Brand skill: linking brand functionality with consumer-based brand equity
Published date | 21 August 2017 |
Date | 21 August 2017 |
Pages | 477-491 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-06-2016-1247 |
Author | Mayoor Mohan,Fernando R. Jiménez,Brian P. Brown,Caley Cantrell |
Subject Matter | Marketing,Product management,Brand management/equity |
Brand skill: linking brand functionality with
consumer-based brand equity
Mayoor Mohan
Department of Marketing, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Fernando R. Jiménez
Department of Marketing and Management, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, USA
Brian P. Brown
Department of Marketing, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA, and
Caley Cantrell
VCU Brandcenter, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to explore the relationship between brand functionality and consumer-based brand equity.
Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-methods approach was adopted including a qualitative study and multiple survey-based studies.
Mediation and moderated-mediation paths were tested using PROCESS and three-stage least squares simultaneous estimation models.
Findings – Study 1 finds that consumers perceive highly functional brands can enhance their self-competence to perform a task. This phenomenon
is labelled brand skill and defined as the extent to which consumers perceive their own performance as emanating from their use of a particular
brand. Study 2 finds that brand skill mediates the relationship between brand functionality, brand connection and consumer-based brand equity,
while a post hoc study showed that these relationships are robust among private meaning brands. Study 3 demonstrates that these mediated
relationships are moderated by the type of dominant benefit the brand provides (i.e. hedonic-versus utilitarian-dominant benefits).
Research limitations/implications – Based on self-determination theory, brand skill is posited as the link between brand functionality, brand
connection and consumer-based brand equity.
Practical implications – Brand managers are urged to not overlook the role of brand functionality in favor of other non-functional brand
dimensions. Brand functionality enhances consumers’ perceived self-competence and fosters brand connection, especially for brands that offer
superior utilitarian benefits.
Originality/value – This is the first study that empirically examines the process by which brand functionality leads to consumer-based brand equity
and the role brand skill plays in making that connection.
Keywords Self-determination theory, Consumer-based brand equity, Brand connection, Brand functionality, Brand skill
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Consider this: a recently promoted brand manager is
determined to make his/her company’s new offering a
success from the get-go. For managerial guidance on how to
build a successful brand name for the offering, this manager
delves into practitioner and academic literature on brand
equity. Scanning the literature, the manager finds a plethora
of recommendations. The most prevalent of these suggest:
●investing in portraying a brand image that helps consumers
define and communicate their self-identity (Escalas and
Bettman, 2003;Chernev et al., 2011;Vernuccio et al.,
2015);
●developing an emotional brand and brand communities to
nurture personal bonds with customers (Thomson et al.,
2005); and
●increasing the pleasure involved in the consumption
experience (Park et al., 2016).
Thus, the manager ponders whether brand equity is primarily
an outcome of effective advertising and positioning – or in
other words – about winning the battle for the (consumer’s)
mind. With the clock ticking, the eager manager is still left
with the problem of where to start to build brand equity.
The situation described above is not all that uncommon.
While consumers assess both functional and non-functional
attributes to determine the value of a brand (Aaker et al.,
2010;Kervyn et al., 2012), research on the determinants of
brand equity has been skewed towards examining the
non-functional, “more colorful aspects of a brand” (Keller,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm
Journal of Product & Brand Management
26/5 (2017) 477–491
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421]
[DOI 10.1108/JPBM-06-2016-1247]
Received 30 June 2016
Revised 18 December 2016
3 April 2017
13 April 2017
Accepted 14 April 2017
477
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