Throughout recent years, many physical establishments were forced to close, and events were canceled due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Consequently, brands, especially luxury brands, saw their contact with consumers greatly diminished and revenues decreased significantly (D’Arpizio et al., 2021). On the contrary, the global gaming industry saw its demand, exposure, and revenues increase. In fact, this industry is expected to exceed $200 billion by the end of 2023 (Gilliland, 2020), and there were more than 2.6 billion players worldwide in 2020 (Palframan, 2021). Thus, in 2020, many luxury brands opted to significantly upsurge their investments in the world of online gaming. The adoption of game advertising also represents a way for the luxury industry to adapt to its current target, as 81% of Gen Z and 77% of Millennials are gamers (Jain, 2021). By 2025, both generations are expected to account for 50% of the market, making them important players in the sector. However, there is still little empirical research regarding consumers’ perceptions of game advertising in the context of luxury brands. Thus, this research aims to study the impact that brand credibility and the use of game advertising have on the perceived coolness of luxury brands and, subsequently, on their equity.

While social media marketing opens a variety of new windows for enlightening brand–customer relationships, a gritty puzzle is that brand recognition does not invariably echo with customers’ perceived value. This provokes the need to uncover the missing pieces in bridging the gap between brand recognition and customer perceived value. This research falls within the innovative new work in the marketing literature in positing co-creation as a crucial mediator in facilitating the impact of brand recognition on customers’ perceived value. Based on social identity theory, we also investigated how co-creation is moderated by virtual communication identification in influencing customers’ perceived value towards a brand. We conducted a survey via a sample of 386 current Gogoro customers. Gogoro is the biggest and most well-known Taiwanese producer of electric scooters. Our findings contribute to the extant marketing research by emphasizing that the key stimulus of increased customer perceived value towards a brand is active co-creation initiatives via virtual brand communities, and that the effects of co-creation are further strengthened when customers’ virtual communication identification is high.

The main objective of this research is to investigate the impact of brand image fit on consumer’s perceived luxury, perceived symbolic value, perceived authenticity, and perceived novelty towards fashion brand collaboration. This study uses a qualitative approach to test the research hypotheses. The contribution of this study is twofold: (1) it conceptually advances Congruity Theory and Spillover effect into the area of brand collaboration within a fashion domain; (2) it provides insights into the efficacy of each consumer-related factors which can be used in the development of sound collaboration strategies, in addition to branding and pricing strategies of new fashion brand collaborations.

The current paper aims to understand green behavior from the perspective of Gen Z, the emerging consumers of a new tech-savvy world, driven by social media. We offer a novel definition of green behavior via the lens of consumer activism in the context of social media, the basis for purchase decision-making by Gen Z. Undertaking a review of extant literature, we also identify a conceptual model for green behavior as a form of consumer activism in social media. We identify perceived environmental transgression as a precursor to green behavior. We also study the less-studied moderators of green stigma and green skepticism, which are important both in the context of Gen Z as well as social media.

The Net Promotor Score (NPS) is one of the most well-known metrics for measuring customer loyalty. Originally designed by Reichheld (2003), the measure asks participants to rate their likelihood to recommend the brand on a scale of 0-10, after which respondents are placed into a ‘detractors’ group, ‘passive’ group or ‘promotors’ group. While the measure has attracted much attention due to its simplicity and ease of use, there has equally been much criticism of its reliability, nomological validity and how it is connected to business outcomes. Therefore, the current study aims to understand whether the NPS can be used to identify brand advocacy, and secondly, does the NPS work in a care-based, low switching service context. The study included three unique contexts: at home care, residential care and disability care. In total, there were 611 participants, all of which were based in Australia. A questionnaire was developed and administered to each group and included both quantitative and qualitative questions to understand the consumer experience. The findings supported NPS as an effective metric in a care-based, low-switching context for identifying positive customer advocacy. The implication is that the NPS can be used to track organizational performance; and the extended NPS allows organizations to understand and encourage (address) positive (negative) advocacy. In addition, suggestions for an ‘earned advocacy score’ were provided which may offer a more effective way of understanding consumer experience, while providing clearer, more detailed and more actionable data. The current study provides much needed insight for brand and care organizations to understand how the NPS might be used effectively to facilitate better brand outcomes.

