Brand communities have been increasingly used by marketers to build brands. A brand community can be defined as a “…group of consumers with a shared enthusiasm for the brand and a well-developed social identity, whose members engage jointly in group actions to accomplish collective goals and/or express mutual sentiments and commitments” (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 2006, p. 45). Recent research on brand communities has begun to identify the importance of consumers’ psychological processes in regard to developing successful brand communities. Based on the flow theory from positive psychology, we propose that flow could be generated by brand community characteristics and plays an important role in influencing brand community members’ attitudes toward the brand. Specifically, we propose a model that identifies brand community characteristics (i.e., community cohesiveness and information quality) that produce flow experience and how the flow experience impacts brand identification and brand loyalty. Members from 31 automobile brand communities participated in this survey study, and 580 validated questionnaires were returned. Structural Equation Model was used to test the research hypotheses. The results show that community cohesiveness and information quality positively directly influence brand identification and also indirectly influence brand identification via flow. Flow also positively influences members’ brand identification and, subsequently, impacts brand loyalty. The results from our research contribute to the branding, brand community, and flow theory literature.

This research was conducted in order to examine the reverse effect of brand loyalty on the emotional attachment to the place-of-origin. Results indicate that consumers that are highly loyal to a brand tend to be more emotionally attached to the place-of-origin; the effect is mediated by affective place image. Affective place image also partially mediates the brand loyalty–place attachment relationship in cases when the brand is authentic in the place. Human beings tend to extend their affect towards one object based on another object related to the first one. Building on this notion researchers have been trying to understand two related concepts—a place, and a brand originating from that place. In this endeavor, one literature stream has been focusing on place-based branding from the perspective of international marketing, including work on country-of-origin (COO) or product-country image (Baldauf et al., 2009; Hong & Wyer Jr, 1989). Another stream focusing on place branding adapts traditional marketing theory to market a place (Kotler 2002), and focuses on destination image (Bramwell & Rawding, 1996; Lee & Lockshin, 2012; Qu, Kim & Im, 2011), and place attachment (Gross & Brown 2006). Notwithstanding the above, there is a dearth of research combining these two aforementioned streams. One of few exceptions is Lee and Lockshin (2014), who explored the reverse COO effect of product perceptions on destination image. However, they focused on consumers’ cognitive beliefs and, thus, the underlying mechanism of the relationship is yet to be examined. Hence, the current research aims to answer the following questions: can brand loyalty be leveraged to consumers’ relationship with the place-of-origin as a tourism destination? And, if so, what is the mechanism underlying the effect? We present a global survey with consumers of place-based wine brands as a means to understand whether consumers’ loyalty to a brand will influence their emotional attachment to the place where the wine brand origins. A moderated mediation model is proposed. Affective destination image mediates the positive effect of brand loyalty on place attachment, which is positively moderated by authenticity of the brand-place associations. The study contributes to the tourisms marketing field by identifying the emotional linkage between brand loyalty and place attachment. It serves as a starting point for further investigation of how company or product branding could benefit place marketing and branding theory. Affective components are suggested to play a vital role in the relationships between a place and a brand. It further enriches understanding of the role of brand authenticity. Place marketers need to understand the role of brand loyalty in the decision-making process of tourism consumption.

