Drawing on the Stereotype Content Model, we examine how CSR impacts brand stereotypes and, in turn, drives consumers’ behavioral intentions towards the stereotyped brand. We do so in the context of (a) varying combinations of brands’ warmth and competence and (b) varying types of CSR activities (i.e. environmental and social).

Recently, brand managers have widely adopted brand anthropomorphism as positioning strategies to differentiate from other competitors. Aggarwal and McGill (2012) anthropomorphized brand as two specific roles. Brand-as-partner refers its role as “the co-producer of benefits”, a relationship in which the brand and consumers work together to co-create the benefits as equals. However, brand-as-servant represents its role as “the outsourced provider of benefits”, a hierarchical relationship in which the brand works for consumers to create benefits. Our research extends prior literature by investigating how a brand can improve consumers’ responses with the anthropomorphization of being either a collaborative partner or a supportive servant, depending on consumer’s mind-set  aptly termed implicit theories. Implicit theories are the beliefs that people have about the nature of human characteristics. In specific, entity theorists believe human traits are relatively fixed and stable; and incremental theorists believe human traits are substantially changeable (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). These two implicit theories trigger many distinctive cognitive and behavioral patterns. For example, entity theorists prefer effortless success and receiving assurances to signal their abilities. In contrast, incremental theories emphasize on self-improvement through high effort to realize their self-enhancement and intentions (Park & John, 2014). We generalize this theory to anthropomorphic brand positioning and adopt consumer’s efficacy (confidence) to explain the underlying mechanism. We hypothesize a servant brand is more appealing to entity theorists, because they prefer situations in which they are guaranteed of being satisfied effortlessly (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Therefore, they are more confident about their abilities when a servant brand acts as an assurance for providing benefits. In contrast, a partner brand may be more attractive to incremental theorists, because they believe their abilities can be improved through working with the partner brand. Thus, they should be more self-assured about their abilities, and increase their perceived efficacy to realize their intentions. Three studies were conducted to test the hypotheses by both manipulating and measuring implicit theories. The consistent results revealed the significant interactions between brand roles and implicit theories on brand evaluation as well as the mediation effect of consumer efficacy. In sum, this research contributes to brand managers by advising them to cultivate appropriate brand role position in accordance with the target and potential consumer’s distinct mind-set.

Although the majority of prior literature has suggested the key reasons for consumer complaining in service failures are to vent negative emotions (e.g. anger, dissatisfaction) and to seek redress (Blodgett, Hill, & Tax 1997; Nyer 1997), some research has also pointed out that customers will give constructive suggestions to firms through complaining (Groth, 2005; Liu & Mattila, 2015). In this regard, consumer complaining can be classified into two types, namely, positive complaint (i.e., with constructive suggestion) and negative complaint (i.e., without constructive suggestion). Understanding what situations would dissatisfied consumers choose to give constructive suggestions in service failures would be of utmost important to firms. We suggest that a firm’s brand image may affect consumers’ intention to choose what types of complaint in service failures. In general, consumers may perceive a brand as having a competence image (e.g., professional and efficient) or having a warmth image (e.g., friendly and approachable) (Kervyn, Fiske and Malone, 2012). Comparatively speaking, a warmth image is associated with friendship and caring, whereas a competence image is associated with expertise. Therefore, it is possible that consumers would have a higher empathy and intention to help a firm with a warmth (vs. competent) image, and be more likely to choose positive complaint when a failure happens to this firm. An experimental study confirmed this prediction. In addition, we found that although a firm’s competence (vs. warmth) image does not affect the likelihood to give constructive suggestions in service failures, it leads to a higher level of return intention. Implications and future research directions will be discussed.

