Endorsement is a popular marketing communications tool that has been used by marketers for many years. However, traditional methods of marketing are now being surpassed as sophisticated consumers become more cynical and seek out unofficial, noncommercial information about brands. Due to the advent of technology, consumers are able to communicate independently via the internet in order to seek out, and provide, their own endorsements for products and brands. This study differentiates between different forms of dependent (paid-for) endorsements and independent (non-paid-for) endorsements; namely regular consumer endorsements, expert endorsements and association endorsements, and investigates their relative effects on brand trust. In addition, this study introduces a new form of endorsement, namely implied independent association endorsement, and tests its effect on brand trust. First, a conceptual framework of the structure of the relationship between endorsements and brand trust was compiled from relative endorsement literature. The study then investigated these relationships amongst South African nutritional supplement users who make use of the Internet to gather product information. The study made use of an Internetbased experimental research design. The study divided subjects into two experimental groups and one control group. The effect of each form of endorsement on brand trust was tested comparatively between the groups. The measurement instrument used to measure brand trust was an adapted version of the brand trust scale (BTS) designed by Delgado-Ballester (2004:573-592). Three one-way between-groups ANOVAs were conducted to compare the variability of brand trust scores between the different experimental groups. The covariate brand familiarity was included to account for previous experience with the brand used in the experiment. One-way between-groups ANCOVA’s were used to control the potential confounding that the covariate brand familiarity had on each dependent variable. The results indicate that neither dependent nor independent regular consumer endorsements have an affect on brand trust scores. However, whilst independent expert and independent association endorsements do significantly influence brand trust scores, dependent expert and dependent (implied independent) association endorsements do not. Finally, it was found that independent endorsements have a greater affect on brand trust scores than dependent (implied independent) endorsements in the association endorsement category. The first implication for managers is that different forms of endorsement influence brand trust differently, therefore, managers should be able to distinguish between different forms of endorsement available to them to use in their marketing communications mix. Secondly, managers should start investigating methods of monitoring or influencing independent expert and association endorsements to benefit from their positive influence on brand trust, which in turn has a positive affect on brand equity, consumer loyalty, brand extension acceptance and retailer re-purchases decisions. Copyright / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Marketing Management / MCom / Unrestricted

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the declining direction that brand trusthas taken, throughout the past years in the Swedish market. Analyzing the present situation tobe able to build a picture of future solutions that brands could use in trying to build trust. By investigating the cause and then through these defined methods and tools be able to break this trend. Method: With a qualitative method consisting of semi-structured interviews with 7 communication- and marketing agencies within in southern part of Sweden. With the aim of getting an expert view of the problem´s past and present, to be able to build an assumption about the future of brand trust in this market. Theory: A theoretical framework consisting on the definition of brand trust, with a description of the micro- and macro perspectives. With theories about factors behind brand trust and also the markets mistrust of such. Some of which, authenticity, communication, satisfaction and customer loyalty arise as needed to build and uphold trust. These factors are described with the help of models, developed for this paper´s comprehension. Conclusion: The result has indicated that the decline is due to digitization, expectations/satisfaction and confusion for the consumer. Moreover, the result in the long termperspective is to build authenticity and genuineness, choose the right target groups, communicate the right expectations, dare to participate in public topics and build the brand with a purpose. Blockchain has also been located as a possible future solution.

