Brand equity, online reviews, and message trust: the moderating role of persuasion knowledge
| Date | 13 June 2020 |
| Pages | 549-564 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-09-2019-2564 |
| Published date | 13 June 2020 |
| Author | Fayez Ahmad,Francisco Guzmán |
Brand equity, online reviews, and message
trust: the moderating role of
persuasion knowledge
Fayez Ahmad and Francisco Guzm
an
G. Brint Ryan College of Business, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to investigate whether a message from a brand with stronger brand equity generates more trust than a mes sage from a
brand with lower brand equity, and thus is more likely to encourage consumers to write online reviews. This paper also explores what happens
when consumers become aware that brands are trying to persuade them to write a review.
Design/methodology/approach –Through three experimental studies, where participants were randomly assigned to a brand thathas either a
stronger or weaker brand equity, participants’intention to write reviews was measured. Trust in the message was measured to study its mediating
role, and persuasion knowledge of the participants was manipulated to investigate its moderating effect.
Findings –The findings confirm that consumers are more likely to write online reviews when a message comes from a brand that has stronger
brand equity, trust in the message mediates the relationship between brand equity and consumer intention to write an onlinereview, and
persuasion knowledge has a differential effect on consumer intention to write reviews.
Originality/value –The study adds to the brand equity and online review literature by providing evidence that a higher level of consumer trust on
brands that have stronger brand equity leads to an increased intention to write a review for the brand. It also shows that consumers’awareness of
the motive of the brand is more beneficial for brands with strong brand equity, contributing to persua sion knowledge literature.
Keywords Brand equity, Persuasion knowledge, Message trust
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Brands spend billions of dollars and make an all-out effort to
ensure that they reside in the hearts and minds of consumers.
Branding efforts of organizations revolve around the objective
to ensure that brands have a strong influence on their potential
buyers. It is well-known that brands that have higher brand
equity command higher brand loyalty (Aurier and Gilles Séré,
2012;Oliver, 1999;Pappu and Quester, 2016), can charge a
price premium (Steenkamp et al., 2010), and get increased
shelf-space from retailers (Ailawadi and Harlam, 2004). The
broad array of benefits that brands with stronger brand equity
enjoy is evident in past research (Broniarczyk and Alba, 1994;
Buchanan et al.,1999;Catal
an et al., 2019;Cowan and
Guzman, 2018;Glynn et al.,2012;Leone et al.,2006;Muniz
et al., 2019;Pappu and Christodoulides,2017). However, little
research attention has been givento the influence that brand
equity has on persuading consumers to write online reviews.
The large array of benefits that a brand with strong equity
enjoys may lead to think that brands with a stronger equity can
be more effective in influencing consumers to write reviewsfor
them. However, a request from a brand with stronger brand
equity may just trigger skepticism among consumers about the
brand’s motive (Cromie and Ewing, 2009;Mantovani et al.,
2017). In fact, Cromie and Ewing (2009) argue that stronger
brands sometimes create resentment, as consumers feel these
brands are too powerful. Thispaper, thus, investigates how the
request to write an online review from brands with stronger vs
weaker brand equityisseen by consumers.
Online sales of physical goods in the USA during 2018 were
$501bn, and are projected to be over $740bn by the year 2023
(Clement, 2019). In today’s marketplace,online reviews play a
significant role in shaping consumer onlinepurchase decisions
(Mudambi and Schuff, 2010;Senecal and Nantel, 2004;
Zhang et al., 2014). As a growing number of consumers are
expected to make online purchases in future years, managing
online reviews has become a key brand management concern.
In fact, 7 out of 10 reviews that arefound on review sites are
written by consumers after they receive a request from brands
to write reviews for them (Bassig, 2016). Considering the
growth of online expenditure, consumer reliance on online
reviews in making purchase decisions, and the number of
online reviews written by consumers after receiving a request
from a brand, understanding the influence that brand equity
has on online reviewsis timely and relevant for firms.
The objective of this study is threefold. First,to investigate if
consumers are more (less) likely to write reviews when the
request comes from a brand that has higher (lower) brand
equity. Second, to explore the effect of brand equity on
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
29/2 (2021) 549–564
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-09-2019-2564]
Received 9 September2019
Revised 4 February 2020
8 May 2020
Accepted 9 May 2020
549
consumers’trust on a message that they receive from a brand.
Third, to investigate how message trust and persuasion
knowledge influencethe relationship between a brand’s request
to write online reviews and the likelihoodof consumers to write
reviews. To addressthese objectives, three experimental studies
are conducted.
This paper makes the following contributions. Section 1, it
advances the theoretical understanding of brand equity
(Morgan et al.,2002;Yin Wong and Merrilees, 2008;Hoeffler
and Keller, 2003;Veloutsou and Guzm
an, 2017) by exploring
how a brand’s equity influences consumers to write reviews.
