ABSTRACT
Effective marketing strategy requires understanding consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral brand responses. Brands, by definition, can represent a collection of images, values, or even human qualities (e.g., Aaker 1997; Baker 2003; Keller 2003). The multi-dimensional nature of brands implies that any one brand may elicit a variety of positive or negative consumer responses, depending upon the qualities, brand users, events, or even memories a consumer associates with that brand (e.g., Banister and Hogg 2004; Braun-La Tour, La Tour, and Zinkhan 2007; Escalas and Bettman 2005; Meenaghan 2001a, 2001b; Roehm and Roehm 2007). While marketing literature is replete with studies on positive responses to brands (e.g., Coulter, Price, and Feick 2003; Fournier 1998), there is a dearth of research dedicated to the negative aspect of consumer brand responses, particularly in the form of brand avoidance. In addition, prior research has essentially limited the construct of “brand image” to formal names (e.g. Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart) related to specific products either produced or sold by a firm. Branding, considered in a broader context, however, can extend beyond marketer-specified meaning associations to the memories, images, and associations that an individual maintains with a basic consumption object (e.g., grapes instead of Dole brand fruits). Thus the notion of brand meaning should be explored from the consumer perspective in a wider realm of consumption processes, and not simply consumer responses to established brand names.
