Not only luxury brands, but also fast fashion brands such as ZARA and H&M have successfully opened flagship stores in prime locations such as Ginza, Tokyo. The market-entry strategy via flagship stores appears to be successful, as numerous companies have adopted it. However, for this strategy to work, it is important to consider and verify not only the place, but also the product, price, and promotion aspects. This study systematically investigates the flagship store strategy by comparing the strategies of luxury brands, represented by Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and those of SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) brands, represented by ZARA, developed by the Spanish Inditex Corporation.

The market for environmentally friendly or ‘green’ products has increased substantially over the last ten years (Willer and Kilcher, 2010). Both brand manufacturers and retailers are increasingly, and successfully, incorporating environmental and social issues in their brands (Aouina Mejri and Bhatli, 2014; Chkanikova and Lehner, in press; Gleim et al., 2013). Given the increasing importance of ‘green’ branding, the current study examines the role of key drivers (i.e., brand equity, store image and product familiarity) in the consumption of green brands. Moreover, since previous studies found that positive evaluations of a specific brand led to more positive buying behavior for the green product concept in general (Bartels and Hoogendam, 2011), in the current study we also assess the impact of these key drivers on green consumption in general. Finally, by explicitly distinguishing between store brands and national brands, we try to determine whether these relationships differ between these two types of brands in a green context. To test these effects, we used a panel study among consumers in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S.. For each country, we used one national brand and one or two store brands. Respondents randomly received one of these brands to evaluate. This process resulted in 404 respondents for store brands and 302 respondents for national brands. Results show that store image and brand equity have a direct effect on the consumption of green store brands and green national brands. In addition, we found that for both store and national brands, the relationship between brand equity and green brand consumption is partially mediated by the perceived image of the store where that brand is sold. Furthermore, for national brands, a positive store image also leads to an increase in green consumption behavior in general, which is not the case for store brands. Finally, for national brands, there is a clear relationship between product familiarity and brand consumption, whereas this is not the case for store brands.

When apparel brand managers attempt to raise their brand value, store location is a big concern since they consider it to influence their brand value. Brand managers expect that their store operations in high status location will raise brand status and attractiveness even when the expected rate of return directly generated by the store is very low. In this case, they regard the new store as an effective brand contact point of their marketing communication and expect its comprehensive impact on their business to be positive. In actual business, however, this influence is difficult to compute quantitatively but common to estimate based on brand managers’ experiences: this creates uncertainty for apparel companies whether their investment in the new store is appropriate or not. Besides, it is not certain whether non-luxury brand status is raised by store location status as with luxury brands where store location status is identified as a key marketing driver (Kapferer and Bastien, 2012). This paper focuses on the status of shopping malls and adjacent stores as store location factors and assesses their effects on perceived brand status. In this study, consumer research on three brands with different characteristics (a luxury, a non-luxury, and an unknown brand) was conducted in Japan and the variation of perceived brand status and attractiveness in four location frames (two levels of shopping mall status × two levels of adjacent store status) was analyzed. The result of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) suggests store location prestige influences perceived brand status and attractiveness of luxury brands more than in the case of non-luxury ones. Moreover, store location status is confirmed to influence unknown brands only very slightly. This result implies that raising the status of non-luxury is difficult just by constructing a new store in high status location following luxury strategy. Also, it may be impossible for a brand whose status is not high to pretend to be a high status brand by launching a new store in high status location of the new market.

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.

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