Analysing Brand Status' Impact On Brand Value
Analysing Brand Status' Impact On Brand Value
Analysing Brand Status' Impact On Brand Value
Abstract
All brands have status and status has an impact; yet little attention has been paid to the impact
of brand status on consumer brand assessments, this study addresses this limitation. This
study investigated perceived brand status impact on overall brand value across two product
categories, finding that perceived brand status impact was stronger on overall brand value
when the status of the brand matched the consumers overall self-concept. In the sport shoe
category, for both brands, brand status had a stronger impact on brand-aroused feelings than
for the mobile phone brands. Across both product categories, the impact of brand status on
brand value was stronger for the lower-perceived status brands than for the higher-perceived
status brands; the importance of this for brand managers is that targeting the self-concept of
status seeking consumers may help lower-perceived status brands increase overall brand
value.
Rio et al., 2001; McGoldrick, 1984; OCass and Frost, 2002; van Kempen, 2004). The desire
for status, and with it, the desire for status brands, seems to be on the increase as high-priced
status brands become more accessible to consumers, and as consumers desire for luxury
increases (Dubois and Laurent, 1996; Vickers and Renand, 2003). Despite the increased
desire for status, Vickers and Renand (2003) argue that this area of research has received little
attention. Identifying areas of future exploration, OCass and McEwan (2004) suggest that
future research could explore the status of brands along with other brand assessments. Other
brand assessment might include the overall self-concept, the extent of which perceived brand
status matches an individuals self-concept or brand-aroused feelings, whether the perceived
status of the brand arouses positive or negative brand-aroused feelings, and overall brand
value, whether perceptions of status impact on consumer perceptions of overall brand value.
The impact of brand status on value has been implied (i.e. Kirmani, Sood and Bridges, 1999;
McGoldrick, 1984; OCass and McEwan, 2004), but not verified or measured to determine
the extent of the impact that brand status has on the overall value of a brand. This paper seeks
to address this gap by analysing brand status impact on brand value. The purpose of this
research is to determine whether brand status impacts directly on brand value or whether
brand status impact on brand value is mediated by an individuals overall self-concept or
brand aroused feelings.
1990; Escalas et al., 2004; Geuens, 1998). Thus, a status-seeking consumer may feel happy or
contented in respect to the brands status, possibly because of the recognition received by
being associated with the brands status (Goldsmith et al., 2007). When the status of a brand
inspires consumers aspirations warm-feelings among community members might be aroused
(Fournier, 1998; Muniz and Schau, 2005, Thompson, Rindfleishch and Arsel, 2006).
However, at times a brands status might evoke negative feelings, which Thompson et al.
(2006) refer to as the doppelganger effect, in which unfavourable perceptions/feelings about a
brand are circulated in popular culture. Thus, brand status may impact favourably or
unfavourable on brand-aroused feelings. In light of this, it is hypothesised that H1: Perceived
brand status will impact on brand-aroused feelings.
Given that consumers are individuals, likely is that perceptions about a brands status will
affect an individuals overall self-concept differently. A consumers overall self-concept is
complex as it takes into account how a consumer views him/herself; the ideal self, how a
consumer would like to be, and the social self, how the consumer thinks others see him or her
(Sirgy, 1982). The self-concept is important to branding practitioners because often
consumers buy brands that are congruent, fit/match or enhance their self-concept (Goldsmith,
Moore and Beaudoin, 1999; OCass and Frost, 2002). Fashion items such as clothing,
sunglasses and sport shoes have been associated with both status and the self-concept
(Goldsmith et al., 1999; OCass and Frost, 2002; Sirgy et al., 1997) because such items are
generally, though not exclusively, conspicuous and used by some to convey position and rank
(i.e. status); as such, consumers are generally drawn to those that match or enhance the selfconcept (Sirgy, 1982). In addition, Dittmer (1992, p. 205) argues that an individuals identity
is influenced by the symbolic meanings of his or her own material possessions, and the way in
which s/he relates to those possessions. Some brands may be perceived to hold a significant
position in society on the basis of their status and a consumer will make an assessment about
the degree to which s/he believes the brand matches the overall self-concept (Eastman,
Goldsmith and Flynn, 1999; Goldsmith et al., 1999; Vickers and Renand, 2003). Thus, the
more a consumer assesses the status of the brand to be likened to the self, the more likely the
consumer will assess the brand to match the overall self-concept. H2: Perceived brand status
will impact positively on a consumers overall self-concept.
