and Ahuvia (2006) the concept of "brand love" can be defined as the degree of .... *The reported in this paper was co-financed by FCT â Fundação para a ...
Finding the New and Polishing the Old Development in Marketing Science: Proceedings of Academy of Marketing Science http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-10951-0_212
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: HOW THE "BRAND LOVE" AFFECTS YOU Paula Rodrigues, Universidade Lusíada, Portugal Raquel Reis, Universidade Lusíada, Portugal Isabel Cantista, Universidade Lusíada, Portugal
ABSTRACT The use of the construct "Brand Love" is relatively recent in explaining consumer behavior. However it is pertinent to think that a stronger consumer connection with a brand influences their behavior, particularly in terms of loyalty and willingness to pay a higher price for their "Brand Love". In this sense this paper aims to examine how the antecedents of "Brand Love", brand identification and sense of community influence loyal behavior and willingness to pay a higher price for "Brand Love". We used structural equation modeling to analyze data collected for two clothing brands commercialized in Portugal: Zara and Modalfa. Data collection was done through a survey with a structured questionnaire for each of the brands. The results show that for the Portuguese consumers the brand Zara is considered a preferred brand and as such consumers appear to be loyal and willing to pay a higher price compared to those practiced by the brand Modalfa.
Keywords: “Brand Love”, Brand Identity, Sense of Community, Brand Loyalty, Price Premium.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND The "brand love" is a relatively recent marketing construct that applies to products with a major hedonic component. However its interest arises not only as concept on its own but also as a dimension within other concepts, such as the relationship of brand quality and emotional connection (Bergkvist and Bech-Larsen, 2010; Ahuvia, Bagozzi and Batra, 2007; Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006; Albert, Merunka and Valette-Florence, 2009; Batra, Ahuvia and Bagozzi, 2012), brand attachment (Hemetsberger et al., 2009), consumer devotion (Pichler and Hemetsberger, 2008), brand commitment (Rossiter and Bellman, 2012), brand connection and share of heart (Pitta and Franzak, 2008). Brand emotional attachment leads to similar results as the loved objects, which in turn leads to a higher brand loyalty and emotional commitment. Several authors also emphasize the importance of “brand love” within the area of consumer behaviour and linking this with important concepts such as higher prices, loyalty, communication and word-of-mouth (Batra et al. (2012), Pitta and Franzak, 2008). The few studies that exist on “brand love” indicate that it has an important influence on several marketing variables. In addition, it offers a subtle understanding of the different facets of the other brand-related constructs, many of them related to social identification and consistency of the image of the self (Park et al., 2010; Escalas and Bettman, 2003). Ahuvia (2005) also argues that the loved objects have a strong impact in determining the individual self concept. There are also a few studies regarding the antecedents of "brand love". Those that exist are linked to a hedonic product category and brands' self-expression. This research on "brand love" is based on the work of Belk (1988), who suggests that
the possession of an object is an extension of the "self" and also on the work of Fournier (1998), who shows that an interpersonal relationship can exist between brands and individuals. Early research related to "brand love" developed by Shimp and Madden (1988) and Ahuvia (1993) studied the definition and measurement of this concept. According to Carroll and Ahuvia (2006) the concept of "brand love" can be defined as the degree of emotional attachment and love that a satisfied consumer feels regarding brand. The "brand love" includes the following aspects: passion about the brand, the connection with the brand, the positive evaluation of the brand, positive emotion in response to the brand and the declaration of love for the brand. OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS The theoretical structural model explaining the relationship between the variables is illustrated in Figure 1. This Figure shows the research hypotheses. [Insert Figure 1. here] The sense of community is another element of "brand love" antecedent and can be defined as the affiliation that a consumer feels with other people associated with the brand (Bergkvist and Bech-Larsen, 2010; Ellemers, Kortekaas and