As the importance of online virtual spaces increases due to COVID-19, interest in online virtual spaces using 4th industrial technology is increasing. Accordingly, the metaverse that combines virtual and real is becoming an issue. In the fashion industry, marketing using online is gradually increasing, and various attempts are being made by converging with the metaverse to provide new and enjoyable experiences to customers. This study looked at the impact of customer experience of a luxury fashion brand pop-up store on customer satisfaction, affective commitment and brand loyalty in a metaverse environment where utilization is increasing due to COVID-19 and technological development. For the analysis data of this study, a survey was conducted on the users who experienced the metaverse platform Zepeto's ' BVLGARI World'. As a result of examining the effect of the customer experience of a luxury fashion brand pop-up store on customer satisfaction, affective commitment, and brand loyalty in a metaverse environment, some of the customer experiences affect customer satisfaction, and the proposed hypothesis was partially accepted. In addition, it was confirmed that customer satisfaction affects affective commitment and brand loyalty, and affective commitment affects brand loyalty. In this study, we examine the impact of the customer experience of a luxury fashion brand pop-up store on customer satisfaction, affective commitment, and brand loyalty in the metaverse environment, and identify what is needed for more active convergence and activation of the metaverse and fashion brands. Also, we provide practical implications to people who involved in the metaverse and the fashion industry.

Customer engagement has been a focus of a significant amount of research. Most of the prior research on customer engagement typically focused on engagement and loyalty in loyalty program context, while the impact of rewarded customer engagement on program members has largely been missed out. Additionally, no prior study yet has focused on the conceptualization of rewarded customer engagement, while exploring and comparing its significance on various digital platforms, such as loyalty programs and Metaverse. Thus, this study aims to conceptualize rewarded customer engagement while investigating its impact on loyalty program members, and whether it induces and/or encourages their engagement in brand’s Metaverse platform(s).

Livestreaming commerce is a form of e-commerce that embedded real-time video presentation and social interaction. It provides immersive shopping experience reinforced by high levels of interactivity and instant bidirectional communication. China, as one of the biggest livestreaming markets, has reached 2.3 trillion (CNY) livestreaming commerce market value in 2022. In a 2020 survey, two-thirds of Chinese consumers experienced livestreaming shopping in the previous year. Accordingly, luxury brands, such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton have started to implement livestreaming commerce in China. However, for years, luxury brands have struggled with online commerce as it may impact upon perceptions of exclusivity and dilute brand value. Research on the efficacy of live commerce emerged in recent years and mostly focused on non-luxury brands. However, luxury brands cannot simply copy digital marketing strategies that proved to be effective for non-luxury brands. To date, limited academic attention has been devoted to the luxury commerce in a livestreaming context.

In the new digital age, the emergence of user-generated content enables consumers to enjoy greater freedom and control over their behavior on the internet and assume more active roles in sharing brand-related information with others. This research examines the role of brand engagement on consumer psychological ownership, purchase intention, electronic word of mouth (eWOM), and consumers’ willingness to defend the brand on social media. The findings provide evidence of consumer psychological process to demonstrate that companies can use social media to engage with consumers, so consumers are likely to spread positive WOM and be protective of the brand. It is important for marketing managers to assess the level of brand engagement on social media sites and develop tools and techniques to increase consumers’ participation such as using subliminal priming on brand image, with an aim to create a close consumer brand relationship.

The paper examines how omnichannel communication of sustainability of luxury fashion brands enhance consumer brand engagement. We propose a multiple case study of four Italian high-end fashion brands. The study advances the literature on sustainable luxury fashion and omnichannel communication and offers guidelines for managers to effectively communicate sustainability.

Over the last decade, the COBRAs have attracted the attention of researchers in relation to their motives or outcome for the brand. However, the corpus of literature on COBRAs still is at a nascent stage and has created new opportunities pertaining to knowledge development. Undoubtedly, there is a clear need for some structure through mapping the research terrain to guide future research and further its development. Thus, a systematic review methodology was performed producing a top-quality pool of 35 papers that forge a robust understanding of this phenomenon. This research is the first study to perform a systematic review to examine the literature on COBRAs. Based on this, the findings contribute to theoretical knowledge, with extensive opportunities for generating novel theory and new forms of marketing practices.

