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Article
Publication date: 10 November 2022

Amelie Burgess, Dean Charles Hugh Wilkie and Rebecca Dolan

Despite increased emphasis on diversity marketing, much remains unknown about how brands should approach diversity. This paper aims to understand what constitutes a brand’s…

2568

Abstract

Purpose

Despite increased emphasis on diversity marketing, much remains unknown about how brands should approach diversity. This paper aims to understand what constitutes a brand’s approach to diversity (BATD), establish a categorisation of such approaches, outline the effects on audience connectedness and establish a future research agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper draws on critical theory and practical exemplars to present a conceptualisation of BATD.

Findings

Using two determinants, depth of diversity integration and order of entry, it is possible to categorise BATD into four types: transformative, adaptive, passive and performative. Early adoption and greater depth of diversity approaches (i.e. multidimensional to an intersectional representation of identities) provide optimal opportunities for evoking connectedness.

Research limitations/implications

The conceptual typological framework for BATD helps delineate how varying levels of diversity depth and order of entry influence audience connectedness. A detailed agenda for further research can guide ongoing diversity research.

Practical implications

Creating a typology reduces complexity and helps marketers recognise the differing components, manifestations and effects of their diversity approach. To increase connectedness and reduce audience scepticism, marketers must seek deeper-level diversity integrations and adopt approaches earlier.

Originality/value

This study offers a novel conceptualisation of BATD by defining it, distinguishing it from related research themes and moving beyond single diversity dimensions and marketing mix elements. Further, audience connectedness is positioned as a critical consequence as it can instigate desirable brand outcomes, benefit those identities represented and promote a more inclusive society.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 57 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

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Article
Publication date: 7 February 2023

Caitlin Pink, Dean Wilkie and Christopher Graves

Despite brands’ growing use of social media, most research has overlooked the impact of brand perceptions, particularly that of a family brand identity and perceptions of…

1388

Abstract

Purpose

Despite brands’ growing use of social media, most research has overlooked the impact of brand perceptions, particularly that of a family brand identity and perceptions of authenticity. Often the purpose of a social media post is to positively change or enhance these perceptions and, consequently, increase a consumer’s purchase intentions. However, how a post influences purchase intentions, that is, the post-to-purchase journey, is not well understood. This study aims to investigate how characteristics of social media post influence purchase intentions through the mediated effects of social media engagement and perceptions of brand authenticity and how a family brand identity enhances this post-to-purchase journey.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on signalling theory, a sequential mediation model is devised, reflecting the post-to-purchase journey. Starting with identifying desirable characteristics of social media content, the sequential roles of social media engagement and brand authenticity and ending with purchase intentions – with the impact of family brand identity overlayed at each step. This model is analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling and data from 227 UK consumers.

Findings

Four desirable characteristics of social media posts are affirmed – creativity, information, persuasion and inspiration. Each was theoretically justified as costly signals and captured different aspects of effective content, indicating their relative importance. The proposed post-to-purchase journey is supported, with family brand perceptions enhancing each step.

Originality/value

Addressing a need to look beyond current conceptualisations and theoretical underpinnings, this paper puts forward a post-to-purchase journey, incorporating brand-related perceptions, resulting in a deeper understanding of how social media builds purchase intentions.

Details

Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 32 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1061-0421

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Article
Publication date: 31 October 2024

Kate Sansome, Jodie Conduit and Dean Charles Hugh Wilkie

Escalating uncertainty surrounding brand communications has intensified consumer demands for transparency. Many definitions link transparency to the quantity of shared…

150

Abstract

Purpose

Escalating uncertainty surrounding brand communications has intensified consumer demands for transparency. Many definitions link transparency to the quantity of shared information, yet more information might not alleviate consumer uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is to develop a consumer-based conceptualisation of brand transparency that recognises the subjectivity in how transparency manifests for consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

This research adopts a qualitative approach, leveraging 10 exploratory interviews with experts and 20 in-depth interviews with consumers.

Findings

Confronted with information asymmetry, consumers rely on cues (openness, clarity, timeliness, evidence-based, explanatory) to evaluate a brand’s intentions to provide accurate information about focal domains in a way that establishes brand transparency. Focal domains of brand transparency (pro-social values, processes and product and service offerings) evolve in line with changing consumer expectations. Both consumer relationships and brand experiences influence brand transparency perceptions.