The value of a brand has been argued by Richins (2004) to stem partly from the status
consumers perceive that it has. A high status brand may have high price, higher standards of
excellence (than other brands), superior quality, snob appeal, luxurious features, and
exclusivity, being associated with the wealthy, successful or the elite (OCass and McEwan,
2004). The premise is that a status brand assessed as containing some (or all) of these
attributes, potentially may benefit a consumer because of its identified symbolic value, also
referred to as social value or expressive value (Johar and Sirgy, 1991; Park, Jaworksi and
MacInnis, 1986). Benefits may be perceived because a higher-status brand has better
materials, or lower variability of quality, and therefore provides more value (McGoldrick,
1984). Consumers perceive the cost to be worth it because of the symbolic benefits perceived
to be received from the status of the brand. Benefits may include ego enhancement,
recognition and risk aversion (Batra et al., 2000; Goldsmith et al., 2007; McGoldrick, 1984;
OCass and McEwan, 2004). Thus, it is hypothesized that H3: Brand status will impact
positively on overall brand value.
The overall value of a brand has been said to be influenced the relative strength of a
consumers positive feelings toward the brand (Lassar et al., 1995). In the discriminate
validity tests from Lassar et al. (1995), the correlation between feelings (labelled attachment)
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and value was 0.61 indicating a positive moderate-to-high relationship between feelings
aroused by the brand and overall brand value. Proponents of emotional branding (i.e. brands
that arouse positive feelings), Gobe (2001), Lafferty, (2001), Thompson et al., (2006) and
Woods (2004) argue that the value of the brand is linked to the intensity of the feelings
aroused by the brand, and this is important to marketers because the value of the brand is not
based on a brands ubiquity, visibility, or functionality, but rather, the brand-aroused feelings
(Gobe, 2001). Thus, H4: brand-aroused feelings will impact positively on overall brand value.
Along the same thought process, the consistency with which consumers perceive the brand to
match their self-concept is also likely to influence perceptions of overall brand value (OCass
and Frost, 2002). Given the self-expressive nature of some brands and the symbolism
associated them, a brand may be perceived as valuable to a consumer because it matches or
enhances the self-concept (Johar and Sirgy, 1991; Park, et al., 1986). Thus, H5: a consumers
overall self-concept will impact positively on overall brand value.
Research Design
To analyse the impact of brand status on brand value, the hypotheses proposed that perceived
brand status may impact on brand value directly or be mediated by the constructs of overall
self-concept and brand-aroused feelings. To begin the research process, focus groups with
Generation Y consumers found that mobile phones (Nokia and Samsung) and sport shoes
(Nike and Asics) were important brands and products and that everyone had some degree of
experience with them. Thus, for the purposes of generalisability (Raykov and Marcoulides,
2006; Volckner and Sattler, 2007) these two product categories were chosen for the research
project. To analyse the impact of perceived brand status on overall brand value the survey
measures were developed following the guidelines of Netemeyer et al. (2003). On the basis of
construct definition, 101 items were generated from the literature, the items for brand status
were based on OCass and Frost (2002), brand-aroused feeling items were based on Edell and
Burke (1987), a consumers overall self-concept items were based on Sirgy et al. (1997)
and the items for overall brand value were based on Yoo, Donthu and Lee (2000) and
Sweeney and Soutar (2001). Using a panel of five expert judges, four focus groups and a pilot
test of the survey, ensuring face-validity was met; the items were refined and trimmed. The
measures were finalised with 27 items measuring the impact of brand status on overall brand
value. Given that status is important to 18-25 year old consumers (OCass and Frost, 2002);
the self-completed surveys were given to Generation Y consumers in ACT, NSW and QLD.