Given the increased relianceon online reviews by consumers to
make purchase decisions (Chatterjee, 2001;Mudambi and
Schuff, 2010;Sparks and Browning, 2011), it is critical for
brands to have a better understanding of the effectiveness of
their branding efforts (Childs and Kim, 2019). Section 2,
because consumers are generally skeptical about brand
messages (Skarmeas and Leonidou, 2013), it explores if their
level of skepticism varies depending on the message coming
from a brand that has higher or lower brand equity. Given the
continuous efforts of companies to build strong brands, it is
important to understand the potential effects not controllable
marketing factors –such as online reviews –have on the
consumer perceptions of a brand (Keller, 2020;Shen and
Sengupta, 2018;Villarroel Ordenes et al.,2019). Section 3, it
explores whether consumer persuasion knowledge leads to
different responses to brand messages coming from a brand
with stronger or weaker brand equity. Given the high level of
exposure consumers have to communication messages (Seo
et al.,2019), it is critical to understand howbrands can be more
effective in their communication strategies (Alvarado–Karste
and Guzm
an, 2020). The following section presents the
theoretical backgroundbehind the proposed research questions
and the development of the hypotheses in Section 2. Next, the
method is explained in Section3. The results are mentioned in
Sections 4, 5 and 6. Section 7 describes the moderating roleof
persuasion knowledge. Discussionof the paper in Section 8,
theoretical andresearch implications are discussed in Section9.
Finally, the limitations and future research are presents in
Section 10.
2. Theoretical background and hypotheses
2.1 Brand equity and online reviews
All of the best global brands make customers a priority, but the most
successful make IT the priority. Whether it is engineering solutions tied
directly to a strong customer understanding, anticipating what customers
want with forward-thinking design, or just obsessively working to delight
users at every opportunity. Powerful brands have mastered creating
experiences through technology that reinforces the value of the brand itself.
(Interbrand best global brands 2017, 2018).
Each year Interbrand, Forbes, Brandz and Brand Finance
develop a list of the world’s most powerful brands. The
valuation of brands’equity varies significantly across rankings
and their rank also varies as a result of each rankings’
methodology. While Forbes focuses only on financial
performance to calculate brand value, Brandz and Interbrand
consider both the financial and consumer value perspectives.
Furthermore, although few studies analyze both the financial
and consumer-based brand equity perspectives (Baalbaki and
Guzm
an, 2016a;Nguyen et al., 2015), academicians mostly
rely on the consumer perspective to measure brand equity
(Keller, 1993;Beiand Cheng, 2013;Girard et al., 2017;Napoli
et al., 2014;Baalbaki and Guzm
an, 2016b). The objective of
this study is not to debate, which perspective is better, but to
explore how the equity of a brandpersuades consumers to write
online reviews.
Brands develop strategies focused on how to best serve their
consumers. Brands spend hundreds of millions of dollars to
become an integral part of peoples’lives (Hatch and Schultz,
2001;Keller and Lehmann, 2006). Developing substantial
brand equity requires perseverance, dedication and intellect to
understand and fulfill consumer expectations. Although brand
managers can develop strong brand equity if they show how
they are different and ensure brand consistency over time, the
strategy implementation can prove to be complicated (Kay,
2006). Although the road to building a brand with strong
equity is not easy and presents challenges and risks, brand
managers and key stakeholders always pursue this goal given
that the benefits that a brand with strong equity enjoys surpass
any of the risks (Aaker, 2012). A strong brand with significant
equity providesafirm higher customer loyalty, less vulnerability
to competitive marketing actions and marketing crises, large
margins, more favorable customer responses to price increases
and decreases, more significant trade or intermediary
cooperation and support, increased marketing communication
effectiveness and better licensing and brand extension
opportunities (Keller, 2001;Espinosa et al., 2018). Moreover,
strong brands also enjoy higher levels of brand recognitionand
brand recall, two importantbuilding blocks of consumer-based
brand equity (Ahn and Ferle, 2008;Krishnan et al.,2013).
Thus, past research emphasizesthe importance of having brand
names that help generate easy brand recall and recognition
(Lerman and Garbarino,2002).
Past research also investigates how a brand’s experiential
benefits (brand experience)and transformational benefits (self-
esteem and self-expression) impact the strength of consumer
brand relationships (Trudeau and Shobeiri, 2016). How a
brand with strong equity has a higherpossibility of developing a
successful brand extension (Chun et al.,2015;Childs et al.,
2018). How developing a brand orientation leads to powerful
brands (Urde, 1999). How branding used as the central driver
of the entire marketing strategy leads to increased company
performance (Yin Wong and Merrilees, 2008). However, past
research does not provideconclusive evidence about if and how
brand equity influences consumers to write a review for a
brand.
Online reviews are a significant factor in the formation of
consumer attitudes toward a brand and have a significant
influence on consumer purchase decisions (Karakaya and
Barnes, 2010;Li and Hitt, 2008;Lis and Fischer, 2020). In
general, online presence and social media activity is beneficial
to a brand’s equity (Lim et al.,2020). Lee etal. (2008) study
the effect of negative online reviewson brand attitude and find
that negative reviews generate conformity among consumers.
Furthermore, negative online product reviews have
considerable detrimental effects on consumer-based brand
equity (Bambauer-Sachse and Mangold, 2011). Ho-Dac et al.
(2013) study the moderating effect of brand equity in the
relationship between online customer reviews and sales, and
conclude that positive (negative) online reviews increase
(decrease) the sales of brands with weak equity, but not of
Moderating role of persuasion knowledge
Fayez Ahmad and Francisco Guzm
an
Journal of Product & Brand Management
Volume 29 · Number 2 · 2021 · 549–564
550
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your 3-day Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting