2009 AMA Winter Educators’ Conference

Marketing Theoryand Applications

EditorsKristy Reynolds, University of AlabamaJ. Chris White, Texas Christian University

Track ChairsDevon DelVecchio, Miami UniversityRui (Juliet) Zhu, University of British ColumbiaAshwani Monga, University of South CarolinaXueming Luo, University of Texas at ArlingtonCharles Blankson, University of North TexasSertan Kabadayi, Fordham UniversityPeggy Cunningham, Queen’s UniversityAlina Sorescu, Texas A&M UniversityOm Narasimhan, University of MinnesotaRaghunath Rao, University of TexasRaj Echambadi, University of Central FloridaGary Hunter, Case Western Reserve UniversityLiz Wang, University of DallasLauren Skinner, University of Alabama at BirminghamAngeline Close, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Volume 20

311 S. Wacker Dr. • Chicago, IL 60606

Copyright © 2009, American Marketing Association

Printed in the United States of America

Publications Director: Francesca V. CooleyCover Design: Jeanne NemcekTypesetter: Marie Steinhoff, Southeast Missouri State UniversityISSN: 1054-0806ISBN: 0-87757-335-2

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyrightnotice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,including photocopying and recording, or by any information storageor retrieval system, without the written permission of the AmericanMarketing Association.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvi

BEST PAPERS AWARDS xvii

LIST OF REVIEWERS xviii

BRAND LOYALTY: DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES

Brand Attitudes and Brand CommitmentRonald E. Goldsmith, Leisa Reinecke Flynn, E. Craig Stacey 1

The Impact of Corporate Crises on Customer Loyalty: Does Corporate ReputationCushion the Fall?

Sabrina V. Helm, Julia Tolsdorf 10

Determinants of Loyalty Toward Reality Television Shows: An Exploratory StudyRajasree K. Rajamma, Audhesh K. Paswan, Jeffrey E. Lewin 12

INSIGHTS INTO THE MARKET DRIVEN ORGANIZATION

Under What Conditions Can Coopetition Develop?: An Investigation into CoopetitionFormation

Pilsik Choi, Rosanna Garcia, Colette Friedrich 13

A Critical Review of the Capabilities of Market-Driven OrganizationsJeannette A. Mena, G. Tomas M. Hult 15

Information-Based Imitation as an Alternative Link Between Market Orientation andFirm Performance

Daiane Scaraboto 17

Positioning Strategy and Impact on Firm Performance: A Qualitative ApproachCharles Blankson 19

MANAGING MARKETING OF SERVICES

Antecedents of Service Development Success: A Culture-Tools-Process ModelGary R. Schirr, Albert L. Page 27

B2B-Adoption of Interactive Remote ServicesNancy V. Wünderlich, Florian v. Wangenheim 29

Consumers’ Adoption of High-Tech Service BundlesOliver Schilke, Bernd W. Wirtz 31

Integrating Marketing and Information Services Functions for Higher OrganizationalCapabilities

Cheryl Nakata, Zhen Zhu, Elif Izberk-Bilgin 33

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NATIONS, CULTURE, AND CROSS-CULTURE COMPARISONS

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Consumer Materialism and Compulsive Consumption:A Life Course Perspective and Test of Measurement Equivalence

Scott B. Friend, George P. Moschis, Kara Chan, Andrew M. Baker 35

A Cross-Cultural Examination of Third-Person Effect and Online Social Networking:Implications for Viral Marketing, Word-of-Mouth Brand Communications, andConsumer Behavior in User-Generated Context

Jie Zhang, Terry Daugherty 37

Country-of-Origin Effect: An Examination of the Bicultural ConsumerMohammad Ali Zolfagharian, Qin Sun 38

MARKETING AND SOCIETY: ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES

Deception in Covert Marketing: From the Perspectives of Law and Consumer BehaviorSzu-Chi Huang 40

I Don’t Smoke, So I Ain’t Have to Listen? A Cross-Cultural Exploration of the Effects ofAntismoking Messages on Non-Smokers’ Elaboration

Gianfranco Walsh, Louise May Hassan, Edward Man Kee Shiu 49

Is Surprise Prior to the Activation of Negative Emotions? The Processing of a ShockingAd on Drinking and Driving

Imène Becheur, Hayan Dib, Pierre Valette-Florence 51

BRAND ASSOCIATIONS AND PERSONALITY

Eagle–Bird, Nokia–Phone: Understanding Brands as WordsT. Bettina Cornwell, Michael Humphreys, Anna Rachel McAlister, Emerald Quinn,Lynn Richard Kahle, Doug Nelson 52

Using Music to Create and Enhance Brand PersonalityJohannes Flecker, Thomas Foscht, Cesar M. Maloles III, Bernhard Swoboda 54

Key Success Factors in the Implementation of an Intended Brand Personality: A DyadicPerspective

Harley Krohmer, Lucia Malaer, Wayne D. Hoyer, Bettina Nyffenegger 56

CUSTOMER RESPONSE TO FIRM STRATEGIC ACTIONS

Thank or Blame the One You Are Familiar With: Alliance Satisfaction Attributionand Consumer Behavioral Response to Partner Firms

Ning Li 58

Company-Reputation Versus Division-Reputation: Which One Strikes Through? ACustomer Segments-Based Investigation

Florian Kraus, Michael Lingenfelder, Dominic Zimmer 60

Emotional Contagion in the Context of Downsizing: How Employee Uncertainty Leadsto Customer Uncertainty

Christian Homburg, Sabine Winkelmann, Martin Klarmann 62

Fight or Flight? Customer Response to CRM TacticsAndrew Baker, Naveen Donthu 64

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EXPLORING NEW FRONTIERS IN TRUST AND CUSTOMER COMMITMENTIN THE RETAILING CONTEXT

Creating and Deploying Commitment: Linking Relationship Marketing Initiatives,Commitment, and Customer Value

Melchior D. Bryant, Maik Hammerschmidt, Hans H. Bauer 66

Intersection of Distance and Trust Theories at Retail LocationsRay L. Benedicktus III, Michael K. Brady, Peter R. Darke, Michael D. Hartline 68

Retailers and Private Label Brands: Current Knowledge and Directions for FutureResearch

James Mark Mayer, George M. Zinkhan 70

Investigating the Moderating Effects of Managerial Interventions on the Role Stress:Commitment Relationship

Anna-Lena Ackfeldt, Neeru Malhotra, Doris Fay 77

SALES LEADERSHIP, CONTROL, AND THE SALES-MARKETING INTERFACE

A Conceptual Integration of Sales Force Control and Sales Force Leadership Concepts:Bridging Three Chasms

Ove Jensen, Sven Mueller 79

Sales Leadership Effectiveness: Meta-Analysis and Assessment of Causal EffectsAlexander Haas, Harley Krohmer, Felix Weispfenning 90

Marketing Strategy Implementation Failure an Exploratory Investigation Through theSales-Marketing Interface Lens

Avinash Malshe, Ravipreet S. Sohi 91

CONSUMER INNOVATION AND SYMBOLISM

“I’ll Trade Ya!”: Exploring a Model of Consumer Collecting BehaviorMark Ligas 93

Social Identification, Social Representations, and Consumer Innovativeness in an OrganicFood Context: A Cross-National Comparison

Jos Bartels, Machiel J. Reinders 94

The Impact of Consumer Innovativeness on Shopping Styles: The Case of YoungChinese Consumers

Ji Eun Park, Jun Yu, Joyce Xin Zhou 96

When Innovativeness in Form Matters: The Joint Impact of Form Innovativeness andExpected Innovativeness Type on Product Evaluations Over Time

Michael W. Kroff 98

SOCIAL MARKETING AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Examining the Tension Between Rigor and Entertainment in the Classroom from aSocietal Marketing Perspective: Student Perceptions of, and Responses to, DesirableVersus Pleasing and Salutary Educational Products

Adam Nguyen, Joseph Rosetti 100

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Is There More Between Compliance and Exit? Response Strategies to Changes inEnvironmental Rules and Regulations

Frederik Beuk 102

The Evolution of Environmental Marketing/Management Research: A BibliographicAnalysis of the Period 1969–2008

Constantinos N. Leonidou, Leonidas C. Leonidou 104

CUSTOMER LOYALTY, SATISFACTION, AND COMPLAINTS

Cultivating Customer Loyalty: Why Businesses Do Not Have Complete Control?V. Kumar, Rolph Anderson, Srini S. Srinivasan 106

Catch Up with the Best: Relative Customer Satisfaction and Market Value of Firm EquityArmin R. Arnold, Florian v. Wangenheim 108

On the Importance of Complaint Handling Design and Customer Characteristics forShaping Complainants’ Judgment: A Multi-Level Study of Main and Moderating Effects

Christian Homburg, Andreas Fürst, Nicole Koschate 110

ONLINE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Comparing Trust and Credibility Perceptions of Online Health Information SourcesBrad Love, Michael Mackert, Harrison McKnight, Szu-Chi Huang, Adriana Garcia 112

Living Online: Consumer Behavior in Second LifeMichael Haenlein, Andreas M. Kaplan 121

The Impact of Internet Trust on the Adoption of Internet Banking and the ModeratingRole of Personality

Sonja Grabner-Kräuter, Rita Faullant 123

Reexamining Consumer Purchase Intention Impacted by C2C Online ResaleHsunchi Chu, Shuling Liao 134