Research Purpose This study is to clarify the image of luxury brand advertising is not equal to brand image completely, and the main purpose is to understand whether self-image congruence with luxury brand advertisement can affect the consumers’ brand loyalty. Research Background In earlier days, luxury brands were the preserve of the privileged few. But now they have become more affordable to consumers who are belong to middle-market with the problem of mass production largely solved. Now days, luxury brands play an increasingly important role in profit generation for global corporations. Atwal and Williams (2009) indicated that experiences are the central of luxury brand consumption activity, and the emotional, cognitive, and relational factors are important for luxury brand marketing. Thus, brand image is one of the most important factors for luxury brand. And, lots of scholars have proved that luxury brand has a significant positive effect on consumer purchase intention. Meenaghan (1995) identified that imagery advertising is one of the principle components of image creation. However, whether the image of the advertising is completely equal to the brand image? Most of the prior studies are only focusing on the brand image but neglect the image of the luxury brand advertising. Thus, this study is trying to emphasize the role of the image of luxury brand advertising and fill the prior research gaps. Hypotheses Theredistinguish the brand image and the advertisement image. Second is to compare the self-image with both brand image and advertisement image to understand the self-image congruence comprehensively. For the sample, we chose convenience sampling method and handed out 300 questionnaires. The totals of 248 questionnaires were used for analysis except for responses that said they had no experience of luxury brand consumption and have response error. Sample of respondents are consisting of 75% of females and 25% of males. The average of respondent's age was from 20 years old to 30 years old. The structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to validate the research model. Research Results As assumed in hypotheses, self-image congruence with luxury brand advertisement will increase consumers’ empathy to the advertisement and luxury brand esteem. Empathy to the advertisement and brand esteem will increase the luxury brand loyalty. Implications This study focus on the image of luxury brand advertisement and proved importance of congruence between self-image and the image of luxury brand advertisement. It is important for marketers not only just use advertisement to form the brand image but also should use the advertisement to match the target consumers’ self-image.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between sports commitment, sportswear brand satisfaction, and brand loyalty of female university students in their 20s. Two hundred surveys were distributed to female university students, and 185 responses were used for the final analysis. The SPSS program was used with a reliability test and factor, frequency, path analysis. Based on the literature review, the following five hypotheses were suggested. H1: Cognitive commitment will have a positive effect on the behavioral commitment of sports commitment factors. H2: The behavioral commitment of female university students will have a positive effect on brand satisfaction. H3: Sportswear brand satisfaction will have a positive effect on continuous brand loyalty. H4: Cognitive commitment will have a positive effect on habitual brand loyalty. H5: Continuous brand loyalty will have a positive effect on habitual brand loyalty. The results of this study showed that first, after the factor analysis, there were two factors of sports commitment (behavioral commitment and cognitive commitment). Second, the path analysis results revealed that there were significant relationships between sports commitment factors (cognitive commitment and behavioral commitment), sportswear brand satisfaction, and brand loyalty factors (continuous brand loyalty and habitual brand loyalty). The results revealed that cognitive commitment had a positive relationship with behavioral commitment, which had a positive relationship with sportswear brand satisfaction. Sportswear brand satisfaction had a positive relationship with continuous brand loyalty, which had a positive relationship with habitual brand loyalty. Cognitive commitment also had a positive relationship with habitual brand loyalty.

Corporate philanthropic activities, such as charitable donations, have become one of the main business practices worldwide. However, academicians have paid relatively scant attention to verifying the effectiveness of corporate philanthropy (CP) in terms of a firm’s performance. Therefore, this study aims to reveal the influence of CP on consumer loyalty that leads to a firm’s ultimate financial success. In addition, this study aims to investigate mechanisms through which CP influences consumer loyalty, as yet largely unexplored field. Results reveal that CP has an impact on consumer loyalty that is sequentially mediated by gratitude, trust, and finally commitment. This research contributes to expanding the scope of CP research verifying the effectiveness of CP on consumer loyalty.

An empirical research on the Moncler case shows that brand loyalty moderates the consumer reactions to brand crises. While highly loyal consumers express sympathy toward the company, which predicts positive effects on brand attitude and purchase intention, lowly loyal consumers express anger, which predicts negative effects on the dependent variables.

Mass customization refers to a strategy whereby online retailers provide individually tailored products and services to their customers and has been implemented by many retailers with the Internet technology. Many luxury brands such as Bottega Venetta, Louis Vuitton, and Salvatore Ferragamo, provide customization programs to better serve their customers, from engraving their initials on a product to creating a new design of a product. However, the expansion of the customization program to the luxury brands raises potential risk, such as loosening the brand identity and inability to satisfy customers. Despite high interests in mass customization programs and popularity of luxury brands, the effect of mass customization in luxury brands has not been explored. Addressing this gap in the literature, this study attempts to investigate how customized products of luxury brands influence perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty. In addition, this study explores how consumers’ past loyalty toward a luxury brand influences perceived value of the customization. Hypotheses of the study were (1) Perceived value of a mass-customized product has a positive influence on satisfaction with product customization; (2) Satisfaction with product customization has a positive influence on brand loyalty; (3) The influences of perceived value of a mass-customized product on satisfaction and brand loyalty are different as a function of a customer’s past loyalty; (4) The influences of perceived value of a mass-customized product on satisfaction and brand loyalty are different as a function of a customer’s need for uniqueness. The research strategy of this study was survey methodology and the sample of the study was online shopping consumers. Online questionnaires were collected by an online survey firm. After visiting ‘BURBERRY BESPOKE’, a mass-customization program of a luxury brand, survey participants were asked to answer the questionnaire. The instrument tapped perceived value of a mass-customized product, satisfaction with product customization, past/future brand loyalty, and need for uniqueness. A total of 304 female online shoppers participated in the survey. The result of structural equation modeling found the positive effects of hedonic value and utilitarian value on satisfaction with product customization and the positive effect of the satisfaction on brand loyalty. The result of multiple group comparison analyses revealed the moderating roles of past loyalty and need for uniqueness in influencing the effects of perceived value of a mass-customized product on satisfaction. These findings of the study contribute to the literature in luxury brand retailing fields and suggested managerial implications to luxury brand retailers.

