Exploring brand associations: an innovative methodological approach

Abstract

Purpose\ud The objective of this exploratory study is to propose a new methodological approach to investigate brand associations. More specifically, the study aims to show how brand associations can be identified and analysed in an online community of international consumers of fashion in order to determine the degree of matching with company-defined brand associations.\ud Design/methodology/approach\ud The methodology is two-pronged, integrating qualitative market research techniques with quantitative text mining. It was applied to determine types and perceptions of brand associations among fashion bloggers with reference to three leading Italian fashion houses. These were then compared to brand associations found in company-generated texts to measure the degree of matching. \ud Findings\ud The results showed consistent brand associations across the three brands, as well as substantial matching with company-defined brand associations. In addition, the analysis revealed the presence of distinctive brand association themes that shed further light on how brand attributes were perceived by blog participants. \ud Practical implications\ud The methods described can be used by managers to identify and reinforce favourable brand associations among consumers. This knowledge can then be applied towards developing and implementing effective brand strategies. \ud Originality/Value \ud The authors propose an interdisciplinary approach to investigate brand associations in online communities. It incorporates text mining and computer-assisted textual analysis as techniques borrowed from the field of linguistics which have thus far seen little application in marketing studies, but can nonetheless provide important insights for strategic brand management

A multidisciplinary perspective of big data in management research

“…For example, social media strategic capability can enhance brand innovation (Nguyen et al, 2015) and social tagging has great implications for brand performance measurement and brand equity management (Nam and Kannan, 2014). Besides, online information has an influence on consumers' perception of brands and Camiciottoli et al (2014) find consistent brand associations in online community of international consumers. Moreover, dynamic analysis of online user-generated content can reflect consumer satisfaction with quality thus improve competitive brand positions (Tirunillai and Tellis, 2014).…”

“…In addition, it is understudied in prior studies that what roles the firms play in the digital marketing campaign and their engagement in the online communication activities is an interesting area to be explored in future. Andrews et al(2015); Fong et al(2015); Ghose and Han(2014); Grewal et al(2016); Li and Du(2012); Luo et al(2014); Shankar et al(2016) Digital and social media advertising Ghose and Todri-Adamopoulos(2016); Gopinath et al(2013); Iyer and Katona(2015); Järvinen and Karjaluoto(2015); Kumar et al(2017); ; Liu and Mattila(2017); Malthouse et al(2013); Mariani et al(2016); Trusov et al(2016) Brand analysis Camiciottoli et al(2014); Culotta and Cutler(2016); Godey et al(2016); Gretry et al(2017); Hamilton et al(2016); Költringer and Dickinger(2015); Moro et al(2016); Nam and Kannan(2014); Nguyen et al(2015); Pournarakis et al(2017); Schweidel and Moe(2014); Tirunillai and Tellis(2014); Electronic word-of-mouth Balaji et al(2016); Cantallops and Salvi(2014); Cascio et al(2015); Chen and Xie (2005); Eisingerich et al(2015); Hennig-Thurau et al(2015); Kim et al(2015); King et al(2014); ; Lee and Song(2010); Mayzlin (2006); …”

Examining the existence of double jeopardy and negative double jeopardy within Twitter

“…Fourth, a further future dimension to consider this form of Twitter based analysis of the presence of the DJ/NDJ effect is to consider the evidence qualitatively. It may be possible in future research work to combine our approach with further netnography oriented approaches (see for example, Camiciottoli et al, 2014). Fifth, sentiment analysis, more specifically, automated sentiment analysis, is still in its infancy, how many factors, such as cultural and linguistic nuances, may be impacting of the sentiment derived, will be very much worth considering in future research.…”

Be Social and Be Tuned Evaluate Your Brands in Online Communities

“…This information may concern data on the alignment between the brand as it is perceived by consumers and the brand as it is defined by the company. They emerge from interdisciplinary research methods applied to online communities (Crawford Camiciottoli, Ranfagni & Guercini, 2014); their production allows to fill research gaps emerging in the studies on brand image. These studies in fact, explore the impact of marketing choices on brand perception without comparing the ensuing consumers' brand associations with those that company defines and communicates (Häubl & Elrod, 1999;Schoormans & Robben, 1997;Czellar, 2003).…”