The recent addition of Instagram feature, ad labels for sponsored posts, enables users to explicitly identify sponsored posts, increasing the level of transparency of posts (O’Brien, 2017). In sponsored posts in social media, followers are aware the marketing efforts that go on behind the user generated contents and message threads. Thus, the impact of postings on the followers’ behavioral response may vary depending on the levels of trust that followers have with the brand sponsored Instagram posts. In that regards, retailers implementing Instagram platform have faced creating more persuasive postings that can build the posting credibility and generate positive responses toward the brand. Grounded upon the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), this study attempted to identify determinants of persuasive postings that build the message credibility of brand sponsored Instagram posts and positive responses toward the brand and to examine how the levels of trust followers have with the brand sponsored Instagram moderate the persuasion process when followers elaborate the postings. Data was collected via online survey and a total of 263 responses were determined to be usable in this study. Structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses. The study results showed that post popularity and the argument quality of the post were determinants of the persuasive posting, increasing message credibility and yielding positive response towards the sponsored brand. Interestingly, post attractiveness was not a persuasive post characteristic. The results implied that post popularity and argument quality of post increased Instagram post credibility. These characteristics of posts have persuasive power to increase the post credibility, leading to a positive response toward the sponsored brand. Consumers’ levels of trust on the Instagram post sponsored brand moderated the persuasive process. The result supported that consumers with a low level of trust on the Instagram post sponsored brand carefully read a wide range of information and pay more attention to argument quality of posts, which consisted of the post content and other followers’ input regarding the product. Through the lens of Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study suggests that retailers should pay particular attention on the argument quality of a post and post popularity. The argument quality of a post is the influential factor determining persuasive and credible posts, further leveraging post credibility for consumers with a low level of trust on the sponsored post.

Customers’ cognitive and affective responses evoked during shopping are closely linked to their attitude toward a brand (Kim, Park, Lee & Choi, 2016). Furthermore, personal traits have been known as important moderators. Studies on the antecedents of customer attitude have focused on the main effects of specific predictors and are yet to examine the combined effect of cognitive and affective responses during shopping and personal traits (Fiore & Kim, 2007). Using complexity theory, this study intends to fill this gap in the research, particularly in the luxury fashion retail context. Employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), this study offers 6 combination patterns of cognitive responses, affective responses, and personal traits leading to positive brand attitude. The results reveals three major findings. First, to shape a customer’s positive attitude toward a luxury brand, managing cognitive responses is more important than managing affective responses. Second, results show that avoiding negative feelings is more important than evoking positive feelings. Third, the combinations that lead to positive attitudes differ by the level of brand familiarity. This study contributes to the S-O-R literature by demonstrating the intertwined relationship between components of the organism (O) (i.e., cognition and emotion). The identified configurations can help luxury retail managers recognize patterns of influential factors on customer attitudes and better design retail experiences.

