The Internet is considered as a competitive marketing instrument in advancing business-related information and real-time transaction opportunities (Kumar, 2013). Several brand managers are questioning whether the existent marketing approaches to position their brands, with the purpose to operate in a traditional and online setting, may be enhanced (Liu, 2012). The Internet is recognized as an influential instrument that has changed the manner brands conduct business and the way consumers and businesses interact (Boyland et al., 2013). The distinctive value that the Internet offers over conventional media is the capacity to interact with consumers. This permits practitioners to adjust their presentation to adapt specific consumers’ needs. Contrary to other forms of media, the Internet assists companies to create long-term relationships with its consumers as it allows a distinctive reciprocal communication. This reciprocal communication that distinguishes the latest marketing channels from conventional media is website interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). a mechanized environment the same way as a company does in a traditional environment. It includes communicating with consumers directly, generating an exclusive and individual interaction with them. As a central aspect in technology-mediated communication, Website interactivity has been identified as a critical component to create strong brands (Voorveld et al., 2013). Regardless of the significance of Website interactivity, very limited research was identified in the branding and marketing literature that investigate the influential role of interactivity on brand equity. To this date very few researchers have devoted efforts to investigate the influential impact of Website interactivity on branding constructs. Therefore, this study closes this gap with the conceptualization and the impact of the two dimensions of Website interactivity namely social interactivity and system interactivity on brand equity. Additionally, another contribution is to examine the mediating effect of brand image and brand awareness in the formation of brand equity in the online environment. The study propose a theory-based model of Website interactivity as a precursor to build online brand equity and to examine the relationships among Website interactivity, bran image, brand awareness, and brand equity in the context of branded Websites. Leaning on the fundamentals of branding literature and the Website interactivity theory, a theoretical framework is designed and seven hypotheses are examined. A two-phase analysis is considered, first a Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and then a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings show that the dimensions of Website interactivity impact significantly on the brand awareness and brand image which in turn influence online brand equity. As today limited research has been focused on studying the impact of Website interactivity as a branding instrument. In this study, the authors consider Website interactivity to be the interaction between Websites and individuals. In this sense, Website interactivity is viewed as an essential high-tech capability for building brands (Voorveld et al., 2013) as it allows a reciprocal communication with the system and other users. Current literature indicates that for a more real illustration of the dual dimensions of Website interactivity, studies devote user control as an expression of system interactivity and two-way communication as an expression of social interactivity (Wang et al., 2013). Two-way communication (social interactivity) refers to reciprocal communication between individuals. The dimension is perceived as the interaction between the users and the system (e.g. Website) (e.g. through e-mail, chat or toll-free telephone access to customer service, etc.). The user control (system interactivity) perspective is more concerned with the ability of the user to select content and guide the interaction (Lowry et al., 2006). User control is manifested when individuals are granted the opportunity to select the content and influence the communication. For instance, Web users may feel themselves as possessing user control because they have the capacity to select without restrictions (through an internal search engine).

Although there has been much conceptual evidence of the positive link between customer equity and firm’s performance, comparison of relationships between two firms based on customer equity and firm profitability is limited. However, there is an increasing demand for research that investigates the relationship between firms in the competitive market structure. Therefore, the goal of this research is to examine the role of customer equity on firm profitability by comparing two firms, in a customer equity setting. The result shows that the effect of newly acquired CE of the second top company is stronger than that of the top company while the effect of retained CE of the top company is stronger than that of the second top company. Overall, the results offer strategic implications for firms to implement a different customer equity strategy in this competitive market structure.