Ouwerkerk, 1999; Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006). H1: The sense of community is positively related to "Brand love". Recent studies show that love towards an object is fundamental to the creation of consumer identity (Carroll and Ahuvia, 2006; Ahuvia, 2005). The consumer is more likely to love a brand that he feels strongly identified with. Thus, one can assume that the identification with the brand is one of the antecedents of the construct "brand love". H2: The identification with the brand has a positive influence on "Brand love". Brand identification is defined as the level of how the consumer recognises himself coincides with the image of the brand (Bergkvist and Bech-Larsen, 2010; Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006). Following the same idea, Sirgy et al. (1997) considered the identification with the brand as the degree of congruence between consumer and brand image. The degree to which brands enable consumers to express their own identity is crucial to the level of identification with the brand. For Hughes and Ahearne (2010), brand identification is the extent to which an individual defines himself with the same attributes that he believes the brand has. Therefore, consumers belong to a community that allows them to express their image consumers freely. H3: The sense of community and identification with the brand are interrelated. Various authors conclude that the most desirable outcome of marketing strategy is to transform their consumers into loyal ones (Chaudhuri, 1999; Dick and Basu, 1994). H4: The "Brand love" leads to loyal behavior by consumers. One of the most common consequences of loyalty is that consumers are less sensitive to price increases, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the marketing tools and, generally, improving the business performance and results (Kabiraj and Shanmugan, 2010; Keller, 2003; Oliver, 1997, 1999). H5: A "Brand love" means that consumers are willing to pay a higher price for the brand. The premium price has been studied by several authors in the brand literature, such as Kamakura and Russell (1993), Park and Srinivasan (1994) and Netemeyer et al. (2004). In terms of marketing, it can be considered that the willingness of a consumer to pay a premium price is defined as the amount that he is willing to pay for his preferred brand when compared to a similar product of another brand (or unbranded). Several authors agree on the premium price being a basic criterion of brand loyalty, to indicate how much the buyer is willing to pay for the brand compared to another brand that has a similar offering. H6: Brand loyalty and willingness to pay a higher price are interrelated.
METHODOLOGY AND MODEL ESTIMATION Two questionnaires were carried with a sample of 167 students from a university in northern Portugal, regarding two wellknown clothing brands operating in Portugal: Zara and Modalfa. The choice of these two brands is due to the fact that they are both well represented across the country, selling the same types of product. However, the two brands differ in terms of pricing policy and design. On one hand, Zara is linked to more fashionable products and higher prices compared to Modalfa. Both are brands which fall within the category of hedonic products.
Scales were used to measure the sense of community, brand loyalty are from Keller (2003). In order to measure the willingness to pay a higher price, the scale according to Netemeyer et al. (2004) was employed. Moreover, brand identification measurement followed the scale of Bergami and Bagozzi (2000). Finally, the "Brand Love" scale uses some aspects of the work of Carroll and Ahuvia (2006). Of the 167 respondents, 68 were female and 99 were male. 73.3% of respondents were single, 40.7% receive a monthly household income between €1000 to €2000, 88.4% are part of a household of two individuals and 54.7% have completed secondary education. One question was designed to determine whether or not the respondents buy brands, where 77% stated that they buy the brand Zara, and 37% responded that they purchased the brand Modalfa. Therefore, 14% of the respondents purchase both brands. Before carrying out the estimation of the theoretical model of the structural equation analysis, the proposed scales to measure the constructs in question, for each of the brands were tested. This analysis intended to verify the reliability and validity of the scale. In order to get the confidence measure it was proposed that the construct should be with a single factor and with an acceptable reliability coefficient. Taking the scale that measures the degree of identification with the brand, the other