SIGNALING QUALITY FOR UNFAMILIAR BRANDS: ROLES OF PERCEIVED BRAND NAME ORIGIN AND BRAND ANTIQUITY
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Аннотация
Introduction 6
Topicality 6
Goal of the Study 7
Research Gap 7
Brand Signaling Theory 8
Overview of the Theory 8
Signaling Theory in Marketing 9
Conceptual Background 12
Perception of Known and Unknown Brands 12
Brand Antiquity 14
Country of Origin Effect and Foreign Brand Names 15
Situation on the Russian Market 18
Summary and Hypothesis Development 21
Methodology 24
Methodology description 24
Survey creation 25
Data collection 28
Expected findings 28
Analysis of the Research Results 29
Preliminary Analysis 29
ANOVA 33
Results of the Hypotheses Testing 39
Discussion 41
Theoretical & Practical Contribution 41
Limitations and Future Research Directions 43
References 44
Appendix 1 51
Appendix 2 52
Appendix 3 55
Introduction 6
Topicality 6
Goal of the Study 7
Research Gap 7
Brand Signaling Theory 8
Overview of the Theory 8
Signaling Theory in Marketing 9
Conceptual Background 12
Perception of Known and Unknown Brands 12
Brand Antiquity 14
Country of Origin Effect and Foreign Brand Names 15
Situation on the Russian Market 18
Summary and Hypothesis Development 21
Methodology 24
Methodology description 24
Survey creation 25
Data collection 28
Expected findings 28
Analysis of the Research Results 29
Preliminary Analysis 29
ANOVA 33
Results of the Hypotheses Testing 39
Discussion 41
Theoretical & Practical Contribution 41
Limitations and Future Research Directions 43
References 44
Appendix 1 51
Appendix 2 52
Appendix 3 55
Recent years, the Russian e-commerce market of apparel is keep constantly growing. According to RBC marketing research, the number of online buyers of clothing, shoes and accessories in Russia increased by 12.2% in just a year the turnover of online retailers increased by 32% in 2019 and the share of the online segment in the fashion market is continuously increasing (Figures 2-4 in Appendix 1).
Many local apparel brands and new online clothing brands and retailers appear on the Russian market every day. Russian brands are forced to strongly compete with foreign and well- known brands. Electronic commerce make it even a more complex process, as it has a number of obstacles (Delgado-Ballester & Hernandez-Espallardo, 2008). In the process of online shopping, consumers tend to experience uncertainty, fear, etc. (Zhang & Liu, 2011). While well-known, established brands have the opportunity to reduce the perceived risk of online shopping (Cobb- Walgren, Ruble and Donthu 1995), unfamiliar brands do not have such an opportunity due to the lack of many initial brand attributes, such as brand equity (Christodoulides et al, 2006).
Consumers are exposed to hundreds of brand signals during the day and, due to the limited capabilities of our brain, ought to make decisions about new or unknown brands under the pressure of scarce resources and uncertainty. While evaluating all the possible alternatives during the prepurchase decision making process, customer has to evaluate unfamiliar brands based upon limited information (Barone, Taylor & Urbany, 2005). Therefore, Russian brands should be highly interested in managing brand signals and choose the right positioning in order to inform new customer about the quality of their product and influence on the first impression of consumers.
Signaling theory focuses on the issue of information asymmetry, when the agent from one side (brand) is better aware about the qualities of the product, than the agent from another side (consumer). Through the using of the theory, solution on how brands may transmit unobservable qualities through observable signals may be found.
In this study, brand name origin and brand antiquity signals are investigated, as those extrinsic brand factors, which are available for consumer while they first met the brand and may provide potential consumer with the information on perceived quality of product of the brand.
The brand name origin is expected to moderate the country of origin effect, which is extremely relevant for Russian apparel brands due to the absence of country-product association and to the negative country-of-origin effect (Manrai et al., 2001), the brand antiquity is expected to moderate the unfamiliarity effect due to the interaction with brand heritage (Baumert & de Obesso, 2021). The research tends to answer the question, whether to use a brand name with positive country-of-origin effect or not and should brands apply the brand antiquity (i.e brand foundation date) in the positioning in order to influence the overall brand perception.
Goal of the Study
The main goal of this study is to investigate, how brand name origin and brand antiquity influence perception of unfamiliar apparel brands. It also tends to investigate whether xenocentric sentiments mediate the perception of foreign sounding brands by Russian consumers, depending on whether country-product association is used.
Research Gap
The big amount of brand signals, used in order to influence brand perception provides a wide opportunities for marketers involved in marketing practice or research processes to examine the impact of different set of brand signals on consumer behavior.
Still, some of particular brand signals seems to be still understudied as far as differential impacts of certain signals have not been investigated, along with the fact that the signal effect may differ depending on various characteristics, for example, depending on market (as it was found by Dawar and Parker, 1994) , product category or marketing mix been used.
The relationship between these two factors, i.e. brand name origin and brand antiquity has not yet been clarified, so it is not obvious which one has more influence (if has) on decision making process regarding Russian apparel brands.
