Informative messages on product packages—especially on packages of food products—should be credible. Otherwise, the firm might experience a serious fall in brand equity. However, because nutrition intake and health promotion are “credence attributes”, it isdifficult for consumers to evaluate them. Moreover, if nutrition message or health claims were false or puffery, consumers might suffer a serious health damage. Regarding the problems, in 1991, Japanese Government took the initiative in the world by introducing the FoSHU (Foods for Specified Health Uses) system—a license system in which the government tries to control all health claims on packages of food products launched in the country. It should be noted that there are two factors which can be appeared on packages only with the permission of Japanese Government. One is health claims, of course, and the other is the “FoSHU seal”—a symbolic mark designed for FoSHU foods. Interestingly, these two licensed factors may have different effects on perceived product value in health. In this research, we conducted two studies to examine the difference of the effects on product value in health. The results showed that consumer evaluations of food products are affected by the FoSHU seal. The FoSHU seal has a strong signaling effects on evaluations of the particular food products for specified health uses. On the other hand, unlike the FoSHU seal, approved health claims themselves have no main effects on evaluations of the FoSHU products. This implies that health claims have positive external effects on evaluations of non-FoSHU products in the same category. The results showed that the external effects can be inhabited by product differentiation through the FoSHU seal and./or packaging.

The online word-of-mouth exert an growing influence on consumers, but how Internet word of mouth influences consumers' attitude and the purchase intention, this problem and its mechanism of action has not been fully researched yet. In this paper, the theory of word-of-mouth and the results of the existing system are proposed, and it contains three independent variables which influence the spread of word-of-mouth effects: the intensity of relationship, perceiving risk and the profession of transmitter. Moreover, an investigate was acted in the college students, the data was disposed with SPSS16.0 to describe statistical analysis and fitting degree evaluation. Based on the analysis of data, the customer relationship management. Suggestions and corresponding analysis are put forward.

This paper combines insights from researches in brand experience, brand trust and customer equity and social network service (SNS). In light of a growing interest in the use of social network service (SNS) marketing among smart phone brands, this study sets out to identify attributes of brand product and examines the relationships among those SNS attributes, brand experience in SNS, brand attachment, brand trust, value equity, relationship equity and brand equity through a structural equation model. SNS attributes are conceptualized as utilitarian (perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness) and hedonic (entertainment, aesthetics). Four constructs of electronics brands experience in SNS are sensory, intellectual, behavioral, relational experience. The study aims to have a positive investigation on what influence is given to customer equity by the brand trust and the brand attachment formed through brand experience in SNS environment.

The performance of an organization largely depends upon the strategy-environment fit (Mintzberg, 1979). The success of business-level strategy is contingent on industry environment characteristics (Pelham, 1999). Under the strategic fit, new ventures need to match their strategies of market, product with external environment. In different contextual situations, a new venture should employ appropriate management practices that positively impact its performance. The strategic fit provides important theoretical foundations for understanding how strategies drive firm performance. Today, technology-based start-up ventures and corporate entrepreneurship both embrace emerging markets and emerging technologies as the core of their competitive advantage (Thukral, Ehr, Walsh, Groen, & Sijde, 2008). For these new ventures, it is important to set up market orientation strategy at the beginning of founding. New ventures need to explore market opportunities and respond to market requirements. Proactive and responsive market orientations are two dimensions of market orientation considering to latent and current market needs ((Narver, Slater, & Maclachlan, 2004)). Current studies acquiescently treat proactive and responsive as two types of market orientations. However, further study need to clarify whether and what extent and under what contextual situations new ventures pursue two dimensions of market orientation strategy. In specifically, does pursuit of a hybrid market orientation lead to superior performance relative to a pure one? What extent should a new venture emphasize relative pure strategy which can help it to fit its strategy with performance objectives? Furthermore, is the market orientation strategy purity equally important in both emerging and established market conditions and industrial technology standards? This paper proposes hypotheses of positive relationship between market orientation strategy purity and new venture performance. And, Market needs has a moderating role on the relationship of MO purity and new venture performance. That is, for emerging market, the MO purity will exert a weaker influence on the new venture performance. Technological uncertainty has a moderating role on the relationship of MO purity and new venture performance. That is, for emerging technology, the MO purity (especially proactive market orientation) will exert a stronger influence on the new venture performance.

