Defining brand relationships based on image-in-use and image heritage PhD Anne Rindell, Professor Tore Strandvik HANKEN School of Economics, CERS: Centre

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

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

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

“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 HeritageImage-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 contextRindell, 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 contextRindell, Edvardsson, Strandvik (2010) “Mapping the roots of the consumer’s image-in-use of companies”. Journal of Product and Brand Management. Vol. 19,No 6Case IKEA Finland, Sweden and Germany, 2006-2009, data: 30 interviews

Banking sectorStrandvik, T and Rindell, A (2006): Nordea bank, C2B context . Conference proceedingsRäyhäntausta, P (2007): GE-money, B2B context. Master’s thesis

Product Brand Context “Diesel”Rindell, Mickelsson (2010). “Consumers constructing product brands”. Conference proceedings24 in-depth open interviews (75 pages) on the product brand “Diesel”Case: Diesel

Consumer practiceRindell, 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 constructionprocess, the image-in-use.

Image HeritageImage 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, I Awareness 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

Ebaywine sales

”Munskänkarna”wine association

H

Winemaker webpages

Figure: A consumer’s activity context concerninga specific field of interest (wine). Source: Karl-JacobMickelsson

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


Thank You!

Documents

Defining brand relationships based on image-in-use and image heritage PhD Anne Rindell, Professor Tore Strandvik HANKEN School of Economics, CERS: Centre