Many local apparel brands and new online clothing brands and retailers appear on the Russian market every day. Russian brands are forced to strongly compete with foreign and well- known brands. Electronic commerce make it even a more complex process, as it has a number of obstacles (Delgado-Ballester & Hernandez-Espallardo, 2008). In the process of online shopping, consumers tend to experience uncertainty, fear, etc. (Zhang & Liu, 2011). While well-known, established brands have the opportunity to reduce the perceived risk of online shopping (Cobb- Walgren, Ruble and Donthu 1995), unfamiliar brands do not have such an opportunity due to the lack of many initial brand attributes, such as brand equity (Christodoulides et al, 2006).
Consumers are exposed to hundreds of brand signals during the day and, due to the limited capabilities of our brain, ought to make decisions about new or unknown brands under the pressure of scarce resources and uncertainty. While evaluating all the possible alternatives during the prepurchase decision making process, customer has to evaluate unfamiliar brands based upon limited information (Barone, Taylor & Urbany, 2005). Therefore, Russian brands should be highly interested in managing brand signals and choose the right positioning in order to inform new customer about the quality of their product and influence on the first impression of consumers.
Signaling theory focuses on the issue of information asymmetry, when the agent from one side (brand) is better aware about the qualities of the product, than the agent from another side (consumer). Through the using of the theory, solution on how brands may transmit unobservable qualities through observable signals may be found.
In this study, brand name origin and brand antiquity signals are investigated, as those extrinsic brand factors, which are available for consumer while they first met the brand and may provide potential consumer with the information on perceived quality of product of the brand.
The brand name origin is expected to moderate the country of origin effect, which is extremely relevant for Russian apparel brands due to the absence of country-product association and to the negative country-of-origin effect (Manrai et al., 2001), the brand antiquity is expected to moderate the unfamiliarity effect due to the interaction with brand heritage (Baumert & de Obesso, 2021). The research tends to answer the question, whether to use a brand name with positive country-of-origin effect or not and should brands apply the brand antiquity (i.e brand foundation date) in the positioning in order to influence the overall brand perception.
Goal of the Study
The main goal of this study is to investigate, how brand name origin and brand antiquity influence perception of unfamiliar apparel brands. It also tends to investigate whether xenocentric sentiments mediate the perception of foreign sounding brands by Russian consumers, depending on whether country-product association is used.
Research Gap
The big amount of brand signals, used in order to influence brand perception provides a wide opportunities for marketers involved in marketing practice or research processes to examine the impact of different set of brand signals on consumer behavior.
Still, some of particular brand signals seems to be still understudied as far as differential impacts of certain signals have not been investigated, along with the fact that the signal effect may differ depending on various characteristics, for example, depending on market (as it was found by Dawar and Parker, 1994) , product category or marketing mix been used.
The relationship between these two factors, i.e. brand name origin and brand antiquity has not yet been clarified, so it is not obvious which one has more influence (if has) on decision making process regarding Russian apparel brands.
The main goal of this study was to investigate, how brand name origin and brand antiquity influence perception of Russian unfamiliar apparel brands. The experiments clearly showed that brand signaling is a tool that can help apparel brands influence the first consumers’ perception and contribute to their purchase intention. The distinction between the product-country related and foreign brand names has shown that consumers are country conscious while evaluating unfamiliar apparel brands, while the brand antiquity factor has proved the contrary of the expected effect, determining rather negative effect of brand heritage on brand perception.
The research also tend to investigate whether xenocentric sentiments of consumers mediate the perception of foreign sounding brands, depending on whether country-product association is used. The interception effect on newness and product-country related brand name shown the positive influence on brand perception, mainly on purchase intention.
Theoretical Contribution
Based on the research and the analysis described above, it may be concluded that the results of this research paper have both practical and theoretical contributions to the sphere of management, marketing, and consumer behavior.
From the theoretical perspective, this research sets an outline for further investigations, as it is one of the initial studies of online apparel shopping in Russia. In this thesis the research model, consisting of various brand signaling factors, accumulated from previous studies, was developed and tested. The study demonstrated that most of the research papers found as a basis for this paper for investigation the brand name country effect were relevant for unfamiliar brand evaluation patterns. At the same time, the brand antiquity factor, that was demonstrated by other studies to have positive influence on brand perception, in this particular model appeared to have vice versa effect. It shows us that still some further investigation regarding Russian market consumers can be done. For example, some additional findings have been made while interception effect was studied, mainly the different effect of Italian and English names on the purchase intention for new and old brands among xenocentric and non-xenocentric respondents (Appendix 3).
Generalizing the theoretical implications of the present study, it can be said that it has extended an application of previous findings, obtained in researches on the topic of marketing brand signaling, to the Russian context in conditions of evolving popularity of e-commerce among Russian apparel consumer.
Managerial Implications
Historically, Russian consumers favored foreign goods and strongly preferred them to the local alternative. Recent years the situation slightly changes, still the foreign admiration turn out to be the case on Russian market. In this situation the successful implementation of the branding strategy will help Russian brands to get over their foreign competitors, as well as to succeed in rivalry with other local brands. For that purpose, the understanding of quality brand signals seems to be important, hence the actuality of the current research.