This research was designed to conduct research to apprehend fashion brand's mobile SNS characteristics in depth and the related consumer psychology and behaviors such as brand attachment and brand loyalty. The fashion brand's mobile SNS characteristics were differentiated from the web-based fashion brand's SNS. This study targeted women in their 20s using mobile Facebook and mobile Twitter, and residing in Seoul or Gyeonggi province. Total 412 observations were collected through online survey. The major findings of the study were as follows. First, as the characteristics of fashion brand's mobile SNS, ease of fashion data storage, fashion recentness, fashion usefulness, and fashion accessibility were extracted. As the factors of the flow, time distortion/focused attention and playfulness were extracted. Second, the fashion recentness and fashion usefulness showed positive influence to time distortion/focused attention factor in the flow. All four fashion brand's mobile SNS characteristics showed positive influence to playfulness factor in the flow. Third, time distortion/focused attention factor and playfulness factor both showed positive influence to brand attachment and brand loyalty from using fashion brand's mobile SNS. Fourth, brand attachment had positive influence to brand loyalty from using fashion brand's mobile SNS. Based on the above results, this study provided practical ways to develop effective mobile SNS marketing strategies in fashion brand. Also, this study demonstrated feasible future contents and necessary improvement for fashion brand's mobile SNS, which holds marketing implications.

This study builds upon the scant brand personality (BP) literature in services and highlights its applicability to services marketing, which is critical given increasing interest in building favourable service brands. This study examines the impact of Geuens, Weijters and De Wulf’s, (2009) BP measure, an arguably theoretically superior measure of BP to Aaker’s (1997), into an accepted nomological net by Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001), and tests the extent to which BP dimensions determine behavioural outcomes in services (Geuens et al., 2009).

This study investigates the factors that influence brand loyalty in the airline industry. A survey using a sample of 106 travelers was conducted. Results of statistical analysis show that the influence of perceived quality and brand association on brand loyalty was mediated by brand equity. Brand satisfaction and perceived value were also found to have a direct influence on brand loyalty. The research findings provide valuable information for marketers, academics and practitioners for investigating brand loyalty of customers.

This study explores the relationship among brand experience, consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty with virtual experience and the virtual community as the intervening variables. We intend to discuss how the new concept of ‘brand experience’ impacted by the internet environment. We integrate the following new research subjects together: brand experience, virtual experience and virtual community. As the research purpose is to understand the effects of virtual environments on brand experience on consumer satisfaction and on brand loyalty, it takes virtual experience as the intervening variable to discuss whether it positively or negatively influences the relationship between brand experience and consumer satisfaction, and takes the virtual commodity variable as the intervening variable to discuss whether it positively or negatively influences the relationship between consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty. This study takes the virtual community members of apple brand in taiwan as the research subjects and 516 questionnaires were completed and returned. The results show that the brand experience had a positive effect on the consumers’ satisfaction and brand loyalty. In addition, the virtual experience has a positive moderating effect on the relationship of brand experience and consumer satisfaction. Finally, this study also discovered that the virtual community also has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between consumers’ satisfaction and brand loyalty.

This study identified the brand personality of domestic take-out coffee shops and examined its effects on customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. The research subjects were college students in Busan who visited a coffee house. Overall, four major empirical results were obtained. First, five factors of brand personality were identified: "energy", "competence", "familiarity", "reliability", and "sophistication". Second, all brand personality factors had significant effects on customer satisfaction, but "familiarity" (β=0.429) and "reliability" (β=0.381) appeared to have the greatest effects. Third, brand personality factors had significant effects on brand loyalty, with"reliability" (β=0.447) appearing to have the greatest effect on brand loyalty. Fourth, customer satisfaction had a significant effect on consumer brand loyalty. These results show that brand personality can be an important means of marketing differentiation in an intense competitive coffee market atmosphereto increase customer satisfaction and build brand equity.

