When sports sponsorship incurs brand risk: the roles of team performance, brand familiarity and team identification

PurposeThis study investigated the potential negative effects of a sponsored team's losing performance on audiences' trust and purchase intention toward the sponsoring brand. Shedding light on the moderating role of sponsoring brand familiarity among audiences and audience team identification regarding such negative effects, the study establishes when sports sponsorship may incur risk to a sponsoring brand.Design/methodology/approachThree experimental designs (audience as stimulus of a team's losing vs control condition) were used to indicate whether and when losing performance influences participants' trust and purchase intention toward the sponsoring brand.FindingsThe participants in the losing condition report lower brand trust and purchase intention. Brand trust mediates the relationship between losing results and decreased purchase intention. The negative effects of losing on brand trust and purchase intention only appear when the sponsoring brand has low familiarity among audiences and only for audiences with low identification.Practical implicationsThe strategy of a brand with low familiarity sponsoring a team that frequently loses has risks and is not worth advocating. However, if an unknown brand has already sponsored a team that often loses, the efforts to cultivate audiences' identification with the team can reduce the potential risks.Originality/valueThe affirmed negative effects of losing performance on brand trust and purchase intention have value for firm sponsorship decisions. This study contributes to the sponsorship literature by revealing two boundary conditions (sponsoring brand familiarity and audiences' team identification) for those negative effects.

The Impact of Green Brand Crises on Green Brand Trust: An Empirical Study

In recent years, brand crises and greenwashing events have become common for Chinese consumers. However, compared to ordinary brands, it is more challenging for green brands to rebuild trust relationships with consumers after a green brand crisis due to their unique energy-saving and environmental protection attributes. The impact mechanism of green brand crises on consumer trust is complicated. To evaluate the different effects of different types of crises, this study used a sample of more than 1000 questionnaires to allow a regressive analysis, robustness test, endogenous test, mechanism test, and heterogeneity analysis. The study’s results show that product functional and value-related crises harm green brand trust, and both brand perceived value and perceived risk play an intermediary role in the mechanism. Brand familiarity plays an essential role in the relationship between the green brand crisis and green brand trust.

EXTENDED BRAND TO INCREASE BRAND PREFERENCE: THE KEY TO COOPERATIVE SURVIVAL DURING PANDEMIC

According to Undang-Undang (UU) No. 25 of 1992, a cooperative is a business entity composed of individuals or cooperative legal entities. Its activities are based on the principle of cooperatives, and the peoples economic movement is based on the principle of kinship. In Indonesia, cooperatives have successfully become an organization occupying a special position in the structure of the national economy. The principle of kinship owned by cooperatives is a value adopted by the Indonesian people. In addition, as the formal sector in Indonesia, cooperatives are positively affected by their links with the informal sector this link helps the formal sector to solve financial, management and technical skills issues (Majundar and Borbora, 2014). The purpose of the study is to determine which variable is affecting brand preference of cooperative application. This could help cooperative application to improve and achieve more in the competitive market. The research method used in this study is non probability sampling on Surabaya and Jombang. The data processing analysis is using simple and multiple regression with SPSS 22.0 software. The results of this data processing will be conducted wih an in-depth discussion on the characteristic respondents such as gender both men and women, aged 18-60 years old, member of cooperative, have been shopping through mobile application for the last one year, and usually using internet in daily activities. The results of this study shows that there are four hypotheses which all of the hypotheses were accepted. The accepted hypotheses are brand familiarity has a positive effect on brand preference of extension brand with the coefficient regression is 0.233, brand evaluation has a positive effect on brand preference of extension brand with the coefficient regression is 0.702, brand offering has a positive effect on brand familiarity of extension brand with the coefficient regression is 0.881, and brand offering has a positive effect on brand evaluation of extension brand with the coefficient regression is 0.873.

Antecedents of similarity perception for store-branded lookalikes

PurposeThis paper aims to identify the key antecedences contributing consumer similarity perception toward store branded lookalikes (SBLs), testing to what extent each of the antecedences influences the overall similarity perception.Design/methodology/approachTwo empirical studies were conducted. Study 1 was an online experiment to test the relative importance of packaging features on similarity judgment of SBLs. Study 2 examined the impacts of consumer characteristics and store related elements on similarity perception through a Qualtrics web-based questionnaire covering seven product categories.FindingsThis research yields two key findings. First of all, it revealed that all three packaging attributes studied (i.e. size and shape, image and color) exert positive influence on similarity judgment of SBLs, among which color shows the most significant importance, followed by size and shape, and then color. Then, it showed that brand loyalty fully mediated the effect of brand familiarity on consumers' similarity perception, giving that no direct effect was found from brand familiarity to similarity perception but consumers' brand loyalty increased as they become more familiar with the NBs. As consumers become more loyal to the brands, they would perceive the SBLs to be less similar to imitated national brands.Practical implicationsThis research confirmed the significance of proper manipulation of packaging design, either to the SBLs or to the imitated NBs. It also reveals the critical role of gaining high familiarity and strong loyalty for the NB manufacturers. For retailers, the research highlights the need to maintain a better store image in order to take advantage of SBLs to help with marketing competition.Originality/valueThis research contributes new knowledge on the lookalike phenomenon by uncovering the prerequisites that cause similarity perception between two products.