A ‘brand’ metaverse is a virtual space where customers experience the brand via digital avatars. With the advancement of augmented and virtual reality technologies, a brand metaverse is an important medium for communicating the brand with customers. In this study, we focus on the resemblance between a customer’s self and his/her avatar (i.e., self-avatar resemblance) in the brand metaverse and examine its influence on brand attitude. Prior studies examine self-avatar resemblance exclusively in non-brand-related virtual gaming platforms and test its effect on identity perception and immersion in the platforms. However, few studies probe the extent to which self-avatar resemblance influences customers' exploration in a brand metaverse and their attitude toward the brand. We fill this research gap by uncovering the positive effects of self-avatar resemblance on brand attitude and purchase intentions. Moreover, we proffer that the customers’ engagement toward the brand metaverse platform mediates the relationship between self-avatar resemblance and brand attitude. In addition, based on the interactive nature of metaverse, we hypothesize copresence―the number of avatars exploring the brand metaverse at the same time―to be a moderator, which strengthens the mediation. We conduct an experiment using a fashion brand’s virtual world positioned in a popular metaverse platform. In this experiment, participants create an avatar and freely roam around in the brand metaverse with their avatars. By reviewing the screen recording of each participant’s brand exploration in the metaverse, we measure self-avatar resemblance and other constructs. We also collect responses from questionnaires designed to measure attitudinal and behavioral variables. With the accumulated data, we test the hypotheses using partial least square structural equation model and find the results largely consistent with the hypotheses. With the findings, we provide important and interesting implications to marketing practitioners considering and doing ‘metaverse marketing.’

This study examines how brand-influencer, influencer-users, and user-brand congruences affect perceived fantasy about the influencer and closeness toward the brand when an Instagram ad is endorsed by celebrity (vs. non-celebrity) influencers. The study employed a between-subject online experiment by manipulating an advertisement endorsed by a celebrity and a non-celebrity influencer. The results suggest that congruence between brand-influencer matters in building effective relationships.

Consumer brand engagement has recently drawn attention for researches because of its importance in predicting brand loyalty. Meanwhile, social media is used as digital marketing tools for marketers to attract and engage younger consumers. This study aims to answer the question whether social marketing efforts by fashion brands on major social media platforms have influence on consumer brand engagement in the context of Vietnamese fashion brands. Social marketing efforts include five dimensions of entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization and word-of-mouth. Although social marketing efforts has been examined in relationship with other important marketing concepts such as brand equity and customer equity (Godey et al., 2016; Kim and Ko, 2012), few studies have investigated its effect on consumer brand engagement, especially in fashion brands. Besides, Vietnam as an emerging market is witnessing considerable changes that social media brings to every field including fashion markets. It is noticeable that more and more fashion brands in Vietnam are trying to expand and advance their marketing strategies on social media to engage consumers. In this study, a self-administered online survey was delivered to Vietnamese consumers, which included 281 valid responses who followed Vietnamese fashion brands on Facebook or Instagram. The empirical results show that social media efforts engage consumers differently on brand engagement dimensions. The key finding indicates that entertainment and word-of-mouth are positively related to brand engagement in affective, cognitive and behavioral dimensions. Interaction is positively related to affective and behavioral brand engagements. Trendiness is positively related to behavioral brand engagement. Finally, customization is positively related to cognitive brand engagement.

Negative brand events can significantly harm the brand, affecting consumer cognitions, emotions, and behavior, leading to negative brand evaluations, negative emotions, brand avoidance, and retaliation. Thus, it is critical for brands to design and implement strategies that promote consumer forgiveness to mitigate those negative consumer responses. Despite the growing literature on the determinant factors of consumer behavior in a brand failure context, there is still scarce evidence regarding the impact of brand type on consumer responses, including consumer forgiveness, following a negative brand event. Considering that consumers tend to react differently to a brand perceived as arrogant (making them feel inferior), as opposed to a brand they strongly identify with, this paper focuses on failures of equal vs. higher status brands and investigates their impact on consumer forgiveness. Following the above, we expect that differences in brand status can shape consumer behavior following a failure or transgression.