Prior to the initiation of new marketing activities, the majority of companies make great efforts to figure out a means of collecting all-round information on overseas target markets and global consumers for the purpose of strengthening competitiveness and then further increasing market share and enterprise benefits. The concept of customer equity has been introduced as a tool to continuously secure customers and create profits in the future. Globalization trends have attached great importance to altering the structure of the fashion industry. In particular, with expectation of conducting innovative marketing, companies engaged in SPA brands are gradually developed into global companies. Furthermore, corporate profitability is very sensitive to consumers’ attitudinal changes due to the short trend cycle of SPA brands. Most of our behaviors are predicated on the attitudes and behaviors of the others. The influence of loyal customers may turn potential customers into loyal customer owing to high customer equity. That is to say, companies may obtain more profits through higher customer equity. The study aims to explore the relationships among social influence, social learning and customer equity. The results of the study can be summarized as follows. First, the study elaborates on the relationships among social influence, social learning and customer equity. Second, by comparing the economic and cultural differences between South Korea and China, the study finds the social influence has a positive influence on customer equity in different ways between the two countries.

Via an exploratory survey we decoded the interplay of the multiple points of attachment leading the consumer to the soccer field. Results indicate that local soccer player brands’ conceptual property which lies with the shared bond of team identification and is leveraged reciprocally, adds both to the human and the organizational brand equity.

This research tends to answer the following question: How do multinational corporations transmit their service brand to the local employees of the host country? Service brand has been discussed from the point of internal marketing, which ensures that employees can demonstrate the authentic value of the service brand in their attitudes and behaviors. However, when a corporation attempts to transmit the service brand across borders, there needs to be a balance between globalization and localization. This research intends to build a systematic internal marketing mechanism from the viewpoint of internal marketing, international service branding and subsidiary brand-specific transformational leadership. This study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct an in-depth case study and questionnaire survey. This research provides the following theoretical and managerial contributions. Firstly, it proposes a systematic internal marketing mechanism to transmit the service brand across international borders. This includes a brand-specific leadership with cultural sensitivity, a brand norm positively led by the leader and an organizational learning system, which influences the practice of the brand norms. Secondly, in order to transmit the international service brand successfully, this paper argues that subsidiaries’ leaders should have cultural sensitivity and demonstrate a brand-specific transformational leadership style. Thirdly, the paper finds and verifies that brand-specific transformational leadership has a positive effect on the brand norms and organizational learning, which in turn affect employee brand behavior and attitude toward the company’s core brand value. Managerially, the systematic internal marketing mechanism developed by this research can enlighten those service companies who intend to expand their international scope and ascertain their service brand value is transmitted accurately and executed locally.

The interaction between brand managers and his/her social networks in any firms constitute a complex social system. This study posited that the quality of the relationship between a brand manager and his/her networks is imperative in fostering the quality of internal brand management which in turns increase the employee based brand equity. The participants for the study were 124 brand managers from Dubai firms specializing in consumer goods. The quantitative data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Network size and cost was found to affect information generation and knowledge dissemination.

Next to brand manufacturers, retailers are increasingly incorporating ‘green’ issues in their store brands. Although a lot of studies are devoted to comparing store brands with national brands (e.g., Steenkamp et al., 2010), there is limited research that compares these two types of brands in a ‘green’ context. This study investigated what factors influence the consumption of ‘green’ store brands and national brands by focusing on three important determinants: brand equity, store image and brand identification.Different models are tested in which we incorporate both mediating and moderating effects of these constructs on green brand consumption. Using the context of organic food brands, we conducted a longitudinal online panel study among consumers in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire and, for each country, received either a questionnaire on store brands (n = 562) or on national brands (n = 302). Multiple regression analyses showed that for store brands, brand equity and brand identification had a positive direct effect on brand consumption. Additional analyses indicated that brand equity was not mediated by store image, but that store image moderated the effect of brand equity on brand consumption. For national brands, store image and brand identification had a positive direct effect on brand consumption. Mediation analysis showed partial mediation of brand equity by store image. We did not find a moderating effect of brand equity on brand consumption for national brands.Our findings indicate that for ‘green’ store brands, the relationship between brand equity and consumption is strengthened by consumers’ image of the store. In contrast, for national brands, the relationship between consumers’ brand equity and brand consumption is not strengthened but actually partially determined by the current image of the store where that brand is sold. In addition, identification with the green brand seems to play an important role in brand consumption for both store brands and national brands.

It’s well known that the sustainable improvement of China's economy has to focus on fostering domestic consumption; this turns out more meaningful given the fact that foreign demand shrinks and the investment brings more risk. Moreover, China is still and will be experiencing rapid industrialization and urbanization and this makes tremendously increasing demand possible. Both of China Marketing Association and Commerce Economy Association of China aim to understanding the diversity of consumer demand and consumer behavior of Chinese consumer. We also provide consulting service for manufacturing enterprises in innovation, product development, quality control and brand marketing. We believe these are important to meet consumer demand. Moreover, information technology is making on-line shopping more important. We call for more research to understand the change of marketing environment; this matters so much in encouraging consumption and promoting steady and healthy development of consumption in China.