INNOVATION IN SERVICE RESEARCH: AN EXAMINATION OF SERVICEINITIATIVES

A Profile Deviation Analysis of Top Performing Service Employees in Bank Branchesand Call Centers

Neeru Malhotra, Felix Mavondo, Avinandan Mukherjee 136

Deregulation Within Service Industries and its Impact on Buyer Behavior: A PricingPerspective

D. Eric Boyd, Willam T. Faranda 139

Service Innovation in the Service-Dominant Logic: In Search of a FrameworkAndrea Ordanini, A. Parsu Parasuraman 140

Will They Stay or Will They Go? Customer Intentions to Follow When Service Workers BoltDavid A. Gilliam, Tom J. Brown 154

SALES TECHNOLOGY AND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

If One Steps Out of the Phalanx: Analyzing Leaders’ Influence on Sales Force AutomationAdoption with a Four Source Dataset

Christian Homburg, Jan Wieseke, Christina Kuehnl 156

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Managing Sales Technology-Related Change Mechanisms: A Commitment and CopingPerspective

Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos, Gary K. Hunter 158

CRM Software Use and Customer Service: Antecedents and OutcomesAbbie Griffin, G. Tomas M. Hult, Regina McNally 160

Customer Relationship Management Capability: Antecedents and its Impact on CRMPerformance

Oliver H. Arndt, Marcus Schoegel 162

“NEW” APPROACHES TO “OLD” PROBLEMS IN INTERORGANIZATIONALRESEARCH

Appraising, Predicting, and Preventing Business Customer Dissatisfaction and Disloyalty:Highlights and Impacts of a Marketing and Accounting Initiative

Joël Le Bon 164

Organizational Buyers’ Value Perception in Uncertain Purchasing Situations: AnEmpirical Study

Tao Gao, M. Joseph Sirgy 166

Knowledge Orientation: The Key Role Between Market Orientation and Innovation inthe Supply Chain

Haisu Zhang, Esi Abbam Elliot 168

The Effects of Pioneering Advantages in Business-to-Business Contexts: An AlternativeApproach Using Pioneer Perception

Sungwoo Jung 176

PERSPECTIVES ON MEASUREMENT ISSUES IN MARKETING RESEARCH

Triangulation of Survey Data in Marketing and Management Research: Concepts,Findings, and Guidelines

Christian Homburg, Oliver Schilke, Martin Reimann, Martin Klarmann 178

Comparing Reflective and Formative Measurement Models on the Same IndicatorsGeorge R. Franke, Nick Lee 180

Is Peer Review Reliable? It Depends on What We MeasureMartin Eisend 182

BRANDING POTPOURRI: MARKETING MIX, BRAND ALLIANCES, ANDWORD-OF-MOUTH

The Impact of Marketing Mix Efforts on Brand Equity: A Multilevel AnalysisHeiner Evanschitzky, David Woisetschläger 184

Effects of Branded Alliances on Consumer Attitudes: Does the Number of Allies Matter?Hongwei He, Guido Berens 186

Word-of-Mouth: Development of a Multiple Item ScaleJillian C. Sweeney, Geoffrey N. Soutar, Tim Mazzarol 188

Toward a Brand Values Scale: Concept and First Empirical StepsHansjoerg Gaus, Jan Drengner, Steffen Jahn, Tina Kiessling 190

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CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES BEHAVING BADLY: AN EXAMINATION OFSERVICE FAILURES AND CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

Consumer Racial Profiling in Retail Environments: A Longitudinal Analysis of theImpact on Brand Image

Jeremy J. Sierra, Robert S. Heiser, Harry A. Taute 192

Effects of Firms’ Pre-Complaint Handling Actions on Consumers’ Complaint ResponsesUtilizing a Goal-Driven Model

Chuanyi Tang, Sherry L. Lotz 194

Service Failures and Customer Forgiveness in the Healthcare SectorYelena Tsarenko, Yuliya Strizhakova 196

STRATEGIC INNOVATION AND NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

How Many and What Kind? The Role of Strategic Orientation in New Product IdeationJelena Spanjol, William J. Qualls, José Antonio Rosa 204

The Oracle of Technology in Marketing Practices: Literature Profiling on TechnologyResearch

Olivia F. Lee, Virginie Pioche Khare 205

The Polydextrous Effects of Peripheral Vision Capability, Proactive and ResponsiveMarket Orientation on New Product Program and Financial Performance

Yiannis Kouropalatis, Robert E. Morgan 207

What Drives Firms to Excellence in Innovation Management?Malte Brettel, Markus Sattler 217

B2B SALES AND MARKETING: SOCIAL CAPITAL THEORY, BRANDSTRENGTH, AND CUSTOMER ORIENTATION

Increasing Salesperson Performance with Social Capital: The Impact of Centrality,Tie Strength and Network Diversity

Danny Pimentel Claro, Gabriel R. Gonzalez 220

Brand Strength of Component Suppliers as a Driver of Their Market PerformanceStefan H. Worm, Rajendra K. Srivastava 222

Revisiting Salespersons’ Customer Orientation: What it Actually Means and When itIs Important

Abraham Koshy, Ramendra Singh 224

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR – 1

An Investigation of External Locus of Control and Online Privacy ConcernDesmond Lam 226

Individual Social Responsibility Versus Relational Norms in Consumer Helping BehaviorVeronica Thomas, Jennifer Wiggins Johnson, Joann Peck 228

Need for Cognition and Humor Revisited: Why “It’s Funny” Doesn’t Always Mean“I Like It”

James Mark Mayer, Plamen P. Peev, Piyush Kumar 237

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Passionate Devotees or Knowledgeable Brand Experts: Who Drives Evangelism?Kurt Matzler, Elisabeth Pichler, Andrea Hemetsberger 239

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MARKETING RESEARCH

Extending Festge and Schwaiger’s Model of Customer Satisfaction with Industrial Goodsto Account for Unobserved Heterogeneity

Marko Sarstedt, Christian M. Ringle, Manfred Schwaiger 241

Customer Targeting in Direct Marketing: An Accurate Prediction of Customer ResponseSubom Rhee 245

Determining the Attributes Affecting Consumer’s Perceptions of the SUV Product Classof the DaimlerChrysler Jeep Cherokee Using the Repertory Grid and the O-A-RClassification Methods

Angela Poulakidas 247

Consumer Behavior Research in the Aftermath of a Natural Disaster: Lessons LearnedRussell Lacey, Pamela Kennett-Hensel, Julie Sneath 259

GLOBAL MARKETING RESEARCH IN CHINA

An Empirical Investigation of the Market Orientation-Performance Relationship inEmerging Markets

Ahmet H. Kirca 261

How Foreign Firms Achieve Competitive Advantage in Emerging Economies:Managerial Ties and Market Orientation

Julie Juan Li, Kevin Zheng Zhou 262

Measuring the Effect of Country of Origin on U.S. Consumer’s Brand Perception ofChinese and Brazilian Beer

Daniel Galvez, Marc Fetscherin 264

PRICE DECISIONS

Organizational Price Processing TypologyGerald E. Smith, J. Chris White 271

Regular Price Reductions and Shareholder ValueChristian Homburg, Martin Artz, Tobias Stein 273

Antecedents of the Strategic Price Metric Decision: An Exploratory StudyNatasha Zaza, Stefan Michel 274

PRICING STRATEGIES IN SERVICES AND RETAILING

Antecedents of Overall Store Price Image in RetailingFelix Weispfenning, Dirk Weissbrich, Harley Krohmer 276

Payment Mode Choice, Usage, and Satisfaction: Who Uses Which and Why – Evidencefrom Austria

Thomas Foscht, Cesar M. Maloles III, Bernhard Swoboda, Swee-Lim Chia 277

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Pricing of Experience Product with Individual Heterogeneity: A Hierarchical Bayes ModelAtanu Adhikari 279

UNDERSTANDING INNOVATION ADOPTION

Behavioral Differences of Customers Acquired by Word-of-Mouth or Marketing: AnEmpirical Assessment

David M. Woisetschläger, Alke K. Töllner, Gerald Schönbucher 281

How Do Innovators Adopt Radical Innovations from New Technology Ventures?Joost Wouters, Ed Nijssen 283

Managing Customers’ Adoption BarriersSabine Kuester, Silke C. Hess 292

Perceived Risk Upon Consumer Discovery of a Radical Innovation: The Role of Arousaland Emotion

Khaled Aboulnasr, Arjun Chaudhuri, Mark Ligas 294

MODELING FACTORS AFFECTING SALESPERSON PERFORMANCE ANDEMPLOYEE EXITING

Salesperson Goal Orientations as Determinants of Adaptation to Organizational ChangeMichael Ahearne, Willy Bolander, Son K. Lam, John E. Mathieu 295

A Sequence of Salespersons Responses to Salesperson-Employer Issues?Robert A. Ping 296

Examining Curvilinear Relationships of Salesperson Self-Efficacy and OrganizationalCitizenship Behaviors with Call Activity and Percentage-of-Quota

Adam A. Rapp, Raj Agnihotri, Kevin Trainor, Michael Ahearne 306

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR – 2

Investigating Consumer Vanity: Framework Development and Identification of Vanity-Related Consumer Segments

Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, Nadine Hennigs, Astrid Siebels, Frank Bachmann 308

Personality and Performance on the Stock Market: The Mediating Role of Consumers’Financial Risk Taking

Martin Reimann, Brian Knutson, Richard Peterson 310

Uniqueness Motivation in Consumer BehaviorRonald E. Goldsmith, Ronald A. Clark 311

