defining brand relationships based on image-in-use and image heritage

Defining brand relationships based on image-in-use and image heritage

PhD Anne Rindell, Professor Tore Strandvik

HANKEN School of Economics, CERS: Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management

Helsinki, Finland

Rollins CollegeWinter Park (Orlando), Florida, USA

Agenda

Relationships in Relationship Marketing

Brand relationships

Our proposal: Brand relationships defined from a time perspective.

Future research

Rindell/ Hanken Svenska handelshögskolan / Hanken School of Economics

Relationships in Relationship marketing and management

indicate time, behavior and attitude dimensions

In RM relationship principles focus on business activities i.e. they require activities from both parties involved. Therefore, the focus is on customers and other stakeholders, not on consumers in general

» In a B2B context, a relationship can be considered to exist in cases of a

contract or repeat purchase

» Indications: time; either contract or repeated purchase behavior

» In B2C context, a relationship is defined based on the customer’s

attitude and behavior (contract or repeat purchase) (Strandvik 1998)

»Indications: time; contract/repeated purchase behavior and

attitude

Hanken Svenska handelshögskolan / Hanken School of Economics www.hanken.fi

Relationship Marketing

» Relationship marketing can be defined as the deliberate management of customers and other stakeholders so that relationships with them are initiated, cultivated and dissolved in such a way that the company achieves and maintains its competitiveness.

» Creation entails discovery, choice of partner, initiation, and even

rejection to initiate a relationship

» Cultivation entails development and enhancement of created

relationships and prevention of unplanned dissolution of these

relationships

» Dissolution entails taking initiative to terminate, but also to manage

the termination process so that re-establishment and establishment of

other relationships will be possible. (Strandvik 1998)

Conclusion: Business focus


Brand relationships –metaphoric, imagined, and time

Branding / Business relationships: Company perspective

Continuing mutual agreement between two parties who agree to

participate in the ongoing relationship (Schultz, Barnes, Schultz and

Azzaro 2009)

Mental relationships: Consumer perspective

Consumers are willing to consider brands as relationship partners

(based on a literature review; Hayes, Alford, Silver and York 2006)

Brand relationships are meaning-laden resources engaged to help

people live their lives. They are multiplex process phenomena. (Fournier

2009)

Collective brand relationshipsSociety creates the brand (O’Guinn and Muniz 2009)

Brands are cultural blueprints (Holt 2002)

Conclusions: Brand relationships are metaphoric (Bengtsson 2003;

Story and Hess 2006) imagined (O’Guinn and Muniz 2009), and they have a time dimension .

Company

Consumer

Social

Consider this example ...........

» “It was Saturday and I came out to the parking place outside our house. Our neighbour had just arrived from a shopping trip and was unpacking his car. My presence obviously got him embarrassed, he took his time when unpacking his car and finally, as I didn’t leave, he began to excuse himself for having shopping bags from a shop for home decoration that had opened up some time ago nearby. He explained he got an impulse all of a sudden to look into the shop, although he doesn’t usually shop there. It had been a real surprise for him to find out that they sold nice, good quality things and that the shop was really fresh and inviting. He was still embarrassed and tried to convince me to visit the shop in order to find out myself and verify the difference.”


Image? Brand relationship?

What images does he refer to? What does he think mine are?Past, present, future?

What is his brand relationship over time? When did it start? What has happened? How does it still influence?

How and when does it end?What is mine?

We propose, that

A brand relationship is the consumer’s mental relationship with the brand [over time]

It develops over time and can be studied using two novel brand image concepts: image in use and image heritage


“Image is the consumer’s reality” David Bernstein, 1984

“Brand image is the consumer’s’ perceptions about a brand, as reflected by the brand associations held in consumer memory” (Keller, 2008,51)

“Image is the consumer’s idea of a product” (David Ogilvy)

Brand images are dynamic processes, influenced by a multifaceted network of images from multiple sources over time (Rindell 2007)

“If anyone can build a brand it is the customer. Marketers cannot do that. They can only create favourable conditions for a brand to develop in customers’ minds” (Grönroos, 2007, p. 229)


Perspective

Time dimension

Company/

organisation

Groups Consumer

Past, Present and

Future

Heritage Brands

(Urde et al. 2008)

Brand Icons (Holt

2005)

Image Heritage

Image-in-Use

(Rindell 2007)

Past Brand Heritage

(Aaker1996),

Retro branding (e.g.

Brown et al 2003)

Nostalgic brands

(Simms and Trott

2007)

Reputation

(Fombrun et al.

2003, 230)

Memory

(e.g. Braun-La Tour,

La Tour, Zinkhan

2007:

Autobiographical

memory)

Time in branding literature:Concepts and perspectives

Image heritage and image-in-use studies


Finnish retailing context

Rindell, A (2007). Image heritage. The temporal dimension in consumers’ corporate image constructions. Doctoral thesis.

www.hanken.fi/public/publ

Research question: How are consumers constructing corporate images?

