• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.843-854
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• 2020

The present study aims to analyze factors of brand equity in the retail stores in Vietnam; to recognize sub-dimensions connected with the forms of brand equity and thereby study the extent of the relationship among bases of market segmentation and brand equity. The present research made a collection of data by conducting a preliminary study. Responses were collected from the customers through a structured questionnaire to buy goods and services from the retail store in Vietnam. The sample size selected for the study was 196. The study applied various statistical tools, namely, Cronbach's Alpha for reliability checking, correlation and regression statistics with the support of SPSS Software. The brand association is treated as a vital determinant of brand equity that significantly influences the bases of market segmentation. Further, the study also recognized the fact that the majority of consumers who prefer to buy from retail stores are young and in the age-group of 18-24 years. The present study made an initial attempt to study the relationship among bases of market segmentation with the factors related to brand equity; thereby to offer a novel conceptual framework designed for retail stores in Vietnam for brand positioning.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.79-88
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• 2012

Purpose - The objective of this paper is to suggest that a company's CRM activities have an effect on customer loyalty in the Korean retail industry. Typically, Korean customers use large local marts with convenience in the absence of any other choice. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on the fact that customers do not break away from their preferred retail stores, either owing to their stringent loyalty (the lie loyalty) or difficulty in turning to alternative choices. Research design, data, methodology - By surveying a sample of 200 hyper-markets through a questionnaire, and excluding dubious and missing responses, I obtained 181 samples to be included in the empirical analysis. The survey was conducted for two weeks during October 2011. AMOS and SPSS18 statistical packages were used for conducting statistical analysis for this study. This paper was developed using the concept of customer equity on CRM, which is known to have a positive impact on customer loyalty through the satisfaction and switching-barrier parameters. The hypothesis of this paper is that customer equity is composed of relationship equity, value equity and brand equity, and that the relationship equity variable has positive effects on the value equity and brand equity amongst other types of customer equity. Moreover, customer equity influences customer loyalty through parameters including customer satisfaction and switching costs in the Korean retail industry. Results - According to the results of the analysis, it was confirmed that relationship value had a positive effect (+) on all variables, including the perceived QoS (Quality of Service), store brand images, economic value, and store convenience. It was also confirmed that the assumption that the perceived QoS (Quality of Service), economic value, and store convenience had a positive effect on customer satisfaction was shown to be statistically significant, with a p-value below 0.05. Only the store brand value variable had an effect on the switching-cost variable with respect to the causal sequence of the variables, including the perceived QoS, store brand value, economic value, and store convenience. The remaining variables did not seem to influence the switching-cost variable. On the other hand, another effect showed that customer satisfaction had a statistically significant influence on the switching-costs variable. Moreover, the customer satisfaction and switching-cost variables also had a statistical influence on customer loyalty. Conclusions - The CRM activities had an influence on various variables (including perceived QoS, perceived economic value, store brand value, and store convenience) pertaining to customer values. Customer satisfaction and switching-cost had some effects on customer loyalty as a parameter. This confirms that stringent loyalty exists with respect to customer loyalty in the retail industry. The fact that the variable had such a statistically significant influence on the switching-cost and store brand equity variables means that consumers react to the reputation of a brand, confidence about the store, and quality confidence. The implications of this study in the retail industry should be further extended to devise strategies for customer retention.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.55-67
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• 2015

Despite the well-known predictive power of Dirichlet model on customer loyalty, deviations of share of category requirement (SCR) predicted by Dirichlet model from actual SCR have been repeatedly reported. It has been shown that these deviations can be systematically explained by some factors such as brand's market share, product positioning strategy, purchase volume and retail marketing mix strategies. Presuming that brand equity would be additional sources of these deviations, current study assesses the incremental predictive power of brand equity by using over 4,000 brand-level observations for the consumer packaged goods industry in the U.S. Our model estimations indicate that brands that exhibit higher brand equity enjoy excess loyalty, with the primary driver being volume premium, rather than price premium. Overall, our findings support the notion that idiosyncratic brand properties can explain excess behavioral loyalty, a notion that is in stark contrast with the Dirichlet view of the world: brand equity does not exist.

