During the last decades, consumers have become increasingly concerned about social and environmental issues (Cone, 2009; Kleanthous, 2011) and “want the brands they use to reflect their concerns and aspirations for a better world” (Bendell and Kleanthous, 2007, p. 5). Ethical and environmental consumerism has become a mainstream phenomenon in contemporary consumer culture (Doane, 2001; Low and Davenport, 2007) and consumers either reward or punish companies that stress or ignore the importance of social and environmental excellence (Grail Research, 2010). From a firm perspective, investing in activities promoting sustainable development is increasingly recognized as an important source of competitive advantage (Porter and Kramer, 2006) and demonstrates a differentiator in most of the industries. According to a study conducted by the United Nations Global Compact and Accenture nearly 97% of the participating CEOs see sustainability as important to their company’s future success (UN and Accenture, 2016). The main reason and motivation to take action in sustainability issues is not the potential for revenue growth and cost reduction but rather the enhanced performance of the brand, trust and reputation (Lacy et al., 2010). Hence, financial rewards seem not to be the prioritized key driver for sustainability-oriented actions, since most companies are not able to explicitly quantify the benefits of their activity (UN and Accenture, 2016). But even though ethical and environmental issues have become an essential component for the evaluation and selection of brands and potential consumers may care about ethical issues, they are unlikely to compromise on traditional product attributes, such as value, quality, price, and performance (Chen and Chang, 2012). Accordingly, examining the influence of a brands sustainability orientation - as perceived by consumers - on brand related factors such as brand reputation and perceived brand value is of special importance for marketing research and practice. For that reason, the present paper examines the effect of brand sustainability on brand reputation and customer perceived value of a brand. Therefore, a measurement instrument was developed, that considers implicit and explicit pathways of human information processing and thus combines conscious and unconscious evaluations of a brands sustainability. Finally, the transfer from a positive customer evaluation to brand performance in terms of brand-related perception and brand-related behavior is examined.

Sports Sponsorship is considered to provide a highly valuable communication environment for companies to leverage brand equity. However, effectiveness evaluations of sponsorship activities mainly focus on explicit self-reports or focus interviews. Such communication evaluations do not take into account research from psychology demonstrating that associations and judgments are often activated and strongly influenced by implicit (automatic) processes, with no (or only little) conscious awareness of such information processing. Against that background, the goal of the current work is to shed further light on the impact of in-game advertising as innovative sponsor-linked marketing tactic on the dual brand knowledge–incorporating both implicit and explicit information processing–as key success indicator of sport sponsorship.

Sports Sponsorship is considered to be one of the most effective tools in marketing. However, in order to assess the effectiveness of sponsoring activities in customer’s mind, science and business practice often refer to explicit measures such as self-reports or focus interviews. Such aligned conventional measurement approach is missing mental processes which run without awareness, so-called implicit processes, taking place and activity hidden in the unconscious mind. Against that background, the goal of the current work is to shed further light on the impact of athlete sponsorship on dual processes underlying customer’s associations toward a brand.

In both marketing research and business practice, the study of corporate brand heritage has gained growing interest. Although, the field of heritage is rather widely analysed, a closer investigation reveals that there is a lack of research that covers the deeply embedded associations toward a company or brand with a heritage, and their effects on the overall brand performance from a customer’s perspective. That said, previous quantitative studies regarding corporate brand heritage fall back on traditional and basic explicit self-reporting scales. However, an increasing number of neuroeconomic studies indicate that customers are not fully aware of their thoughts and opinions. In fact, most mental processes are of so-called implicit nature, taking place hidden in the unconscious and automatic mind. Yet, established models of corporate brand heritage are missing implicit processes completely. Against this backdrop, the aim of the current paper is to fill this research gap. For that reason, a holistic framework of dual information processing is derived with reference to corporate brand heritage. Furthermore, related explicit and implicit measures are developed and applied to capture the dual facets of corporate brand heritage. The empirical results provide evidence that both heritage facets, explicit corporate brand heritage, but in particular implicit corporate brand heritage have a crucial impact on the degree of attachment toward the corporate brand.

