Changing consumer relationships with brands
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CHANGING CONSUMER RELATIONSHIPS WITH BRANDS Rosemary Clancy - 59212099 David Fox- 59211546
description
Presentation on the changing consumer relationships with brands, comprising both a theoretical studies and practical applications and examples.
Transcript of Changing consumer relationships with brands
CHANGING CONSUMER RELATIONSHIPS WITH BRANDSRosemary Clancy - 59212099
David Fox- 59211546
Agenda
1. Justification for studying this topic2. “Consumers and their brands: Developing
relationship theory in consumer research” Susan Fournier (1998)
3. “Brand relationship quality and its value for personal contact” Edith Smit, Fred Bonner, and Marten Tolboom (2006)
4. Contrasts and Similarities5. Summary
Why study brand-consumer relationship theory?
Brands are everywhere• Saturation of the market• Huge
Difficulty in not only getting and retaining customers but growing their lifetime value• Lower switching costs• Decreased loyalty
Development of technology and the internet• Web 2.0
FournierEvolution of interpersonal relationships
Brand as relationship partnerBrand as humanised object
Qualitative methodologies which determine :• what brand means• value• usage
Conceptualising Consumer-Brand Relationship strength
“Consumers don’t chose brands they chose lives”
Fight Club
“What kind of dining set defines me as a person?
http://criticalcommons.org/Members/adiab/clips/FF_FincherFightClub-possum.mp4/view
Socio-cultural shapers of Relationships & Behaviours
Age
Gender
Life-cycle
Family/Peers
Culture
Strength of Relationshi
p
Type of Relationshi
p
Nature of Relationshi
p
Style of Relationshi
p
•Strong committed partnerships•Need for belonging and stability
•Buying the best removes uncertainty in the performance of valued social roles•Commitment and loyalty
•“Things made 20 years ago are better than the junk they sell you today”
Jean
Karen •Desire for change yet a longing for stability
•New sense of identity and independence
•Low levels of emotional attachment to brands and fewest brand commitments
Vicki•Generation X
•Relies on peer evaluation
•Conscious of brand image
•Functional relationships
•Relies on marketing cues
Methodology
• Exploratory• Gender specific
Qualitative Research
Methodologies
• 12-15 hrs interview per person.
• 4-5 home interviews conducted over 3 month period
Cross-case analysis
• Interconnected web of brands
• Compare and contrast
Brand Relationship
Quality (BRQ) Model
Findings & Analysis
BRQ
Love/Passion
Self-Connection
Commitment
Interdependence
Intimacy
Brand Partner Quality
Analysis of findings
Applicability• Recognised value of intangible brand assets such as
customer-brand relationships• Identified consumers subjective (personal/emotional)
experiences involving their thoughts, emotions and perceptions.
Over/understated• We believe the importance of consumer-brand
relationships is understated
Further research?• Needs further refinement or further focus on the use of
emerging technologies and privacy
Critique
Doesn’t provide practical uses of BRQ Over-emphasis on minor detail for case
examples Ritualistic and spiritualistic Exaggerating life-experience connection with
their consumer behaviour
Focus on consumer-brand relationship in the past doesn’t consider how this may evolve in each person or doesn’t consider future possibilities.
Recommendation to Marketing Executives
Confront anti-brand movement and the marketing myopia by considering the “brand manifold”.
Understand the multi-faceted brand dimensions Consider customers lifetime value Respect consumers privacy and provide “opt-in”
services that provide real benefits and value to the consumer
Effective management of relationships for brand evolution. Draw on brands roots for future development. “Everything that’s old is new again”
Consumers acting as co-owners of brand must be given due recognition of this achievement
“BRAND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AND ITS VALUE FOR PERSONAL CONTACT”
Smit et al
Why we chose this article?
Direct link to Fournier’s work and stems from other similar theory
Uses BRQ model to develop consumer-brand theory further
Develop BRQ model for practical use
Relatively recent theory
Conceptual Foundations
Getting
Keeping
Growing
Brands succeed by...
Organisations must invest in developing the lifetime value of existing customers
...their customers!
Main Idea: Consumer-Brand Relationships
Employ Fournier's BRQ model for functional application and to find...
1) The importance of a brands personality and strong brand relationship quality?
2) Which brands are more suitable for consumer-brand relationships?
3) Does this increase brand contact?
Methodology
• Computer assisted interviews
• 7 facets of BRQ model
• Users selected from access panel
Qualitative research
• Cars (Ford & Volvo)• Computers (Compaq
& IBM)• Beer (Grolsch &
Heineken)• Shampoos (Andrélon
& Dove)
8 Samples from users of specific
products • Independent
• Dependent• Control
Variables
Findings
•Intention for further use
•Reluctance to brand switching
•Favourable attitude towards ‘brand contact’
1. BRQ positively related to
•Cars – competent
•Beer – rugged and unique
•Shampoo – gentle
2. Brand personalities
•Connection – unique, rugged, and exciting brands
•Partner quality – competent brands
•Emotional, exciting, and unique products score higher
3. Brand personality
strongly linked to BRQ
Presented through 3 aspects;
Analysis of findingsApplicability?• BRQ can be used to increase brand contact. • This can help increase trust between a brand and its
customer• Increase a companies knowledge of it’s customer
Over/understated?• We believe the area of consumer-brand relationships
and sub sequential brand contact is understated.
Further research?• How can consumer-brand relationships lead to better
knowledge and increased lifetime value of consumers?
• How the internet and digital marketing is leading the way in developing modern day consumer-brand relationships.
Recommendations to marketing execs
(1) Internet is fastest growing and most suitable platform to develop modern day consumer-brand relationships
(2) All companies whose target market falls within 13-35 should be incorporating the use of the internet• Especially if their brand is exciting and
unique
(3) Provide forums and platforms for online activities and interaction• Interactive media and software, blogging, online
customisation, viral campaigns, competitions, promotions• Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, company’s website, MySpace,
Bebo, boards.ie, etc
A strong consumer-brand relationship can result in active consumers who are in contact with their brands and who are willing to invest and interact.
Critique
Methodology Questionable quality of sample and hence results Few product categories or product types Didn’t elaborate on brand personalities or reasons for
choosing brands Use outsourced researchers Offered remuneration for participation and flexible time-
line for respondents allowed for 80-90% response rate Some results not really groundbreaking No examples Lack of detail in both the study and its results More research has to be done on this area before it can
be applied correctly
Contrasts
Consumer focused
Interpersonal relations – deep psychological perspective
Detail on participants
Brand focused
Interpersonal relations – weaker psychological perspective
No detail on participants
Fournier Smit et al
Similarities
Fournier & Smit et al Both stem from interpersonal theory
Brand as humanised object Qualitative research methodologies
Interview methodology Involvement in purchase decisions doesn’t
influence strength of relationship Loyalty to both high and low involvement
products Small reference pool
Summary
Interpersonal relationship characteristics can be applied to consumer-brand Brands have personalities BRQ model
Relationship can defined from both the persons and the brands perspectives
No longer just one way relationship 2-way interaction Increased brand contact Internet is leading the way in modern-day
consumer-brand relationship
One final quote!
“As with people, some brands possess certain traits that make relationships with them easier...
as friends or as lovers”
Thank you&
We await your questions!