The advent of smart shopping environments including innovative information technology, advanced delivery systems, and extended smart phone use has rapidly changed the shopping methods and activities of the consumers. They have chosen smart shopping with greater frequency, which minimizes the use of time, money, effort and energy to buy the right products and to gain shopping experiences such as hedonic and utilitarian feelings (Atkins and Kim, 2012). The concept of smart shopping is based on value co-creation which can be explained as the value from the outcome of interaction between firms and consumers (Grönroos, 2011, Vargo and Lusch, 2004). In the value co-creation process, smart shoppers are willing to perform customer participation behaviors such as information seeking, information sharing, responsible behavior, and personal interaction, and to show customer citizenship behaviors such as feedback, advocacy, helping, and tolerance (Yi and Gong 2013). In smart shopping, a consumer involves in shopping experiences through product purchases and while engaged via the shopping environments such as an elaborate store design, educational events, recreation, and entertainment (Fiore and Kim, 2007). These shopping experiences, which contain both hedonic and utilitarian value (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982), are better explained by consumer processes, responses on the shopping environment, situation, and consumer characteristics (Fiore and Kim, 2007). The attributes of shopping experience are symbolic, hedonic, and aesthetic (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982) and utilitarian and hedonic (Kim, Lee and Park, 2014). Smart shoppers who are involved with value co-creation obtain hedonic benefits with emotional, funny, and enjoyable feelings and along with utilitarian benefits such as rational, functional, task-related experiences (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). The value co-creation and the shopping experience lead to greater customer equity such as value equity, brand equity, and relationship equity (Lemon, Rust, and Zeithamal 2001). Based on previous literature review, the authors constructed the following hypotheses. First, smart shopping will have positive effects on value co-creation, the shopping experience, and customer equity. Second, the smart shopping will have positive effects on both value co-creation and the shopping experience. Third, value cocreation will have positive effects on the shopping experience. Fourth, value cocreation and the shopping experience will have positive effects on customer equity. The authors collected the data based on questionnaires from mobile smart shoppers. The SPSS 20 and AMOS 20 statistical programs will be used for the data analysis. The analysis found the positive influence that smart shopping has on value co-creation and the shopping experience, and customer equity. This is the first study that shows these relationships from an empirical point-of-view. The findings of the study have useful managerial implications on the effects of value co-creation on both smart shoppers and firms. Value co-creation will provide smart shoppers with better product or service quality and enhance firms with more valuable customer equity. The greater shopping experience is the greater customer equity that will be developed. Value co-creation also will give firms a strong competitive advantage in terms of an organization’s learning, brand perception, reduced risk, improvement of customer relationships, and lowering cost for marketing, and research and development. The study has limitations. First, other potential variables of the value co-creation influencing new service development, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction etc, could be considered. Second, the length of the relationship between smart shoppers and the service provider in value co-creation process should be considered. Third, the study needs to be generalized to cross sectional research beyond smart shopping area. Finally, to examine the effects of value co-creation and the shopping experience on customer equity, future research could investigate how value co-creation and the shopping experience affect the objective financial performance of a firm.

Understanding the types and dynamics of drivers on customer equity has been the subject of marketers’ attention for decades, however it is only recently been suggested that cultural or national contexts play a role in this understanding. Much of this research has been centered on the differences between the West and the Asia with many differences being found. Confucianism is often used to explain these differences. This comes as no surprise as Confucianism is argued to be the dominant cultural philosophy, or mode of thought, influencing East Asian individuals’ and entities’ roles in society and with each other. The philosophy has spread from its foundation in China to influence many other key societies in East Asia, such as Korea, Vietnam, and Japan. The general assumption in most of the literature is Confucianism will act similarly in every society it has spread to, but is this the case? What is not understood, therefore, is if the influence of Confucianism is equal among different East Asian societies? This exploratory study therefore seeks to contribute to knowledge by identifying if Confucianism is an influential force on customer equity drivers? And if so, are there differences between East Asian societies? Given the growing economic clout and importance of East Asia and the rising East Asian diaspora, marketer’s adherence and understanding of Confucian principles may be key to their success of managing their customer relationships, underscoring one of their key assets, their customer equity. With most cross-national research taking an umbrella view of the role of Confucianism as an explanatory variable on the behaviors of East Asian consumers, such as the Chinese and South Koreans (e.g. Bond, 1996; Hofstede, 1980), they are ignoring the behavioral and attitudinal variations that exist between East Asian Societies (e.g. Kim & Leung, 2007; Zhang et al., 2013). There is debate suggesting that Confucianism is having less effect now due to globalization, digitalization and capitalism (Leidner, 2010) potentially creating new hybrid value systems (Ralston, 2008). In China, arguments suggest Confucian influence is lessening due to the systemic philosophical changes in the nation’s society over the twentieth century, with the move from traditional Confucius philosophy to Maoism to socialist capitalism (Chiu 2002, Whitcomb et al., 1998). Other East Asian societies however may have moved away from Confucianism much quicker than China, due to their much earlier global exposure than China’s open door globalization policy in the late 1970s. In spite of this, there is wide agreement that Confucianism remains a strong influence in both China (e.g., Zhao & Roper, 2011) and other East Asian societies,such as Korea (Sung & Tinkham, 2005; Lee et al, 2009). The nexus of our paper therefore is that Confucianism does still have an influential role, but what this role is, and how this role differs between societies should be explored. In its purest form, Confucianism is composed of five constant virtues (e.g. Zhang et al., 2005): Benevolence: kind, sympathetic, compassionate, tolerant and respectful of others; Righteousness: the power to protect justice and goodness; Propriety: following societal regulations and laws; Wisdom: having good knowledge, intelligence and systems to provide excellence; and Trustworthiness: fulfillment of promises. Although the foundations of Confucianism goes back millennia, the use of the virtues to guide commercial operations stems from the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644). How adherence to each of the virtues by modern marketing organizations influences their relationships with the modern customer however, has not been explored fully. We argue that each of the virtues will have a positive effect on the key customer equity drivers; value equity, brand equity and relationship equity (Lemon et al., 2001; Rust et al., 2004), and thereon customer lifetime value. Using a sample of young Chinese and Korean consumers, the Confucian five constant virtues, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, trustworthiness and wisdom are measured and their relationships explored on the three dominant drivers of customer equity; value equity, brand equity and relationship equity. The results show that the benevolence, righteousness and wisdom virtues have significant positive relationships on the three drivers. Trustworthiness and propriety virtues however have negative significant relationships. Chinese and South Korean results are then compared. The results show that the Confucianism constant virtues drive different customer equity drivers in these two societies. The five constant virtues have stronger effects for young Chinese customers than their Korean counterparts. The equity drivers of CLV also vary, with brand equity significant in the Chinese sample and value equity significant in the Korean sample. Additionally, some significant paths to the equity drivers differ between Korea and China. Benevolence has a significant negative effect on value and relationship equity drivers (opposite to China) and righteousness a significant effect on value equity (not observed in China). These results support our proposition that a national effect on the manner and influence of the Confucian drivers may vary by society.