Findings
In total, received were 423 useable surveys across the four brands, Nokia (n=108), Samsung
(n=105), Nike (n=106) and Asics (n=104). A preliminary analysis found no issues with
missing data, multivariate outliers or common method variance. As the brands were tested
separately the structural equation modelling technique of Partial Least Squares Analysis
(PLS) was considered suitable, as PLS is appropriate in analysing small samples where the
impact of one variable on the other is the main focus of the analysis (Chin and Newstead,
1999). The data was analysed using PLS on the basis of Johnson, Herrmann and Hubers
(2006) four-step procedure. The first two steps relate to the measurement model and for the
data to sufficiently measure the constructs purported, various benchmarks must be exceeded.
To assess the reliability of the measures, according to Johnson et al. (2006), the factor
loadings should exceed .707, the construct reliability should exceed .70 and the average
variance extracted should exceed .50. For all of the brands the measures exceeded the
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minimum requirement. The measures showed that the means of Nike X = 4.56 and Nokia
X = 4.03 were higher than for Asics X = 3.66 and Samsung X = 3.41; indicating consumers
assessed Nike and Nokia as having a higher degree of brand status than Asics and Samsung.
The structural model assesses the size and significance of the path coefficients (Johnson et al.,
2006). A traditional parametric method of significance testing which include confidence
interval levels and Chi-square are not appropriate in PLS analysis (White, Varadarajan and
Dacin, 2003) as they assess a models fit, and PLS assesses the extent of the impact. Given
the small sample sizes (104-108), a bootstrapping method (i.e. sampling with replacement
method) was computed on the basis of 500 bootstrapping runs. As each hypothesises
represents a path, five paths across four brands equals 20 tested hypotheses with 19 of the 20
hypotheses supported. Not supported was the path between brand status and overall brand
value (H3) for the Nike brand. However, for the brands, Nokia, Samsung and Asics the path
between brand status and overall brand value (H3) was supported with brand status
contributing to overall brand value more strongly with Samsung (16%) than with Nokia
(12%) or Asics (12%). Interestingly, another difference was the impact of perceived brand
status on brand-aroused feelings (H1) with perceived brand status having a greater impact on
brand-aroused feelings with the sport shoe brands Nike (21%) and Asics (23%) compared
with the mobile phone brands of Nokia (6%) and Samsung (13%).
Regarding the impact of brand status on a consumers overall self-concept (H2), this was
found to be the strongest impact with stronger beta weights for the lower-status brands (Asics
=.57; Samsung =.31), than for the higher-status brands (Nike =.26; Nokia =.12). In
addition, a consumers overall self-concept was found to be the strongest influencer of overall
brand value (H5: Nike @30%; Asics @24%; Samsung @20% and Nokia @14%), influencing
more strongly than brand status (H3) or brand-aroused feelings (H4: Nike @21%; Nokia
@13%; Samsung @13%; Asics @10%). The results demonstrate the importance of perceived
brand status matching the consumers overall self-concept, as the more the status of the brand
matches the self-concept, the more likely consumers were found to assess the status of the
brand impacting on brand value. The indirect effect of brand status on overall brand value
through matching the consumers overall self-concept was stronger for the brand Nike (.22)
followed by Asics (=.21), Samsung (=.18), with Nokia (=.10) having the weakest effect.
Discussion
Since the 1950s there has been a premise that brands are valued for their status (Gardner and
Levy, 1955; Kirmani et al., 1999; McGoldrick, 1984; OCass and McEwan, 2004), however,
this premise has not been quantified, nor, has it been previously measured to determine if the
impact of status on value is direct or indirect. The results contribute to the branding literature
finding the more aligned the perceived status of the brand is to a consumers overall selfconcept, the more likely a consumer will assess a brand to have value. The results also reveal
that higher-perceived status brands may be able to rely to some degree more on reputation
than lower-perceived status brands, given the findings.
sport shoes than for mobile phones. This may mean that the impact of brand status may vary
depending on the product category; though, more research across a number of product
categories would be required to investigate if this is indeed the case. For brand managers,
reputation may be important, however the results of this study indicate that for lowerperceived status brands, attaining relevance by matching a consumers self-concept will link
perceived brand status and brand value. Thus, targeting the self-concept may help brand
mangers of lower-perceived status brands increase overall brand value.
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