What you don't know about Apple?

         The article presents information about Technology Company Apple Inc., focusing on unrealistic expectations, which investors may have about the firm. Topics include new product development, the company's reputation, which can help or hurt market share, and its share prices, which fell in the fall of 2012. Also mentioned are Apple's former top executive Steve Jobs, Jobs' successor Tim Cook, and its model of secrecy before products are released. A diagram of Apple Inc. share prices and earnings is also presented.

1. Apple’s presence in China is not having a “trickle-down” economic effect on the Chinese state or its citizens.

2. They once held the record as the most irresponsible labor rights and environmental offender of all 29 major tech companies working with suppliers in China.

3. Apple has avoided paying over $74 billion in taxes to the federal government since 2009 by moving their cash to offshore holdings. Recently the company executed a cleverly financed $55 billion payout to shareholders to avoid paying $9.2 billion on this year’s tax bill.

4. Apple receives lucrative government contracts to provide technology to school districts and students. In 2012 the company sold 4.5 million iPods to schools within the US, and a total of 8 million to schools globally.

5. They pander to white folks, men especially, who want to be associated with people of color and racially diverse communities. In a study I conducted with Gabriela Hybel analyzing the content of nearly 200 Apple commercials that have run in the US between 1984 and the present, we found clear trends in who is represented in the company’s commercials, and whom they target.

6. Apple customers are deeply loyal and tend to own more than one Apple product. As of a report published a year ago, one third of US households owned at least one Apple device, and most of those owned more than two Apple products.

7. While they currently have only about 14 percent of the global smartphone market, Apple rakes in the most profit in the industry. In terms of market share Apple ranks third globally, trailing Nokia by a small margin, and well behind Samsung, the global leader.

8. They are the world’s most valuable technology company and the second most valuable company in the world.

Works Cited


Journal of Advertising. Winter2013, Vol. 42 Issue 4, p331-342. 12p. 4 Graphs.

Defending Brands: Effects of Alignment of Spokescharacter Personality Traits and Corporate Transgressions on Brand Trust and Attitudes.

Two repeated-measure experiments examine the role of spokes characters in defending consumer perceptions of brand attitude, brand trust, and the willingness to pay a price premium (WPPP) for the brand. Based on the theory of anthropomorphization, the first experiment assesses the moderating role of the alignment between the spokes character personality and negative information. Results show that nonaligned negative information and personality traits offer a stronger defense for the brand. The second experiment extends the first by comparing the role of spokes characters relative to another visual promotion tool, brand logos. Results show that when personality and negative information are not aligned, there are no significant (unfavorable) effects on brand attitude and trust when either spokes characters or logos are used, but the brands are susceptible to unfavorable effects when the negative information is aligned. In addition, the spokes character offers somewhat greater protection for the brand than does the logo when the negative information is aligned.

Anyone with a successful business can be certain of one thing: competitors are looking for opportunities to attack. As a result, defending a business is a critical task for business leaders. Indeed, a good defense is far more important that a good offense. If you fail trying to grow, you will miss your objectives. If you fail defending your business, you can lose everything. Defensive strategy is a brutal business; the objective is to drive competitors into the ground and make off with their ideas. It isn't pretty, but a good defense can be very effective. Here, Calkins shows business leaders how to create and maintain a defensive strategy including: how to understand and get competitive intelligence; how to determine if your brand or company is at risk; how to create a defensive strategy; how to blunt your competitor's efforts - and much more. Every business leader needs to understand how to play defense and this book will teach them how to do it.

Works Cited


Journal of Advertising. Winter2013, Vol. 42 Issue 4, p331-342. 12p. 4 Graphs.

Association Ambiguity in Brand Extension.

A research method is developed to effectively identify associations that significantly influence the perceived fit of brand extensions. Contrary to extant brand extension studies that mainly focus on the fit of associations, the current study considers the ambiguity of associations. The proposed measure of association ambiguity, defined as the level of uncertainty based on the perceived conflict of a particular association in a brand extension indicated by the similarity and intensity level of perceived association distance to the parent brand and extension category, was tested and validated using several brand extension cases. Identifying an association's level of ambiguity and the magnitude of its impact on the perceived fit will allow advertisers to adjust their advertising messages and increase consumer receptiveness toward brand extensions. Implications for advertising practitioners and future research are discussed.

In this article, Kim explains that oftentimes there is a disconnect between a product and its parent brand among consumers, prohibiting them from seeing the congruence between the two. “If ambiguity increases, fit will decrease," Kim said. It falls upon advertisers to illustrate the relationship between a product (such as mouthwash) and its parent brand (Crest).

While previous research has revealed methods to show which aspects of brand extension align most with consumer perception of a parent brand, Kim has developed a method that works in the reverse. Using his model, advertisers can pinpoint what feelings toward the brand extension contrast feelings toward the parent brand.

In his paper, he uses the example of Crest, which has associations of "clean" and "white." He found that these same associations when applied to mouthwash, one of Crest's brand extensions, caused ambiguity among consumers because of mouthwash's color. Using a slogan such as "Crest Mouthwash, for whiter teeth," however, could decrease this ambiguity by increasing the association between mouthwash and "white."

Other advertisers to reveal the negative associations or ambiguities that exist among brand extension products can use Kim’s method. They can then determine which associations to emphasize in their advertisements, making them more effective than ever.

Works Cited


Journal of Advertising. Winter2013, Vol. 42 Issue 4, p358-370. 13p. 2 Diagrams, 5 Charts.

Low Prices Are Just the Beginning: Price Image in Retail Management.

