美国酒店业留学作业：品牌形象与顾客忠诚(2)

 

Brand Identity and Image 品牌形象

Brand identity is an antecedent to brand image, thus what the organisation puts forth as its brand identity impacts the consumer’s perception of brand image (Daffey and Abratt 2002). The focus can be placed on the interface within brand identity and consumer perception of brand image, which involved the corporate branding method and the manner in which it is perceived by the consumer, thus impacting the consumer’s identification with the brand and increasing or decreasing the consumer’s perceived brand value (Daffey and Abratt 2002). Conceptually, brand identity is the organisation’s marketing mission in regards to the brands vision and values (Kapferer 2004). Brand identity is thus fulfilled by the organisation’s competence towards its internal and external vision, aims, and values (Kapferer 2004). This means that brand identity is an articulation of the organisation’s ethos, which incorporates the individualistic image that a competitor places on its products, where the goal is to differentiate the service or product definition from other brand identities (Kapferer 2004).

 

The statement has been made that brand identity has three main goals (Albert and Whetten 2003). The first of these goals are to capture the organisation’s essential service or product paradigm (Albert and Whetten 2003). Secondly, the organisations brand identity should exhibit and define its meaning towards consumers; and thirdly this meaning allows the brand to be differentiated and exhibited with continuity in the consumer’s mindset (Albert and Whetten 2003). Bosch (2006) examined that the construction of brand identity is to involve the elemental intent of the organisation’s product or service, where the organisation’s reputation is relevant to the personality of the brand identity set forth by the marketing strategy (Bosch 2006). Thus, brand identity becomes an organisation’s operational strategy that allows it to enhance or integrate an internal vision to external customers, thereby shaping the customer’s purchase intentions and value-added perceptions towards that brand.

 

As noted, brand identity precedes brand image. Brand image is imperative to gaining consumer validation and retention. When an organisation sets forth an image that is favourable in the mindset of the consumers, it inherently builds a specific competitive advantage (Aaker 1997). Brand image is a construction of consumer perceptions of the brand, and therefore is based on the most recent mindset of beliefs that the consumer holds towards the brand itself (Nandan 2005). The consumer’s perceptions and feelings are based on the brand identity, as well as the consumer’s experiences and relationships with the organisation (Nandan 2005).Thus, brand image has a strong value for an organisation and is ascertained to create a distinctive and sustainable competitive advantage (Aaker 1997). It is therefore defined that brand image is the meaning of connection between the consumer and the organisation’s product or service, where the goal is to increase consumer loyalty in the net result of the marketing strategy (Aaker 1997). This net result is impacted by the consumer’s perception of the brand (Aaker 1997). This consumer perception is built by experiences with the brand and the impressions the brand leaves with the customer, thus altering the customer’s beliefs and feelings towards the product (Aaker 1997). This alteration of the consumer perception creates the consumer’s behaviour and attitude about a product or service (Aaker 1997).

 

The link between brand identity and brand image has been noted to be largely based on the role of communication that forms consumer perceptions as they pertain to branding (Harris and de Chernatory 2001). However, some confusion as to the specific role of marketing brand identity and the formulation of brand image exists. While some researchers explore that consumer perception is built based on such marketing communications (Harris and de Chernatory 2001), others substantiate that brand image is not a result of brand identity marketing, but of the experiences of consumers with the product and service of the brand (Chun and Davies 2006). This means that the external communications of the organisation, noted in the above paragraphs to be centred on exposing the value, aims and intentions of the brand (Kapferer 2004) have less impact on the consumer’s mindset than the consumers actual experiences with the brand (Chun and Davies 2006). This is especially true in the service oriented industries, such as hotels, where service context related firms are more likely to gain or lose brand image in the customer’s mindset based on consumer experiences with the service (O’Cass and Grace 2004). Consumer experiences such as word of mouth, poor service relationships, and negative service receipt are more likely to impact the perception of a brand image than the organisation’s marketing strategy of the brand’s identity (O’Cass and Grace 2004). In this relationship, the role of service employees and their relationship with the customer becomes an integral part of building a brand image, where the recognition of employees to the brand identity as well as towards delivering a positive customer service experience is more important to sustainable brand image than any other factor (Hardaker and Fill 2005). This is because the employee operating in a service context, such as a hotel, is the first point of contact the consumer has with the brand (Hardaker and Fill 2005). Thus, the experience a consumer has with an employee of a service based industry has multiple interfaces as the employee’s value, the brand identity, and the consumer’s perception, all of which create the brand image (O’Cass and Grace 2004).