proposed scales present a good reliability value, since the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient is always above 70%. It is important to ensure the validity of the contents of the scales so that the selected items are able to represent the concept on which the generalization was made. The construct validity determines the extent to which the scale can measure the variable of interest. For this we performed an analysis of convergent validity and discriminant validity through principal components factor analysis without rotation. The constructs considered in the theoretical model, namely the sense of community, the "brand love", brand loyalty and premium price show a "loading factor" greater than 0.7 which indicates a good convergent and discriminant validity. The results were inconclusive concerning the construct of identification with the brand. The models were estimated using the covariance matrix. The statistical software used was STATISTICA 6.1. that allowed us to calculate the variance and covariance matrices (data) and to estimate the structural model. The estimation is performed by the method of maximum likelihood (ML), since the objective is to develop and test the theory of the importance of the construct "Brand Love" and its impacts on loyal behavior and willingness to pay a higher price for the brand in question. The indicators chosen to analyze the goodness of fit are those suggested by Hair et al. (2006) as the best indicators, absolute Normalized chi-square, RMSEA and GFI. The Chi-Square Normalized presents values acceptable when they are between 1 to 3 (Hair, et al., 2006). It used the RMSEA instead of RMSSR because the models are estimated based on the covariance matrix of the data. This indicator must be between the values ranging from 0.05 (good fit) to 0.08 (acceptable adjustment). High values of GFI indicator reflect a good fit, but are not established minimum acceptable levels. [Insert Table1. here] [Insert Table 2.here] CONCLUSIONS One of the first conclusions of this study is that the Zara brand can establish a much closer connection with their consumers than the Modalfa brand. The brand Modalfa fails to create connection with the consumer. Thus, it is not considered a "Brand Love ", since consumers do not feeld that they belong to a community. Although the connection with the brand is higher than with Modalfa, the brand Zara also fails regarding the brand identification. Therefore, Zara’s consumers do not consider it a “Brand Love”. However, it is important to point out that these results may have been influenced by the of measurement scale of the brand identification, since the results for its validity and reliability are inconclusive. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH The results for the identification brands showed to be inconclusive. The authors suspect the existence of problems with the measurement instrument. Future research should tested alternative models to explain the "brand love" concept further and use different constructs such as perceived quality, perceived value and brand personality. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
*The reported in this paper was co-financed by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal (PestOE/EME/UI4005/2011) and carried out within the research centre Centro Lusíada de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial (CLEGI).
Figure 1: Structural Model Proposed
Sense of Community
HH1 1 Brand Love
H HH33 3 Brand Identification
Brand Loyalty
H4
H6
H5 H5
H2 HH2 2
Premium Price
Table 1: Structural Model Estimated - Zara Main Hypotheses
Parameter
Estimated
p-Value
Conclusion
Brand Identification Brand Love (+)
γ11
0,108
0,230
Not Sup.
Sense of Community Brand Love (+)
γ 12
0,968
0,018
Supported
Sense of Community Brand Identification (+)
γ13
0,997
0,078
Supported
Brand Love Brand Loyalty (+)
β11
0,892
0,000
Supported
Brand Love Price Premium (+)
β21
0,788
0,000
Supported
Brand Loyalty Price Premium (+)
β31
1,233
0,000
Supported
Indicators of Adjustment 2 Normalised: 2, 179
RMSEA: 0,056
GFI: 0,923
AGFI: 0,912
Table 2 : Structural Model Estimated - Modalfa Main Hypotheses
Parameter
Estimated
p-Value
Conclusion
Brand Identification Brand Love (+)
γ11
0,108
0,713
Not Sup.
Sense of Community Brand Love (+)
γ 12
0,168
0,218
Not Sup.
Sense of Community Brand Identification (+)
γ13
0,997
0,178
Not Sup.
Brand Love Brand Loyalty (+)
β11
0,892
0,230
Not Sup.
Brand Love Price Premium (+)
β 21
0,588
0,430
Not Sup.
Brand Loyalty Price Premium (+)
β31
0,293
0,000
Supported
Indicators of Adjustment
2 Normalised: 2,679
RMSEA: 0,066
GFI: 0,823
AGFI: 0,812
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