Australasian Marketing Journal

Brands play an important role in consumers’ perception and choice of a product. Measuring brand equity has thus become a topic of growing interest among both practitioners and researchers in marketing. This paper examines the Erdem and Swait (1998) brand equity framework, which is one of the key consumer-based brand equity models developed in the brand literature. Specifically, it investigates the external validity of the Erdem-Swait framework using two alternative approaches: One is based on structural equation models (SEMs) and the other is based on discrete choice experiments (DCE). Four data sets pertaining to four different product categories were collected from the Australian financial services sector to compare the ability of expected utilities calculated from SEMs and DCEs to predict the actual brand choices of real consumers in real markets. Although both models performed well, results showed that the predictions of the DCE models were consistently better than those of the SEMs in all cases. These findings have implications for both academics and practitioners in brand evaluation and management.

High quality image data on how consumers perceive brands is essential to make good brand management decisions. Prior studies reveal that brand images are not very reliable, as they are typically measured in industry, which might be due to the answer format typically used (Rungie et al., 2005). The practical implication is that brand image data — as currently collected in consumer surveys — is not a valid source of market information. We challenge this implication.

Using three measures of stability we test whether the binary answer format produces image data less reliable than alternative formats. We investigate whether the aggregate descriptive model of brand image stability proposed by Rungie et al. can be improved by accounting for heterogeneity.

Results indicate that, compared to alternative formats, binary answer formats lead to equal stability levels, and most brand-attribute associations are stable. Unstable associations typically fail to describe adequately the brands under study.

Practical implications include that binary brand-attribute associations can be used safely to measure brand images. Also, practitioners can get guidance about required brand management measures by discriminating between stable and unstable brand-attribute associations. A model that helps managers classify brand-attribute associations into stable or unstable is proposed in the article.

The credibility and vibrancy of any discipline depends on a willingness to question even the most strongly held beliefs. Our research challenges the central importance of differentiation to brand strategy. We provide an empirically grounded theoretical argument that differentiation plays a more limited role in brand competition than the orthodox literature assumes. We then present empirical data, spanning many categories and two countries, showing that there is a low level of perceived differentiation across competing brands. However, despite this lack of perceived differentiation, customers are still buying these brands. This leads us to question the importance of perceived and valued differentiation and to instead place distinctiveness at the centre of brand strategy - where a brand builds unique associations that simply make it more easily identifiable. We discuss the very positive implications for marketing management and call for research on being distinctive and getting noticed.

This article examines how the type of product category influences manufacturer-retailer relationships involving manufacturer brands. Category management is a key retailer management mechanism, but this topic has not been addressed in the context of purchasing manufacturer brands. This study examined retailer perceptions of manufacturer brands across eight product categories and the effects on retailer relationship outcomes including satisfaction, trust, commitment and performance. A significant difference in model parameters was initially identified between the two liquor and six grocery categories. The effect of this difference on the retailer relationship outcomes with manufacturer brands was then assessed using multi-group structural equation modelling. There were no differences between the categories in terms of the effect of brand benefits on retailer satisfaction with the brand and the subsequent effect of satisfaction on retailer commitment and trust. However, the impact of retailer satisfaction with the brand on brand performance expectations was greater for liquor brands than for brands in the grocery categories. The results indicate a retailer's assessment of a brand's performance within the store environment depends on the role of the category as well as satisfaction with the brand.

Retail co-branding is an increasingly popular form of growth in a maturing Australian franchising sector. This paper presents an exploratory study of franchised retail co-branding arrangements utilising a case study approach. The existing literature, which has previously focused on product-specific co-branding, is extended. Traditional co-branding, agent theoretic and resource constraint arguments are analysed and found to be inadequate when applied to this new phenomenon. The research reveals that the motivations for introducing co-brands into existing franchises include alignment of a suitable brand with existing retail formats, risk aversion by the franchisor to the use of externally owned brands, reinvigorating the brands, and stimulating sales growth for specific outlets. In addition the research shows that co-brands can be successfully created internally franchisors are willing to sacrifice the culture and concept of the original franchise brand in order to achieve system growth.

This study investigated the idiosyncratic nature of brand value by examining customer brand assessments of how well a brand matches the self-concept, how significant a brand is in a customer's life, favourable attitudes toward a brand, their relationships and their influence on overall brand value. Drawing from a sample of 210 generation Y (18-25 year old) wearers of athletic footwear in Australia it was found that brand fit indirectly influences overall brand value through brand significance and brand attitudes. The influence of brand significance on brand value was found to be stronger for the market leader than that of the market follower.

Brand development and brand management is complex in the pharmaceutical sector due to the specific nature of pharmaceutical products and their life-cycles, as well as the regulation of promotional activity. The building of strong brands is becoming increasingly important for the industry, and consideration is being given to developing more expressive or emotional values of brands over traditional functional values and attributes. In Australia, brand-building activity for prescription pharmaceuticals primarily targets the medical profession in an effort to achieve brand recognition, brand preference and brand loyalty and, in turn, increase prescriptions. Despite direct-to-consumer-advertising of prescription pharmaceuticals not being allowed in Australia, there have been cases of unnamed product advertisements and disease awareness campaigns that serve to increase consumer awareness of brands within a category. This paper provides a review of issues influencing brand building in the pharmaceutical sector as well as recent examples of brand-building activities that target Australian consumers.

Whilst brand management as a specific sub-field of marketing management is well developed in business research, it is still an emerging area in non-profit organisations. Non-profit organisations are faced with distinct brand challenges, which include issues related to multiple stakeholders in managing the brand and the need to negotiate partnering and sponsorship arrangements. Newly established non-profit organisations can begin their organisational development with strong branding strategies, however many established non-profit organisations have a strong brand heritage, which requires special preservation, renewal and extension strategies. This paper uses a case study methodology to examine the branding issues in Surf Life Saving Australia, a volunteer community beach safety organisation that holds a unique position in the Australian community and cultural psyche, which nevertheless must continually renew and extend its brand heritage in order to achieve its evolving organisational objectives. While the organisation is unique, the paper identifies issues in stakeholder brand management and brand preservation, renewal and extension with wider theoretical and practical implications for non-profit organisations and contemporary perspectives on branding.