Brand equity, “the marketing effects uniquely attributable to the brand” (Keller, 1993, p. 1), is at the heart of competition in the luxury goods market (Keller, 2009). While firms competing in this segment have come up with sophisticated ways to build brand equity, they are currently challenged by the increasing importance of the internet in consumers’ journeys (Kapferer & Bastien, 2012; Okonkwo, 2009). With online sales of luxury goods showing a twelvefold increase over the past 11 years (D’Arpizio et al., 2014), it is evident that luxury brands have to be present somehow in the digital environment today (Heine & Berghaus, 2014). The strategic purposes, business potentials, and consequences for brand equity of this presence, however, are still largely unexplored and remain a paradoxical topic. As a luxury brand’s website is the brand’s most valuable digital asset (Heine & Berghaus, 2014) and as there appears to be a consensus that luxury brands can use their websites to present their products in the digital environment, at least for purposes of communication, the question arises which products are most suitable for reinforcing the brand’s image. The roles a luxury brand’s products can play in relation to brand management can be classified between four poles spanning two dimensions, which this research terms ‘accessibility’ and ‘contemporariness’, in relation to Kapferer and Bastien’s (2012) luxury brand architecture map. Empirical evidence of these dimensions is, nevertheless, scarce, and yet no prior research has investigated these product roles in an e-commerce setting. The current study develops a model to test how an online purchase option and the contemporariness as well as the accessibility of the product assortment offered on the websites of luxury brands affect specific brand equity dimensions of luxury brands. Data of a 2x2x2-online scenario experiment were analyzed, showing that prestige and uniqueness value are non-significantly affected by offering an online purchase option, while functional value increases significantly. Regarding the displayed product assortment, the brand equity dimensions of functionality, prestige, and uniqueness are found to be significantly affected by the inaccessibility of the products, while their contemporariness elicits significant changes in uniqueness value. The study also assesses the mediating role of the brand attributes of availability, price premium, aesthetics, and innovativeness, as well as the moderating role of consumers’ prior brand ownership, for these effects.