Recent managerial evidence and academic research has suggested that consumer decisions are influenced not only by the prices of individual items but also by a retailer's price image, which reflects a consumer's impression of the overall price level of a retailer. Despite the increasing importance of price image in marketing theory and practice, existing research has not provided a clear picture of how price images are formed and how they influence consumer behavior. This article addresses this discrepancy by offering a comprehensive framework delineating the key drivers of price image formation and their consequences for consumer behavior. Contrary to conventional wisdom that assumes price image is mainly a function of a retailer's average price level, this research identifies several price-related and nonprime factors that contribute to price image formation. The authors further identify conditions in which these factors can overcome the impact of the average level of prices, resulting in a low price image despite the retailer's relatively high prices, as well as conditions in which people perceive a retailer to have a high price image despite its relatively low average price level.

According to Hamilton and Chernev, it is not enough for retailers to simply optimize prices. Low prices are just the beginning. Instead, they should use all the tools at their disposal—from the mix of prices available on the store shelf, to the way they change prices over time, to the physical characteristics of the store itself—to communicate a desired price image.

   

The study also indicates that although ‘show rooming’—the practice of examining merchandise in a retail store and then shopping online to find the desired item at a lower price—has become the nemesis of many brick-and-mortar retailers, not all traditional retailers are equally affected by show rooming.

Shoppers at stores like Wal-Mart, Costco and Aldi are less likely to pull out their smartphones to check the competition for lower prices. These retailers benefit from their low price image, even in cases where they do not have the lowest price on a particular item.
Works Cited

Journal of Marketing. Nov2013, Vol. 77 Issue 6, p1-20. 20p. 1 Diagram, 4 Charts.

Brand measurement scales and underlying cognitive dimensions.

The aim of this exploratory research is to compare a well-known scale, the Asker brand personality scale, with an empirical scale based on individuals' relevant attributes, in order to analyze why they can lead to similar brand positioning maps. We provide empirical evidence of how a bias can overwrite the ability of a measurement scale to actually measure its underlying construct. In order to do so, we first find that the two sets of attributes - one derived from the brand personality scale, the other reflecting attributes obtained through a focus group - span common cognitive representations when translated into perceptual maps. We then prove that this outcome is caused by a bias stemming from a more holistic view of the brand, which forces the two cognitive structures towards a common perceptual representation. We conclude discussing the challenges for current theory implicit in our findings, and the implications for managerial practice.

Brand experience is conceptualized as sensations, feelings, cognitions and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand‘s design and identity, packaging, communications and environments. We distinguish several experience dimensions and construct a brand experience scale that includes four dimensions: sensory, affective, intellectual and behavioral. In six studies, we show that the scale is reliable, valid and distinct from other brand scales including brand evaluations, brand involvement, brand attachment, and customer delight and brand personality. Moreover, brand experience affects consumer satisfaction and loyalty directly and indirectly through brand personality associations.

• Cognitive response: relates to knowledge, i.e. the totality of information and beliefs held by an individual or a group. Individuals store this information, which influences their interpretation of the stimuli to which they are exposed.
• Selective perception and retention: Perception has a regulating function since it filters information. Some elements of information are retained either because they meet the needs of the moment, or because they come as a surprise.
• Noted score: the percentage of readers who say they previously saw the advertisement in the magazine (ad recognition).
• Saw-associated or Proved Name Registration (PNR) score: the percentage of individuals who correctly identify the product and advertiser with the advertisement.
• Read most: the percentage who says they read more than half of the written material in the advertisement.

Works Cited

International Journal of Market Research. 2012, Vol. 55 Issue 1, p43-57. 15p. 2 Charts, 6 Graphs.
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On Brands and Word of Mouth.

Brands and word-of-mouth are cornerstones of marketing, yet, their relationship was largely ignored. In order to explore this relationship we present a theoretical framework whose fundamentals are consumers and what stimulates them to engage in WOM. It argues that consumers spread the word on brands as a result of three drivers: functional, social, and emotional. Through these motives and needs we identify a set of brand characteristics (e.g. level of differentiation) that play a role in stimulating Brands and word-of-mouth.

To examine our theoretical framework empirically, we constructed a unique data set on the online and offline Brands and word-of-mouth and the characteristics of the 697 most talked-about national US brands. Using MCMC estimation we find that

(i)                    Brand characteristics play an important role in generating Brands and word-of-mouth, and

(ii)                  That the impact of the characteristics differs between offline conversations and online brand mentions.

We also find that while the social and functional drivers are the most important for online Brands and word-of-mouth  the emotional driver is the most important for offline Brands and word-of-mouth. These results portray an interesting picture of  Brands and word-of-mouth and have meaningful managerial implications (e.g. investment in Brands and word-of-mouth).

This study aims to enhance understanding of brand characteristics as antecedents of Brands and word-of-mouth by executing a comprehensive empirical analysis. For this purpose, the authors constructed a unique data set on online and offline Brands and word-of-mouth and characteristics for more than 600 of the most talked-about U.S. brands. To guide this empirical analysis, they present a theoretical framework arguing that consumers spread Brands and word-of-mouth on brands as a result of social, emotional, and functional drivers. Using these drivers, the authors identify a set of 13 brand characteristics that stimulate Brands and word-of-mouth  including three (level of differentiation, excitement, and complexity) that have not been studied to date as Brands and word-of-mouth antecedents. The authors find that whereas the social and functional drivers are the most important for online Brands and word-of-mouth  the emotional driver is the most important for offline Brands and word-of-mouth  These results provide an insightful perspective on Brands and word-of-mouth and have meaningful managerial implications for brand management and investment in Brands and word-of-mouth campaigns.

Works Cited


Journal of Marketing Research (JMR). Aug2013, Vol. 50 Issue 4, p427-444. 18p. 1 Diagram, 9 Charts.