Many companies seek to position their brands as global players to benefit from favorable quality and prestige inferences. Yet, recent research calls into question whether global brand positioning strategies are invariably beneficial. In many Western markets, the political environment becomes increasingly tense, with nationalism and ethnocentrism on the rise. Against this background, we seek to answer the question: How does political ideology influence the effectiveness of global brand positioning strategies? Do global brand positioning strategies create more value in liberal or conservative environments?

With the development of social media, nowadays, people connect to each other more frequently and timely. In this article, we want to discuss this interactive communication in Chinese social media, i.e., WeChat, Weibo and Xianhongshu, between the Chinese immigrants in France (French Chinese) and Chinese in China. The intent of this article is to explore if there is a significant difference between high-acculturated and low-acculturated French Chinese in the use of word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to the purchase of product categories high in social signaling value. The article helps firms plan their international marketing strategy in terms of how they will benefit from WOM where French Chinese consumers comprise a significant part of the target market. Additionally, this research helps firms develop effective virtual interaction tools to build a strong long-term brand relationship with ethnic groups.

Drawing both on international marketing literature (Steenkamp, Batra, & Alden, 2003) and value/risk research (Sweeny & Soutar, 2001; Mitchell, 1999), the current study investigates (1) how consumers’ perceptions of brand globalness/localness (PBG/PBL) influence their assessment of different dimensions of perceived value as well as the risk associated with making a purchase decision; and (2) how these value and risk assessments mediate the relationships between PBG/PBL and brand purchase intentions. We apply signaling theory (Kirmani & Rao, 2000) to relate PBG and PBL to consumers’ perceptions of risk as well as their perceptions of functional, emotional and social value. For empirical verification of the hypothesized relationships, we use comparable samples from two European countries that vary substantially in terms of economic development (Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina). Results show that only emotional value serves as a consistent mediator of PBG and PBL on purchase intentions in both countries, whereas no mediating role could be identified for perceived risk. In terms of managerial implications, our findings reveal the importance of emphasizing the emotional value of a brand, which serves as a stable facilitator through which PBG/PBL influence consumers’ purchase intentions across the distinct market settings.

The effectiveness of global brands is traditionally measured by its ability to turn the brand’s target audience into consumers. Yet the focus on consumption overlooks the significance of customer equity within non-target audiences. Studying this phenomenon has become increasingly important with the advent of the internet and cross-border mass-communications which expose brands to global non-target audiences. Yet, little is known about how consumers who have no experience with the brand anticipate such experience purely based on brand popularity? Also, little is known how are components of the global brand personality particularly active in shaping the anticipated brand/customer experience? Thus, this study examines customer anticipated experience of a global brand - Hard Rock Café, in Ukraine. The conceptual model focuses on the relationship between brand popularity with brand excitement and competence and their influence on customer perceived value of the anticipated brand experience and the impact of the perceived value on customer liking of the experience and intention to engage with the brand. Using 214 Ukrainian respondents, the conceptual module was supported with significant implications for global brand engagement in target and non-target audiences.

With the development of social media, nowadays, people connect to each other more frequently and timely. In this article, we want to discuss this interactive communication in Chinese social media, i.e., WeChat, Weibo and Xianhongshu, between the Chinese immigrants in France (French Chinese) and Chinese in China. The intent of this article is to explore if there is a significant difference between high-acculturated and low-acculturated French Chinese in the use of word-of-mouth (WOM) in response to the purchase of product categories high in social signaling value. The article helps firms plan their international marketing strategy in terms of how they will benefit from WOM where French Chinese consumers comprise a significant part of the target market. Additionally, this research helps firms develop effective virtual interaction tools to build a strong long-term brand relationship with ethnic groups.

