| dc.description.abstract | Brand name recognition and loyalty or ‘branding’ is at the core of marketing. In a competitive market the consumer will have many similar products from which to choose. The only way to win the customer is to enhance the brand image in the customer’s mind. For example some Taiwan consumers still love Apple and SONY products, although Apple’s “Product Service” is almost nonexistent and SONY’s products are always high priced. These are examples of successful brand love. If we can understand this brand love, we should be able to help enterprises in Taiwan build successful brand names and win a larger potion of the market share.
The model used in this study is based on Carroll and Ahuvia’s (2006) brand love model. There are some antecedents to brand love such as brand loyalty and positive word of mouth. We also refer to the research of Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001) who discuss brand trust. They suggest that brand trust is the mediator of satisfaction and brand loyalty, and has positive affect on the price premium. Finally we also discuss the negative influence that negative information has on the consumer and the brand. Information for this study was gathered by internet questionnaire, from consumers who used the Apple iPod, Apple NB, SONY PSP, or SONY VAIO. Out of 273 questionnaires received for recreational products, 262 were useable, out of 166
questionnaires related to utilitarian products, 142 were useable. The statistical analysis was done using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) of SPSS and AMOS. The
results obtained from correlative statistical analysis and model verification are summarized as follows:
1.“Self-expression branding” has a positive and significant influence on “brand love” a phenomenon shared for both recreational and utilitarian products.
2.“Brand love” has a positive and significant influence on “positive word of mouth”, and “Brand loyalty” has positive and significant influence on the “price premium”.
3. For both entertainment and utilitarian products, the R2 of “brand love” is bigger than “brand trust”.
4. Negative information act to lessen the influence of brand love and brand trust. On the one hand, brand love can lessen the influence for recreational products, while brand trust can decrease the influence for utilitarian products.
5. According to the method of Baron and Kenny (1996), we prove that brand trust is truly the mediator of satisfaction and brand loyalty. | en_US |