The Role of Interpersonal Orientation, Cognitive Endeavor, and Advertising inConsumer Ethnocentrism: A Conceptual Model

Marina Puzakova, Hyokjin Kwak, Trina Larsen Andras, George M. Zinkhan 317

MARKETING STRATEGY AND GLOBAL RESEARCH

Country-of-Origin: A Construct Past its Sell-By Date?Adamantios Diamantopoulos, Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, Dayananda Palihawadana 318

Managing Global Account in Dynamic MarketLinda Hui Shi, Fang Wu 329

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Getting a Grip on the Saddle: Cycles, Chasms, or Cascades?Deepa Chandrasekaran, Gerard J. Tellis 330

Within-Country Retail Format Diversification: Does Country Context Matter?Carol Finnegan, Linda Good 333

DESIRABILITY, EMOTIONS, AND MOODS

Gender Differences in Food Preferences: The Role of Emotional Intensity, Self-Regulation,and Appetitive Craving

David J. Moore, Jerome D. Williams 334

How the Order of Sampled Experiential Goods Affects ChoiceDipayan (Dip) Biswas, Dhruv Grewal, Anne L. Roggeveen 336

When Positive Is Painful: Aversion to Mood Transitioning as an Explanation for theAvoidance of Positive Hedonic Stimuli

Nancy M. Puccinelli Upton, Dhruv Grewal 345

PRICING

A Test of Alternative Mechanisms for the Psychological Impact of Price Bundling andImplications for When and Why Price Bundling Enhances or Derails ConsumerEvaluation

Adam Nguyen, Roger M. Heeler, Cheryl L. Buff 347

The Influence of Purchasing Goals on Consumers’ Perceptions of Price PromotionsLan Xia, Kent B. Monroe 349

The Use of a Concrete-Partitioned Message Frame: A Conceptual Cause-RelatedPerspective

Anthony H. Kerr, Neel Das 351

HOW TO IMPROVE ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE? ONE QUESTION,DIFFERENT ANSWERS

Alliance Structure and Success in the Global Airline Industry: An Empirical InvestigationUrsula Y. Sullivan, Anne T. Coughlan 353

Distribution Channel Choice of New Entrepreneurial VenturesOliver Schilke, Malte Brettel, Florian Heinemann, Thomas Müller 364

That’s Not Fair! A Social Exchange Theory Perpective on Fairness and Power inBuyer-Supplier Relationships

Jessica J. Hoppner 366

Hybrid Integration: When Third Parties Set the Agenda to Suppliers and RetailersFabrizio Zerbini, Sandro Castaldo, Monica Grosso 367

INNOVATION, CAPABILITIES, AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

Regulatory Focus and New Product Team Decision-MakingJelena Spanjol, Leona Tam, William J. Qualls, Jonathan D. Bohlmann 368

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Business Strategies of Treacy and Wiersema: The Impact of Marketing Capabilities andProduct Life Cycle

Silke Mühlmeier, Antonia Erz, Torsten Tomczak, Wolfgang Jenewein 369

The Impact of Market-Based Organizational Learning on Firm Performance: AResource-Based Approach

Jeannette A. Mena, G. Tomas M. Hult 371

A Configurational Perspective on Companies’ Innovation Orientation: A Triadic AnalysisRuth Maria Stock-Homburg, Nicolas Andy Zacharias 373

THE ROLE OF CULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT ON CONSUMER BEHAVIORIN SERVICES AND RETAILING

Couple-Shopping Behaviors: When and Why Do Shopping Partners Positively/NegativelyParticipate in a Joint-Shopping Trip?

Junsang Lim, Sharon E. Beatty 375

Cross-Cultural Differences in Customers’ Willingness to Co-Produce ProfessionalServices: Insights from an 11 Country-Study

Jan H. Schumann, Florian v. Wangenheim, Marcus Zimmer 377

Fitting In: Cognitive Community and Retail Clothing Shop Performance in BangkokClothing Clusters

Warin Chotekorakul, James Nelson 379

The Moderating Effect of Cultural on Inter-Group Attribution in the Service EnvironmentGary Daniel Futrell 387

CURRENT ISSUES IN MARKETING EDUCATION

Shared Responsibility and Student Learning: Ensuring a Favorable EducationalExperience

Jeremy J. Sierra 389

“Psst, About That Prof”: College Students’ Word-of-Mouth, Instructor Evaluation andCourse Selection

David G. Taylor 391

Non-Linear Grading: Inventory of Practices and Test of EffectsBirgit Leisen Pollack, Bryan Lilly 397

Uncertainty Reduction in the MBA Market: What to Learn from the Economics ofInformation Theory

Mario Rese, Annika Wilke, Buelent Goegduen 399

SELF REGULATION AND REGULATORY FOCUS

Keeping an Eye on the Prize: Ego-Conservation and Restoration in the Grocery StoreAubrey R. Fowler III, Jie Gao 401

Marketing of Risky Products: The Influence of Regulatory Fit and the Role of SocialIdentification

Machiel J. Reinders, Jos Bartels, Marieke L. Fransen 408

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The Effect of Aging and Time Horizon Perspective on Consumers’ Response to PromotionVersus Prevention Focus Appeals

Camelia C. Micu, Tilottama G. Chowdhuri 410

The Fit Between Brand Personality and Consumers’ Self: The Importance of ActualVersus Ideal Self for Brand Performance

Harley Krohmer, Lucia Malaer, Wayne Hoyer, Bettina Nyffenegger 412

UNDERSTANDING ONLINE COMMUNITIES

An Elaboration Likelihood Perspective on Online Customer ReviewsSusan M. Mudambi, David Schuff 414

Consumers as Resellers in Online Secondary Markets: Taxonomy and MotivationsHsunchi Chu, Shuling Liao 416

Privacy, E-Commerce, and Virtual Property: Outlining a Lockean Theory of InternetConsumer Rights

Matt Hettche 425

Third-Person Effect and Online Social Networking: Implications for Viral Marketing,Word-of-Mouth Brand Communications, and Consumer Behavior in User-GeneratedContext

Jie Zhang, Terry Daugherty 432

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITYINITIATIVES

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off for Retailers?Hanna Schramm-Klein, Joachim Zentes, Dirk Morschett, Bernhard Swoboda 433

Identical CSR Strategies, Different Marketing OutcomesAnnette Cerne, Adel El-Ansary 435

Is Carbon Labeling Effective? The Impact of Carbon Labels on Consumer Perceptionsand Purchase Intentions

Amy Stokes, Anna Turri, Andrea Heintz Tangari 437

Measuring and Maximizing Donor Lifetime Value Using Donor Selection and ResourceAllocation Strategies

J. Andrew Petersen, V. Kumar 439

NEW THEORIES IN GLOBAL MARKETING RESEARCH

A Case Analysis of Entrepreneurial Development in CubaJoseph L. Scarpaci 441

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Effect of Word-of-Mouth in Relational ServiceExchange: The Moderating Effect of Uncertainty Avoidance

Jan H. Schumann, Florian v. Wangenheim, Anne Stringfellow, Zhilin Yang,Vera Blazevic, Sandra Praxmarer, G. Shainesh, Marcin Komor, Randall Shannon,Fernando Jimenez 443

Culture’s Consequences on Foreign Market Entry: Are They the Same for U.S. Firmsand Firms from Emerging Countries?

Shavin Malhotra, K. Sivakumar, PengCheng Zhu 445

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Incorporating Theory in International Marketing ResearchJeannette A. Mena, G. Tomas M. Hult 446

ANTECEDENTS OF FIRM PERFORMANCE AND GROWTH

The Financial Consequences of Service Quality and its Impact on AdvertisingEffectiveness

Donald J. Lund, Detelina Marinova 448

The Effects of Environmental Antecedents and Perceived Market Growth onEntrepreneurial Proclivity and Growth Leadership

Zhen Zhu, Ken Matsuno 450

The Marketing-Sales-Finance TriangleDirk Weissbrich, Harley Krohmer, Ove Jensen 452

SATISFACTION AND RETENTION: KEEPING CUSTOMERS SATISFIED ANDCOMING BACK

A Tale of Two Stories: The Impacts of Customer Satisfaction with Online Retailers’Customer Service and Content on Sales Performance

Anteneh Ayanso, Kaveepan Lertwachara, Narongsak Thongpapanl 454

Customer Referral Programs and Customer Retention: Do Rewards Undermine theRetention Effect?

