Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2012), "Editorial", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 21 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpbm.2012.09621eaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Product & Brand Management, Volume 21, Issue 5

Brands that maintain an established market share are always looking to increase this percentage. If you are a company with mainly a localized presence in the market with your established brand, then this might not call for major revisions in your market/brand strategies. However, with the increased globalization of branding, much effort would be needed not only to understand the competitive nature of each market, but it would also be as important to understand how the consumer perceives both their national brand(s), but brands from other countries as well. An effort must be made to understand a consumer’s attitudes and beliefs about all brands in their marketplace.

Bruwer and Buller studied the Japanese market as it pertains to the consumers’ wine knowledge level and its relationship with brand loyalty and preference for specific country-of-origin wine brands. The authors also investigated these aspects and how wine knowledge is acquired and used in buying decisions. Wine consumers view taste, variety and price as the most important buying cues and are influenced by the recommendations of people around them. In addition, wine exporters should focus greater marketing efforts on Japanese women, including greater wine education.

Ishida and Taylor engaged in two studies with the purpose of demonstrating and establishing the efficacy of using an alternative method of operationalizing relative brand attitudes based on Cheung’s (2009) latent congruence model. The authors identify a framework allowing marketing practitioners to more confidently empirically model relative marketing concepts in their own competitive settings based on the latent congruence model.

Walsh, Shiu and Hassan hypothesize that the perceived quality of manufacturer brands, brand involvement, attitude toward private-label brands, and perceived product similarity drive purchase intentions. In addition, consumers’ perceptions of product similarity and age might moderate the relationship between perceived quality and intention to buy manufacturers brands. The authors recommend that brand manufacturers should communicate the quality aspects of their brands more clearly, because consumers’ quality perceptions are strongest amongst the antecedents of purchase intention.

Villar, Ai and Segev focused on the perception and purchase intent of foreign name brands in a sample of adult US and Chinese consumers. Previous research has yielded varying results regarding consumer reactions and concerns regarding product brands with foreign sounding names. While previous studies examined foreign brand names for high-involvement products, the authors addressed a low-involvement product with mass-market potential. China’s and the USA’s role as major consumer brands makes this study all the more relevant.

Sinapuelas and Robinson investigate the pricing strategies of me-too-brands. Feature pioneers need not worry about price cutting from line extension and new brand name me-toos. They can set prices to cover their development costs and meet their strategic goals. Without the ability to undercut the feature pioneer, me-too-brands need to utilize other marketing tools to compensate for delayed entry

In this issue you will also find our Pricing strategy & practice section, as well as our Book reviews section.

Richard C. Leventhal