Content area
Full Text
Abstract
The authors extend the study of relational exchanges to consumer markets using brands as the units of analysis. They propose certain product-class determinants (perceived differences between brands, hedonic and utilitarian values, brand-choice risk) as determinants of brand commitment and brand outcomes (market share, advertising-to-sales ratio). With special relevance to the phenomenon of relational exchange, brand trust and brand affect are modelled as intervening variables in the process. Aggregate data based on 137 brands are compiled from four separate surveys of consumers and brand managers. Controls in the study include the brand's age, share of voice, level of differentiation and number of competitors. Hypotheses are tested and largely supported for the effects of interest leading to implications for the formulation of marketing strategy.
INTRODUCTION
'The concept of commitment may very well become a focal point of explanation in marketing, as the discipline moves further away from the transactional view of exchange and embraces the relational view This is true whether we are talking about consumer relationships with companies or interorganisational commitment.'1
Researchers studying the role of complexity in the management of organisations have emphasised the decisive impact of relationships among the agents involved.2 In a similar spirit, relationship marketing has been defined as `all marketing activities directed toward establishing, developing and maintaining successful relational exchanges'.3 Most empirical work to date in relationship marketing has been directed toward understanding the relational exchanges in business-to-business marketing such as the relationships between users and providers of market research4 or between industrial buyers and sellers5 as well as the reasons underlying strategic alliances between manufacturers and retailers.6 We would suggest, however, that this topic of relationship marketing also demands a concern for the relationships that brands have with consumers. The brand constitutes a primary locus of meaning whereby the typical consumer-goods company forges lasting exchange relationships with its customer base.
Some recent research has begun to address this area of brands and their relationships with consumers.7 For example, central to the concept of brand-customer relationships, Chaudhuri and Holbrook8 formulated the concepts of brand trust and brand affect, showing the impact of these constructs on purchase and attitudinal loyalty with ultimate effects on such brand outcomes as market share. En route to explaining brand commitment and market outcomes,...