The previous social welfare system medical treatment, economy, society, etc, failed to guarantee “quality of life,” in various respects. In such a situation, green areas can be devised as an alternative means of directly improving the quality of life. Furthermore, natural resources and ecosystem services are essential elements of environmental welfare that have the purpose of supporting health and quality of life. However, despite the importance of such green space, it is often unavailable and there is a great disparity in its distribution among different regions in urbanized areas where residents are intensively dispersed. Therefore, the present study suggests a plan for reducing the regional imbalances in the green environment by using distributive equality and visual access as indexes, and Dalseo-gu, Daegu Metropolitan City as the subject; the research results are deemed to be sufficient for carrying out the important role of providing the basic data necessary for establishing future environmental welfare policy. An examination of the analysis results are as follows. First, Gamsam-dong was revealed to need additional green areas; out of the 167 spaces that were regarded as possible for green biotope construction, 48 spaces appeared possible for additional green biotope construction. However, only 10 spaces were assessed as having the potential for actual green biotope construction, excluding the spaces affected by local green environments. Moreover, given a concern with green equality, a final two were deducted as additional green spaces. The present study is significant in that it accomplishes visual accessibility analysis in terms of visual quality, including the effects of aesthetic enjoyment along with distributive equality from green biotopes; the relevant subfactors include green area supply and demand when constructing additional green biotopes to realize a city with improved environmental welfare. However, the present study is limited in terms of failing to consider the green biotope of local administrative districts affecting the target area of the study because it analyzes equality and disconnected green areas for selecting additional green biotope spaces using Dalseo-gu Daegu as its subject.

The implication of the study is that it demonstrates the relationship of image attribute specifying each pattern from the previous studies and investigates the difference in the relationship of brand attitude, artist attitude and purchase intention among image attribute. In addition, by demonstrating the difference in the relationship among the cultural arts lifestyle groups, as well as the high and low fit between lifestyle brand and artist, the study provides an insight and a specified path for marketers as they plan out ways to utilize cultural marketing communications. Finally, by verifying the relationship among patterns, our study offers useful points of reference also for artists or art foundations who plan it with lifestyle brands using strategic approach to consumers by specified means.

With the diffusion of smart-phones and mobile equipment, as well as the emergence of consumption patterns like showrooming and reverse showrooming, not only online shopping, but also offline stores are becoming important. For this reason, a multichannel which simultaneously runs both offline and online channels is getting the spotlight. A multichannel means a series of activities related to selling goods and services to consumers via more than one channel (Levy & Weitz, 2011). To adapt to this change of the retail environment, the Dongdaemun market, the source of Korean mass fashion, is introducing a multichannel to manage online and offline channels together. ‘Style Nanda’, based on Dongdaemun, is a representative branding case. Having starting with an online shopping mall, ‘Style Nanda’ is now running offline stores and is planning to enter overseas markets. Another example is that of Roompacker which has grown up from an offline store in the Dongdaemun Doota Shopping Mall launched in 2005 and is now emerging as the online and offline powerful actor in the market. As mentioned above, Dongdaemun fashion market-based brands are competitive when they have a multichannel to simultaneously run offline channels, online, and mobile channels. The existing Dongdaemun fashion market-related research has been limited to the analysis of Dongdaemun market’s structural characteristics or the consumer perception of the shopping conditions (Hong & Lee, 2007; Choi & Choo, 2005). Also, most multi-channel studies have focused on the consumer perceptions depending on the channel characteristics; therefore, the studies that measured consumer responses depending on the brand characteristics are very scarce. With the change in the retail environment and the increase in the necessity of revitalizing Dongdaemun commercial districts, a study on the multi-channel properties of the Dongdaemun brands would provide many useful implications. In this context, this research aims to analyze the characteristics of the Dongdaemun market, which is offline-optimized, as well as the utilities and attributes of multichannel shopping services of Dongdaemun fashion brands. Our second aim is to provide implications for marketing. In particular, this research is focused on the effects of these attributes on value equity, relationship equity, and brand equity which are customer equity drivers of Dongdaemun fashion brand consumers. Furthermore, this research explores the effects of customer equity drivers on customer satisfaction and purchase intention. A total of 200 samples were collected to examine the effects on customer equity drivers of Dongdaemun multichannel attributions by consumers in Dongdaemun Fashion Market. The collected data were then analyzed statistically (exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and descriptive statistics) with SPSS 21.0. Furthermore, AMOS 18.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and multiple group analysis. The results of this research will serve as a foundation for a distribution channel research to measure the characteristics of Dongdaemun and customer equity regarding a multichannel. They will also be practically helpful in establishing a strategy to introduce a multichannel of offline-centered brands.

