...com/0309-0566.htm The effect of corporate branding dimensions on consumers’ product evaluation A cross-cultural analysis Nizar Souiden ´ Faculty of Business Administration, Laval University, Quebec, Canada Corporate branding dimensions 825 Received October 2004 Revised September 2005 Accepted January 2006 Norizan M. Kassim Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business and Economics, University of Qatar, Doha, Qatar, and Heung-Ja Hong Faculty of Sociology, Kansai University, Osaka, Japan Abstract Purpose – The paper aims to investigate both Western and Eastern corporate branding thoughts and examine the interrelation among four corporate branding dimensions (i.e. corporate name, image, reputation and loyalty) and their joint impact on consumers’ product evaluation. Design/methodology/approach – Building on extensive literature, a model of consumers’ product evaluation that includes the major determinants of corporate branding is proposed. Based on a sample of 218 Japanese and American consumers, structural equation modeling and general linear model analyses are used to test hypotheses. Findings – The research reveals that Japanese and American consumers have different perceptions with respect to the effect of corporate image and corporate loyalty. The corporate name was found to have a significant impact on corporate image and corporate reputation was found to have a significant affect on corporate loyalty. The corporate reputation is also found to be a mediator...
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...MANAGEMENT IGNORANCE? – A SWEDISH CASE OF CONSUMERS PERCEPTIONS Yuanyuan Feng School of Business and Engineering, Halmstad University, Sweden Abstract Since the late 2009, the famous vehicle manufacture Toyota has suffered a severe crisis due to unintended quality problems in its cars which had triggered Toyota’s largest officially recalls of its cars around the world. This crisis threatens the company’s previous reputation of good quality cars, as well as the brand image built up over time. This study aims to elaborate on the Toyota crisis in order to understand why Toyota faces this crisis and how they deal with the crisis; and investigate consumers’ perceptions of Toyota brand as the outcome of the crisis, with a focus on Swedish market. A qualitative research along with a number of face-to-face interviews with Toyota Swedish dealer and Swedish vehicle consumers is conducted. The findings reveal that the impact of the Toyota crisis in Sweden is not as serious as that in America; there remain satisfied and loyal Toyota’s customers who are not swayed by the negative publicities; While Toyota should manage the crisis even in a better way in order to retain its good reputation. Crisis, Toyota, Corporate Reputation, crisis management, consumer perception Key Words INTRODUCTION “We deeply regret the inconvenience and concern caused to our customers and others by our recent recalls of multiple vehicle models across multiple regions.” – Aki...
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...IGNORANCE? – A SWEDISH CASE OF CONSUMERS PERCEPTIONS Yuanyuan Feng School of Business and Engineering, Halmstad University, Sweden Abstract Since the late 2009, the famous vehicle manufacture Toyota has suffered a severe crisis due to unintended quality problems in its cars which had triggered Toyota’s largest officially recalls of its cars around the world. This crisis threatens the company’s previous reputation of good quality cars, as well as the brand image built up over time. This study aims to elaborate on the Toyota crisis in order to understand why Toyota faces this crisis and how they deal with the crisis; and investigate consumers’ perceptions of Toyota brand as the outcome of the crisis, with a focus on Swedish market. A qualitative research along with a number of face-to-face interviews with Toyota Swedish dealer and Swedish vehicle consumers is conducted. The findings reveal that the impact of the Toyota crisis in Sweden is not as serious as that in America; there remain satisfied and loyal Toyota’s customers who are not swayed by the negative publicities; While Toyota should manage the crisis even in a better way in order to retain its good reputation. Key Words Crisis, Toyota, Corporate Reputation, crisis management, consumer perception INTRODUCTION “We deeply regret the inconvenience and concern caused to our customers and others by our recent recalls of multiple vehicle models across...