Brand threats are unexpected, widely spread negative brand occurrences that are manifest in various forms such as rumours (Einwiller et al., 2008), negative publicity (Ahluwalia et al., 2000), ethical scandals (Huber et al., 2010; Lisjak et al., 2012; Trump, 2014) and product failures (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Ahluwalia et al., 2001). They are quite common in the marketplace with adverse effects on brand reputations and brand equity (Duttta and Pullig, 2011) by thwarting consumers` expected benefits from the brand (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Dutta and Pullig, 2011). Due to the frequency and seriousness of brand threats, academic interest in studying the effects of brand threats as well as predicting consumers responses has been rising in the past decade (Swaminathan et al., 2007; Cheng et al., 2012; Lisjak et al., 2012; Trump, 2014). Brand threat literature has evolved over the years from few case studies focusing on organizational response strategies to empirical work documenting cognitive and attitudinal responses by consumers to different types of threats. However, there are still a number of inconsistencies within this loose body of work that requires further research attention. The following section will highlight some of the most imminent controversies within the brand threat literature and thus paving the way for the current review paper to synthesize different streams of research and offer some conceptual clarity on brand threats. First, with regards to the conceptualization of brand threats, there appears to be no broad agreement on a precise definition of what constitutes a threat at the brand level. Over the past few years, scholars have expressed this notion using words such as negative brand publicity (Ahluwalia et al., 2000;2001; Pullig et al., 2006), brand scandal (Roehm and Tybout, 2006), brand failure (Roehm and Brady, 2007; Cheng et al., 2012), brand-related crisis ( Dawar and Lei, 2009; Dutta and Pullig, 2011), brand misconduct (Huber et al., 2010) and brand transgression (Trump, 2014). While these definitions can be used interchangeably as they reflect the overall characteristic of brand threats; they draw upon different theoretical foundations. As a result, competing views and understandings of brand threats have materialised, resulting in perennial dissensus within the extant literature. In addition, there is a debate in the literature with regards to the differential effects of brand threat types. The majority of prior research on brand threats has predominantly focused on two types of threat which is product–related brand threat (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; 2001; Cheng et al., 2012; Swaminathan et al., 2007) and values-related brand threats. Product-related threats usually involve defective or dangerous products and reduce a brand's perceived ability to deliver its functional benefits (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Pullig et al., 2006; Roehm and Brady, 2007; Dawar and Lei, 2009). Values-related threats, on the other hand can be defined as unexpected events that threaten a brand's perceived ability to deliver expressive or symbolic benefits (Dawar and Lei, 2009; Pullig et al., 2006). They do not involve the product but rather the social or ethical values of the brand (e.g., Pullig et al., 2006). Both types of threats have negative impact such as brand equity, satisfaction and choice likelihood (Dutta and Pullig, 2011), however existing work offer contradictory findings with regards to the degree of damage caused by either type of brand threat. While some studies implicate the product related threats are more damaging to the brand, other studies indicate that values related threats have more negative impact. For instance, product related threats have been reported to damage brand image and trust (Dawar and Pillutla, 2000), lead to consumer brand switching and consequently cause financial losses (Cleeren et al., 2008). On the other hand, Huber et al. (2010) report that a brand's moral threat can be more damaging for consumers` relationship quality with the brand as well as repurchase intention. In addition, Folkes and Kamins (1999) indicate that negative ethical information is perceived as more diagnostic than product attribute information. Additionally, Trump (2014) compared both types of threats (product vs. ethical) in the same study and reported that ethical-related brand threats can be more damaging than product-related threats. This in turn has contributed to growing inconsistencies within the brand threat literature and elaborated the need for more empirical work to reconcile these conflicting streams of research. An additional layer of controversy within the brand threat literature pertains to the impact of consumer brand relationship in predicting consumer responses. The general assumption is that the stronger the relationship between the consumer and the brand, the more insulated the brand remains from the negative impact of brand threats, however research yield mixed results. While some studies indicate the positive role of strong consumer brand relationship in mitigating the negative impact of brand threats (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; 2001; Einwiller et al., 2006), studies by Roehm and Brady, (2007) and Cleeren et al., (2008) suggest that these positive impacts are only shortlived. While other researchers show that high quality brand relationship may actually result in more negative consumer responses following threat (Hubler et al., 2010). Lastly, there has not been a unified conceptual framework to predict consumer responses to brand threat; different studies have used different theoretical underpinnings to examine the phenomenon reporting different results. Earlier studies on the subject were quite sparse, apart from a few attempts limited to case studies from public relations and publicity literature, there has been no systematic study of how consumers respond to brand threats (Ahluwaia et al., 2000). A common assumption in that literature was that brand threats in the form of negative publicity is considered more credible and influential than the brand`s marketing communications and therefore will always lead to serious adverse consequences (Bond and Kirshenbaum, 1998). Moreover, consumers were assumed to always respond in a uniform manner (Mgrconi, 1997; Pearson and Mitroff 1993). Although these studies have offered insights into how people process negative information and form evaluations, their findings were limited to experimental contexts in which subjects have to evaluate unfamiliar individuals. Although, several theoretical models have been proposed to understand consumers' responses to different types of brand threats (Ahluwalia et al., 2000; Dawar and Pillutla, 2000; Dawar and Lei, 2009; Huber et al., 2010; Roehm and Tybout, 2006; Cleeren et al., 2008; Dutta and Pullig, 2011), the findings of these studies reported mixed findings. Additionally, this body of work failed to present a unifying theoretical framework that predicts how consumers respond to negative information about commercial brands that they are familiar with nor did they identify the factors that could moderate the response strategies (Ahluwalia et al., 2000). Therefore, the current study seeks to review the existing literature on brand threats to propose an integrative classification framework that predicts consumer responses to different types of brand threats. Specifically, this review will offer four important contributions. Firstly, the review will offer a holistic conceptualization of brand threats and its different forms. Secondly, it will highlight existing studies that demonstrate consumer responses to brand threats and the important moderating factors captured in previous studies clustered around four main categories: corporate responses, threat-related characteristics, consumer characteristics, and consumerbrand relationships. Thirdly, the review will propose a theoretical framework and a number of propositions that predict the conditions under which consumers pursue specific responses to brand threat. The proposed framework will also identify a number of situational factors and individual traits that moderate may consumer responses. Lastly, the review will conclude by highlighting underdeveloped theoretical intersections pertaining to the long term effects of brand threats and suggesting potentially fruitful directions for future inquiry. The above contributions will integrate brand threat research in marketing and management theory within a single organizing framework. Moreover, by consolidating past results and setting the stage for further efforts, this review will seek to foster greater integration of fresh perspectives from other disciplines such as social psychology, sociology, consumer research and management to broaden the scope of research on band threat.