Ina Garnefeld, Sabrina Helm, Steve Tax, Andreas Eggert 455

The Impact of Steering Measures on Customer Channel Migration and CustomerSatisfaction

Dennis Herhausen, Matthias Schulten, Marcus Schögel 457

Bonding Orientation: The Construct and Research PropositionsRuixue Zhang, Robert P. Leone, Dahai Dong 459

TECHNOLOGICAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL CHALLENGES IN TEACHINGMARKETING

Internet Marketing Resilience: New Thoughts for Curriculum and ResourcesKevin F. McCrohan, James W. Harvey 462

Motivations as Predictors of Value Generated from Marketing-Related Technology Use:Orientations, Moderators, and Outcomes

Michael Levin, Jared M. Hansen, Debra Laverie 470

A Blueprint for Cross-Cultural Marketing Communications Project: CombiningGlobalization and Sustainability

Iryna Pentina, Veronique Guilloux 472

TRUST, SUPERSTITION, DEVIANCE, AND RECIPROCITY IN SALESRELATIONSHIPS

The Impact of Relative Power and Information Within the Buyer-Seller Dyad: TheImportance of Honesty, Benevolence, and Competence

Scott B. Friend, Danny N. Bellenger, James Boles, Pam Scholder Ellen 474

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Deviance to Regulate Affects: A Motivation Model of Frontline Employees’ WorkplaceDeviance

Chuanyi Tang, Lin Guo 476

I Will Gladly Pay You Tuesday for a Hamburger Today: Personality and Propensity forReciprocity

David A. Gilliam 478

ADVERTISING AND WORD-OF-MOUTH

Audience-Tuning Behavior in Comsumer WOM Communication and its Effect on theSpeaker

Yu Hu 480

Exploring the Underlying Motivational Drivers of WOM Referral Behavior:Toward a Typology of Social Influencers

Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, Nadine Hennigs, Sascha Langner 482

Relevance: The Lifeblood of Search Ad? The Consumer’s PerspectiveQin Sun, Nancy Spears 484

AUTHOR INDEX 486

Correction Notice: The following paper was published and presented at the 2008Summer Educators’ Conference; due to an error by the typesetter, one of theauthors’ names was misspelled:

The Role of Self-Concept Congruency on Product-Brand Image and Store-BrandImage: Antecedents and Consequences

Joseph F. Rocereto, Hyokjin Kwak, Marina Puzakova 402

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Preface and Acknowledgments

The theme of the 2009 Winter Educators’ Conference is “Excellence in Marketing Research: Striving for Impact.”Good marketing research should make an impact by changing what managers do, by sparking new intellectual insights,or by changing what is taught in the classroom. The editors of our major journals have indicated their desires not to allowthe past to constrain the future, to increase the impact of articles published, and to encourage truly innovative papersbecause they often have the greatest impact. We are proud of the innovative papers and special sessions in this conferencethat exemplify the goal of providing impact.

We have many people to thank for their involvement in the development and implementation of the conference. Weappreciate the efforts of the fine scholars who have offered their intellectual contributions. The conference would notexist without their stimulating input, whether in the form of papers, presentations, panel discussions, or othercontributions.

Without the tireless and conscientious efforts of the track chairs, this conference would not be possible. We owea huge debt of gratitude to the following track chairs whose work made our job so much easier:

Brand Marketing & Communications Devon DelVecchio, Miami University

Consumer Behavior Rui (Juliet) Zhu, University of British ColumbiaAshwani Monga, University of South Carolina

Global Marketing Xueming Luo, University of Texas at Arlington

Instructional Innovation Charles Blankson, University of North Texas

Interorganizational Issues Sertan Kabadayi, Fordham University

Marketing & Society Peggy Cunningham, Queen’s University

Marketing Strategy Alina Sorescu, Texas A&M University

Marketing, Technology, & Innovation Om Narasimhan, University of MinnesotaRaghunath Rao, University of Texas

Research Methods Raj Echambadi, University of Central Florida

Sales & Relationship Marketing Gary Hunter, Case Western Reserve University

Services & Retailing Liz Wang, University of DallasLauren Skinner, University of Alabama at Birmingham

SIG Sessions Angeline Close, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

More than 450 reviewers gave of their time and effort to evaluate the hundreds of papers and session proposalssubmitted to the conference. Thanks to all who were willing and able to help. We also thank the members of our “BlueRibbon” Award Selection Committee – Sharon Beatty (University of Alabama), Robert P. Leone (Texas ChristianUniversity), and Richard J. Lutz (University of Florida) – who had the daunting task of selecting the recipient of the “Bestof Conference” award from among a set of terrific papers.

This is the second conference in which we have used the new online conference management system and we wishto thank Tom Brown (Oklahoma State University) for his invaluable assistance in guiding us through the process.Finally, we appreciate the assistance of the American Marketing Association staff and volunteers without whom thisconference would not be possible. We wish to especially thank Lynn Brown and Marie Steinhoff for their enormouslypatient assistance in preparing the program and proceedings, respectively. The SIG members and leaders provided aterrific collection of SIG special sessions. We also thank the members of the AMA Academic Council, especially thecurrent president of the council, Peter Dacin (Queen’s University) who demonstrated great faith in entrusting us withthis conference and who provided sage counsel throughout the process. Finally, we express our appreciation to ourrespective universities for encouraging us to provide this service.

Kristy Reynolds J. Chris WhiteCulverhouse College of Commerce Neeley School of Business

& Business Administration Texas Christian UniversityThe University of Alabama

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Best of Conference Award

“Service Innovation in the Service Dominant Logic: In Search of a Framework”Andrea Ordanini, Università Bocconi

A. Parsu Parasuraman, University of Miami

Best Reviewer Award

Co-Winners:Pravin Nath, Drexel University, and

Saim Kashmiri, University of Texas at Austin

Best Paper: Track Award Winners

Brand Marketing & Communications“Using Music to Create and Enhance BrandPersonality”

Johannes Flecker, University of GrazThomas Foscht, California State University,

East BayCesar Maloles, California State University,

EastBayBernhard Swoboda, Trier University

Consumer Behavior“How the Order of Sampled Experiential Goods AffectsChoice”

Dipayan (Dip) Biswas, Bentley CollegeDhruv Grewal, Babson CollegeAnne L. Roggeveen, Babson College

Global Marketing“Culture’s Consequences on Foreign Market Entry: AreThey the Same for U.S. Firms and Firms from EmergingCountries?”

Shavin Malhotra, Jacksonville UniversityPengCheng Zhu, Carton UniversityK. Sivakumar, Lehigh University

Instructional Innovation“Non-Linear Grading: Inventory of Practices and Test ofEffects”

Birgit Leisen Pollack, University of WisconsinOshkosh

Bryan Lilly, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Interorganizational Issues“Appraising, Predicting, and Preventing BusinessCustomer Dissatisfaction and Disloyalty: Highlights andImpacts of a Marketing and Accounting Initiative”

Joël Le Bon, ESSEC Business School

Marketing & Society“I Don’t Smoke, So I Ain’t Have to Listen? A Cross-Cultural Exploration of the Effects of Antismoking Mes-sages on Non-Smokers’ Elaboration”

Gianfranco Walsh, University of Koblenz-LandauLouise May Hassan, University of St AndrewsEdward Man Kee Shiu, University of Strathclyde

Marketing Strategy“Fight or Flight? Customer Response to CRM Tactics”

Andrew M. Baker, Georgia State UniversityNaveen Donthu, Georgia State University

Marketing, Technology, & Innovation“Perceived Risk upon Consumer Discovery of a RadicalInnovation: The Role of Arousal and Emotion”

Khaled Aboulnasr, Florida Gulf Coast UniversityArjun Chaudhuri, Fairfield UniveristyMark Ligas, Fairfield University

Research Methods“Triangulation of Survey Data in Marketing and Manage-ment Research: Concepts, Findings, and Guidelines”

Christian Homburg, University of MannheimOliver Schilke, Stanford UniversityMartin Reimann, Stanford UniversityMartin Klarmann, University of Mannheim

Sales & Relationship Marketing“If One Steps Out of the Phalanx: Analyzing Leaders’Influence on Sales Force Automation Adoption with aQuadratic Dataset”

Christian Homburg, University of MannheimJan Wieseke, University of MannheimChristina Kuehnl, University of Mannheim

Services & Retailing“Service Innovation in the Service Dominant Logic: InSearch of a Framework”

Andrea Ordanini, Università BocconiA. Parsu Parasuraman, University of Miami

xviii

2009 AMA Winter Educators’ ConferenceList of Reviewers

AFelix Abeson, Coppin State

UniversityKhaled Aboulnasr, Florida Gulf

Coast UniversityAtanu Adhikari, ICFAI UniversityRaj Agnihotri, Kent State

UniversityMichael Ahearne, University of

HoustonUlla Riitta Ahlfors, University of

JyvaskylaKirk Damon Aiken, Eastern

Washington UniversityMuhammad Aljukhadar, HEC

MontrealArthur Allaway, University of

AlabamaJeff Allen, University of Central

FloridaClinton Amos, Augusta State

UniversityJonlee Andrews, Indiana

UniversitySwee Hoon Ang, National

University of SingaporeIsmet Anitsal, Tennessee Tech

UniversityMelek Meral Anitsal, Tennessee

Tech UniversityKersi Antia, University of

WisconsinSyed Tariq Anwar, West Texas

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UniversityInigo Arroniz, University of

CincinnatiZeynep Arsel, Concordia

UniversityJoep Arts, Vrije Universiteit

AmsterdamChristy Ashley, East Carolina

UniversitySharmin Attaran, University of

Illinois at ChicagoDoug Ayers, University of

Alabama at Birmingham

BDaniel W. Baack, Ball State

UniversityBarry Babin, Louisiana Tech

UniversityFrank Bachmann, University of

HannoverCem Bahadir, University of South

CarolinaJulie Baker, Texas Christian

UniversityAnne Balazs, Mississippi

University for WomenArtur Baldauf, University of BernYongchuan Bao, Suffolk

UniversityVictor A. Barger, University of

Wisconsin-MadisonJos Bartels, Wageningen

UniversityMichael Basil, University of

LethbridgeSuman Basuroy, Florida Atlantic

UniversityMary Beck, McNeese State

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UniversityNeil Thomas Bendle, University of

MinnesotaRay L. Benedicktus, California

State University, FullertonKatrina J. Bens, Pennsylvania State

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Houston, VictoriaDoris Berger, IMC FH Krems,