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...‘The business of business is business’ (Milton Friedman, 1970, New York Time magazine) Build a strong brand image -Branding is at the centre of reputation management, it requires a clear corporate mission and philosophy. -Trust and credibility from public are indispensable to build a strong brand image (Schweizer & Wijnberg, 1999). -Brand personality and identity must be clearly understood by each stakeholders to portray the brand values. -The culture and values of a brand are a key part of the brand image. Improve Financial performances -Good reputation leads to higher customer retention (Caminiti, 1992; Preece et al., 1995) so increase repurchasing. -Customers are willing to pay higher prices for a product/service sold by a company with a good reputation. -Good reputation improve customers satisfaction (Markus Eberl and Manfred Schwaiger, 2004). -Past financial performances can impact the current reputation which can impact the future financial performances. -All of these elements have a positive impact on profit. Develop relationship with stakeholders -“Any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of an organisation’s objectives” (Freeman, 1984, p.46). -Shareholders, customers, employees, business partners, media, government, local communities, environment. -The company must communicate efficiently, transparently and use different ways of communication for each stakeholder to maintain and develop strong relationship (Benjamin...
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...g [pic] [pic] SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT Brand Image of Apple Inc. [pic] BSc in Business and Management Studies [Marketing] TABLE OF CONTENTS[pic] Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Executive Summary [pic] Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Industry Summary 6 1.2 Company Profile 6 1.3 Brand Personality and Strategy 7 1.4 Line of Flagship Products 8 [pic] Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework 2.1 Literature Review 9 2.2 Corporate Marketing v/s Product Marketing 2.2.1 Corporate Marketing 11 2.2.2 Product Marketing 13 2.3 Definition and Importance of Corporate Image, Reputation & Brand 2.3.1 Corporate Image 14 2.3.2 Corporate Brand 15 2.3.3 Corporate Reputation 15 2.4 Impact of Exogenous Factors on Corporate Image 2.4.1 Effect of Country-of-origin (COO) on Corporate Image 16 2.4.2 Cultural and social influences to Country-of-origin (COO) 17 2.5 Importance of Corporate Communication 2.5.1 Total Corporate Communication Mix 18 2.5.2 Corporate Communication Wheel 19 2.6 Consumer Behavior 2.6.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs 20 2.6.2 Consumer Buying Decision Process 21 2.6.3 Influence of Reference Groups 22 2.6.4 Family Influence on Consumer Behavior...
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...Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal Corporate social reporting and reputation risk management Jan Bebbington Carlos Larrinaga Jose M. Moneva Article information: Downloaded by University of Strathclyde At 07:57 17 October 2014 (PT) To cite this document: Jan Bebbington Carlos Larrinaga Jose M. Moneva, (2008),"Corporate social reporting and reputation risk management", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 337 - 361 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570810863932 Downloaded on: 17 October 2014, At: 07:57 (PT) References: this document contains references to 70 other documents. To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 10839 times since 2008* Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: Jeffrey Unerman, (2008),"Strategic reputation risk management and corporate social responsibility reporting", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 362-364 Carol A. Adams, (2008),"A commentary on: corporate social responsibility reporting and reputation risk management", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 365-370 Pekka Aula, (2010),"Social media, reputation risk and ambient publicity management", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 38 Iss 6 pp. 43-49 Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by 117974 [] For Authors If you would like to...
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...ISSN 1857-8047 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CORPORATE IMAGE Ayanda, Adebayo Maruf Department of Business Administration and Management Technology, Faculty of Management sciences, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos- Nigeria. Baruwa, Akinfolarin Afeez Department of Business Administration and Management Technology, Faculty of Management sciences, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos- Nigeria Abstract This article analyses the impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate image, basing the findings theoretically and empirically. The first part of this article focuses on a theoretical concept of corporate social responsibility. The authors analyze different definitions of corporate social responsibility, review chronological development of this concept and reveal similarities between different definitions. Positive and negative positions towards corporate social responsibility are presented and compared. The second part of this article reveals the theoretical concept of corporate image and the constituting factors. After discussing different definitions of corporate image, concluding remarks are made. The authors of this article discuss the topicality of corporate image management subsequently and name the factors that form corporate image, laying out the basis to manage particular factors. The first two parts of this paper provide a theoretical basis for further discussion. The third part of this article outlines insights for causality between corporate social responsibility...