Method: Grounded theory

Data: 35 accounts (21-75 year-old informants): 12 in-dept open interviews; 11 written accounts; 1 group interview; 7

learning diaries.

International retailing context

Rindell, Edvardsson, Strandvik (2010) “Mapping the roots of the consumer’s image-in-use of companies”. Journal of

Product and Brand Management. Vol. 19,No 6

Case IKEA Finland, Sweden and Germany, 2006-2009, data: 30 interviews

Banking sector

Strandvik, T and Rindell, A (2006): Nordea bank, C2B context . Conference proceedings

Räyhäntausta, P (2007): GE-money, B2B context. Master’s thesis

Product Brand Context “Diesel”

Rindell, Mickelsson (2010). “Consumers constructing product brands”. Conference proceedings

24 in-depth open interviews (75 pages) on the product brand “Diesel”

Case: Diesel

Consumer practice

Rindell, Korkman, Gummerus (2011 forthcoming) “Consumer practice of Image-in-Use”. Journal of Product and Brand

Management.

http://www.hanken.fi/public/publ

Female 23 years old

“My image origins from the times of

the founder [50 years back in

time] and his mail order

company. He even sold anything

that was cheap, mattresses and

whatever. It started from there,

and grew, according to whatever

was cheap. It was the theme back

then and it has stamped the

company a lot”

“My earliest association from the

store are from my childhood. I visited

the shop with my mother and the

shop was in two floors. As a small

child I especially liked the escalators,

which were rare in a small city like

Kajaani. Already at that time we

bought sewing things and yarn from

there and went to look for new

curtain cloths. We didn’t buy cloth

from there, they were not such good

quality and the selection was not as

broad as nowadays. The toy

department was exciting and I would

have liked to spend more time there”

copyright Anne Rindell

Male 48 years old

Image heritage: Activated earlier

brand-related images

which influence

the present

image construction

process, the image-

in-use.

Image Heritage

Image heritage are activated earlier brand-related images from various sources over time, which

influence on the present image construction process.

Answers the question How and Why past experiences influence on present image construction process

Image Heritage is defined through its dimensions: length of the awareness time span

When does the brand relationship start What is the dynamics of it? Who / What initiated it

“it’s the company from where my Granny bought her pullover” (male 48 years old) “I was a newcomer in town and my fried guided me to shop there” (female 47

years old) content of earlier memories

Past experiences over time consumers associate to in various contexts From many sources

They can be own experiences, learnt knowledge from e.g. parents, others experiences, company activity

Image dynamics, includes both cognitive and emotional aspects main temporal focus

Those past experiences that significantly influence present images. What eras/ age/ life context do they represent in the consumer’s life



Image heritage dimensions

Male, 49, I Awareness time span: 40-50 years.

Male, 43, IAwareness time span: 40 years

Female, 42, IAwareness time span: 35 years

Male, 31, IAwareness time span: 25 years

Female, 31, AAwareness time span: 10 years



Female, 25, A Awareness time span: 5 years

Female, 23, A

Awareness time span: 50 years

Length of an awareness time span

The company’s history

50’s 60’s 70’s 80’s 90’s 00’s

Data gatheringFuture

Main temporalFocus

Content of earlier experiences

Image Heritage dimensions

* Awareness time span

* Content

* Temporal Focus

Present: Image-in-use

Image-in-use is the present image construction process. It is influenced by [past] image heritage, the present context, and future expectations.

Plans for

wine cellar

Wine travelInformal

Champagne

study circle

”Wine & Spirit

education trust”

courses

Customs (import)

Plans to

start wine

business

Wine

Blogs

”Viinilehti”

magazine

Alko

Informal wine-

tastings with

friends

Wine fairs

Books

about wine

”Wine

Spectator”

magazine

”Wine

Advocate”

magazine

Tastings

Courses

Ebay

wine

sales

”Munskänkarna”

wine association

H

Winemaker

webpages

Figure: A consumer’s activity context concerning

a specific field of interest (wine). Source: Karl-Jacob

Mickelsson

Image heritage and Image in use

For companies and other stakeholders

Image heritage is a concept for understanding

how and why our messages are interpreted as they are

what and how to communicate to various stakeholder groups.

Image-in-use is a concept for understanding

where, when and with whom, and with what content consumers construct brand meanings and images

Image heritage and image-in-use captures the temporal, social, cultural

and contextual dimensions of image


Future research A brand relationship is the consumer’s mental relationship

with the brand [over time]

» Brand relationships studied from a time perspective

» Brand relationship dynamics

»How, why and when do brand relationships start, develop, change

and end

» Brand love vs. Brand avoidance dynamics

» Latent and Fading Brand relationships

» Conscious vs. Unconscious Brand relationships

» Behavior as a dimension in Brand relationships



Thank You!