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Central FloridaEdward Blair, University of

Houston

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Paula Bone, West VirginiaUniversity

Maureen A. Bourassa, Queen’sUniversity

David M. Boush, University ofOregon

Doug Bowman, Emory UniversityS. Adam Brasel, Boston CollegeKarin Braunsberger, University of

South Florida, St. PetersburgSheri Bridges, Wake Forest

UniversityJames R. Brown, West Virginia

UniversityJim Burroughs, University of

VirginiaScot Burton, University of

Arkansas

CMargaret Campbell, University of

Colorado, BoulderJoe Cannon, Colorado State

UniversityMary Caravella, University of

ConnecticutLes Carlson, University of

NebraskaFrancois Anthony Carrillat, HEC

MontrealRussell Casey, Clayton State

UniversityDeepa Chandrasekaran, Lehigh

UniversityChiu-chi Angela Chang,

Shippensburg UniversityWei-Lun Chang, Tamkang

UniversityLan Nguyen Chaplin, University of

ArizonaAmar Cheema, Washington

University in St. Louis

xix

Cristian Chelariu, SuffolkUniversity

Yubo Chen, University of ArizonaPavan Chennamaneni, University

of Central FloridaJames Chien-Tao Cho, Golden

Gate UniversityPilsik Choi, Clark UniversityHsunchi Chu, MingDao UniversityAngeline Close, University of

Nevada, Las VegasKesha K. Coker, Southern Illinois

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MississippiDeborah Cowles, Virginia

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UniversityVictoria Crittenden, Boston

CollegeWilliam W. Cron, Texas Christian

UniversityAnna Shaojie Cui, Rensselaer

Polytechnic InstitutePeggy Cunningham, Queen’s

University

DSujan Dan, Texas A&M UniversityRajiv P. Dant, University of

OklahomaPeter R. Darke, York UniversityRene Yves Darmon, ESSEC

Business SchoolBrad Davis, Wilfrid Laurier

UniversityFederico de Gregorio, University

of AlabamaTom DeCarlo, University of

AlabamaDawn Deeter-Schmelz, Ohio

UniversityGeorge Deitz, University of

MemphisJade Sturdy DeKinder, University

of Texas at AustinDevon DelVecchio, Miami

UniversityDebra M. Desrochers, University

of Notre DameRita Di Mascio, University of New

South WalesIrene J. Dickey, University of

Dayton

Naveen Donthu, Georgia StateUniversity

Michael J. Dorsch, ClemsonUniversity

Paul H. Driessen, RadboudUniversity Nijmegen

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ERaj Echambadi, University of

Central FloridaAhmet Ekici, Bilkent UniversityKenneth Evans, University of

OklahomaNermin Eyuboglu, Baruch College

FAnn Fairhurst, University of

TennesseeDaniel von der Heyde Fernandes,

Universidade Federal do RioGrande do Sul

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O.C. Ferrell, University of NewMexico

Marc Fetscherin, Rollins College,Harvard University

Adam Finn, University of AlbertaKaren Flaherty, Oklahoma State

UniversityDale Fodness, University of DallasJohn B. Ford, Old Dominion

UniversityEllen R. Foxman, Bentley CollegeJonathan Freeman, Warwick

Business SchoolScott B. Friend, Georgia State

UniversityNancy Furlow, Marymount

UniversityGary Daniel Futrell, Florida State

University

GKatherine Gallagher, Memorial

University of NewfoundlandRajani Ganesh-Pillai, University of

Missouri, ColumbiaNitika Garg, University of

MississippiJule Gassenheimer, Rollins College

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PittsburghBikram Ghosh, University of South

CarolinaDavid I. Gilliland, Colorado State

UniversityMary Gilly, University of

California, IrvineAndrea Godfrey, University of

California, RiversideDaniel J. Goebel, Illinois State

UniversityJ. Tomas Gomez-Arias, Saint

Mary’s College of CaliforniaGautham Gopal, Texas A&M

UniversityMerlyn A. Griffiths, University of

North Carolina, GreensboroBianca Grohmann, Concordia

UniversityBarbara L. Gross, California State

University, NorthridgeThomas Gruen, University of

Colorado, Colorado SpringsGreg Gundlach, University of

North FloridaReetika Gupta, Lehigh UniversityPranjal Gupta, University of TampaFrancisco Guzman, University of

North Texas

HAlexander Haas, University of

BernMichael Haenlein, ESCP-EAP

European School of ManagementDena H. Hale, Georgia Southern

UniversityRebecca W. Hamilton, University

of MarylandJay Handelman, Queen’s

UniversityRichard C. Hanna, Northeastern

UniversityAndrew Wei Hao, University of

HartfordJames E. Harris, Saint Norbert

CollegeJudy Harris, Towson UniversityLouise May Hassan, University of

St. Andrews

xx

Angela Hausman, XavierUniversity

Jon M. Hawes, University ofAkron

Hongwei He, University of EastAnglia

Xin He, University of CentralFlorida

Timothy Heath, Miami UniversityBill Hedgcock, University of

MinnesotaBob Heiser, University of Southern

MaineSabrina Verena Helm, University

of ArizonaTy Henderson, University of Texas

at AustinNadine Hennigs, University of

HannoverTanawat Hirunyawipada,

University of Houston, VictoriaCharles Hofacker, Florida State

UniversityMary Holden, Waterford Institute

of TechnologyBetsy Bugg Holloway, Samford

UniversityEarl Honeycutt, Elon UniversityMark B. Houston, Texas Christian

UniversityHaiyan Hu, Utah State UniversityYu Hu, Salem State CollegeStephanie Huang, University of

New South WalesJohn Hulland, University of

PittsburghJim Hunt, Temple UniversityGary L. Hunter, Illinois State

UniversityGary K. Hunter, Case Western

Reserve UniversityMichael David Hutt, Arizona State

UniversityMichael Hyman, New Mexico

State University

IChiharu Ishida, Illinois State

University

JHaeran Jae, Virginia

Commonwealth UniversityAnupam Jaju, George Mason

University

Ramkumar Janakiraman, TexasA&M University

Sandy Jap, Emory UniversityRama Jayanti, Cleveland State

UniversityMark Johlke, Bradley UniversityBabu L. John Mariadoss,

Washington State UniversityAllison Johnson, Queen’s

UniversityDevon S. Johnson, Northeastern

UniversityJennifer Wiggins Johnson, Kent

State UniversityChris Joiner, George Mason

UniversityMarilyn Y. Jones, Bond UniversityMichael A. Jones, University of

Tennessee ChattanoogaTim Darren Jones, Memorial

University of NewfoundlandAshwin Joshi, York UniversityYogesh Joshi, University of

MarylandSungwoo Jung, Columbus State

University

KSertan Kabadayi, Fordham

UniversityManish Kacker, Tulane UniversityAndrew M. Kaikati, University of

MinnesotaStavros P. Kalafatis, Kingston

University LondonKartik Kalaignanam, University of

South CarolinaMoon Young Kang, University of

Wisconsin-MadisonIngo Oswald Karpen, University of

MelbourneSaim Kashmiri, University of

Texas at AustinVishal Kashyap, Xavier UniversityJerry Katrichis, Hartford UniversityEvangelia Katsikea, Athens

University of Economics andBusiness

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Peter Kaufman, Illinois StateUniversity

Jeremy Kees, Villanova UniversityCraig Kelley, California State

University, Sacramento

Karen Norman Kennedy,University of Alabama atBirmingham

Daekwan Kim, Florida StateUniversity

Hakkyun Kim, ConcordiaUniversity

MinChung Kim, University ofTexas at Austin

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Yuna Kim, Indiana UniversityGurprit Singh Kindra, California

State University, SacramentoSunil Kishore, University of

MinnesotaRob Kleine, Ohio Northern

UniversityRick Klink, Loyola CollegeVirginija Kliukinskaite, University

of AgderTom Kramer, Baruch CollegeMichael Krush, University of

Nebraska, LincolnAtul Kulkarni, University of

Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignGanesh Kumar, Case Western

Reserve University

LGene Laczniak, Marquette

UniversityRuss Laczniak, Iowa State

UniversityDesmond Lam, University of South

AustraliaSon Kim Lam, University of

HoustonMichel Laroche, Concordia

UniversityHyunjung Lee, Kent State

UniversityMichelle Lee, Singapore

Management UniversityRuby P. Lee, Florida State

UniversityJames H. Leigh, Texas A&M

UniversityConstantinos N. Leonidou,

University of LeedsMichael Levin, Otterbein CollegeJeffrey Lewin, University of North

TexasLewis Lim, Nanyang

Technological University

xxi

Yuanfang Lin, University ofAlberta

Yong Liu, University of ArizonaYuping Liu, Old Dominion

UniversityRitu Lohtia, Georgia State

UniversitySofia Lopez-Rodriguez, INSEADTina M. Lowrey, University of

Texas at San AntonioMichael Luckett, University of

South Florida, St. PetersburgJason Lueg, Mississippi State

UniversityDonald J. Lund, University of

MissouriXueming Luo, University of Texas

at Arlington

MIsabel Maria Macedo, Universidade

do MinhoGerrard M. Macintosh, North

Dakota State UniversitySreedhar Madhavaram, Cleveland

State UniversityGirish Mallapragada, University of

North CarolinaAvinash Malshe, University of St.