The Chinese fashion market, which has typically been dominated by luxury brands, is expanding more into mid- to low-end fashion brands including global SPA (Specialty retailer of private label apparel) brands. This change in the Chinese fashion market is due to the growth of the middle class in China. The advance of the Chinese middle class is attributed to the fact that the wages of large city workers is improving due to the development of various industries, particularly IT. Recently, the Chinese government has initiated an anti-corruption movement, which has led to the prohibition of luxury goods consumption, and so the interest of Chinese potential fashion consumers has moved to the mid-to low-end fashion products imported from developed countries. In addition, young Chinese consumers' positive attitude toward online shopping is favorable for foreign mid-to low-end brands. These changes in the tastes of Chinese fashion consumers are favorable for Korean fashion brands in particular for several reasons. First, the Korean fashion industry does not have a history of producing luxury brands, but does produce many good mid- to low-end fashion brands. In addition, Chinese tend to consider Korean fashion and food culture as more developed and preferable due to the success of the Korean wave. Lastly, it is easy for Korean practitioners to offer online shopping and customer service. The emergence of mid- to low-end fashion brands started in Korea in the late 2000s when global SPA brands entered the market. Unlike Korea's soho brands, which are based on the "No-brand" strategy, global SPA brands have actually shaken up the market by offering reasonable prices for Korean domestic brand products that are of similar quality. Since then, consumers’ willingness to pay for clothing has been reduced even further in the Korean market even though the low-growth trend in the economy has stabilized. So, it is very important to analyze and study the consumption tendency for low and mid-priced fashion brands among both Chinese and Korean consumers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Chinese and Korean consumers perceive the personality of mid- and low-priced fashion brands and how such personality affects brand loyalty, commitment, and perceived quality. Brand personality is a vital area of research since fashion products are a type of consumer good that is consumed by users close to the body and which can express the self and the personality to others. Aaker (1997) developed a brand personality measurement scale consisting of five dimensions which many researchers have used in exploring the brand personality dimension in various industries. In the study of fashion in particular, the dimension of brand personality has been explored and its effects have been analyzed. However, most of the research has focused on luxury or high priced brands. Also, the research has not compared cultures such as China and Korea in this regard. Therefore, this study explored how Chinese and Korean consumers perceive some of the mid- to low-end priced brands originating in Europe and Korea. Also, the research examined how multiple dimensions of brand personality affected perceived quality, commitment, and brand loyalty. This study assumed that perceived quality and commitment may mediate the relationship between brand personality dimensions and loyalty. In order to conduct quantitative research, this study adopted scales from the previous literature to measure the variables used in the research model. A professional online research company conducted the survey, which was designed to be administered only to potential consumers of mid-and low-priced fashion brands who had purchased one or both European and Korean brands which were suggested in the survey. Also, gender (female), residential area (Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai), and age (21-39 years old) were controlled for. In this research, the European origin brand was the global SPA (Zara, H & M, ONLY), and there were eight Korean brands, including “Style Nanda,” which is popular in China (Refer to Table 1). The data collected on the 250 Korean and 250 Chinese participants were analyzed using statistical package SPSS 20.0. The brand personality dimension was explored using factor analysis which applied Varimax rotation based on the principle component method. As a result, even though the items included were found to be somewhat different according to the country and origin of the brand, the brand personality dimensions of the European global brands turned out to be similar and reflected “TRENDY, SINCERITY, AND COMPETENCE.” Also, Chinese consumers’ perception of brand personality in Korean brands was found to be similar to their perception of European brands. However, Korean consumers’ perception of Korean brands, which are of course their own brands, was more diverse reflecting “TRENDY, SINCERITY, COMPETENCE, AND OUTGOING.” This seems to be because Korean consumers may have had more chance to experience Korean brands either online or offline through visiting stores or being exposed to a variety of marketing communications. Thus, because there are more Korean brands than European, Korean consumers may be able to have an accurate perception of the personality of Korean brands. The conceptual model of the current research includes the relationships among multiple dimensions of brand personality in perceived quality, commitment, and loyalty. Also, the mediating effect of quality and commitment between brand personality and loyalty was examined. In order to test the hypotheses, hierarchical multiple regression using SPSS was analyzed and is described in Table 2 in relation to European brands and in Table 3 in relation to Korean brands. As expected, brand personality dimensions that were found to be a significant factor in perceived quality, commitment, and loyalty were likely to vary based on Chinese or Korean perceptions. For Korean consumers’ perception of global brands, while TRENDY was likely to be the most powerful personality dimension forming brand loyalty, its impact on loyalty seemed not to be mediated by quality but rather by commitment. Also, the influences of COMPETENCE on loyalty were mediated by quality and commitment. For Chinese consumers’ perception of global brands, the impacts of SINCERITY as well as TRENDY on loyalty were found to be mediated by quality and commitment. In addition, COMPETENCE seemed to have a rather direct impact on quality, commitment, and loyalty without a mediating effect. For local brands, Korean consumers did not seem to rely on brand personality or commitment when considering brand loyalty. Since the R2 did not improve at all with adding mediating factors such as quality and commitment, there was found to be no mediating effects in the Korean cases for local brands. In particular, while TRENDY directly impacted loyalty, OUTGOING was found to be significant only in its impact on quality. On the other hand, all three dimensions of local brand personality turned out to be significant influencers on loyalty and quality for Chinese consumers. The impact of TRENDY and COMPETENCE on loyalty seems to be mediated by quality and commitment. In this study, we found that mid- to low-end fashion brands seemed to reflect valid brand personality according to the brand’s origin (global vs. local) as well as consumers’ culture (Chinese vs. Korean). Also, the effect of brand personality dimension was different. This study contributes to the study of brand personality and the Chinese fashion market by comparing a conceptual model of the consumption behavior of Chinese and Korean consumers in relation to mid and low-priced fashion brands and brand awareness formation. In particular, the research revealed differences between Chinese and Korean consumers, suggesting different approaches for Korean fashion practitioners who are planning on entering China, which has not only a similar market to that of Korea but also one that is familiar to Korean practitioners.

