Samuel Babu Sekar, Sajeev Varki and Yasmeen Elsantil
Compared to typical brand extension research focusing on functional and symbolic attributes, this paper aims to examine brand extensions based on a brand's primary sensory…
Abstract
Purpose
Compared to typical brand extension research focusing on functional and symbolic attributes, this paper aims to examine brand extensions based on a brand's primary sensory attributes. Specifically, this paper investigates the interplay between brand equity and primary sensory attributes in shaping consumers' evaluations of brand extensions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study investigates the impact of primary or central sensory attributes on brand extension evaluations for brands with differing brand equities. The authors conducted two experiments preceded by seven pretests to develop and validate the stimulus materials. The authors aim to contribute to understanding how sensory and brand-related factors influence consumers' evaluations of brand extensions.
Findings
In these experiments, the authors find that a parent brand's central/dominant sensory attribute allows the parent brand to successfully extend into functionally unrelated categories. For example, Dove’s central attribute of touch allows it to extend successfully into categories such as towels and shaving razor. However, it does not perform as well as Irish Spring (known for smell) in categories such as cologne and scented fabric softener, where Irish Spring's central attribute of smell is more relevant. Interestingly, Irish Spring, a lower equity brand, outperforms Dove in smell-related extensions, indicating that sensory attributes can counter the impact of lower brand equity if the sensory attribute is relevant to the extension category.
Originality/value
This study investigates brand extensions based on sensory attributes such as smell and touch instead of typical brand extensions based on functional and symbolic attributes. In particular, the authors examine whether the perceived fit between the parent brand’s dominant sensory attribute and the extended category (i.e. sensory fit) is more important than the parent brand's equity in the evaluation of brand extensions.
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Sajeev Varki, Sanjiv Sabherwal, Albert Della Bitta and Keith M. Moore
The paper seeks to show that marketing and psychology literature can shed light on why investors exhibit preferences for certain price ends. The perspective adopted is that the…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to show that marketing and psychology literature can shed light on why investors exhibit preferences for certain price ends. The perspective adopted is that the stock market is a marketplace in which investors, as consumers, buy and sell (i.e. exchange) financial products such as stocks.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyzes trading data from the stock exchanges to empirically test propositions about investor behavior vis‐à‐vis certain price ends of interest derived from the marketing and psychology literature.
Findings
Investors, as consumers, favor price‐ends of 0 and 5 more than price‐ends of 9, in that they trade more frequently and more aggressively at these price ends. Further, even price ends of 0 are favored more than odd price ends of 5.
Practical implications
The results of the study shed light on how the cognitive bias of the consumer thwarts the otherwise efficient functioning of the financial market.
Originality/value
The paper uses market‐level data to gain insights into the cognitive process of the individual investor, in addition to teasing out specific biases that have not been identified earlier in the literature. It extends the study of consumer behavior to non‐traditional, but consequential, marketplaces such as the stock market.
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Keith Roberts, Sajeev Varki and Rod Brodie
Increasingly, firms are recognizing the value of establishing close relationships with their customers as a means of retaining existing customers. Also, firms are realizing that…
Abstract
Increasingly, firms are recognizing the value of establishing close relationships with their customers as a means of retaining existing customers. Also, firms are realizing that the intangible aspects of a relationship are not easily duplicated by competition, thus providing a sustainable competitive advantage to the firm. In this paper, we provide firms with a scale for measuring the quality of these intangible relationships between service firms and their customers. We then test this scale against the related, yet dissimilar scale for service quality to determine whether the relationship quality (RQ) scale adds any further explanation of behavioral intentions. Our results indicate that relationship quality is a distinct construct from service quality and that RQ is a better predictor of behavioral intentions than service quality.
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Roland T. Rust, Peter J. Danaher and Sajeev Varki
Although there have been many research articles about how to measure service quality, how service quality perceptions are formed, what effect service quality has on behavior, and…
Abstract
Although there have been many research articles about how to measure service quality, how service quality perceptions are formed, what effect service quality has on behavior, and service quality’s financial impact, there has been little discussion to date of the potential impact of service quality on competitive marketing decisions. This paper considers directly the issue of how an analysis of the impact of comparative service quality can inform tactical marketing decisions in a competitive marketplace. We propose and empirically demonstrate a simple theoretical framework of how market share changes result from changes in service quality, by the focal firm and/or by a competitor. In addition we show how price changes trade‐off against changes in service quality, and how comparative customer value is affected by changes in service quality and/or price. Our framework enables us to evaluate the projected market share shifts produced by proactive changes in service quality and/or price, and also enables us to evaluate the projected effectiveness of reactions to competitors’ changes in service quality and price. For example, our framework suggests that a quickly‐implemented increase in service quality (rather than a matching price cut) may sometimes be an effective tactical response to a competitor’s price cut. We illustrate the implementation of our framework on actual longitudinal industry data. We show how the market share impact of changes in service quality and/or price can be projected, and how this information can be used to drive competitive marketing decisions.
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Nitish Singh, Olivier Furrer and Massimiliano Ostinelli
With the growth of worldwide e‐commerce, companies are increasingly targeting foreign online consumers. However, there is a dearth of evidence as to whether global consumers…
Abstract
With the growth of worldwide e‐commerce, companies are increasingly targeting foreign online consumers. However, there is a dearth of evidence as to whether global consumers prefer to browse and buy from standardized global web sites or web sites adapted to their local cultures. This study provides evidence from five different countries as to whether global consumers prefer local web content or standardized web content. The study also measures how the degree of cultural adaptation on the web affects consumer perception of site effectiveness.
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Patrick Vesel and Vesna Zabkar
After almost a decade of relationship quality studies in the retail industry, high consensus exists regarding the dimensions that define the construct. Disregarding…
Abstract
Purpose
After almost a decade of relationship quality studies in the retail industry, high consensus exists regarding the dimensions that define the construct. Disregarding epistemological depth of the concept of commitment, however, has led only to its unidimensional operationalization. To improve the retail relationship quality operationalization, this paper seeks to provide theoretical and empirical support that calculative and emotional commitment should be included as dimensions of relationship quality in addition to trust and satisfaction in the retail environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross‐sectional telephone interviews with members of a retail loyalty club were conducted in two waves. The first wave included 116 respondents to purify the measurement instrument. The second wave included 416 respondents to estimate the parameters in SEM.
Findings
Empirical findings suggest that in the retail environment, relationship quality as a second‐order factor influences emotional commitment, calculative commitment, and a combined construct of trust and satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited to members of a single do‐it‐yourself (DIY) retailer's loyalty club. Cross‐retail industry and cross‐country testing could potentially improve the proposed scale for measuring relationship quality in the retail sector.
Practical implications
Although relatively abstract in its higher‐order factor formation for daily managerial purposes, the paper attempts to discuss managerial implications from the retail point of view in a comprehensive and readable manner. By narrowing the focus to a particular sector and selected dimensions of the construct, the paper helps increase understanding of the central construct of relationship marketing to the managerial sphere.
Originality/value
An important contribution of this paper lies in the selection of dimensions that reflect the relationship quality construct in the retail environment; more specifically, the selection of calculative and emotional commitment. An historical overview of relationship quality studies in consumer markets also provides an opportunity to improve comprehension of the phenomena.
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Shujaat Mubarik, VGR Chandran and Evelyn S Devadason
This study aims to examine the influence of relational capital quality on client loyalty, comprising both behavioral and attitudinal, in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the influence of relational capital quality on client loyalty, comprising both behavioral and attitudinal, in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan.
Design/methodology/approach
The partial least squares technique is used to test the relationship using a sample of 111 pharmaceutical firms. We applied a non-parametric procedure, the bootstrapping method, to estimate the coefficient path of the relationships. Appropriate construct measures were used based on past studies to measure the dimensions of relational capital quality and client loyalty.
Findings
The findings suggest that relational capital quality significantly affects client loyalty. All three dimensions of relational capital quality, commitment, satisfaction and trust, have a significant and positive influence on both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. However, client satisfaction is found to exert the strongest impact on behavioral and attitudinal loyalty.
Practical implications
It is important for the pharmaceutical firms in Pakistan to improve client satisfaction to establish behavioral loyalty and sustain their clientele base. Trust and commitment should be managed independently, depending on the focus of firms, either attitudinal loyalty or behavioral loyalty.
Originality/value
This study is among the few that was able to empirically examine the role of various dimensions of relational capital quality in influencing clients’ attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. In addition, the study uses a new firm-level data set, compiled from a survey of the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan, which is currently facing challenges in terms of customer–supplier sensitivity.