ThomasSudha Mani, University of Texas at

ArlingtonKen Manning, Colorado State

UniversityHuifang Mao, University of Central

FloridaMelissa Markley, DePaul

UniversityLawrence Jeffrey Marks, Kent

State UniversityCarolyn Massiah, University of

Central FloridaMaggie Matear, Queen’s

UniversitySarah Maxwell, Fordham

UniversityMike McCardle, Western Michigan

UniversityMichael McCarthy, Miami

UniversityJoyce A. McGriff, Southern

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UniversityTimothy Meyer, University of

Wisconsin, Green Bay

Ronald Michaels, University ofCentral Florida

Stefan Michel, Thunderbird,School of Global Management

Camelia Codruta Micu, FairfieldUniversity

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Elizabeth Miller, Boston CollegeGeorge Milne, University of

Massachusetts, AmherstSoonhong (Hong) Min, University

of OklahomaSungwook (Sam) Min, California

State UniversityAlma Mintu-Wimsatt, Texas A&M

University at CommerceSaurabh Mishra, McGill UniversityAshwani Monga, University of

South CarolinaElizabeth S. Moore, University of

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KentuckyRobert Morgan, University of

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NCheryl Nakata, University of

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MinnesotaPravin Nath, Drexel UniversityStern Neill, California Polytechnic

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Edwin Nijssen, EindhovenUniversity of Technology

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Edward Lorenzo Nowlin,University of Nebraska, Lincoln

OMatthew O’Brien, Bradley

UniversityA. Ben Oumlil, University of

DaytonTimucin Ozcan, University of

Rhode Island

PDibakar Pal, Civil Servant in India

& Independent ScholarRobert W. Palmatier, University of

WashingtonNikolaos G. Panagopoulos, Athens

University of Economics &Business

Photis Michael Panayides, CIIMBusiness School

Joseph Pancras, University ofConnecticut

Jeong-Eun Park, Ewha WomansUniversity

Ji Kyung Park, University ofMinnesota

Chirag Patel, Ecole deManagement Grenoble

Vanessa M. Patrick, University ofGeorgia

Iryna Pentina, University of ToledoLaura Peracchio, University of

Wisconsin, MilwaukeeA. Morys Perry, University of

Michigan-FlintRoss Petty, Babson CollegeNigel F. Piercy, Warwick Business

SchoolDeepa Pillai, Southern Illinois

University, CarbondaleChristopher Plouffe, Washington

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UniversityNadia Pomirleanu, University of

Central FloridaNicole Ponder, Mississippi State

UniversityKate Pounders, Louisiana State

University

xxii

Jaideep Prabhu, Imperial CollegeLondon

Paulo Prado, Federal University ofParana

Carolyn Predmore, ManhattanCollege

Sonja Prokopec, ESSEC BusinessSchool

Sanjay Puligadda, MiamiUniversity of Ohio

Ellen Bolman Pullins, University ofToledo

Elizabeth F. Purinton, MaristCollege

QTianjiao Qiu, California State

University, Long Beach

RGirish Ramani, Drexel UniversityRosemary P. Ramsey, Wright State

UniversityRaghunath S. Rao, University of

Texas at AustinAdam Rapp, Kent State UniversityLopo L. Rego, University of IowaWerner Reinartz, University of

CologneSubom Rhee, Stonehill CollegeGlenn Richey, University of

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in Economics and Business Adm.Jose Antonio Rosa, University of

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HavenJohn Maynard Rudd, Aston

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at San AntonioRamendra Singh, IIM AhmedabadSanjay Ram Sisodiya, Washington

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University

xxiii

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at ChicagoLixuan Zhang, College of

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KansasRui (Juliet) Zhu, University of

British Columbia

American Marketing Association / Winter 2009 1

BRAND ATTITUDES AND BRAND COMMITMENT

Ronald E. Goldsmith, Florida State University, TallahasseeLeisa Reinecke Flynn, Florida State University, Tallahassee

E. Craig Stacey, MarketShare Partners

ABSTRACT

Three hundred twenty-two U.S. consumers partici-pated in a telephone interview devoted to purchase anduse of grocery store products. They reported how commit-ted they were to seven brands of single serving frozendinners as well as their perceptions of these brands’familiarity, uniqueness, relevance, quality, trust, and re-spect for the company. All six brand perceptions werepositively related to brand commitment and three of them,uniqueness, quality, and particularly relevance, were con-sistently important.

INTRODUCTION

Brand loyalty is a major research topic in marketingbecause it is so important to company profitability. Loy-alty adds value to the brand, thereby mitigating pricesensitivity and staving off the negative effects ofcommoditization (Schultz 1989). It is well known thatloyal customers are among the most profitable and thatcompanies increase profitability by developing brandloyalty among their customers using a variety of promo-tional tools (O’Brien and Jones 1995). Satisfaction withthe brand is the chief driver of brand loyalty (Heskett et al.1997). But satisfaction alone is insufficient to explainloyalty because satisfied customers often defect (Reichheld1996; Skogland and Siguaw 2004). Thus, marketers andconsumer researchers seek additional concepts that canprovide deeper insights into the brand loyalty phenom-enon.

Brand loyalty is conceptualized and operationalizedin two primary ways. Behavioral brand loyalty describesrepetitive purchase of the same brand or the percent ofcategory purchases devoted to a single brand, and attitu-dinal brand loyalty describes the thoughts and feelingsthat consumers have about brands (Baldinger and Rubinson1996; Dick and Basu 1994). Although both concepts areuseful in the study of brand loyalty, each assesses differentaspects of the concept and therefore provides differentinsights into this phenomenon (Bennett and Rundle-Thiele2002). Because attitudinal brand loyalty appears to bothprecede behavioral brand loyalty and to partially explainpatterns of behavioral brand loyalty, the study of brandattitudes can be used to both predict future brand purchasebehavior and explain why consumers exhibit consistentpurchasing patterns or defections (Applebaum 2007;

Baldinger and Rubinson 1996; Bennett and Rundle-Thiele2002; Reichheld 1996).

Managerial discussions and empirical studies of brandloyalty abound, but although their accounts of the sourcesor determinants of behavioral brand loyalty are remark-ably consistent in identifying perceptions and attitudinalelements that predispose consumers to buy the samebrands repeatedly, the relative importance of these ele-ments is less clear. Arguments are made in favor ofdifferent perceptions, but there is little empirical evidencebearing on this issue. The purpose of the present study,therefore, was to confirm whether six attitudinal brandelements [familiarity, uniqueness, relevance, quality, trust,and respect for the company] of brands of single servicefrozen dinners, a low involvement packaged good, wererelated to commitment to the brand, and if so, which hadthe strongest influence on brand commitment.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES

A complete discussion of brand loyalty is too exten-sive to present here, but some key issues can be high-lighted. Customers essentially are loyal to brands thatprovide value and with which they are satisfied. Althougheach consumer defines value differently, there are enoughcommonalities in consumer needs and wants to enablemarketers to target a limited number of consumer seg-ments based on these commonalities. Brands are posi-tioned specifically to have a specific value (a brandpromise) and a unique image, which is why differentbrands appeal to different consumer segments (Dawar2004). Brands that do not deliver some value to consum-ers or which fail to satisfy do not engender loyalty.Beyond these minimal requirements, however, loyaltycomes from a variety of cognitive and emotional reactionsto a brand forming the relationship consumers have withit that go “beyond the loyalty generated by any objectiveassessment of a brand’s value” (Joachimsthaler and Aaker1997, p. 45). “That customers now expect to be highlysatisfied is the norm, and any business wishing to securea stronger bond with their customers must do a great dealmore than satisfy. Instead, they must secure an emotionalor attitudinal preference or attachment via the consumers’feelings” (Robinson and Etherington 2006, p. 3). Thepresent study tests hypothesized relationships betweenbrand commitment and important cognitive and emo-tional brand perceptions prominent in the literature. The

2 American Marketing Association / Winter 2009

framework is consistent with the model described by thetheory of reasoned action, in which beliefs about objectsact as drivers of attitudes toward the object (Ajzen 2008).In keeping with this model, the dependent variable is“brand commitment,” an important conceptualization ofattitudinal brand loyalty: “Brand loyalty refers to thetendency to purchase a particular brand repeatedly, to staywith a familiar brand used in the past rather than switch toa new brand, or to psychological commitment to a brand”(Ajzen 2008, p. 540). Brand commitment is an essentialelement of attitudinal brand loyalty (Quester and Lim2003). Moreover, brand commitment has been shown tobe an important predictor of repurchase intentions forretail service brands (Fullerton 2005). It is defined as an“emotional or psychological attachment to a brand withina product class,” (Coulter, Price, and Feick 2003, p. 153).

Brand Commitment and Brand Familiarity

A prominent theme in advertising and promotion isthe need to create brand awareness as an essential precur-sor to consumers’ trial, purchase, and commitment tothem. Advertising and promotion texts abound with thismessage (e.g., Clow and Baack 2007), based as it is on thepervasive hierarchy of communication effects models(Clow and Baak 2007, pp. 165–167. Joachimsthaler andAaker (1997) argue that companies can make consumersfamiliar with new brands even without using mass media,provided they employ creative and unique alternativecommunications strategies. In his influential book, Man-aging Brand Equity, Aaker (1991, pp. 64-65) not onlymakes brand awareness a central feature of brand equity,he reinforces the message that familiarity with a brand isessential to its equity because “people like the familiar,”especially for low-involvement products. Davis (1995)reports a study verifying this theme. Consequently, ourfirst hypothesis is based on this essential component ofconsumer behavior. We reason that familiarity with abrand is a predictor and precursor of brand commitment.Thus,

H1: Brand commitment is positively related to brandfamiliarity.