 

Brand Strategy and Customer Satisfaction 品牌战略与顾客满意

It stands to reason that if consumers create a perception of a brand image based on their level of satisfaction, then there is an inherent link between brand image and customer satisfaction. This was established as a positive image towards consumer satisfaction increases consumer loyalty, where it is postulated that the relationship also develops consumer loyalty (Chun and Davies 2006). In this relationship, there is a congruent development between brand identities, as it is externally presented by the organisation, and consumer satisfaction as it is internally perceived by the consumer (Chun and Davies 2006). The development is that a firm utilises brand strategy, as this has the ability to increase brand loyalty when it ensures that the relationship between brand identity and image is congruent and consistent, as it applies to influencing consumer loyalty (Nandan 2005). Thus, brand identity has an increased positive relationship that is established between the customer’s perception of satisfaction, the development of loyalty, and the brand’s image (Nandan 2005).

 

Consumer promotions are one method that organisations use to increase brand awareness, and thus establish brand identity. Consumer promotions include coupons and sweepstakes, but increasingly include loyalty programs such as points for repurchases. These types of sales promotions are have the targeted goal of increasing repurchase intentions of final purchases (Kotler and Armstrong 2002). Consumer sales promotions are just as various as brands themselves, existing as incentives for purchasing or repurchasing, while others attempt to communicate the nature of the organisation (Kotler and Armstrong 2002). Some promotions will be based on pricing discounts, while others are non-priced based, such as additional products or special services (Kotler and Armstrong 2002). Consumer promotion is a traditional brand strategy that is thought to enhance consumer loyalty by offering special rewards for repurchasing a service or product (Kotler and Armstrong 2002). Thus, it is supposed that consumer promotions influence the consumer by enhancing how the customer cognitively perceives the value of a service or product (Kotler and Armstrong 2002). Value, as the difference between price and received goods, is the object that creates price perception. Price perception, in turn, establishes how a customer values the brand’s overall image, and thus if the consumer is willing to purchase the brand (Schiffman and Kanuk 2004). Price perceptions can be both positive and negative. In luxury instances, higher prices for higher levels of services are considers attributes to the consumer’s success, and therefore the repurchase intentions may be based on the intrinsic value the consumer places on the actual service receipt, rather than the cost of the service (Moore et al 2003). Price and customer loyalty therefore become complex, as in some cases very low prices for a luxury brand, or over-promotion of the brand, lead to devaluation of the brand, where the consumer finds less value for the same service offered at a lower price (Moore et al 2003).

 

This leads towards product quality perceptions, where the superiority of a service is approached by the consumer based on the consumer’s expectations of the service (Moore et al 2003). Consumers may place a judgement upon the quality of a service based on the information they have received through brand identity strategies regarding the service, when this information is not congruent with the customer’s received service, there is a negative gap in customer satisfaction (Schiffman and Kanuk 2004). Consumer judgements are created by intrinsic and extrinsic information (Schiffman and Kanuk 2004).

 

The concern is that there is a gap between brand identities put forth by the organisation and brand images received, or perceived, by the consumers (Hatch and Schultz 2003). This gap exists when the internal identities of the organisation, as they relate to the values and ideals of the organisation, are not externally perceived by the consumer (Hatch and Schultz 2003; Chun and Davies 2006). Thus, the need for a brand strategy that bridges this gap for increased customer perceptions becomes a managerial goal to narrow the gap (Harris and de Chernatony 2001). This need for gap reduction is stated to be a holistic need, where brand strategy is centred on the ability of the organisation to ensure that all employees are able to breach the gaps and have the same values and aims that the organisations places external brand marketing importance upon (Harris and de Chernatony 2001). Emphatically, this means that strategy towards the brand image is highly reliant upon the internal brand identity of the organisation and the external brand image the customer forms (Harris and de Chernatony 2001). Thus, there is an increased need in brand development and strategy for organisations to match the consumer’s needs and perceptions with the brand’s identity, which in turn will increase consumer loyalty but not necessarily consumer satisfaction (Chun and Davies 2006).