Due to the highly competitive nature of the apparel industry, fashion brands attempt to constantly engage consumers through various marketing strategies. Social media was found to drive female consumer purchases for apparel items. In shopping for fashion, consumers have used their personal connections on social media as an information source about different brands and products and to seek approval of their peers before making a purchase decision (Park & Cho, 2012). Cha (2009) found that female consumers look to their social media network connections for emotional connections, opinions, and approval on clothing, perfume, and accessories they are considering purchasing online. Ruane and Wilson (2013) found that female consumers use social media sites for information on where to shop and what merchandise to purchase. In studying the effect of blogs on corporate outcome, the role Millennials play is found to be significant. They are heavily reliant on word of mouth when up to 93% of Millennials has purchased a product after hearing about it from a family member or friend (Hoffmann, 2014). They not only usually read reviews prior to purchase, but also pass their recommendations via social media post-purchase (Hoffman, 2014). This age group constitutes 27% of the US population and in spite of their lower incomes, they spend more money on e-commerce than any other age group ($2,000 annually) (Smith, 2015). Therefore, this study aims to suggest strategies to fashion brands on effective blog campaign, which may eventually provide insights on how marketers can encourage engagement with female Millennial apparel consumers. The study’s objectives are 1) to examine the effect of brand awareness building customer’s brand credibility, brand similarity and blog engagement 2) to investigate the impact of brand responses on customer’s brand credibility, brand similarity and blog engagement, and 3) interaction effect between brand awareness and brand responses on customer engagement through cognitive evaluation in fashion blog context. A 3 (brand response: automated response, personalized response, no response) x2 (Brand awareness: well know, unknown) experimental design was developed through a pre-test of 139 participants. For main-test, experiment conditions and the following survey were completed by the convenience sample of 537 students in a large Southern university. Research findings revealed the significant impact of brand awareness on customer perceived brand credibility and brand similarity which were significant predictors of engagement intention. In contrast, the study indicated the insignificant relationship between brand responses and blog engagement intention. Study’s result not only suggested implications for marketers but also expanded further studies contributing on the body of knowledge.

Study objectives are: 1) to investigate the difference in consumer perceptions of the model’s image and physical attractiveness according to advertising model types; 2) to explore the effect of the difference between the model’s image and the consumer’s self image, the difference between the model’s image and the brand’s image, and the physical attractiveness of the model on attitude toward the advertising model; and 3) to explore the effect of attitude toward the advertising model on attitude toward the advertisement. A total of 306 female consumers over the age of 45 participated in experiments with advertisement stimuli for a senior apparel brand. Results showed a significant difference in the model’s images and physical attractiveness according to each model type. The consumer’s attitude toward the advertising model was determined by physical attractiveness of the model, not by the difference between model’s image and the consumers’ self-image, nor by the difference between the model’s image and brand image. Attitude toward advertisements was determined by attitude toward the advertising model. The findings imply that advertising models of a senior apparel brand can be selected based on the physical attractiveness of the model. Consumers do not consider whether the model’s image fits well with their self-images or the brand’s image when building an attitude toward the advertising model, and this precedes the consumer’s attitude toward the advertisement. These results can be used as guidelines to select appropriate models for advertisements of senior apparel brands.