• Fashion, Industry and Education
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2016

With the emergence of online communities, the role of online communities in establishing brand equity has been greatly emphasized. In order to enhance our understanding of commitment in online brand communities, the present study attempts to investigate how three dimensions of community commitment (continuance, affective, and normative commitment) influence each component of brand equity (brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and brand loyalty) in the context of company-initiated online brand community. An online survey was conducted with a sample of online brand community members. The results found differential impacts of three types of community commitment on brand equity components, emphasizing the role of continuance and affective commitment. Continuance community commitment positively influenced brand awareness and brand association. Affective community commitment positively affected perceived quality, while among the three, only continuance and affective community commitment influenced the enhancement of brand loyalty. The results suggest that brand marketers need to focus on continuance and affective commitment factors in their online communities to effectively enhance brand equity possessed by consumers. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.209-237
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• 2012

1. Research Purpose Consumers rely on various clues to evaluate their decision to patronize a retail store, and store brand is one of them (Dodds 1991; Grewal et al. 1998). As consumers find ever increasing variety of contact points connecting them to specific store, the value of experiential shopping as a means of increasing store's brand equity warrants greater attention from scholars of retail management. Retail shopping values are credited for creating not only cognitive experiences like brand knowledge but also emotional experiences such as shopping pleasure and pride (Schmitt 1999). This may be because today's consumers place emphasis on emotional values associated with shopping pleasure, lifestyle brought to life, brand relationship, and store atmosphere more than utilitarian values such as product quality and price. Many previous literature found this to be true (Ahn and Lee 2011; Mathwick et al. 2001). This brings forth important research issues and questions regarding the roles of shopping experiential values and brand equity with regard to consumer's retail patronage choice. However, despite this importance, research on this area remains quite inadequate (Hwang 2010). For this reason, this study aims to verify the relationships among experiential shopping values, retail store brand equity and tries to link that with customer loyalty by surveying large-scale discount store shoppers in Korea and China. 2. Research Contents In order to carry out the research objective, this study conducted comprehensive literature survey on previous literature by discussing major findings and implications with regard to shopping values and retail brand equity and store loyalty. For data collection, researcher employed survey-based research method where data were collected in two major cities of Korea (Seoul) and China (Bejing) and sampling frame was based on patrons of large discount stores in both countries. Specific research questions raised in this study are as follows; RQ1: How do Korean and Chinese consumers differently perceive of shopping values regarding shopping at large-sclae discount stores? RQ2: Are there differences in consumers' emotional consumption propensities? RQ3: Do Korean and Chinese consumers display different perceptions of brand equity towards large-scale discount stores? RQ4: Are there differences in relationships between shopping values and brand equity for Korean and Chinese consumers? For statistical analysis, SPSS17.0, AMOS17.0 and SmartPLS were employed. 3. Research Results The data collected through face-to-face survey conducted in Seoul and Bejing revealed appropriate data validity and reliability as a result of exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis and reliability tests, andh SEM model yielding satisfactory model fitness. The result of the study may be summarized by three main points. First, as a result of testing differences in consumption dispositions, Chinese consumers showed higher scores in aesthetic and symbolic dispositions, whereas Korean consumers scored higher in hedonic disposition. Second, testing on perceptions toward brand equity of large discount stores showed that Korean consumers exhibited more positive perceptions of brand awareness and brand image than Chinese counterparts. Third, the result of exploratory factor analysis on the experiential shopping values revealed different factors for each country. On Korean side, consumer interest value, aesthetic value, and hedonic value were prominent, whereas on Chinese side, hedonic value, aesthetic value, consumer interest value, and service excellence value were found salient. 4. Research Implications While many previous studies on inter-country differences in retailing area mainly focused on cultural dispositions or orientations to explain the differences, this study sets itself apart by specifically targeting individual consumer's shopping values from an experiential viewpoint. The study result provides important theoretical as well as practical implications for large-scale discount store, especially the impotance of fully exploring the linkage between shopping values and brand equity, which has significant influence on loyalty. Therefore, the specific implications deriving from the result shed some important insights upon the consumption values based on shopping experiences and brand equity. The differences found in store shoppers between the two countries may also provide useful insights for Korean and Chinese retailers who plan to expand their operations globally. Related strategic implications derived from this study is the importance of localizing retail strategy which is based on the differences found in experiential shopping values between the two country groups. Especially the finding that Chinese consumers value consumer interest and service excellence, whereas Koreans place importance on hedonic or aesthetic values indicates the need to differentiate the consumer's psychographical profiles when it comes to expanding retail operations globally. Particularly important will be to pursue price-orienated strategy in China in consideration of the high emphasis on consumer interests and service excellence, but to emphasize the symbolic aspects of brand equity in Korea by maximizing the brand equity associated with aesthetic values and hedonic orientations. 5. Recommendations This study focused on generic retail branded discount stores in both countries, thus making it difficult to tease out store-specific strategies based on specific retail brands. Future studies may benefit fro employing actual brand names in survey questionnaire to verify relationship between shopping values and brand-based store strategy. As with other studies of this nature, this study needs to strengthen the result's generalizability by selecting respondents from a wider spectrum of respondents.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.39-53
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• 2012