The work analyses three key concepts frequently recalled and strictly correlated: contemporarity of dialogue, convergence of interests and collectivity of responsibilities. The continuous digital conversations between companies and customers are changing the value creation processes and leading to new positive convergence of customers and citizens at work. Convergence is driven by a renewed social sensitivity which is clearly influenced by collective responsibilities. After introducing the literature we bring logical arguments and empirical evidences to focus on the new convergence of market and society interests. Through a new Co-Value Model we measure the intensity of conversations contents: co-advertising contents show the highest level of consumer involvement, followed by co-planning, co-selling, co-use, co-post-sales, co-logistic and co-production. The metrics of the Co-Value Model are aimed to measure and reinforce the basic idea of convergence between the customer perspective- logic of money- and the citizen perspective -logic of gift-. Analyzing the continuous conversation between customer and companies within 21 international digital services, we demonstrate that a) the continuous digital conversations between companies and customers are changing definitively the value creation processes; b) the renewed social sensitivity gradually brings a new convergence between market and society interests which is evidenced by the high frequence of conversation focussed on social topics: c) the new convergence is driven by a renewed collective sense of co-responsibility. The findings show the robustness of the core concept of convergence: companies and customers maintain separate and complementary roles but their conversations are fundamentally remodelled both in content and in shape. Individuals are now called to play an economic role as prosumers, but at the same time, they have new opportunities as citizens for new forms of dialogue which reinforce their critical and social role. This is what we call convergence of interests. Market and society do not coincide, companies and customer act as counterparts and have different roles but their interests are converging. In many cases, prosumerism can generate a new loop between companies and consumers responsibility, and consumers can commit to this new social game of being customer and citizen at work. The model is applied to a large number of very recent case histories able to focus on the managerial implications of the new social game.

Service retailers need to develop more and more stores to make their business grow, and so, many firms attempt to expand their stores nationally by aiming for the numerical target such as 1,000 stores within five years and so on. In practical fields, however, firms seem to find it hard to plan the concrete method to achieve the target and they seem to develop stores with rootless feeling. The reason for that is relatively little has so far been known regarding how firms should expand their geographic markets according to their growth stage with keeping good financial results. The purpose of this study is both to classify store development methods of service retailers in a domestic market and to clarify the relationship between growth methods and the corporate performance by analyzing sixteen Japanese school and education firms listed in Japan. Main result is profitability is the lowest in firms which expand their store networks into multiple areas without forming area dominant, while profitability is the highest in firms which expand and disperse the total number of stores nationally.

Unlike many occupations, a salesperson’s performance is measured primarily by the extent to which he/she meets weekly, quarterly, and annual objectives. Long-term objectives, such as sales, profit, customer satisfaction, and market share quotas are driven by the achievement of short-term and more frequent quota targets, such as the number of leads generated or the number of sales meetings held. In addition, the sales process itself is defined by the achievement of “steps,” such as identifying prospects, securing meetings, identifying needs, overcoming resistance, and gaining commitment. Consequently, it is important to examine the sales agent’s need for achievement (NFA) and its influence on performance outcomes. To date, the research and anecdotal evidence have produced a few models that examine the outcomes of NFA, each explaining respective aspects of variance (Amyx and Alford, 2005; Riipinen, 1994; Hansemark, 1997). Extant literature in NFA domain provides a support for a link (positive correlation) between NFA and performance (Amyx and Alford, 2005). However, results are mixed concerning NFA’s influence on job satisfaction and organizational commitment (OC). Past literature contends that NFA will positively influence commitment (Steer, 1977; Morris and Snyder, 1979; Sager, 1991). However, in a recent empirically study, NFA was found not to have any significant effect on commitment and satisfaction (Amyx and Alford, 2005). Further, Johnson and Stinson (1975) empirically demonstrated that NFA negatively influence satisfaction. Contrarily, recent studies have argued that NFA positively influences satisfaction (Behrman and Perrault, 1984; Bluen, Barling, and Burns, 1990). An important variable often examined as key intervening variable in examining performance outcomes in management and sales domains is role clarity (Lang, Jeffrey, Bliese, and Adler, 2007). Role clarity is an indicator of the extent to which people understand their fit and purpose within an organization (Netemeyer, Maxham and Pullig, 1990; Fisher and Gitelson, 1983; Jackson and Schuler, 1985). This relative sense of fit and purpose may help explain the mixed results regarding the link between NFA and organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Previous research shows that salespeople with a high NFA perform better than those with a low NFA (Amyx and Alford, 2005). Organizations have a vested interest in retaining higher performing salespeople, and both job satisfaction (JS) and organizational commitment have been linked to retention. Given these relationships and the achievement-oriented nature of the sales job, it is important to understand the relationship, if any, between NFA and two outcome variables, namely, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Specifically, this study first explores direct influence of NFA on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Next, the study investigates how role clarity moderates the influence of NFA on organizational commitment and job satisfaction.