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consumer attitudes has been investigated in previous research; however, empirically there is no studies deliberate the role of consumer ethics in order to achieve the CSR, that is, to achieve greater CSR, there is a need to be accompanied with consumer ethics. Therefore, the emergence of consumer ethical behaviour has brought a new perspective to determining the influences of CSR on consumer attitudes. Based on The Theory of Planned Behaviour and Vitell-Hunt theory, this study aims to examine the link between CSR and consumer ethical behaviour, and its influences on consumer attitudes. In order to address the aim, this study explores the relationship between CSR from the philanthropic perspective, and consumers' ethical behaviour. It also determines the extent to which CSR affects brand trust and consumer affective behavioural attitudes. Finally, it examines the role of consumers' ethical behaviour in influencing consumers' attitudes alongside CSR. To address these objectives, this study adopted positivism research philosophy, using a quantitative survey method. The data were collected from consumers who make purchases from the retail sector in the UK. A self-administered questionnaire was developed based on the previous literature. Then, 500 questionnaires were distributed, of which 350 were completed and used for the final analysis. Multivariate analysis was employed, with the questionnaires analysed using a covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The findings reveal that as hypothesized, CSR 'philanthropy' is significantly associated with consumer ethical behaviour; however, this study reveals a negative relationship between them. This study also hypothesized that philanthropic retailers have an influence on (a) consumer affective attitudes and (b) consumer behavioural attitudes. This study does not support the hypothesized relationship between philanthropy and (a) consumer affective attitudes or (b) consumer behavioural attitudes. However, the study identifies a positive relationship between philanthropy and brand trust. Consumers' ethical behaviour is not statistically significantly related to brand trust or consumer affective attitudes. However, the relationship between consumer ethical behaviour and consumer behavioural attitudes is found to be statistically significant. Moreover, the study demonstrates a positive relationship between brand trust and consumer behavioural attitudes, and that consumer affective attitudes mediate this relationship. This study offers a number of theoretical contributions to the literature on CSR and consumer ethics. First, the important contribution lies in the attempt to explore the relationship between CSR and consumers' ethical behaviour. This study unexpectedly, discovers the negative relationship between CSR and consumers' ethical behaviour. The possible explanation is that when consumers perceive the company to behave philanthropically, they are less likely to evaluate themselves as ethical because they may attribute their ethical behaviour to the company's perceived philanthropic behaviours. This study further highlights the positive relationship between consumers' ethical behaviour and their behavioural attitude. The second contribution lies in the relationship between CSR and consumers' responses. In line with previous studies (e.g. Willmott 2003; Hustvedt 2014; Singh et al. 2012), this study concurs that CSR positively affects consumers' brand trust. However, the relationship between CSR and consumers' attitudes is not statistically significant. Instead, this study highlights the important role of brand trust; that is, based on this finding, brand trust is the key driver of both consumers' affective and behaviour attitudes. Third, this study discovers the partially mediating role of consumers' affective attitude on the link between brand trust and behavioural attitude; which seems to be an essential sub-process regulating the effect of brand trust on consumer behavioural attitudes. This study also has practical implications. Firstly, retailers are recommended to effectively communicate their philanthropic activities to consumers in order to enhance their brand trust. It is particularly important that they also aim at influencing consumers' trust in their brand because it is the brand trust that would positively affect their purchasing decision. The final recommendation is that management should focus their CSR communication on the ethical consumer segment because ethical consumers show strong intention to purchase from a socially responsible company.

With the gradual decline in gross margin in OEM industry, the development of the brand has been seem as the key to improve revenue performance. Taiwan's industries mostly started from OEM industry, and facing increasingly fierce international competition in recent years, government and industry are also actively promoting the branding. This study takes Taiwan¡¦s notebook industry in 3C industry as the research object and study to explore the relationship between brand equity and purchase intentions and examine the factors that may affect the brand equity. This research uses consumer survey results of the statistical data analysis to explore what key elements should industry pay attention to when they are doing branding. The result shows that by enhancing brand equity, it will also enhance purchase intention. Better brand equity can be achieve by strengthen the brand image, brand trust and customer satisfaction. Moreover, the degree of loyalty will be affected by price and therefore it affects brand equity.

