Cognitive and emotional processing of brand logo changes

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. Cognitive and emotional processing of brand logo changesCognitive and emotional processing of brand logo changes A brand represents one of the most important assets to a company and it may be represented by its name, logo and slogan. With these elements, consumers recognize, remember and recall the brand. Over time and with growing competition, many companies decide to pursue innovations in their branding in order to rejuvenate themselves in some way (Müller et al., 2013;Tsai et al., 2015). According to Kapferer (2002), such rebranding is the strongest way to signify that something has changed in the company. However, as Hakala et al., (2011) point out, the challenge for marketers today is balancing the need to refresh the image of a company/product (such as through some type of rebranding) without diminishing the perceived heritage of the brand.Although this can be tricky, rebranding is common and even quite prevalent.Particularly, three main types of rebranding strategies include altering a brand's 1) name, 2) slogan and 3) logo (Lomax and Mador, 2006). Brand name changes are seen as more "revolutionary" while slogan or logo changes are seen as more "evolutionary" and as something all companies go through. Despite this more common practice of slogan and logo changes, research concerning rebranding has focused primarily on name changes as they are often seen as riskier and quite expensive (Horsky and Swyngedouw, 1987;Muzellec and Lambkin, 2006;Round and Roper, 2012;Kalaignanam and Bahadir, 2013;Collange, 2015).Research suggests that brand logos have an important effect on customer commitment, as well as on firm performance (Park et al., 2013). In the hospitality industry, Tsai et al. (2015) found evidence that rebranded hotels achieve a 6.31 per cent increase in occupancy. Not surprisingly, firms have demonstrated a willingness to pursue visual rejuvenation of their brands

An evaluation for rebranding: the impact of logo change on brand attitude and brand loyalty

“…The results show that Logo familiarity has positive impact on brand attitude (H2a), which indicates that if consumers are familiar with the brand Logo, they will also have a more positive attitude towards the brand. This result is consistent with the research conclusion of Peterson et al (2015), which found that familiarity with the old Logo affected how consumers perceived the new Logo and how consumers felt about the brand. That is, the more familiar a consumer is with the brand's past Logo, the more likely he or she will be able to detect changes to the new Logo, and such awareness will help to increase consumers' interest and positive attitude towards brands.…”

“…In other words, if consumers believe that the Logo is appropriate to the meaning of the brand, they will have a more positive attitude towards the brand. Peterson et al (2015) discussed the relationship between Logo familiarity and brand attitude, and found that familiarity with the old Logo affected how consumers perceived the new Logo. In other words, the more familiar consumers are with a brand's old Logo, the more likely they will be able to perceive changes to the new Logo.…”

Understanding the role of social influence in piquing curiosity and influencing attitudes and behaviors in a social network environment

“…While research demonstrates that curiosity has positive implications for consumer behavior (Hill et al., ; Shoham & Pesamaa, ), less is understood about the tactics that marketers can employ to elicit curiosity. Past research exploring the phenomenon has focused on the ability of advertisements (Menon & Soman, ; Park, Mahoney, Kim, & Kim, ), product congruity (Noseworthy, Di Muro, & Murray, ), and changes to the product (Peterson, AlShebil, & Bishop, ) to generate curiosity. The present research answers calls by Rabino, Ince, and Thompson () for research investigating curiosity and extends researchers’ understanding of the role of curiosity in consumer behavior by examining a new driver of curiosity, that of social influence.…”

Understanding rural Chinese consumers’ behavior: A stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) perspective on Huawei’s brand loyalty in China

“…Their results are consistent with this study's finding that accumulated brand involvement will positively effect on brand loyalty. However, this study found that brand familiarity has a stronger impact on brand loyalty than brand involvement, which can be understood if we view brand involvement as an individual's perceived relevance of a brand based on his/her inherent needs, values, and interests (Peterson et al, 2015), in contrast to brand familiarity, which reflects the brand's "share of mind," which reflects a consumer's direct and indirect experience with a brand (Mikhailitchenko et al, 2009). Furthermore, we found that brand familiarity predicts brand involvement, which has not been tested in previous studies, thereby advancing the literature on the effects of brand familiarity.…”

“…In this study, brand involvement is defined as "the perceived relevance of individual consumers to brands based on their inherent needs, values and interests" (Peterson et al, 2015). As such, brand involvement is conceived of as an external environmental factor that serves as a stimulus that affects consumers' emotional responses to a brand/product.…”