Purpose

Fashionable brands need to develop brand attachment so that their consumers become fans and act as apostles by recommending them. But how can companies develop brand attachment? This paper aims to investigate, on the one hand, the role of four drivers of brand attachment (perceived quality, brand personality, credibility and awareness) and three effects (loyalty, buying intention and perceived risk). On the other hand, three groups of fashionable brands with different positioning strategies are compared to analyze if the brand positioning strategy moderates the proposed relationships in the analyzed country.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve the two objectives, surveys with the same instrument were conducted twice, and a sample of 1,922 consumers from the three most populated cities of Ecuador (Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca) took part in the study. They chose fashionable brands with functional (n = 1,066), hedonic (n = 463) and symbolic (n = 393) positioning strategies. They mentioned, for example, functional brands such as Avon, La Lechera, Nokia or Converse; hedonic brands such as Christian Dior, Oreo, Apple or Timberland and symbolic brands such as Axe, Coca-Cola/Coke, Motorola or DBond.

Findings

The results of this study show that (1) brand positioning affects attachment, (2) a functional positioning leads to higher consumers' loyalty, (3) a hedonic positioning leads to the strongest brand personality and credibility and (4) a symbolic positioning seems to be the less useful option in terms of desired effects.

Originality/value

First, this paper considers three different subscenarios in launching a new product: hedonic, functional and symbolic brand positioning. The comparison of these three scenarios makes progress with respect to previous research since the connection between consumers' brand attachment and positioning brand strategy has been scarcely addressed to date. Second, no study has been found that assesses the simultaneous effect of four key antecedents capable of enhancing brand attachment (personality, quality, awareness and credibility), causing three major effects (loyalty, purchase intention and decrease in perceived risk).

中文翻译：

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对功能性、象征性和享乐性品牌的品牌依恋

目的

时尚品牌需要培养品牌依恋，让消费者成为粉丝，通过推荐成为他们的使徒。但企业如何才能培养品牌依恋？本文一方面旨在调查品牌依恋的四个驱动因素（感知质量、品牌个性、可信度和知名度）和三个效应（忠诚度、购买意愿和感知风险）的作用。另一方面，比较了三组具有不同定位策略的时尚品牌，以分析品牌定位策略是否缓和了所分析国家的拟议关系。

设计/方法/途径

为实现这两个目标，使用同一工具进行了两次调查，来自厄瓜多尔人口最多的三个城市（基多、瓜亚基尔和昆卡）的 1,922 名消费者样本参与了这项研究。他们选择了具有功能性（n  = 1,066）、享乐性（n  = 463）和象征性（n  = 393）定位策略的时尚品牌。例如，他们提到了雅芳、La Lechera、诺基亚或匡威等功能性品牌；Christian Dior、Oreo、Apple 或 Timberland 等享乐品牌和 Axe、可口可乐/可口可乐、摩托罗拉或 DBond 等象征性品牌。

发现

这项研究的结果表明，(1) 品牌定位影响依恋，(2) 功能定位导致更高的消费者忠诚度，(3) 享乐定位导致最强的品牌个性和可信度，以及 (4) 象征性定位似乎就预期效果而言是不太有用的选择。

原创性/价值

首先，本文考虑了推出新产品的三个不同子场景：享乐、功能和象征性品牌定位。这三种情况的比较相对于以前的研究取得了进展，因为消费者的品牌依恋和定位品牌战略之间的联系迄今为止几乎没有得到解决。其次，没有研究评估能够增强品牌依恋的四个关键先行因素（个性、质量、意识和可信度）的同时影响，从而导致三个主要影响（忠诚度、购买意愿和感知风险降低）。