From the perspective of brand management, results of the present study can be useful for both new and already existing brands in order to understand whether to use brand name with or without COO effect. In the context of the research, Italian brand name showed significant positive influence on brand evaluation, along with not significant, but still the positive trend of Italian brand name versus English brand name effect on purchase intention. Respondents also agreed that Italy causes associations with the country where the high-quality clothes are produced. Therefore the usage of Italian brand names may be considered by managers of apparel brands in order to influence the first impression.
Research also have shown, that Russian apparel brands should accurately approach the issue of brand positioning depending on its age. The investigation of brand antiquity effect on consumer perception may be considered by managers of both new and already existing brands. The initial assumption about the positive effect of brand longevity on brand perception, based on the literature review findings about the correlation of brand antiquity with brand heritage and their overall positive effect on brand evaluation, was eventually rejected. Respondents reported the positive brand evaluation and purchase intention towards new brands, while the old brands were evaluated significantly less favorable. Established brands with lengthy history should accurately manage the appearance of the brand in order to be perceived not as outdated, but as a brands with extensive expertise, while young brands can use their freshness in communication to signal modernity and relevance of the brand.
Summing up, based on the findings of this study managers can better understand how to use (or not to use) available brand signals, such as brand foundation date and brand name origin effect, which is very important in terms of attracting new customers.
Limitations and Future Research Directions
This study has several limitations that could be covered in future researches.
First of all, the sample obtained for the analysis was acceptable, but still rather small, and the general population, on which the research was focused, also was limited. Further research may extend the population in order to obtain more generalizable and more widely applicable results, as well as larger samples should be gathered to observe patterns more clearly and accurately....
The research also tend to investigate whether xenocentric sentiments of consumers mediate the perception of foreign sounding brands, depending on whether country-product association is used. The interception effect on newness and product-country related brand name shown the positive influence on brand perception, mainly on purchase intention.
Theoretical Contribution
Based on the research and the analysis described above, it may be concluded that the results of this research paper have both practical and theoretical contributions to the sphere of management, marketing, and consumer behavior.
From the theoretical perspective, this research sets an outline for further investigations, as it is one of the initial studies of online apparel shopping in Russia. In this thesis the research model, consisting of various brand signaling factors, accumulated from previous studies, was developed and tested. The study demonstrated that most of the research papers found as a basis for this paper for investigation the brand name country effect were relevant for unfamiliar brand evaluation patterns. At the same time, the brand antiquity factor, that was demonstrated by other studies to have positive influence on brand perception, in this particular model appeared to have vice versa effect. It shows us that still some further investigation regarding Russian market consumers can be done. For example, some additional findings have been made while interception effect was studied, mainly the different effect of Italian and English names on the purchase intention for new and old brands among xenocentric and non-xenocentric respondents (Appendix 3).
Generalizing the theoretical implications of the present study, it can be said that it has extended an application of previous findings, obtained in researches on the topic of marketing brand signaling, to the Russian context in conditions of evolving popularity of e-commerce among Russian apparel consumer.
Managerial Implications
Historically, Russian consumers favored foreign goods and strongly preferred them to the local alternative. Recent years the situation slightly changes, still the foreign admiration turn out to be the case on Russian market. In this situation the successful implementation of the branding strategy will help Russian brands to get over their foreign competitors, as well as to succeed in rivalry with other local brands. For that purpose, the understanding of quality brand signals seems to be important, hence the actuality of the current research.
From the perspective of brand management, results of the present study can be useful for both new and already existing brands in order to understand whether to use brand name with or without COO effect. In the context of the research, Italian brand name showed significant positive influence on brand evaluation, along with not significant, but still the positive trend of Italian brand name versus English brand name effect on purchase intention. Respondents also agreed that Italy causes associations with the country where the high-quality clothes are produced. Therefore the usage of Italian brand names may be considered by managers of apparel brands in order to influence the first impression.
Research also have shown, that Russian apparel brands should accurately approach the issue of brand positioning depending on its age. The investigation of brand antiquity effect on consumer perception may be considered by managers of both new and already existing brands. The initial assumption about the positive effect of brand longevity on brand perception, based on the literature review findings about the correlation of brand antiquity with brand heritage and their overall positive effect on brand evaluation, was eventually rejected. Respondents reported the positive brand evaluation and purchase intention towards new brands, while the old brands were evaluated significantly less favorable. Established brands with lengthy history should accurately manage the appearance of the brand in order to be perceived not as outdated, but as a brands with extensive expertise, while young brands can use their freshness in communication to signal modernity and relevance of the brand.
Summing up, based on the findings of this study managers can better understand how to use (or not to use) available brand signals, such as brand foundation date and brand name origin effect, which is very important in terms of attracting new customers.
Limitations and Future Research Directions
This study has several limitations that could be covered in future researches.
First of all, the sample obtained for the analysis was acceptable, but still rather small, and the general population, on which the research was focused, also was limited. Further research may extend the population in order to obtain more generalizable and more widely applicable results, as well as larger samples should be gathered to observe patterns more clearly and accurately....