Research limitations/implications

This study challenges an inherent assumption that access to more information informs brand transparency perceptions; instead, consumers require transparency about salient and focal topics. By delineating the observable signals consumers use to infer transparency and highlighting how consumers’ biases towards certain brands and product categories influence their perceptions of brand transparency, this study contributes to customer–brand relationship literature.

Practical implications

The authors identify challenges for evoking brand transparency perceptions when information is salient. The authors stress the importance of open dialogue across all touchpoints to address consumer queries.

Originality/value

By challenging some assumptions of brand transparency literature, which have evolved from accounting and governance disciplines, this research introduces a distinctive perspective on consumer-based brand transparency.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 58 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

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Article
Publication date: 19 August 2024

Amelie Burgess, Dean Charles Hugh Wilkie and Rebecca Dolan

In response to the growing significance of diversity advertising, this study aims to investigate its impact on audience connectedness. This is an emerging metric crucial for…

415

Abstract

Purpose

In response to the growing significance of diversity advertising, this study aims to investigate its impact on audience connectedness. This is an emerging metric crucial for gauging diversity advertising success. The study explores two paths via self-identification and belief congruence to understand how diversity advertisements resonate with individuals.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative study using partial least squares with survey data from 505 respondents was conducted.

Findings

Self-identification and belief congruence mediate the relationship between perceived diversity and audience connectedness. Belief congruence exhibits a stronger influence. Further, brand engagement reduces the relationship between belief congruence and connectedness. However, it strengthens the relationship between self-identity and connectedness.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should address why belief congruence holds more significance than self-identification. Additionally, research must explore the societal effects of diversity advertising, including strategies to engage those who feel disconnected.

Practical implications

The study underscores the positive social effects of diversity advertising for both marginalized and nonmarginalized audiences. It urges marketers to pursue audience connectedness. Strategies for achieving this include reflecting their target audience’s beliefs, perhaps highlighting real and lived experiences. Marketers should also consider self-identification through visual cues and customized messaging.

Originality/value

The study applies self-referencing theory to unravel the relationship between diversity advertising and audience connectedness. It reinforces the role of self-identification and expands the knowledge by demonstrating how connectedness can emerge through belief congruence. Additionally, the authors explore the subtle influence of brand engagement, a critical brand-related factor that shapes individuals’ responses to diversity advertising.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 58 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

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Article
Publication date: 30 June 2020

Gediminas Lipnickas, Jodie Conduit, Carolin Plewa and Dean Wilkie

Market shaping research predominantly focusses on the activities of the market shaper, rather than the equally important roles of other market actors. Market shapers may enhance…

596

Abstract

Purpose

Market shaping research predominantly focusses on the activities of the market shaper, rather than the equally important roles of other market actors. Market shapers may enhance resource density and value creation within markets, yet such influences cannot exhaustively explain how markets get shaped. Other market actors also must and do exert effort in the value co-creation processes; this study aims to explore the effects of reducing their efforts, as a mechanism to facilitate market shaping.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper uses a theory adaptation approach to link value co-creation with market shaping and effort. It offers a conceptual framework and five propositions that outline the role of effort reduction in the value co-creation process to achieve market shaping.

Findings

The proposed conceptual framework indicates how enhanced resource density, resulting from the firm’s market shaping activities and reduced effort lead to enhanced value creation for market actors. Effort reduction can be achieved by reducing either the level of resource input required or the activities required to access, transform and combine resources to co-create value. Potential resource flows then may benefit the market shaper.

Originality/value

This research contributes to emergent market shaping literature by offering effort reduction as a viable tactic. Specifically, it broadens the scope of consideration of effort in value co-creation, and it advances understanding of resource density as a focal market shaping construct. The resultant framework offers a foundation for future market shaping research.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 35 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

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Article
Publication date: 10 January 2020

Abhishek Dwivedi, Morgan Miles, Eddie Oczkowski, Jay Weerawardena, Lester W. Johnson and Dean Wilkie

Relational engagement is offered as a framework to describe how buyers and sellers conduct exchange. Relational engagement is conceptualized as a higher-order construct comprising…

643

Abstract

Purpose

Relational engagement is offered as a framework to describe how buyers and sellers conduct exchange. Relational engagement is conceptualized as a higher-order construct comprising three dimensions: legal bonds, knowledge exchange and co-production. This paper aims to examine the efficacy of the construct by testing its influence on buyer–perceived seller brand equity.

