The Influence of Social Responsibility Image Relative to Product and Service Quality on Brand Loyalty: An Exploratory Study of Quick-service Restaurants

Social responsibility (SR) is becoming an increasingly significant component of many firms’ strategic planning decisions. Research has shown that consumers tend to reward socially responsible behavior. However, there has been little testing of the construct in the hospitality industry. Additionally, when other important variables that influence consumer brand loyalty are considered, will brand social responsibility image (BSRI) still play a significant role? This study investigates the importance of SR and its impact on brand loyalty, relative to product quality and service quality in the quick-service restaurant industry. The authors were also interested to learn whether BSRI impacted consumers' image of product and service quality. It was found that BSRI had a positive impact on brand loyalty, product quality, and service quality. However, product quality was a significantly stronger predictor of brand loyalty than BSRI. Where the vast majority of studies of SR have utilized scenario analysis of hypothetical firms, this study utilizes consumers' perceptions of a real-world firm.

Advertising effects on brand search and preference: Assessing the mediational role of *Aad and *Ab

Most advertising research has focussed at examining effects of advertising on attitudinal responses or brand preference and choice. However, in a natural environment, the time period between advertising exposure and purchase decision is filled with prepurchase search. Prepurchase external search refers to information search from sources other than memory, prior to making a purchase decision. Usually consumers access only a small subset of available information and base their choice decisions on it. Prepurchase search therefore acts as a filter and, the final choice depends critically on the small subset of potential inputs the consumer notes in the environment and integrates into the decision. Previous research has identified a variety of factors that affect consumers' prepurchase search behavior. However, there is little understanding of how specific advertisements designed by marketers impact consumers' prepurchase search. A marketer would like consumers to search information that reflects favorably on his/her brand. Hence, s/he would attempt to influence the brands and attributes on which consumers seek information prior to making a choice. The dissertation investigates the process by which a particular marketer's advertising influences consumers' search on available brands, i.e., the marketer's brand and other competing brands. The dissertation considers a situation where exposure to advertising occurs prior to seeking information from any other source. Hence, the impact of advertising on subsequent search behavior is the topic of interest. The dissertation develops a conceptual model of advertising effects on brand search and conducts two experiments to test the tenets of this model. Specifically, the dissertation demonstrates that attitudinal responses generated by advertising mediate advertising effects on search attitudes and behaviors. The dissertation goes on to examine how attitudinal responses generated by advertising and subsequent effects on search alter brand preference and choice. ^

"You can trust me": An examination of trust -in -the -brand advertising appeals

Using trust-in-the-brand appeals in advertising has been a very common practice However, research has yet to examine the effectiveness of such appeals. Can the use of trust appeals in advertising enhance a product's trustworthiness and help the advertiser gain consumers' trust? Might such appeals lead to more favorable attitudes toward the advertised brand? Given the absence of research that speaks to these questions, this dissertation attempts to fill this void by exploring persuasion outcomes of using trust appeals. Specifically, this research aims to assess whether the use of trust appeals affects persuasion; explicate how such appeals may work; anticipate when an ad containing trust appeals may be more or less effective; and finally conduct and report the results of preliminary empirical tests. ^ A conceptual model is offered in the dissertation describing how trust appeals may affect persuasion outcomes. It is proposed that using trust advertising appeals will result in more trust-related thinking, enhance the perceived trustworthiness of the advertised brand, and finally lead to more favorable brand attitudes and trial intentions. This dissertation also examines the differential effectiveness of alternative trust appeals. Elaborate trust appeals that provide substantiation for trust are expected to perform better than simple trust appeals. An implicit elaborate trust appeal is anticipated to outperform an explicit elaborate appeal. ^ Two experiments were conducted. Including a trust appeal in an ad enhanced the perceived trustworthiness of the advertised brand which, in turn, led to more favorable brand attitudes and greater trial intentions compared to a similar ad without the trust appeal. The results also support the proposed mediating role of perceived trust. The empirical test speaking to the hypothesized differential effect of alternative trust appeals provides support for marketing practitioners' efforts in seeking the most effective use of such appeals. Evidence was obtained in the second study demonstrating that an elaborate trust appeal worked more effectively than a simple trust appeal. Contrary to the expectation, this persuasion advantage held regardless of whether the elaborate appeal was in an explicit form or an implicit form. ^

Using Social Media to Build Your Academic Brand

This professional development session will review recent research on the use of social media by faculty and academic staff. The bulk of the presentation will focus on social media strategies and techniques that attendees can use to develop and build their academic brand. This session will be useful to various audiences including established faculty, new faculty and graduate students.

Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke, and Tessa McWatt: Blackening Canada

This project analyzes contemporary black diasporic writing in Canada, arguing that Dionne Brand, Austin Clarke and Tessa McWatt evince a unique form of double-consciousness in their writings. Their work transforms African-American double-consciousness by locating it simultaneously within both the black diaspora and the practice of Canadian multiculturalism. The objective of this project is to offer a critical framework for situating these writers within the legacy of both Black Atlantic and Canadian cultural production. These writers do not aim to resolve their double-consciousness but rather dwell within that contradictory doubleness and hyphenation, forcing nation and diaspora to contend with one another in a discomfiting and unsettling dialogue. These authors employ the absences of the black diaspora to imagine new forms of black cultural production, multicultural citizenship and national identity. Their works produce a grammar of diasporic double-consciousness that locates the absented origins of diaspora within Canada. Brand’s depiction of temporality and Clarke’s tracing of movement explore the continuities between nation and diaspora while re-membering neglected aspects of the history of black Canada, such as the life and death of Albert Johnson. McWatt extends this blackening of nation by depicting coalitions between diasporic, indigenous, raced and sexed subjects. These authors transform hegemonic Canadian narratives of nation by dwelling in the hyphen, while their evocation of memory, absence, trauma, and desire gives blackness new meaning and legitimacy.

Media amplification of brand crisis and its affect on brand trust

This paper explores the ways in which consumers’ brand trust during a brand crisis is affected through direct experience versus when it is amplified through mass media. By using case-study methodology, our findings reveal that generalised public images of a product crisis initiate a public perception of risk, which provides more negative effects on brand trust than the actual consumers’ experience does. We introduce the media as a third partner influencing the trust relationship between consumers and brands, and offer suggestions for restoring and preserving customers’ brand trust.

A Comparison of the Performance of Brand-Affiliated and Unaffiliated Hotel Properties

Research has shown that performance differences exist between brand-affiliated hotels and unaffiliated properties. However, the extant empirical results are mixed. Some research has shown that brands outperform unaffiliated hotels on various metrics, whereas other research has shown the opposite. This article analyzes this issue using a matched-pair approach where we compare the performance differences of brand-affiliated and unaffiliated properties between 1998 and 2010. The matched-pair approach ensures that local competitive conditions as well as hotel characteristics are the same across the comparison pair. In addition, all potential omitted-variable bias and model misspecifications are avoided. Thus, to address our research question, we compare branded hotels with unaffiliated properties that are identical in age, market segment, location, and duration of operation, as well as having a similar number of rooms. Our analysis shows that performance differentials are present, albeit not systematic. We found no consistent advantages in all segments for either the affiliated hotels or the comparable unaffiliated properties, taking into account our comparison factors. That said, the methodology of our approach yields results that are more informative to the affiliation choice of owners and to the growth strategies of hotel brand–owner companies than those of previous empirical studies.

La marca come strategia: un'analisi dei tassi di royalty nel brand licensing

La tesi si sviluppa attraverso 5 capitoli volti a mostrare l'importanza della valutazione economica del marchio. Si andrà a definire il concetto di marchio e di brand licensing per passare così a descrivere uno dei principali metodi di valutazione: il Relief from Royalty, che pone come input chiave di tale valutazione il tasso di royalty. Si è inoltre svolta un'analisi di tale tasso, in 2 settori merceologici diversi ma collegati, per poter evidenziare i termini che incidono maggiormente sul suo valore e quindi sul valore del marchio.

Lexical Interference in Semantic Processing of Simple Words: Implications for Brand Names

This study provides evidence for a Stroop-like interference effect in word recognition. Based on phonologic and semantic properties of simple words, participants who performed a same/different word-recognition task exhibited a significant response latency increase when word pairs (e.g., POLL, ROD) featured a comparison word (POLL) that was a homonym of a synonym (pole) of the target word (ROD). These results support a parallel-processing framework of lexical decision making, in which activation of the pathways to word recognition may occur at different levels automatically and in parallel. A subset of simple words that are also brand names was examined and exhibited this same interference. Implications for word recognition theory and practical implications for strategic marketing are discussed.

La equidad de marca "Brand Equity" una estrategia para crear y agregar valor

La marca puede y debe ser el factor determinante, diferencial e inimitable para crear y agregar valor a productos, servicios y empresas con y sin ánimo de lucro. La acertada gestión de las marcas se fundamenta y logra su función/misión en las dimensiones que conforman la equidad de marca, las cuales son a la vez variables accionables y mensurables. El concepto equidad de marca se origina en el derecho canónico, cuandola Iglesia Católica administraba la Corte de Equidad, que se ocupaba de los asuntos de justicia e igualdad porque se consideraban pecaminosas las acciones que se desviaban de la equidad. Lesionar o usurpar la reputación, "el buen nombre", se consideraba pecaminoso y por lo tanto debía ser juzgado por la Corte de Equidad.