Purpose - This study identifies relationships amongst repurchase intentions, brand equity, and preference by applying VMD of fashion retail stores. The results would help coffee shop owners and coffee makers in devising an appropriate strategy for successfully managing coffee shops. Research design, data, methodology - The VMD model of a coffee shop includes harmony, trend, and attractiveness, while brand equity encompasses brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand image. In this study, the VMD factors of coffee shops, brand equity, and brand preference, are shown as independent variables, while repurchase intention is shown as the dependent variable. The study aims to ascertain the extent of the influence configuration factors of a coffee shop have on brand equity, brand preference, and repurchase intention. Regression analysis was used to verify the mediating effects of brand preference on brand equity and repurchase intention. The measurement items were already deemed as reliable and valid in the previous study, but some modifications were made for the purposes of this study. Questionnaires were distributed to 550 consumers on a national scale, and 517 consumers amongst these were finally used as a sample for analysis using the SPSS 17.0 statistical program. Results - First, amongst the VMD configuration factors of a coffee shop, trend, and attractiveness have a positive impact on brand equity (brand awareness, perceived quality, and brand image). Second, brand equity has a positive effect on brand preference. Third, brand preference has a positive effect on repurchase intention. Fourth, brand preference plays the role of a mediator in measuring the impact of brand awareness and brand image on customers' repurchase intentions. Conclusions - The theoretical implications can be summarized as follows. First, this study proposes a theoretical basis that can be adapted to the VMD configuration factors of a coffee shop by identifying the relationship between brand equity and coffee shops. This study applies the VMD factors to the coffee shops and presents a new research model by examining the relationships amongst VMD components of coffee shops: brand equity, brand preference, and repurchase intention. Second, it clearly establishes the relationship between brand equity and brand preference by identifying the mediating effects of brand preference, given that brand equity has a positive impact on repurchase intention. The practical implications are as follows. First, development of brand equity and management can be important components for coffee shops in determining that the VMD configuration factors of coffee shops have an impact on brand equity. Second, amongst the VMD configuration factors, attractiveness and trend have a positive influence on choosing coffee shops, therefore store atmosphere should be attractively designed, while the menu and interiors should complement each other and be reviewed periodically to conform to the latest trend. Third, VMD configuration factors that are confirmed are not easily changed. Fourth, large franchises and foreign companies have strengths in scale, locations, and brand. Fifth, the different ways of campaigning should be compared to those of large franchises and foreign companies in order to increase brand equity using VMD configuration factors.

• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.9-18
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• 2024

Purpose: This study compares Korean and Chinese consumers on the impact of customer equity on trust. Although there have been many studies regarding the impact of customer equity, most of them are limited to the retail and banking industry and mostly compare East and West cultures. Therefore, this study compares Korea and China within East Asia in the hotel industry. Research design, data and methodology: Based on reviews in the literature, this study explores different effects of customer equity on brand trust between Korea and China. To confirm the hypotheses, the research collected survey data from 186 Korean and 155 Chinese respondents. After confirming reliability and validity of measures, this study conducted a multiple regression to test proposed hypotheses. Results: The results of the study showed that all of three customer equities influences on trust positively in the hotel industry. Regarding comparing Korea and China, brand equity has stronger impact on trust in Chinese customers than South Korean customers, on the other hand, value equity and relationship equity had a slightly stronger positive effect in South Korea than in China. Conclusions: This study found significant differences between Korean and Chinese customers in the hotel industry. These results show that even two countries in the same region of East Asia, South Korea and China, are different. Also, this finding suggests that hotel management level should consider differentiating their marketing strategies for Korean and Chinese customers.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.11-18
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of brand equity on customer purchase decision (CPD) of products for retailers distribution (RB) in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. There are five elements in the brand equity model such as brand awareness, brand association, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and pricing policy. Research design, data and methodology: Qualitative methodology was used for exploring the research model and variables. The survey was conducted to collect data from 251 respondents who bought products at RB in Ho Chi Minh city, which is based on a Likert scale. The collected data were analyzed with the reliability of the scale, exploratory factor analysis, and research hypothesis testing by SPSS 22. Results: The results obtained revealed that brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality, and pricing policy have a significant impact on CPD for RB. Furthermore, the results showed that perceived quality is the most significant component in influencing CPD at retailers. Conclusions: From the research results, some management implications that RB should focus on are perceived quality, choice of pricing policies and strategies, brand building and development to attract more customers as well as enhance its image to improve customers' purchasing decisions of products at retail distributors chain.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.73-88
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• 2010