Design/methodology/approach

An online survey of 401 US-based industrial buyers was conducted. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Findings

Empirical analysis supports the proposed conceptualization of relational engagement, as well as its influence on seller brand equity through influencing buyer-perceived relationship effectiveness.

Practical implications

Relational engagement offers a template to sellers for engaging organizational buyers. A relational engagement strategy has favorable implications for seller brand equity.

Originality/value

Relational engagement offers a comprehensive strategic perspective on inter-organizational exchange, moving beyond tactical approaches. The framework reflects the continuum of exchange, incorporating transactional-dominant and relationship-dominant forms of inter-organizational marketing practices.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 35 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

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Article
Publication date: 11 July 2018

Abhishek Dwivedi, Lester W. Johnson, Dean Charles Wilkie and Luciana De Araujo-Gil

The ever-growing popularity of social media platforms is evidence of consumers engaging emotionally with these brands. Given the prominence of social media in society, the purpose…

16006

Abstract

Purpose

The ever-growing popularity of social media platforms is evidence of consumers engaging emotionally with these brands. Given the prominence of social media in society, the purpose of this paper is to understand social media platforms from a “brand” perspective through examining the effect of consumers’ emotional attachment on social media consumer-based brand equity (CBBE).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper develops a model that outlines how emotional brand attachment with social media explains social media CBBE via shaping consumer perceptions of brand credibility and consumer satisfaction. An online survey of 340 Australian social media consumers provided data for empirical testing. The inclusion of multiple context-relevant covariates and use of a method-variance-adjusted data matrix, as well as an examination of an alternative model, adds robustness to the results.

Findings

The findings of this paper support the conceptual model, and the authors identify strong relationships between the focal variables. A phantom model analysis explicates specific indirect effects of emotional brand attachment on CBBE. The authors also find support for a fully mediated effect of emotional brand attachment on social media brand equity. Further, they broaden the nomological network of emotional brand attachment, outlining key outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

This paper offers a conceptual mechanism (a chain-of-effects) of how consumer emotional brand attachment with social media brands translates into social media CBBE. It also finds that a brand’s credibility as well as its ability to perform against consumer expectations (i.e. satisfaction) are equally effective in translating emotional brand attachment into social media CBBE.

Practical implications

Social media brands are constantly challenged by rapid change and ongoing criticism over such issues as data privacy. The implications from this paper suggest that managers should make investments in creating (reinforcing) emotional connections with social media consumers, as this will favorably impact CBBE by way of a relational mechanism, that is, via enhancing credibility and consumer satisfaction.

Social implications

Lately, social media in general has suffered from a crisis of trust in society. The enhanced credibility of social media brands resulting from consumers’ emotional attachments will potentially serve to enhance its acceptance as a credible form of media in society.

Originality/value

Social media platforms are often examined as brand-building platforms. This paper adopts a different perspective, examining social media platforms as brands per se and the effects of emotional attachments that consumers develop towards these. This paper offers valuable insights into how consumers’ emotional attachments drive vital brand judgments such as credibility and satisfaction, ultimately culminating into social media CBBE.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 53 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

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Article
Publication date: 6 November 2024

Dean Charles Hugh Wilkie, Sally Rao Hill, Ruhani Angana Silva and Abas Mirzaei

The growing concern around sustainability highlights the need to change individual consumption behaviour. Using evolutionary theory, the purpose of this paper is to present a…

139

Abstract

Purpose

The growing concern around sustainability highlights the need to change individual consumption behaviour. Using evolutionary theory, the purpose of this paper is to present a framework that demonstrates the process by which a consumer’s ultimate motives (thoughts, emotions, and perceptions that come from the evolutionary motives) impact sustainability campaign message persuasiveness (SCMP).

Design/methodology/approach

The framework was tested using partial least squares analysis with data from an online survey of 237 consumers.