The purpose of this research was to identify not only the effect of what consumers want from their brand identification and brand attachment, but also the effect of their perceived brand identification on their perceived brand attachment in the family restaurant setting. This research also investigated the causal relationship between a consumer's perceived brand attachment and brand loyalty. A total of 332 questionnaires were collected from customers who visited one of 4 nationallybranded family restaurants in Daegu. With the consent of the store managers of each family restaurant brand, students of Dongguk University helped respondents fill out questionnaires and collected the data. There were three major findings of this research. First, the benefits that consumers wanted were found to have a significant effect on their perceived brand identification and brand attachment. Second, the perceived brand identification of customers was found to have a significant effect on their perceived brand attachment. And third, the perceived brand attachment of customers was found to have a significant effect on their perceived brand loyalty. Also, consumer's benefits sought affected their perceived brand attachment through their perceived brand identification, and consumer's benefits sought and brand identification respectively influenced their perceived brand loyalty through their perceived brand attachment. Therefore, marketing managers or general managers of family restaurants should identify consumer benefits in order to increase sales and profits.

본 연구는 매력적인 도시브랜드개성 창출과 이의 활용을 위해, 도시의 문화자원의 도시브랜드개성에 미치는 영향을 규명하고, 관광객과의 호의적인 관계 구축 및 충성도를 이끌어내기 위한 방안을 도출하고자 시도되었다. 실증분석결과는 다음과 같이 요약된다. 첫째, 도시 문화자원은 문화프로그램, 문화인프라, 문화인력으로 구성된다. 둘째, 도시브랜드개성은 혁신성, 평온함, 세련성, 신뢰성, 역동성으로 각각 분류되었다. 셋째, 도시의 문화자원은 도시브랜드개성 형성에 정(+)의 영향을 주며, 각각 상의한 역할을 하는 것으로 나타났다. 넷째, 도시브랜드개성은 도시브랜드만족도와 도시브랜드몰입도에 각각 정(+)의 영향을 준다. 다섯째, 도시브랜드 만족도와 도시브랜드몰입도는 도시브랜드 충성도에 각각 정(+)의 영향을 준다. 이와 같은 결과는 효과적인 도시의 문화자산은 독특한 도시브랜드개성을 창조하며, 지속가능한 경쟁 우위 원천으로써, 도시의 매력을 효과적으로 전달하는 커뮤니케이션도구임을 시사한다.

제품 디자인은 기업에게 경쟁적 이점을 제공해주는 중요한 요인으로 고려되고 있다. 본 연구는 소비자 관점에서의 디자인 평가 요소가 디자인 가치를 통해 브랜드 충성도에 미치는 영향을 구조적으로 탐색하였다. 연구결과 대부분의 디자인 평가요소들이 세 가지 유형의 디자인 가치에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 먼저 소비자들의 디자인 평가요소 중 심미성, 여성성, 고귀성, 효율성 등이 이성적 디자인 가치와 사용감각적 디자인 가치, 감성적 가치에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 독특성의 경우에는 이성적 디자인 가치와 사용감각적 디자인 가치에는 유의한 영향을 미치지 못하였으나 감성적 디자인 가치에는 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 디자인이 전달하는 가치와 브랜드 충성도 간의 관계에 대한 검증에서는 이성적 디자인 가치, 사용감각적 디자인 가치, 감성적 디자인 가치가 태도적 브랜드 충성도에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 이성적 디자인 가치와 사용감각적 디자인 가치는 행동적 브랜드 충성도에도 직접적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으나 감성적 디자인 가치는 행동적 브랜드 충성도에는 직접적인 영향을 미치지 못하고 태도적 브랜드 충성도를 통해 행동적 브랜드 충성도에 간접적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로 태도적 브랜드 충성도는 행동적 브랜드 충성도에 강한 긍정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.

The advent of Internet has greatly increased the ability of companies to conduct their business faster, more accurately, over a wider range of time and space, at reduced cost and with the ability to customize and personalize customer offerings. However it may be difficult for companies to sustain a long-run survival in competition environment of e-business. The purpose in this study is to analyze the relationship among site loyalty characteristics, customer's repurchasing intention and switching intention of internet shopping mall. The results showed that reputation variables of internet shopping mall only affected significantly e-loyalty. And the relationship among e-brand loyalty, customer's repurchasing intention and switching intention was significantly supported.