Study aims to identify customer equity drivers and their relative importance, to represent customer lifetime value (CLV) distribution, and to investigate the effect of customer equity drivers and demographics on CLV when shopping apparels at the four big department stores in Seoul. Recently, Korean department stores marked significant decrease in sales volume and it calls for more focus on customer orientation. Customer equity is a managerial concept which considers customers as a valuable asset for business success. Sustainable competitive advantage is attainable when customer equity drivers and CLV are measured, managed and enhanced. results identified four dimensions of customer equity drivers such as 'retail brand equity: 'relationship equity', 'retail service equity', and 'price value equity'. Among them, 'relationship equity' was proved to be the most influencing factor on the customer's store patronage intention. The CLV distribution represented unique characteristics of each department store. The level of CLV depended on such demographics as age and income. Marital status influenced the relationship between perceived customer equity drivers and CLV. It also analyzed competitive structure of the four big department stores in Seoul and offered managerial suggestions. This study provided conceptual framework for the future study of customer equity related to apparel shopping at the department stores as well as managerial implications.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.35-48
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• 2010

Today, the fashion market challenged by a maturing retail market needs a new paradigm in the "evolution of brand" to improve their comparative advantages. An important issue in fashion marketing is lifestyle brand extension with a specific aim to meet consumers' specific needs for their changing lifestyle. For fashion brand extensions into lifestyle product categories, Gen Y and Baby Boomer are emerging as "prospects"-Baby Boomers who are renovating their lifestyle, and generation Y experiencing changes in their life stage-with demands for buying new products. Therefore, it is imperative that apparel companies pay special attention to the consumer cohort for brand extension to create and manage their brand equity in a new product category. The purposes of this study are to (a) evaluate brand equity between parent and extension brands; (b) identify consumers' perceived marketing elements for brand extension; and (c) estimate a structural equation model for examining causative relationship between marketing elements and brand equity for brand extensions in lifestyle product category including home fashion items for the selected two groups (e.g., Gen Y, and Baby boomer). For theoretical frameworks, this study focused on the traditional marketing 4P's mix to identify what marketing element is more importantly related to brand extension equity for this study. It is assumed that comparable marketing capability can be critical to establish "brand extension equity", leads to successfully entering the new categories. Drawing from the relevant literature, this study developed research hypotheses incorporating brand equity factors and marketing elements by focusing on the selected consumers (e.g., Gen Y, Baby Boomer). In the context of brand extension in the lifestyle products, constructs of brand equity consist of brand awareness/association, brand perceptions (e.g., perceived quality, emotional value) and brand resonance adapted from CBBE factors (Keller, 2001). It is postulated that the marketing elements create brand extension equity in terms of brand awareness/association, brand perceptions by the brand extension into lifestyle products, which in turn influence brand resonance. For data collection, the sample was comprised of Korean female consumers in Gen Y and Baby Boomer consumer categories who have a high demand for lifestyle products due to changing their lifecycles. A total of 651 usable questionnaires were obtained from female consumers of Gen Y (n=326) and Baby Boomer (n=325) in South Korea. Structural and measurement models using a correlation matrix was estimated using LISREL 8.8. Findings indicated that perceived marketing elements for brand extension consisted of three factors: price/store image, product, and advertising. In the model of Gen Y consumers, price/store image had a positive effect on brand equity factors (e.g., brand awareness/association, perceived quality), while product had positive effect on emotional value in the brand extensions; and the brand awareness/association was likely to increase the perceived quality and emotional value, leading to brand resonance for brand extensions in the lifestyle products. In the model of Baby Boomer consumers, price/store image had a positive effect on perceived quality, which created brand resonance of brand extension; and product had a positive effect on perceived quality and emotional value, which leads to brand resonance for brand extension in the lifestyle products. However, advertising was negatively related to brand equity for both groups. This study provides an insight for fashion marketers in developing a successful brand extension strategy, leading to a sustainable competitive advantage. This study complements and extends prior works in the brand extension through critical factors of marketing efforts that affect brand extension success. Findings support a synergy effect on leveraging of fashion brand extensions (Aaker and Keller, 1990; Tauber, 1988; Shine et al., 2007; Pitta and Katsanis, 1995) in conjunction with marketing actions for entering into the new product category. Thus, it is recommended that marketers targeting both Gen Y and Baby Boomer can reduce marketing cost for entering the new product category (e.g., home furnishings) by standardized marketing efforts; fashion marketers can (a) offer extension lines with premium ranges of price; (b) place an emphasis on upscale features of store image positioning by a retail channel (e.g., specialty department store) in Korea, and (c) combine apparel with lifestyle product assortments including innovative style and designer’s limited editions. With respect to brand equity, a key to successful brand extension is consumers’ brand awareness or association that ensures brand identity with new product category. It is imperative for marketers to have knowledge of what contributes to more concrete associations in a market entry into new product categories. For fashion brands, a second key of brand extension can be a "luxury" lifestyle approach into new product categories, in that higher price or store image had impact on perceived quality that established brand resonance. More importantly, this study increases the theoretical understanding of brand extension and suggests directions for marketers as they establish marketing program at Gen Y and Baby Boomers.