Relationship Analysis among Apparel Brand Image, Self-Congruity, and Consumers’ Purchase Intention

Brand image has been a crucial clue to making subjective judgment for consumers to determine the brand, which is critical to making a purchase decision. The influence mechanism from apparel brand images on consumers’ purchase intention was explored for theoretical and positive analysis based on the self-congruity theory. This research first constructed a hypothetical model of apparel brand images influencing consumers’ purchase intention with self-congruity and perceived quality as mediators, in which a questionnaire was designed and conducted to test the theoretical model. The research shows that apparel brand image and perceived quality can significantly influence consumers’ purchase intention. The consumer purchase intention is directly related to clothing brand image provided self-consistency and perceived quality play an intermediary with the regulatory effect of self-motivation and brand familiarity. A positive attitude toward apparel brand image will stimulate consumers to build cognitive clues and associations between the consumers and the brand and strengthen cognitive consistency with the apparel brand’s spirit. The research results are beneficial to textile fashion and clothing enterprises to improve brand building and marketing.

Near-shoring versus far-shoring: effects on customer perceived quality and purchase intention

PurposeDriven by the disruptive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing debate about the international location of firms' manufacturing activities has increasingly highlighted the specific benefits and costs of near-shoring versus far-shoring. However, the effects of near-shoring versus far-shoring on customer perceived quality and purchase intention have not been examined. Thus, this study aims to develop a conceptual model and provide new evidence to fill this gap. In particular, the study explores the roles of brand familiarity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to explain the different levels of perceived quality and purchase intention in relation to near-shoring versus far-shoring.Design/methodology/approachThis study includes two analyses of data collected from a sample of Italian customers. The first analysis consists of a 2 (high/low brand familiarity) × 3 (domestic insourcing, near-shoring, far-shoring) factorial design, and data are assessed via analyses of variance (ANOVA). The second analysis evaluates the suggested model in the two scenarios (near-shoring and far-shoring) via partial least squares–structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) multigroup analysis.FindingsResults showed that customer perceived quality and purchase intention were significantly higher for near-shoring than for far-shoring, but only when brand familiarity was low. No significant difference was found for participants with a high level of brand familiarity. In addition, the level of a brand's pre-offshoring perceived CSR was negatively related to perceived quality, and this was conceptually justified by the CSR-washing effect. Again, this effect was found only when brand familiarity was low.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings contribute to advancing the current understanding of the multiple effects of the offshoring decision and clarify that near-shoring and far-shoring have different effects for customers with low brand familiarity. The findings also emphasise that the far-shoring decision can elicit the perception of decoupling between the firm's CSR claims and CSR actions, thus decreasing perceived quality.Practical implicationsThis study provides managers with additional inputs to make more informed decisions regarding offshoring. While the post-pandemic scenario seems to favour near-reshoring over far-shoring due to agility considerations, this study also provides additional evidence of the superiority of near-reshoring from the customer's perspective.Originality/valueThis is the first study to examine and prove the differential effects of near-shoring versus far-shoring on the customer's perceptions and behaviours.

Exploring consumer loyalty towards brands of safe vegetables in Vietnam

PurposeExpanding the market share of safe food through a modern retail system has faced a lot of difficulties in Vietnam. Thus, a further understanding of consumer behaviour and loyalty towards such food is essential for food retailers. This study aims at exploring segments of consumer loyalty and its influential factors towards safe food brands in the country.Design/methodology/approachBased on a sample of 250 consumers buying safe food in Hanoi city in February 2019, two-step cluster and multinomial logistic regression analyses were applied.FindingsThe results show that four segments of brand loyalty were formed from the interaction between attitudinal and behavioural loyalty as the framework of Dick and Basu (1994), namely, true loyalty, spurious loyalty, latent loyalty and disloyalty. Notably, over 60% of the consumers were in latent loyalty and spurious loyalty, indicating variety-seeking behaviour, multi-brand loyalty or low recognition of the brand. Consumer satisfaction was the most vital motivating consumers to higher loyalty levels. Additionally, brand trust and brand familiarity played significant roles in developing true brand loyalty. An attractive selling store and friendly staff were also important in enhancing brand loyalty.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to elicit consumer loyalty and identify factors driving the loyalty towards brands of safe food in a developing country like Vietnam.