The objective of this paper is to understand consumers’ responses (attitude, perception of quality and luxury) to production delocalization in the luxury industry, based on brand origin matching consumers’ origin or not, in order to understand the interaction brand origin and consumer ethnocentrism on those responses.Two experiments were conducted. Study 1 exposes 166 respondents (French, Italian and other European) to a message of delocalization of either a French or Italian brand supposed to delocalize production to China. Study 2 assesses, among 62 French women, the implicit preference toward French luxury brands (through the Implicit Association Test, Greenwald et al. 1998) and the level of consumer ethnocentrism (through CETSCALE, Sharma et al. 1995). Then, the group is exposed between subjects to 2 delocalization messages X 2 country of delocalization (China, Poland EU) Although brand origin is not salient when consumers evaluate brands (no explicit preference for French brands over Italian brands across studies), it is nonetheless present below awareness, as part of the brand heritage and the brand identity (measured through an implicit preference for French brands over Italian brands among our French respondents). It manifests in context of brands delocalizing out of the home country. Across studies, the attitude toward the brand, the perception of quality and perception of luxury is affected negatively post-exposure to a message of delocalization. Yet, this result is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism and message framing. When the message induces positive consequences for the brand and for the national economy, French respondents (and Italian respondents in study 1) are less affected by the delocalization of their home brands than other respondents. In turn, when the message highlights a loss in national employment, respondents judge the brand more negatively. The effect is stronger for respondents higher in ethnocentrism. The country of delocalization does not influence those results. There is scarcity of papers investigating the CoO effect for luxury brands, although the luxury business model and luxury brand identity are rooted into brand origin. This paper is the first to our knowledge to investigate the effect of brand origin and consumer ethnocentrism on brand delocalization.

디자인에 대한 중요성에도 불구하고 제품디자인에 대한 소비자의 행동적 반응과 관련된 연구는 상당히 부족한 실정이다. 특히 제품디자인에 대한 소비자의 심리적 반응에 대한 실증적 연구는 매우 부족하다. 따라서 제품디자인에 대한 반응과 브랜드 이미지나 브랜드 자산간의 관계에 대한 이해가 매우 제한적이라 할 수 있다. 본 연구는 제품 디자인에 대한 소비자의 심리적 반응을 통해 형성되는 디자인 이미지가 브랜드 이미지와 브랜드 자산에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 두 가지 제품 범주(효용제품과 상징제품)를 이용하여 검증하였다. 연구결과 두 가지 제품 범주 모두에서 제품 디자인 이미지는 브랜드 이미지에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 상징적 제품에서 디자인 이미지가 브랜드 자산에 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 효용 제품의 경우에는 제품 디자인 이미지가 브랜드 자산에 유의적인 영향을 미치지는 못하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 두 제품군 모두에서 브랜드 이미지는 브랜드 자산에 유의적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.

브랜드 노출의 다양한 상황에서 브랜드 시각요소에 대한 연구는 것은 마케터나 디자이너에게 매우 실질적이고 실행에 단서를 제공할 수 있다. 최근 브랜드 연구의 다양한 확산에 따라 브랜드의 시각요소에 대한 연구 브랜드 시각요소의 디자인 특성에 따른 디자인 반응연구인, Schechter의 연구, Henderson & Cote의 연구, Henderson & Cote, Leong & Schmitt의 연구, 한상만 & 최주리의 연구 내용의 분석을 하였다. 각 연구에서 도출 된 반응차원과 연구 의 성과에 대한 분석으로 디자인 제작 시 반영 가능성을 모색하였다.