explicitly with subjective ratings or implicitly with physiological and behavioral measures. Food experiences are not only driven by the food's intrinsic properties, such as its taste, texture, and aroma, but also by extrinsic properties such as brand information and the consumers' previous experiences with the foods. In this study, valence and arousal to intrinsic and extrinsic properties of soy sauce were measured in consumers that varied in their previous experience with soy sauce, using a combination of explicit (scores and emojis), implicit (heart rate and skin conductance), and behavioral measures (facial expressions). Forty participants, high- and low-frequency users, were presented with samples of rice and three commercial soy sauces without and with brand information that either matched or non-matched the taste of the soy sauce. In general, skin conductance and facial expressions showed relatively low arousal during exposure to the brand name and again lowest arousal during tasting. Heart rate was lowest during exposure to the brand name and increased during tasting probably resulting from the motor activity during chewing. Furthermore, the results showed that explicit liking and arousal scores were primarily affected by the taste of the specific soy sauce and by the participants' previous experience with soy sauces. These scores were not affected by branding information. In contrast, facial expressions, skin conductance, and heart rate were primarily affected by (1) the participants' level of experience with soy sauce, (2) whether or not branding information was provided, and (3) whether or not the branding information matched with the taste. In conclusion, this study suggests that liking scores may be most sensitive to the food's intrinsic taste properties, whereas implicit measures and facial expressions may be most sensitive to extrinsic properties such as brand information. All measures were affected by the consumers' previous food experiences.

Monolingual Consumers’ Reactions in Cyber Market to GCCP, FCCP, and LCCP Ad Appeals in Taiwan

This study takes the product ethnicity perspective to investigate how monolingual Taiwanese consumers respond to products from developed countries when the consumer culture positioning (CCP) is global versus foreign versus local. Our experiment has a 2 (high vs. low fit of product ethnicity) × 3 (global vs. foreign vs. local ad appeal) design. Two mediating mechanisms are introduced to explain how ad fluency and brand information credibility impact ad effectiveness. These findings provide insights regarding the impact of a product’s country of origin and have implications for international marketing and advertising strategies.

A Social Media Mining and Ensemble Learning Model: Application to Luxury and Fast Fashion Brands

This research proposes a framework for the fashion brand community to explore public participation behaviors triggered by brand information and to understand the importance of key image cues and brand positioning. In addition, it reviews different participation responses (likes, comments, and shares) to build systematic image and theme modules that detail planning requirements for community information. The sample includes luxury fashion brands (Chanel, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton) and fast fashion brands (Adidas, Nike, and Zara). Using a web crawler, a total of 21,670 posts made from 2011 to 2019 are obtained. A fashion brand image model is constructed to determine key image cues in posts by each brand. Drawing on the findings of the ensemble analysis, this research divides cues used by the six major fashion brands into two modules, image cue module and image and theme cue module, to understand participation responses in the form of likes, comments, and shares. The results of the systematic image and theme module serve as a critical reference for admins exploring the characteristics of public participation for each brand and the main factors motivating public participation.