Editorial

Citation

Guzman, F. and Veloutsou, C. (2015), "Editorial", Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 24 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPBM-03-2015-0845

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Product & Brand Management, Volume 24, Issue 3

The current issue of the Journal of Product and Brand Management (Vol. 24, No. 3) has, in total, seven contributions, all on product and brand management. Two papers, Waston et al. and Ulla et al., in this issue were presented at the 2014 Global Branding Conference – the 9th Annual Conference of the Brand, Identity and Corporate Reputation Special Interest Group of the Academy of Marketing.

Kwak, Kwon and Lim explore how consumers value sports team-branded merchandise. They conduct two experiments to examine the effects of rivalry and team identification (Study 1) and team brand cue, team performance priming and product category (Study 2) on the evaluations of licensed products. Their findings reveal that team identification has a strong effect perceived value, perceived product quality and purchase intentions of licensed products, and that a team’s performance also has an effect purchase decision.

Subhadip, Varsha and Ashok investigate how luxury is perceived in a developing nation with economic and cultural diversity, and present a conceptual framework to understand luxury buying behavior in India. Through qualitative research, they identify cultural background, antecedents, buying process and post-purchase consequences as the framework’s sub-constructs. Gender was identified as a moderating variable between the antecedents of purchase and purchase behavior.

Thomas explores the role of brand associations and the formation of attitudes towards a new sponsor (Under Armour) in the Barclay’s Premier League. His research is longitudinal, qualitative and interpretivistic. Data from 26 online focus groups, with 213 participants over a 24-month period encompassing the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 Premier League seasons, were used for the analysis. His findings indicate that Under Armour’s introduction as a new Premier League sponsor was seen as positive overall. Additionally, the findings reveal that fans engage with brands in a utilitarian manner, expressing concerns relating to cost, durability, functionality and value for money.

Watson, Lecki and Lebcir investigate the role of body size on female consumers’ fashion brand image perceptions. Using an experimental design, German respondents were exposed to one of four advertising images with an underweight, slender, average or obese model size, and asked questions pertaining to their brand image perceptions. Their findings suggest that for older consumers’ model body size has no significant impact on their brand image perceptions, while for younger consumers (18-25 years), there is some limited evidence that a slender model size has a more positive impact on brand image.

Hakala, Sjöblom and Kantola analyse the role of a place’s name as the carrier of identity and heritage from the residents’ perspective. They assess the extent to which names of municipalities carry the place’s heritage, and how this can further be transferred to the place brand. With survey data collected from 1,380 respondents, they present a framework for operationalising place heritage, comprising four components: history, place essence, symbols and residential permanence.

Kim, Lee, Jang, Lee and Kapstein develop the Global Nation Product Equity model (GNPE) to measure global consumers’ equity of products that a country produces. The model proposes that depending on the level of people’s recognition/acceptance/preference of a culture from another country, the equity of a product from that country can vary. To test the model, 351 surveys were collected from China, France, England and the USA. The results show that there are significantly different equities and relationships depending on the level of diffusion in each country.

Pino, Guido and Peluso assess the extent to which the perceived images and personalities of places mirror their prevalent production orientations or “vocations”. They also investigate the factors that shape the expectations and desires of residents, tourists, local firms and export markets, as well as these users’ overall place experience. Data from 600 surveys, containing both closed-ended and open-ended questions, were analysed by using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Results showed that place image mirrors the respective productive orientation for only one of the examined locations, while place image was congruent with place personality for all of the studied locations.

We would like to thank the reviewers that were involved in the assessment of the papers in this issue, for providing guidance to the authors on how to further improve their submissions. The following are the reviewers who reviewed the papers of this issue (in alphabetical order):

• Andreas Andronikidis, University of Macedonia, Greece.

• Ramulu Bhukya, University of Hyderabad, India.

• Charles Dennis, University of Lincoln, UK.

• Michalis Kavaratzis, University of Leicester, UK.

• Anthony Kent, Nottingham Trent University, UK.

• Laurent Muzellec, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Ireland.

• Norm O’Reilly, Ohio University, USA.

• José Miguel Pina, University of Zaragoza, Spain.

• José I. Rojas-Méndez, Carleton University, Canada.

• Stuart Roper, Bradford University, UK.

• Feng Shen, Saint Joseph’s University, Marketing, USA.

• Jane Swinney, Oklahoma State University, USA.

We hope that you find reading this issue enjoyable.

Francisco Guzman and Cleopatra Veloutsou