This study aims to examine the effects of services marketing mix elements on customer equity through the customer experience in order to determine an optimal marketing mix strategy in the service industry. This paper utilizes confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze and confirm the proposed conceptual model. This study finds that the process, people, and physical evidence of the “7Ps” of the service marketing mix impart a positive and significant effect on the customer experience in the post-office setting. This result would help practitioners to create a service marketing strategy to differentiate their service from competitors in order to retain existing customers and attract new ones. It was also found that the customer experience is positively linked to customer equity. From the customer equity perspective, this study provides theoretical support that the customer experience, as one of the service operations management measurements, can be employed to measure service performance, which is also closely related to customer equity.

There are amount of researches study about corporate competition sustainability, find the way to survive in the competition. But sustainable development has been launched for many years. Sustainable marketing aims to balance among economic, environmental, and social goals. Marketing methods of one company should be innovated with fast development. Marketing practitioners and researchers should follow the idea to sustainable marketing base on the hot issue of sustainable issue. Because sustainable marketing can increase firms’ profit and improve the environment such as nature environment and society. Customer equity is the sum of customer lifetime value, comes from value creation based on profits, costs, cash flow, customers, and customer relationships. Customer equity has been defined as value of future profits that might be acquired from customers, excluding corporate costs (Berger & Nasr, 1998), as profits created when companies allocate resources appropriately to acquire and retain customers (Blattberg & Deighton, 1996), and as the sum of all customers’ discounted lifetime value (Lemon et al., 2001). In this research studied the relationship between sustainable marketing and customer equity. Customer equity has been the key for companies’ sustainable competitive advantage. The company can make proper marketing strategy with customer equity which can both satisfy consumers and make a profit for the company (Lemon et al., 2001). Also test customer attitude to sustainable marketing in different culture. Based on the results this study gave both academy and practice implications.

Customer equity can estimate customer lifetime value for the company (Rust et al, 2004). The firm can make proper marketing strategy with customer equity. Customer equity can both satisfy consumers and make a profit for the company (Lemon et al., 2001).So we built a model to connect service quality and customer equity to study how to prove the competitive power of traditional market. In this paper we used customer satisfaction and brand attitude as mediating variables since Store brands have become an important contributor to retail differentiation and basis for building store loyalty (Dodd and Lindley, 2003) and in retail market customer equity varies with customer satisfaction( Pappu and Quester 2006). Considering that Chinese economic growth rate was slowing down, traditional market is being a priority for Chinese Government to relieve severe export pressure and employment pressure. In this research we would like to study the relationships among service quality, customer satisfaction and brand attitude and how they influence customer equity in traditional markets. Through this study we also find out how to competitive power of traditional market through managing CLV and proving service quality

Dongdaemun Fashion Town, a representative clothing wholesale and retail market in South Korea, is a traditional market that was formed in the 19th century in the late Chosun Dynasty. Since then, the market system has strengthened and, as of now, Dongdaemun Fashion Town can produce various products in batch production and is characterized by a quick market response (Jung, Choo, & Chung, 2007). Furthermore, all fashion-related functions are available, making Dongdaemun Fashion Town an industrial cluster where all related businesses and services are locally concentrated (Ko, Choo, Lee, Song, & Whang, 2013). These characteristics of Dongdaemun Fashion Town relieve market trade cost and build a unique production system. It is positioned as a central clothing wholesale and retail district with the function of a national wholesale market. This Dongdaemun Fashion Town system creates services that customers demand through cooperation, partnership, or outsourcing between various suppliers and various resources (Nam, Kim, Yim, Lee, & Jo, 2009). Thus, Dongdaemun Fashion Town is a system space composed of subordinate markets with unique taste functions; here, a systematic network between the suppliers is significant. It produces value co-creation through collaboration with suppliers. However, few previous studies have investigated co-value created through co-production or co-innovation from Dongdaemun Fashion Town. Also, the shift from product-centered thinking to the customer-centered thinking implies the need for an accompanying shift to the customer-based strategy. It also refers the necessity of strategy to improve customer equity (Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004). Therefore, further study is needed on co-creation research to make cyclical growth of traditional market and customer equity. The structure of this study is as follows. First, the characteristics of the Dongdaemun Fashion Town’s co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation are investigated and each of the subordinate aspects is investigated. Second, the influence of co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation on customer equity driver is analyzed. Third, the moderating effects on the types of suppliers’ (wholesale/retail) influence relationship are analyzed. In total, 300 samples by wholesalers and retailers were collected for the final analysis. Data analysis was performed used SPSS 21.0 for exploratory factor analyses, reliability analysis, and descriptive statistics. Based on the results, AMOS 18.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and multiple group analysis. The results of this study provide an insight into the influence of Dongdaemun Fashion Town’s co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation on customer equity by wholesalers and retailers. The study concludes with outlining future directions of research that can be used in the development of marketing strategies.