Brand Commitment and Brand Uniqueness

That brands should be unique is the central messageof many marketing management recommendations. FromRosser Reeves’s (1961) concept of the “unique sellingproposition,” to recent discussions of new product failureowing to lack of differentiation (Curewitz 2007), oneimportant reason new products fail is because they are“me too” products rather than unique market offerings.Thus, brand managers are urged to determine what theirbrands’ unique essence, identity, or promise is. Thesefeatures give their brands unique positions in consumers’minds, thereby distinguishing them from competitors

(Joachimsthaler and Aaker 1997; Keller 2000) and match-ing them to the characteristics of the chosen target seg-ment. Consumers often use brands that reflect their iden-tity (Reed and Bolton 2005). To promote affective, andthus “real” loyalty, marketers are often encouraged to usethe brand to “make each client believe that he or she isutterly unique” (Kapferer 2005). Consequently,

H2: Brand commitment is positively related to perceivedbrand uniqueness.

Brand Commitment and Brand Relevance

The literature on branding consistently emphasizesthe need for brands to deliver utilitarian benefits, that is,to solve consumer problems and to satisfy their wants(e.g., Foxall 1999; Keller 2000). But brands do more forconsumers than solve their problems. Brands also permitconsumers to express their personalities or identities(Fournier 1998). Moreover, Keller (2000) argues that oneof the most important traits of successful brands is how“relevant” they are to consumers’ lives in the sense thatthey express what the consumer thinks is important.Chaplin and John (2005) show that this process of usingbrands to express self begins in adolescence. Thus,

H3: Brand commitment is positively related to perceivedbrand relevance.

Brand Commitment and Brand Quality

Perceived quality is so crucial to brand equity and tocustomer commitment that Aaker makes it one of the fivebuilding blocks of his brand equity model. Aaker (1991,p. 85) defines perceived quality as “the customer’s per-ception of the overall quality of a product or service withrespect to its intended purpose, relative to alternatives”and argues that this overall perception of the brand and it’sappropriateness to satisfy specific needs and wants drivesseveral important customer responses. It gives a reason tobuy, it differentiates the brand, it permits a price premium,it stimulates channel interest, and it facilitates brandextensions (Aaker 1991, p. 86). Robinson and Etherington(2006) describe how important the quality guarantee orsignal was to the development of many of the first brands,Davis (1995) describes quality as a prime driver of loy-alty, and Holt et al. (2004) report that the brand as a qualitysignal is very important in consumers brand choice for“global” brands. Thus,

H4: Brand commitment is positively related to perceivedbrand quality.

Brand Commitment and Respect

Consumers want to buy brands from companies theyrespect. Keller (2000) argues that the consumer’s “per-

American Marketing Association / Winter 2009 3

ceptions of a company a whole” are integral to buildingbrand equity. Aldlaigan and Buttle (2005) found thatcustomer brand loyalty for retail banks depended heavilyon three factors, (1) faith in organizational competence,(2) mutually aligned and congruent values, and (3) posi-tive social bonds that deliver high levels of relationalvalue. The organizational competence dimension of at-tachment incorporates measures of customer confidence,trust, respect, as well as the bank’s perceived ability todeliver a proper it services that presented value for money.Consequently,

H5: Brand commitment is positively related to respect forthe company.

Brand Commitment and Trust

Trust in the brand is akin to respect for the companyand is an essential feature of any relationship betweenconsumers and brands (cf., Fournier 1998). In this con-text, trust signifies that consumers trust a brand to deliverthe brand promise and to do the consumer no harm.Delgado-Ballester and Munuera-Aleman (2001, p. 1242)propose that brand trust is similar to interpersonal trust sothat it is a “feeling of security held by the consumer thatthe brand will meet his/her consumption expectations.”Trust reduces risk and gives the consumer confidence inmaking the brand choice (Applebaum 2007). This themeis implicit in Fournier’s (1998) description of consumers’relationships with their brands, and Delgado-Ballesterand Munuera-Aleman (2001) provide strong empiricalsupport for the positive trust-commitment relationship fordisposable diapers, a packaged good similar to our prod-uct. Thus, our last hypothesis is,

H6: Brand commitment is positively related to trust in thebrand.

Our literature review provides both theoretical andempirical bases for proposing hypothesized relationshipsbetween brand commitment and six possible antecedentsor drivers. What remains to be seen, however, is howimportant these six antecedents are to forming brandcommitment. While none should be neglected, whichdeserve special attention by managers? This last concernforms a research question for this study: Which of the sixantecedents of brand commitment are most important tocommitment?

METHOD

Sample Selection and Questionnaire Administration

The sample was gathered via a phone interview froma large advertising research firm’s online panel limited toconsumers 18 years and older. The sampling plan matchedU.S. demographics as closely as possible. Panel members

completed the survey in order to participate in a drawing.The interview covered 21 categories of packaged goods.We chose single serving frozen dinners as the focalcategory because it is a widely consumed product. Eachparticipant was asked qualifier questions and then wasrandomly assigned to one or more of the 21 productcategories. Consequently, from the original sample of5,389 participants, 322 answered questions about frozendinners. The interview presented the respondents withseven brands of single serving frozen dinners (see Table 1)and asked them to respond to several questions (seeTable 1). The order of the brands was randomized for eachrespondent.

Subjects

The sample (n = 322) consisted of 257 (80%) womenand 65 (20%) men. The mean age was 39.2 years (sd =12.3). Two hundred one (87%) were white, 13 (4%) wereblack, and the remainder 26 (8%) were “other.” House-hold size varied from one (51 or 15.8%), two (94 or29.2%), three (66 or 20.5%), to four or more (111 or34.5%). Household incomes ranged from less than $5K to$250K or more, with $55K as the median category. Onehundred thirty (40.4%) lived in the South, 78 (24.2%) inthe Midwest, 64 (19.9%) in the West, and 50 (15.5%) inthe Northeast.

Measures

The survey assessed basic demographics, and eachrespondent was asked a series of questions about theproduct category and the individual brands (see Table 1).The focal variables in the present study, brand commit-ment and perceptions of familiarity, uniqueness, relevance,quality, respect, and trust, were measured by single itemstatements using a 10-point response format (1 = AgreeLess and 10 = Agree More). Table 1 shows the meanscores for each statement for each brand and in total.Evidence that the commitment measure is a valid indica-tor of loyalty is found in its significant correlations withanother item: “How likely are you to purchase [this brand]in the future?” (where 1 = Definitely will not buy it and 5 =Definitely will buy it). Consistent with Fullerton (2005),these correlations ranged from .47 to .57.

Analysis

Analysis of variance was used to assess differences inmean scores for all seven variables across the sevenbrands. Correlation assessed the relationships among themeasures separately for each brand. OLS regression wasused to assess the relationship between brand commit-ment and the six perceptions for each brand separatelywith the demographic variables, age, sex, household size,and household income used as control variables.

4 American Marketing Association / Winter 2009

TABLE 1Brands of Single Serving Frozen Dinners Means and ANOVA Results

Brand Attitudes

Brand Name Commitment1 Familiarity2 Uniqueness3 Relevance4 Quality5 Respect6 Trust7

Lean M = 4.5 7.35 5.83 5.94 6.66 6.83 6.73Cuisine n = 320 321 321 321 319 322 319

sd = 3.116 2.379 2.383 2.845 2.348 2.467 2.423

Healthy 4.06 7.01 5.65 5.55 6.36 6.58 6.49Choice 320 321 320 320 321 322 319

2.944 2.481 2.392 2.737 2.434 2.47 2.465

Smart 3.94 6.51 5.28 5.26 5.97 5.92 5.92Ones 158 157 157 156 157 155 158

2.791 2.7 2.298 2.78 2.415 2.512 2.469

Michelina’s 3.69 5.58 4.98 5.02 5.49 5.55 5.6Lean 321 320 321 320 319 319 318Gourmet 2.84 2.977 2.392 2.748 2.462 2.65 2.574

Weight 3.66 6.59 5.53 5.26 6.29 6.84 6.53Watchers 163 164 163 163 163 162 164Smart Ones 2.829 2.822 2.415 2.871 2.444 2.532 2.556

South Beach 2.66 4.29 4.8 3.92 4.94 4.81 4.88Diet 163 163 163 162 163 161 160

2.355 2.942 2.746 2.712 2.49 2.708 2.719

Kraft South 2.44 3.18 4.49 3.38 4.71 5.66 5.38Beach Diet 157 158 159 157 157 157 159

2.188 2.764 2.756 2.355 2.563 2.886 2.714

Total 3.72 6.05 5.3 5.09 5.89 6.11 6.041602 1604 1604 1599 1599 1598 15972.881 3.001 2.495 2.848 2.525 2.665 2.609

ANOVA Results

df = 6/1595 6/1597 6/1597 6/1592 6/1592 6/1591 6/1590F = 14.36 63.76 8.74 21.91 19.69 17.98 15.59p = < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001eta = 0.226 0.44 0.178 0.276 0.263 0.252 0.236eta2 = 0.051 0.193 0.032 0.076 0.069 0.064 0.056

1 This is the only brand for me.2 I am familiar with and understand what this brand is about.3 This brand has unique or different features, or a distinct image other brands in this category don’t have.4 This brand is appropriate and fits my lifestyle and needs.5 This brand has consistently high quality.6 This brand is made by a company I respect.7 This brand can be trusted completely.