What kind of reasons or bases could lead to strong and positive brand attitudes? This study aims to identify the factors that have strong relationships with positive brand attitudes and to test whether the findings can be generalized and applied across cultural contexts. Historically, attitude research has assumed that attitudes are based on cognition (i.e. beliefs) and affect (Bodur, Brinberg, & Coupey, 2000; Crano & Prislin, 2006). This study suggests a new schema comprised of ‘self-based’ and ‘public-based’ evaluations as the foundation of brand attitudes. ‘Self-based’ evaluations refer to brand evaluations based on consumers’ personal judgments and feelings. These evaluations mainly derive from consumers’ experiences with products. In contrast, ‘public-based’ evaluations are influenced by others’ opinions and brands’ public reputations. Consumers are frequently exposed to word-of-mouth messages about brands and related products, and they can assess them even when they have not personally used the product. Based on previous brand management literature, two hypotheses below were developed. Hypothesis 1: Self-based evaluations predict positive brand attitudes, but public-based evaluations do not predict positive brand attitudes. Hypothesis 2: Self-based evaluations predict the purchase intentions of consumers with independent self-construal, but public-based evaluations predict the purchase intentions of consumers with interdependent self-construal. The data were collected in a Western and an East Asian country and analysed for authenticity as well as by country, which should be important to global brand building. The results supported the hypotheses and this study made three important discoveries. First, it demonstrated that self-based evaluation was a broadly important factor to building positive brand attitudes. Second, public-based evaluation was marginally effective for branding and is important only in the East Asian context. Third, it was found that authenticity had ‘double-edged’ effects on branding. Finally, the contributions and implications of this study were discussed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate symbolic consumption of fashion global brands and its relation to the self. This work adopts a qualitative approach and the “tripartite model of self” (Brewer & Yuki, 2007) to study brand meaning among consumers in two different cultural settings: UK and Colombia. Findings show how some meanings change among groups, addressing different self-identity needs, motivations and tensions. This work contributes to debates around international marketing strategies.

There has been an increasing trend of using code-switching to enhance ad persuasion among local and global brands. Ads that include two or more languages are referred to as code-switched ads (Luna and Peracchio 2005a; 2005b). It is noted that previous studies investigating code-switched ad effectiveness have focused on bilinguals, not monolinguals. Due to the emerging use of code-switching in ads in monolingual markets, more research efforts are required to understand its effectiveness and boundaries among the monolinguals. The purpose of this study is to investigate the moderating role of consumer local-global identity in the effectiveness of code-switched ads among monolinguals. Two experiments were conducted and the results confirmed our hypothesis that consumer local-global identity moderates the effect of code-switched ads. The results indicated that congruence between consumer local-global identity and code-switching enhanced persuasiveness. In addition, the mediating effect of ad involvement was identified. These findings provide managerial implications for marketers.

This paper offers a discursive perspective to studying corporate identity and brand. It extends existing scholarship that adopts alternative approaches to understanding corporate identity, seeing it as polysemic, rather than unitary; and constructed, rather than pre-existing. Using a case study of a contemporary global church that combines religion, marketing and popular culture, it shows how disparate and potentially contradictory cultural resources are combined in corporate branding. Church text and corporate communication materials were collected and analysed to identify the presence and combination of different discourses. Our analysis shows how Christian, market, popular and contemporary spirituality discourses were combined using three discursive strategies which we call: differentiation, spectacularizing and personalizing. The research demonstrates the process of how a corporate brand identity is ‘made’ as well as how disparate and contradictory discourses can be successfully combined. This approach can be practically extended to studying other types of organizations, corporate and non-corporate.