In the years 2010–2012 in Italy, the 3F sectors, fashion, food and furniture, marked a +5% (FinanciaLounge, 2014). To some extent, this rise may rely on the strong Made in Italy label that is historically “perceived by consumers as being associated with “true” luxury goods” (Hoffmann & Coste-Manière, 2014) and, in order to create nostalgia and credibility for their brands, many firms try to correlate their offer to the heritage of the Country of Origin (Fionda & Moore, 2009). In the academic literature, Country of Origin is one of the most analyzed method to enhance a firm’s competitive advantage, mainly thanks to its ability to increase positive perceptions about firms’ products in the customers’ mind (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1999; Aiello et al., 2009). Moreover, Country of Origin is defined as “the effect rooted in consumers’ images of the quality of specific products marketed by firms associated with a country of origin” (Verlegh, Steenkamp, & Meulenberg, 2005, p. 127). COO works as an information cue that covers the attitudes toward the products evaluation. In particular, COO influences customers’ brand awareness, perceived quality and brand associations depending on the country image, and, as a consequence, the overall brand equity (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1999; Chao, 1998; Magnusson, Westjohn, & Zdravkovic, 2011). For instance, some authors showed a positive bias (i.e. increased willingness to pay a higher price) toward products from some countries relative to others (Drozdenko & Jensen, 2009). For this reason, just few countries can benefit from their image and awareness in order to take advantage from the Country of Origin effect, such as Italy. Furthermore, besides the Country image, scholars found that the COO effect can vary depending on the product category “For a given category, country-of-origin credibility is high when consumers have a favorable image of the country’s products in that category, and low when the product–country image is unfavorable” (Verlegh et al., 2005, p. 129). In this perspective, firms should identify solutions to convey positive associations about their supply to customers (Phau & Leng, 2008). The relevance of this issue is confirmed by a lot of studies, where some communication tools related to COO effect are already investigated, like brand identification system, packaging, advertising copy and celebrity endorsement (Agrawal & Kamakura, 1999; Usunier, 2011). Actually, a lot of Italian firms use product placement exploiting the “Made in Italy” effect, where placement is here intended as the paid inclusion of branded products within mass media programming (Karrh, 1998). Just few examples are Piaggio with Vespa in Roman Holiday, Bacardi with Martini in James Bond and Ocean’s series, Riva Yacht with Aquarama in James Bond series and The Great Beauty, and Prada in The devil wears Prada. Many reasons are explaining such a great use of product placement. On one hand, in the last decade we have assisted to the fragmentation of media and their audience, and on the other one, consumers are more and more skeptical towards traditional benefit advertising and they use technology to avoid commercials (Hackley & Tiwsakul, 2006; Lehu & Bressoud, 2009). Integrating brands casually but notably in a media content appears to be an interesting alternative to traditional marketing communication tools (D’Astous & Chartier, 2000). Furthermore, product placement’s acceptance and its possibly effectiveness, as well as country of origin effect, is likely to vary across product category (Gupta & Gould, 1997; Russell, 1998). Moreover, we can assume that product placement impact on the overall brand equity in a positive way (Aaker, 1997; Miniero, Chizzoli, & Pate, 2013) as it is an effective tool that can increase brand awareness and develop favorable relations with customers (Chan, 2012). In particular, studies on product placement confirm an increased top-of-mind-awareness and unaided awareness of placed brands (Cholinski, 2012). Finally, even if studies on product integration effect on attitude toward placed brands are not univocal, a lot of publications present positive or at the very least neutral product placement influence on brand attitude (Russell, 2002). For instance, according to Miniero et al. (2013), product placement is a nice way to achieve communication objectives and it can be used to influence consumers’ attitude and intention to buy a specific brand (Miniero et al., 2013). To our knowledge, despite a huge employment of product placement in practice and a lot of contributions in the academic theory about these two topics, there is a gap in the literature about the relationship between the COO effect and the use of this communication tool from a practitioners’ perspective. On the contrary, from a consumers’ perspective, Tsai and Lu’s research find out a positive correlation between the use of product placement and the country image (Tsai & Lu, 2012). Moreover, due to the several studies concerning the positive impact of product placement and country of origin on brand equity, we are allowed to suppose that professionals can synergistically take advantage from both. Starting from Karrh’s studies on the practitioners’ perspective about product placement, our research aspires to draw any analogy and difference between Karrh’s findings and the Italian firm’s perceptions (Karrh, McKee, & Pardun, 2003; Karrh, 1995, 1998). Particularly, we aim to interview companies that belong to sectors where Made in Italy represents a key competitive component. In addition, our study attempts to explore if and how independent Italian firms exploit country of origin effect in their product placement in order to increase their brand equity. To answer our research questions, we could properly use the case study method (Yin, 2009). This qualitative methodology is very useful to explore unanticipated empirical discoveries (Eisenhardt, 1989). Our case study protocol will provide the analysis of three different data sources. In the first stage of our research, we will examine audio-visual materials, such as film, videotapes, websites and social media, to collect data in an unobtrusive method. In the second stage, we will go through public documents, newspapers and recent academic literature to understand trend topics on product placement and COO and to arrange guidelines suitable for the interviews. In the third ones, we will conduct in-depth face-to-face and semi-structured interviews with key figures of Made in Italy firms that integrated product placement in their communication mix at least once. More in details, interviews will be recorded and transcribed to ensure the completeness of the information gathered. Through the triangulation of these methods and sources we will achieve a richer and deeper data collection and we will also make the case study more detailed (Creswell, 2009). Although our research is still in progress, we expect to extend Karrh’s findings about product placement. More in details, we would like to focus our attention upon the integration between COO and product placement and we try to highlight any key element that can explain how to manage this relationship in order to increase brand equity.