Consumers may not be fully aware of the level of personalization used in brand placements in digital advertising. Personalized brand placements use customer data to select and insert preferred brands into digital media content, such as having Coke appear in a YouTube video for someone who favors Coca-Cola. This personalization can enhance the consumer experience (Trifts & Aghakhani, 2018) but may also backfire if placements don't account for changes in brand preference or when personalized placements are co-consumed with a person whose preferences strongly diverge from one’s own (e.g., one’s romantic partner; Brick, Fitzsimons, Chartrand, & Fitzsimons, 2018). Brands have a significant impact on how people perceive each other. Brands convey social information and symbolic meaning (Keller, 1993; Levy, 1959) and can influence behavior (e.g., Fitzsimons, Chartrand, & Fitzsimons 2008) and provide a source of affiliation (Escalas & Bettman, 2003). However, less is known about how brands affect basic social connections like empathy. This notable gap is relevant to the evaluation of the impact of brand placements in digital advertising as brand logos are quite visible in brand placements and can be the first piece of information someone observes when forming an attitude towards another person. For example, imagine an Instagram post of a person wearing a Harley Davidson baseball cap. What kind of person did you imagine? Does your impression change if, instead, the brand was People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or the Trump Organization? Moreover, how likely would you be to engage with media showcasing a person supporting this brand. In the current research, we propose that personally disliked brands create a negative bias in person perception and consumer judgment, a phenomenon we coin “brand negativity bias.” Our results show that disliking a brand can reduce empathy for others and substantially bias attitudes toward a digital product associated with but not created by the brand. Specifically, we show process evidence that suggests disliked brand placements reduce (1) empathy toward others through reductions in perceived similarity and (2) attitudes toward a digital product through perceived similarity and empathy, as serial processes. In addition, although we do not empirically test an overall mechanism that explains the negativity bias in its entirety, we speculate several reasons that underlie the broad influence of personally disliked brands (e.g., symbolic, ideological, or moral). From a societal point of view, our findings inform the public to be mindful of how simple consumption cues can bias people’s decision making, which holds implications beyond consumer judgment in domains involving first impressions.

Brand resonance plays a crucial role in customer relationship management and the development of brand equity between customers and the brand. Therefore, effective methods for promoting customers’ brand resonance are critical in the hospitality industry for gaining competitive advantages and establishing sustainable management strategies. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationships among brand coolness, customer inspiration, and brand resonance in the hospitality industry, as well as the mediating influence of customer inspiration. A total of 451 customers from 25 well-known brand restaurants in Taiwan returned questionnaires. These restaurants are recommended by TripAdvisor and had elements of coolness indicated in the customer reviews. Among the 451 participants, 260 (57.6%) were female and 191 (42.4%) were male; 344 (76.3%) were unmarried; 279 (61.9%) had received a college-degree certificate or above; and most were 21 to 30 years old (36.6%). The results revealed that brand coolness positively affected customer inspiration and brand resonance and that customer inspiration positively affected brand resonance. Furthermore, customer inspiration mediated the relationship between brand coolness and brand resonance. The study contributes to the hospitality literature of brand resonance. These findings can apply for the practice of brand management and customer relationship management in the hospitality industry.

This study takes the perspective of a brand introducing its own second-hand products to the re-commerce market. The project finds that consumers are more willing to forgive a transgressing second-hand product compared to a new product, which leads to lower negative word-of-mouth. The relationship is mediated by the underdog effect.

The objective of this research is to analyze the importance of Virtual Reality (VR) in digitally promoting perceived online trust toward green brands. We propose a conceptual framework based on Stimulus-Organism-Response to understand whether VR can increase cognitive and affective experiential state and customers' perceived trust toward green brands.

Destination branding has become an important trend in modern tourism. The development of destination brands has become a strategic tool worldwide because of the growing competition between destinations. In recent years, many tourist destinations have combined unique, creative, and attractive elements to transform themselves into “cool” tourist destinations. Destination brand coolness refers to tourists’ subjective and positive perception of tourist destinations and their beliefs that the destination brand offer distinctive, novel characteristics and attributes that the visitors are attracted to. Creating destination brand coolness can help tourist destinations differentiate themselves from their competitive counterparts, thereby attracting tourists. However, no study has conceptualized the construct of destination brand coolness, let alone developing scales that measure destination brand coolness.