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...Introduction Americans have a rich shopping culture whether it is clothes, shoes, home appliances, grocery or other luxurious products. The retail industry records huge turnovers in their annual reports. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Shop-by-Shop are among the country’s largest stores. Large corporations have a significant impact on their customers’ choice. It is disputed whether this impact is good or bad. Retail corporations rely on the outlook of their services and consumer preference to attract customers. Shopping preferences among most Americans are influenced by factors like price, trademark, luxury, class and quality. With the introduction of e-retail, retail sales are set to increase by 16% by 2016 according to a Forrester Research, further increasing profits for retail stores (Rueter, 2012). Changes are also reported among the consumer trends with some opting not to shop at stores where the working environment is poor. Majority of students at San Diego State University also shop at large corporations with some citing trademark, reputation of the corporate and advertising as some of their reasons. Some are even relying on garage sales and the farmers market as their main shopping zones. However, there are differences among the students, as some prefer to shop at local stores because of the lowered prices and convenience while others shop for different things at different stores with no specific store in mind. This paper purposes to assert some of the reasons the students...
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...Corporate Reputation Review Volume 12 Number 4 A Systematic Review of the Corporate Reputation Literature: Definition, Measurement, and Theory Kent Walker Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada ABSTRACT A systematic review of the corporate reputation literature is conducted. The final sample of 54 articles (and one book) consists of well-cited papers, and papers in journals that have published high quality work in corporate reputation. The sample is then analyzed and the three fundamental problems in the reputation literature are addressed – the need for a comprehensive and well-accepted definition, the difficulty in operationalizing corporate reputation, and the ongoing need for more developed theory. Two main findings evolve from this analysis: (1) reputation may have different dimensions and is issue specific, and (2) different stakeholder groups may have different perceptions of corporate reputations. The implications for future research are discussed. Corporate Reputation Review (2010) 12, 357–387. doi:10.1057/crr.2009.26 KEYWORDS: corporate reputation; definition; operationalization; organizational identity; organizational image; systematic review INTRODUCTION There are many reasons why organizations and researchers should care about corporate reputation. The relationship between reputation and a sustained competitive advantage is widely acknowledged in the literature (eg, Fombrun and Shanley, 1990; Fombrun, 1996;...
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...Communicating Through Crisis INTRODUCTION Since September 2009, the famous vehicle manufacture Toyota has suffered a severe crisis due to unintended quality problems in its cars. In responding to the crisis, Toyota has recalled more than 10 million vehicles worldwide for accelerator pedal, carpet and floor mat flaws that may cause unintended acceleration. This catastrophe has led to millions of dollars in settlements and U.S. fines, as well as hundreds of product liability lawsuits against the automaker, threatening the company’s previous reputation of good quality cars, as well as the brand image built up over time. This research paper aims to elaborate on the Toyota crisis in order to understand why Toyota faces an escalating crisis and how they deal with the crisis, and evoke lessons from Toyota scandal. ABOUT TOYOTA MOTOR CORP. Toyota is one of the world’s largest automakers, based in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. Since its establishment in 1937 in Japan, Toyota has a long history of building safety, reliable and high quality vehicles. Today, the company manufactures vehicles and parts at 53 production sites in 27 countries and regions around the globe, with a variety of sub-brands categories such as Lexus, Yaris, Corolla, Camry, Toyota trucks, and the world’s first gas/electric hybrid Prius, etc. (toyota.com). Its vehicles have been well known for quality, reliability and fuel efficiency. According to the article, “Accelerating into trouble,” from the Economist, in recent years, Toyota’s fast...
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...platforms include YouTube (for video-sharing), Twitter (for microblogging), WordPress and Blogger (for blog hosting), Flickr and Photbucket (for photo-sharing). LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook (social networks), Digg (a social news site), eHow (an article directory), and Wikipedia (a collaborative project and wiki-based encyclopedia). Others are content communities, such as DailyMotion, virtual social worlds (Second Life), and virtual game-worlds (World of Warcraft) (Kaplan 129-130). The present paper will discuss the positive and adverse impacts of social media on modern business. Positive effects Social media outlets have broadened the channels that companies can use to market their products/services. Businesses no longer need to rely on print and broadcast media, which can be expensive in terms of paying for advertising space and airtime. Through social media, businesses have an inexpensive and fast way of making their products/services known to their target markets. “Thanks to digital media, companies can get their information out to the public faster than ever. Instead of printing inserts and waiting for...