This study aims to investigate the effects of price promotions on the perception of a brand in the mind of consumer in luxury market. This study extends the previous literature on price promotional strategy and brand equity (brand awareness, brand image, and brand loyalty) by focusing on how a consumer perceives functional value and psychological value to create brand equity in luxury products.

There is relatively little evidence on how social media marketing activities influence brand equity creation and consumers’ behavior towards the brand. We explore these relationships by analyzing pioneering brands in the luxury sector (Burberry, Dior, Gucci, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton). Based on a survey of 845 luxury brand consumers (Chinese, French, Indian and Italian) who follow the five brands studied on social media, we developed a structural equation model that helps to address gaps in prior social media branding literature. Specifically, our study demonstrates the links between social media marketing efforts – measured as a holistic concept incorporating five aspects (entertainment, interaction, trendiness, customization and word of mouth) and their consequences (brand preference, price premium and loyalty).

본 연구는 농촌관광마을의 브랜드 자산이 장소애착 및 친환경 행동의도와의 영향 관계를 검증하고자 하였다. 농촌관광마을의 브랜드자산은 브랜드인지도, 브랜드이미지, 지각된 품질, 지각된 가치로 분류되었으며, 장소애착은 장소의존성, 장소정체성, 사회적 유대감으로 구분되었다. 친환경 행동의도는 단일차원으로 도출되었다. 가설검증 결과, 첫째, 농촌관광마을의 브랜드자산인 브랜드인지도, 브랜드이미지, 지각된 품질, 지각된 가치가 장소의존성에 모두 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며, 둘째, 장소정체성은 친환경 행동의도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 분석되었으며, 장소의존성 또한 친환경 행동의도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 셋째, 농촌관광마을의 브랜드자산 중 브랜드이미지와 지각된 가치가 친환경 행동의도에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of store attributes on brand equity of and brand attitude toward Korean SPA brands. Data were collected from women living in Seoul in ages from 18 to 39 with purchasing experience at Korean SPA brands. A total of 554 questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis including factor analysis and structure equation analysis. The results were as follows: For store attributes, 8 factors were extracted: product assortment, fashionability, price, quality, store environment, service, convenience in location and advertisement. Two factors, brand awareness, brand image were extracted for brand equity, and brand attitude was derived as a single dimension. Product-related store attributes such as product assortment, price, quality have positive effects on brand awareness, brand image and brand attitude. Other attribute such as store environment has positive effect on brand awareness and brand image, Attribute such as advertisement has positive effect on brand awareness and service, convenience in location have positive effect on brand attitude. Moreover, brand image and brand awareness have positive effect on brand attitude. These results indicate the product-related attributes are important factors to consider for improving brand equity and brand attitude for Korean SPA brands.

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.