Findings

Ultimate motives influence the SCMP through a mediating relationship, via a consumer’s sustainable consumption attitude and behaviour. The perceived sense of urgency around sustainability issues and the consumer’s connection to nature were also identified as key moderators that impact relationships between ultimate motives and consumers’ sustainability attitudes and behaviours.

Research limitations/implications

Future research could explore the impact of other factors, such as values, social norms, culture and governmental regulations, on individuals’ reactions to sustainability marketing.

Practical implications

The findings indicate the importance for managers to grasp the multifaceted nature of ultimate motives. By heightening particular ultimate motives, marketers can steer individuals towards sustainable attitudes and behaviours, consequently increasing the probability of favourable reactions to sustainable consumption messages.

Originality/value

This study addressed the two main limitations of research into SCMP by providing a theoretical grounding and focusing on the drivers of consumer behaviour, instead of campaign messaging aspects (e.g. framing). The empirical analysis, including identifying interactions between ultimate motives, supports the use of evolutionary theory to explain SCMP.

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Article
Publication date: 20 May 2024

Harriet Gray, Rebecca Dolan, Dean Charles Hugh Wilkie, Jodie Conduit and Amelie Burgess

As brands progressively become instruments for consumers to advocate for social change, many feel pressure to engage in social purpose branding (SPB) through addressing social…

1377

Abstract

Purpose

As brands progressively become instruments for consumers to advocate for social change, many feel pressure to engage in social purpose branding (SPB) through addressing social issues. In a rush to remain socially relevant, brands have approached SPB differently; some genuinely intend to advance the social issue, while some intend to capitalise on social movements to mobilise the brand. This paper aims to explain these differences by theoretically outlining various approaches to SPB.

Design/methodology/approach

This mixed method paper draws on theory, interviews with marketing practitioners, and practical exemplars to present a typology of SPB approaches. 

Findings

Using institutional logics theory, SPB is categorised into four approaches: social purpose-driving, social purpose-driven, social purpose-aligning and social purpose-washing.

Research limitations/implications

The typological framework for SPB advances this domain to outline effective and ineffective ways for brands to engage with social issues. A detailed agenda for further research is provided to guide ongoing SPB research. 

Practical implications

The typology presented reduces complexity and helps marketers understand the different approaches to engaging with a social issue. Given the growing intertwinement of brands and social issues, this research is essential for brands seeking to advance a social issue and remain relevant.

Originality/value

This paper offers a novel conceptualisation of SPB by defining it, identifying a framework of its characteristics, and detailing four SPB approaches. 

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 58 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

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Article
Publication date: 9 November 2022

Dean Charles Hugh Wilkie, Rebecca Dolan, Paul Harrigan and Harriet Gray

The continued evolution of influencer marketing has created a need to better understand influencer marketing effectiveness. With brands increasingly partnering with influencers…

12873

Abstract

Purpose

The continued evolution of influencer marketing has created a need to better understand influencer marketing effectiveness. With brands increasingly partnering with influencers, research is yet to provide an integrated perspective examining the critical role of both parties. This study aims to draw on the source credibility model and signaling theory to explain the mechanisms that matter in influencer marketing effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model of influencer marketing effectiveness is analyzed using partial least squares with data from 281 followers of social media influencers.

Findings

The authors establish influencer characteristics of popularity and attractiveness as heuristic cues that inform judgments of influencer efficacy. Further, category involvement and altruistic motives for collaboration are shown to moderate followers’ reliance on these heuristic cues. Then, a sequential mediating effect demonstrates the critical roles of the influencer and partner brand in three desired outcomes: enhanced perception of brand authenticity, enhanced brand engagement and positive attitudes toward influencer posts.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should consider other heuristic cues that could inform influencer efficacy judgments and switch the focus toward the partner brand’s impact on such judgments.

Practical implications

A step-by-step visual framework is presented to help marketers and influencers translate these findings into key responsibilities for developing more effective and collaborative partnerships.

Originality/value

Besides presenting an integrated perspective, signaling theory provides an original lens for explaining influencer marketing effectiveness, addressing the need to expand the theoretical boundaries of influencer marketing research. 

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 56 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

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