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...Companies use Corporate Advertising to increase awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility Therefore Increasing Profitability Erika Jean-Pierre Saint Leo University Abstract This review of literature will explore seven peer reviewed articles that report on results from research conducted on how companies use corporate advertising to increase awareness of corporate social responsibility thus increasing profitability. More specifically focusing on the advantages of corporate social responsibility and the positive benefits in profitability. This review of literature will incorporate various companies and industries from coffee, grocery, amusement parks, cars, oil production, alcohol, and casinos. It will analyze how corporate communication of corporate social responsibility enhances market share and drive increased profits. Companies use Corporate Advertising to increase awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility Therefore Increasing Profitability Numerous studies have been conducted on corporate advertising to increase awareness of corporate social responsibility and increased profitability for business. Companies use corporate advertising to strengthen their identities and create a favorable mental picture in consumer’s mindset. On average, companies spend millions of dollars each year in their marketing budgets toward corporate advertising. With corporate advertising, companies are not necessarily looking to sell a product or service, but rather the...
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...Relationships Between Productivity, Reputation, and Strategy Abstract: Businesses seek to maximize productivity because it increases efficiency, motivates employees, and can help firms compete on the strategic elements of time, cost, and quality. Productivity has been shown to be positively correlated with reputation such that firms with good reputations tend to have higher productivity. Reputation can be improved through corporate social responsibility initiatives that seek to enhance social and environmental wellbeing. Improved reputation can provide a sustainable competitive advantage and increase the perceived quality of a firm’s goods or services. Introduction In the business world, it is well understood that increased productivity is highly desirable and leads to favorable economic results. Productivity can have numerous effects on a company, particularly in relation to financial performance. Strictly speaking, productivity is defined as output over input for any given unit under evaluation, such as a business, division, department, or a set of employees. However, this measurement can be a bit more complex since productivity is determined and affected by numerous variables, some of which are not readily apparent in the accounting setting. For example, a company’s reputation can have an impact on productivity and labor efficiency, as demonstrated by the findings presented by Marty Stuebs and Li Sun in their article “Business Reputation and Labor Efficiency...
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...Corporate Diplomacy: The Coca-Cola Company Topic: Institution: Name: Course Instructor: Date: Corporate Diplomacy: The Coca-Cola Company Corporate Diplomacy is the highest level of capability to build and maintain the relation between the company and the external stakeholders as they meet greatest needs or achieve the set objectives of the stakeholders such that all the shareholder values are delivered. In corporate company diplomacy is very crucial because the company is looking for expansion and growth as they try to maximize profits in the existing markets, emerging markets, and foreign markets. When the gain entry into the foreign markets they get a chance to interact with many stakeholders who have different ideas, backgrounds and experiences in the market (wild, 2014) Coca-cola company is a global company that produces and distribute refreshing beverages and it was founded in 1886 by DR. John S. Pemberton. They have one of the most highly reputable brands in the world and it is the universal beverage company in the market. The company’s strategies are plans to increase growth in the market share, and they have achieved this through programs like Share a coke which has main them gain entry into the households and increased consumption rate and increased the brand loves grading. Another strategy is expanding their brands beverage investments, and this is by creating a high-value quality brands in the market. Third, the company is focused on improving the media...
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...effective implementation of relationship marketing and internal marketing programs are of greatest long-term significance to grocers and expounding their latent cumulative benefits should alleviate excessive trepidation over most other industry concerns (circumventing the necessity for specific reference to present and future industry related business and technology challenges). Examples incorporating shop floor personnel herein are basically illustrative; outlined marketing initiatives do not target them exclusively and they have no greater or lesser importance to organisational outcomes than other industry personnel. This paper firstly considers the importance of generating a robust organisational culture through utilisation of image differentiation, recruitment and indoctrination inside the adoption of a targeted long-term strategy known as ’employer branding’. Secondly, it proposes internal...
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