RESULTS

The mean scores of each brand for each variableappear in Table 1 and Figure 1. Although these valuesshow that on average all the brands were rated somewhat

positively for the independent variables, the dependentvariable, commitment, was consistently the lowest ratedperception for each brand. This finding suggests that thebrands were generally perceived in a positive manner bythe participants, but that the consumers were only com-

American Marketing Association / Winter 2009 5

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Commitment Familiarity Uniqueness Relevance Quality Respect Trust

Lean CuisineHealthy ChoiceSmart OnesMichelinaWeight WatchersSough BeachKraft SB

FIGURE 1Means of All the Variables

mitted to a few of them. That is, while consumers might beaware of brands, respect their quality, and trust the com-panies, they discriminate among the brands when it comesto loyal purchasing. This interpretation is entirely consis-tent with the notion that consumers of packaged goods areloyal to sets of brands in which they alternate purchases,termed “multibrand purchasing” (Foxall 1999).

One-way ANOVA compared the means across thebrands (see Table 1 and Figure 1). The results showsignificant differences (p < .05) for all the variables. LeanCuisine achieved the highest mean commitment score(4.50), followed by Healthy Choice (4.06), Smart Ones(3.94), Michelina (3.69), Weight Watchers (3.66), SouthBeach Diet (2.66), and Kraft (2.44).

The perception ratings were correlated with commit-ment for each brand. These 42 Pearson correlations arenot shown because of the extensive space the tables wouldrequire; however, all the correlations between brand com-mitment and the perceptions of familiarity, uniqueness,relevance, quality, respect for the company, and trust inthe brand (ranging from .27 to .72) were uniformly posi-tive and significant for all the brands, providing supportfor all six hypotheses for all brands. Brand commitment is

positively related to perceptions of familiarity, unique-ness, relevance, quality, respect for the company, andtrust in the brand. Thus, the findings support the manyassertions in the literature that these are essential elementsof brand image that predispose consumers to brand loy-alty.

To assess the effect of common method variance(CMV) on the results, we followed the procedure de-scribed by Lindell and Whitney (2001) and illustrated byMalhotra et al. (2006). An additional brand perceptionmeasure was included in the questionnaire that read: “Thisbrand costs more than I expect to pay for single servingfrozen dinners.” The same 10-point response format wasused. This variable served post hoc as the “marker vari-able.” It should be theoretically unrelated to at least one ofthe other variables of interest, although in this instance, itcould be related to any of them as they are all sharedperceptions of the brand. Thus, our test is an especiallyconservative one. The smallest positive correlation be-tween the marker variable and the other variables servedas an estimate of CMV (we also used the second smallestcorrelation with the marker variable as suggested byLindell and Whitney with similar results). This correla-tion is used to calculate an adjusted correlation between

6 American Marketing Association / Winter 2009

TABLE 2Correlation and Regression Results

Brand Name

Michelina’s Weight South Kraft SouthLean Healthy Smart Lean Watchers Beach Beach

Cuisine Choice Ones Gourmet Smart Ones Diet Diet

Model Summary

F 34.23 29.82 12.53 29.82 18.99 14.45 7.73df 10/300 10/301 10/140 10/298 10/147 10/147 10/139p < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001 < .001R .73 .705 .687 .707 .751 .704 .598

Adj R2 .517 .481 .435 .483 .534 .461 .311

IndependentVariablesa Standardized Regression Coefficientsb

Familiarity

Uniqueness β = .295 .181 .164partc = .216 .128 .120

Relevance .438 .520 .512 .369 .559 .517 .198.307 .369 .347 .246 .373 .388 .377

Quality .227 .186 .216 .187.144 .116 .129 .120

Respect .164.089

Trust .239.129

a Dependent variable = Brand Commitment

b Only the standardized regression coefficients significant at p < .05 are shown.

c The part coefficient assesses the unique effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable. This statisticis shown because so many independent variables were correlated.

two other variables sharing the same method and yields anadjusted t-statistic of its significance (see Lindell andWhitney for the formulas). We applied this procedure tothe correlations for each brand. The adjusted t-statisticsshowed that common method variance did not account forour results.

To assess the combined influence of the brand per-ceptions on brand commitment, we first regressed com-mitment across the four demographic variables, age, gen-der, household size, and household income to control fortheir effects. Next, we added the six perceptual variablesto the model (see Table 2). The results showed extremelyminimal effects for the four demographic variables; butthe brand perceptions had a sizable influence on brand

commitment. Importantly, only perceived relevance ofthe brand (“This brand is appropriate and fits my lifestyleand needs.”) was significantly related to commitment forall the brands. The standardized regression coefficientsand part correlations show that relevance was by far themost important perception influencing brand loyalty. Per-ceptions of quality were related to commitment for four ofthe brands, and perceptions of uniqueness were related forthree of them. Being familiar with the brand was unrelatedfor any brand, and respect and trust were only related toone brand each.

Our interpretation of the results is that the correla-tions verify that all six brand perceptions are important toforming brand commitment, just as the literature argues,

American Marketing Association / Winter 2009 7

but the determining factor in brand loyalty could be howrelevant consumers see the brand as a reflection of lifestylesand needs. Of note is the fact that throughout the analysis,the demographic variables had little or no relationshipwith brand commitment, arguing for the success of exam-ining perceptual variables in this regard.

DISCUSSION

The purpose of the present study was to expand ourknowledge of consumer brand loyalty by testing litera-ture-based hypotheses regarding its sources or drivers.The literature suggests the hypotheses that higher levelsof brand familiarity, brand uniqueness, brand relevance,quality, trust in the company, and respect for the brand arepositively correlated with commitment to the brand, anoperationalization of attitudinal brand loyalty. A tele-phone survey queried 322 adult grocery store buyers.These consumers were asked to report their opinionsregarding seven different brands of single serving frozendinners. The findings showed that levels of commitmentto the brands differed significantly, as did the otherperceptions, but the results supported all six hypotheses.All six consumer perceptions of all seven brands werepositively correlated with consumer reports of commit-ment to the brands. Moreover, regression analysis showedthat the relevance of the brand to the lifestyles and needsof the consumers was consistently the strongest influenceon brand commitment, followed in impact by evaluationsof quality and uniqueness.

The results support the advice frequently given tomarketers in search of brand loyalty; they should payattention to the key consumer perceptions that seem todrive commitment to the brand. They should promote thebrand to make it familiar to consumers (share of mind)thereby keeping it in the consumer’s evoked set; and theyand their companies should strive to earn the trust and therespect of consumers. It seems to be especially importantthat they should ensure high levels of product quality andreinforce this perception in their integrated marketingcommunications with consumers. Moreover, brand com-mitment appeared to be especially linked to perceptions ofthe uniqueness of the brand and to its relevance. Thesefeatures appear to be essential to acquiring commitment.Create a unique brand image or personality that targetconsumers find personally relevant. Make the brand asspecial as the consumers are.

Doing so will likely limit the number of consumers towhom the brand is relevant, but you cannot be all thingsto all people. Better to have a strong commitment by someconsumers than weak associations. It is possible that thisphenomenon is behind the double jeopardy effect, inwhich brands with lower levels of penetration have less

loyal consumers. They likely do not have unique imagesthat consumers can relate to. Strong brands do.

Familiarity, uniqueness, quality, trust, and respectappear to be the “price of admission” to the brand loyaltycontest. Brands lacking any of these important featuresare not likely to succeed. To gain loyalty, it appears thatbrands must have differentiated images that are relevant toconsumer needs and lifestyles so that consumers see themas part of their lives. An important question arises regard-ing private label brands. In many product categories,private labels are growing in share. Do consumers seethem as equivalent in relevance to national brands? Canprivate brands be relevant the same way as nationalbrands? Exploiting this avenue might be a way for na-tional brands to defend share from their private labelcompetitors.

The study findings are limited in several ways. Firstof all, the single category of frozen dinners limits thegeneralizability of the findings to this product field and topackaged goods. Although the sample was intended to berepresentative, it is necessarily restricted to the advertis-ing agency’s panel. Single item indicators operationalizedthe variables, obviating assessments of reliability. Fi-nally, there are likely additional drivers of brand loyaltythat were not considered in the present study. The study,however, had several strengths, and future studies cancorrect its limitations. Studies of additional packagedgoods as well as durables and services would extend thescope of the findings. Samples of other consumers wouldtest the generalizability of the findings to different popu-lations. Alternative measures, especially multiple indica-tors would permit the assessment of internal consistencyof the new operationalizations. Additional variables couldbe added to the “mix” of potential drivers to develop amore complete model of the drivers of brand loyalty.

One important avenue for future research is to delveinto the specifics of how brands are relevant to lifestylesand needs. That is, what specific aspects of the brandimage make it relevant? What does relevance mean totarget consumers? Possible candidates could be a closematch-up between the brand’s benefits and consumerwants. Does the brand specifically fit a need that theconsumer feels keenly? Another could be how well thebrand fits with the consumer’s self-image. “Which brandfits me?” Or, “Which brand is me?” These questions maynot be easy to answer, either for the company or for theconsumer. Perhaps “relevance” is a verbalization of somebrain function that most people cannot easily explain.

Clearly, there is a vast array of issues to be studied andquestions to be answered. Expanding this study to includemore categories and more drivers of loyalty and usingphysiological measures are the next steps.

8 American Marketing Association / Winter 2009

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