This research examines how the consumer responds to corporate advertising by a global BtoB advertiser. Based on the theory of consumer knowledge, corporate reputation, Attitude toward the Ad (Aad), and global consumer culture, this study assumes a positive relationship between Aad and corporate reputation, and in turn, word-of-mouth intentions. In addition to causal relationships, the moderating effects of level of knowledge were tested. The results showed positive causal relationships among consumer knowledge, brand attitude, and word-of-mouth communication. However, the moderating effects of level of knowledge were not fully supported. The implications and limitations of these results are discussed.

본 사례는 현대자동차 인도법인(HMI)의 브랜드 포지셔닝 (brand positioning) 전략을 심층적으로 분석하고 있다. 이를 위해 먼저 전 세계 자동차시장의 추세와 함께 인도 자동차 시장의 현황과 전략적 중요성에 대해 검토하였다. 브랜드의 개념과 역할을 바탕으로, 브랜드 포지셔닝을 (1) 구체적 특성(Features: concrete attributes), (2) 추상적 특성(Abstract attributes), (3) 직접적 (기능적) 혜택(Direct: functional benefit), (4) 간접적(경험적/상징적) 혜택(Indirect: experiential/symbolic benefits), (5) 대리적 포지셔닝(Surrogate positioning)으로 구분하여, HMI가 어떠한 브랜드 포지셔닝 전략을 추구하고 있는지 살펴보았다. 분석결과, HMI는 주로 구체적 특성과 추상적 특성을 사용하는 것으로 나타났으며, 이러한 전략은 HMI가 주안점을 두고 있는 컴팩트와 미드급 세그먼트의 특징을 감안했을 때 적절한 것으로 판단된다. 소비자 만족도, 시장 점유율, 판매량 추세 등의 기업성과 지표를 감안했을 때도, 이러한 브랜드 포지셔닝 전략은 HMI의 글로벌 경쟁력에 공헌한 것으로 판단된다. 하지만 인도 자동차 시장의 향후 변화를 감안한 HMI의 브랜드 포지셔닝 전략에 대한 재검토 역시 필요한 것으로 판단된다.

This article aims to explore the interactive roles of types of primed identity (local versus global identity) and types of ad framing on brand evaluations. The authors designed 2 experiments in which each experiment followed a 2×2 between-subject design. The empirical results showed that a gain-framed ad induced more positive emotional responses than a loss-framed ad, and the positive affective responses lead to more favorable brand evaluation. Furthermore, the results showed that there were interactive effects of primed identity and types of advertisement frame on brand evaluation. In the additional analysis, the results showed that when people with local identity were exposed to the gain-framed ad, they would engage in a higher level of integration processing than those in the control group, which in turn induced more favorable evaluation to the local brand. That is, the integration processing mode played a mediating role between the interaction (local id priming × ad frame) and the local brand evaluation. However, in the case of global brand evaluation, the integration processing mode did not play such a mediating role.

중국의 프리미엄 생수시장은 "웰빙", 프리미엄, 특별함에 대한 관심이 높아지면서 경기불황에도 불구하고 빠른 속도로 성장하고 있다. 이에 본 연구는 글로벌 프리미엄 생수 브랜드를 지속적으로 구매하는 호의적인 태도인 소비동기요인기초연구로서 중국시장 소비자를 대상으로 소비동기요인을 정서적 차원 문항과 시각적 차원의 실증분석 문항으로 구성하여 생수 브랜드에 대한 호의적인 동기 요인에 대한 선호도를 분석하였다. 분석 결과, 소비동기요인의 정서적 차원 문항인 가격은 7~9$가 적당한 것으로, 구입 장소는 프리미엄 생수이기에 호텔․ 레스토랑에서 구입하는 경우가 많은 것으로, 구입 시 고려사항에 대해서는 브랜드, 가격, 물의 성분, 디자인 순으로 나타났다. 시각적 차원의 실증분석 문항에 대해서는 용기 형태 디자인이 모던하고, 심플한 형태, 색상은 용기 형태와 차별화되는 무채색의 선호도가 높게 나타났으며, 라벨은 역사와 전통성이 있는 형태와 단순한 문자 형태가 선호가 높은 것으로 나타났다.

As the new industry of this 21centuries, theme park is the important position to the front leader countries as a new growth engine due to its industrial-economical and cultural-social effect. While domestic theme park industries show lower competitive position with global theme park in aspect of management and qualities and have weak brand power. The global situation of present service robot industry of the world is the beginning stage and the time for strengthening competitive position and the best opportunity becoming global leader of world markets by prior occupation through provision of factitious market creating big demand. Robot theme park is possibile to provide such big demand of various robot and this paper present of ideas for robot theme park.