Experiences as the basis for value creation and competitive positioning are increasingly placed at the center of luxury marketing activities to create an emotional customer-brand relationship. Especially in the luxury travel and tourism market, the demand for brand experiences becomes apparent and is reflected in a wide range of services ranging from transport and accommodation to entertainment and relaxation. The cruise ship industry as the fastest growing sector in luxury tourism provides a holistic experiential package designed to meet the travelers’ expectations for pleasure and satisfaction. The aim of this paper is to empirically investigate antecedents of consumer luxury value perception and related consumption behavior with practical implications for the successful management of luxury brands. With special focus on brand experiences in luxury tourism and the cruise industry, the results of our empirical study reveal that luxury consumers have an increasing demand for personal and authentic experiences combined with a rising concern regarding ethical and environmental values. As a consequence, addressing brand experience and sustainability orientation as key elements of customer value perception is a promising way to create successful differentiation strategies in the luxury travel and tourism industry.

Although vast research has been done to better understand brand knowledge, few studies explore the conscious and the unconscious mental processes that increase brand equity when a brand is linked with value adding entities like persons, events or symbols. In our paper we introduce an integrated approach that includes both the explicit and implicit facets of customers’ brand knowledge and the leveraging effects when a brand is framed by another entity. In order to analyze brand knowledge enhancement effects in sufficient detail, we fall back on the multifaceted model of brand leverage by combining a brand with an external label. Our study results show that the combination of measuring implicit and explicit facets of brand knowledge is a better indicator to predict brand knowledge enhancement, and also that the analysis of subconscious processes help to better position the linked object in customers’ perception in order to foster the brand leveraging success.Although vast research has been done to better understand brand knowledge, few studies explore the conscious and the unconscious mental processes that increase brand equity when a brand is linked with value adding entities like persons, events or symbols. In our paper we introduce an integrated approach that includes both the explicit and implicit facets of customers’ brand knowledge and the leveraging effects when a brand is framed by another entity. In order to analyze brand knowledge enhancement effects in sufficient detail, we fall back on the multifaceted model of brand leverage by combining a brand with an external label. Our study results show that the combination of measuring implicit and explicit facets of brand knowledge is a better indicator to predict brand knowledge enhancement, and also that the analysis of subconscious processes help to better position the linked object in customers’ perception in order to foster the brand leveraging success.

The main purpose of this study is to introduce and examine a multidimensional model of almost all relevant social media characteristics and their impact on brand perception and brand behavior. In order to incorporate social media’s high complexity we introduce our concept of SMURF and its related outcomes. Therefore we follow the original idea of Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) that define a brand community as a customer-customer-brand triad. Furthermore, we suggest an extension of their model that includes four dimensions covering all SMURF of a social media brand presence (SMBP), namely (1) customer-brand relation, (2) customer-customer relation, (3) customer-community relation and (4) customer-channel relation. For our defined core constituents of brand perception as well as for the essential elements of brand behavior already existing and tested reflective measures were used. Regarding the multidimensional construct of SMURF, the measurement instrument by Wiedmann, et al. (2013) was used. In detail, any SMURF core element was captured with one global item. Furthermore, any reflective and formative measures were specified to those brand and Facebook fan page which has been tracked most frequently by the respondent. The first contribution is to provide a multidimensional framework of value-based drivers of SMURF with special focus on an overall brand presence context. Second, the findings contribute to explain the consequences of social media attractiveness such as unique relevance features which provide a great brand appeal. In this study, customers who are strongly attracted to a brand fan page experience a high positive brand perception as well as a high positive brand behavior. Third, the empirical findings of the applied PLS-SEM approach indicate that customers have a specific motivation of being attracted and connected to a brand in a social media context.