Social media is a newer emerging media outlet that could serve as a good communication tool for companies, marketers, and advertisers alike; yet, studies into the effects that social media may have on people’s perceptions is more limited. The goal of this research study is to investigate whether or not social media has the ability to influence people’s perceptions of brands. It applies cultivation theory to social media and specifically looks at whether or not social media can cultivate brand affect, trust, and loyalty. As a result, this study will allow for potential understanding of how to use social media effectively to communicate messages and where additional research can be done to better understand this newer media outlet. / text

Problematization: Studies  indicate  that there  is  a  lack  of  strong  brands  among  the  Swedish mobile  network  operators.  Problems  of  retaining  customers  are  common  among  the  big operators. Few studies on brand equity for intangible products have been done.   Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate which factors  influence  brand equity in the Swedish service sector of mobile network operators.   Theory: This  paper is  limited  to  one  aspect  of  brand  equity,  namely  customer  based  brand equity. Common  constructs of  customer  based  brand  equity are:  brand  awareness,  brand associations, brand loyalty, and perceived quality.    Methodology: The  data  was  collected  with  self-administered  delivery  and  collection questionnaires, which were distributed among university students.   Data: 400 questionnaires were handed out and 363 responses were valid.   Results  and  Conclusion: This  study  indicates  the  importance  of  brand  associations,  brand loyalty, and brand trust for establishing customer based brand equity among the Swedish mobile network operators.

Current marketing research suggests that two separate cognitive functions, rational "brand trust" and emotional "brand affect", work independently to influence brand loyalty and in turn, consumer purchasing. Yet, this idea is at off with a growing body of neuroeconomic research, which demonstrates the role of emotion in seemingly rational decisions.Here, we examine psychological, economic, and neuroscientrific research on how, along with the stand-alone effects of brand affect, emotion may influence brand trust, illustrating how these two seemingly separate functions may work in conjunction. First, we use psychological and economic theories such as the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, Affect-as-Information Theory, and Appraisal Tendency Theory to demonstrate that emotions have a large role in decision-making. Next we describe views from behavioral economics on how human decision-makers respond to uncertainty, drawing on frameworks, such as Prospect Theory and experimental findings like the Ellsberg paradox. Experimental findings suggest that people find the unknown emotionally aversive, both for uncertainty in outcomes (risk) and the range of possible outcomes (ambiguity). Risk- and ambiguity-aversion appear to arise from separate neural systems, suggesting that brand trust can increase affect by decreasing both perceived ambiguity and risk. Finally, we examine the marketing implications of the conclusion that affect and trust are interconnected. With the new perspective gained, marketers can better understand the mutually dependent relationship of brand affect and brand trust and begin to examine ways to capitalize on the clarification.

Vertical brand extensions have been used as popular strategies in the lodging industry. Research on brand extension that is related with brand trust and brand loyalty has been useful in making brand extensions successful. However, previous research focused on aggregated relationships among brand trust, brand loyalty, and brand extension. In addition, it has been found that quality and price distance from a core brand of the brand extension has an impact on the success of the brand extension. Therefore, this dissertation proposes a theoretical model with six hypotheses investigating relationships among brand trust, brand loyalty and brand extension simultaneously. Further, the impact of distance from a core brand (brand distance) on the brand extension was examined. Data was collected using an online panel. A final sample of 396 was used for the data analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM), a Chi-square difference test, and independent t-tests were utilized to test the hypotheses. The data was randomly split in two. One half of the dataset was used to test a measurement model and the other half of the dataset was used to test a structural equation model. The findings suggested there were positive relationships between brand trust and brand loyalty, brand trust and brand extension, and brand loyalty and brand extension. Furthermore, it was found that brand distance plays a significant role not only on brand extension, but also on the relationship between brand trust and brand extension and the relationship between brand loyalty and brand extension. This study contributes to vertical brand extension literature by providing a theoretical model by which simultaneous relationships among brand trust, brand loyalty and brand extension were investigated with a moderating factor: brand distance. The findings of this dissertation have important managerial implications for lodging industry brand managers. / Ph. D.

El propósito de esta investigación es encontrar la relación entre el Brand Equity e la intención de compra en los Homecenter con la categoría de pinturas látex, en hombres de 36 a 45 años, del nivel socioeconómico C en Lima Metropolitana. La metodología de investigación fue de carácter mixta ya que se aplicó herramientas cualitativas y cuantitativas. En la investigación la cualitativa se realizó 4 entrevistas a expertos, 3 grupos focales y 4 observaciones presenciales en Homecenter. Por otro lado, para contrastar la información de los expertos, se utilizó la investigación cuantitativa para darle una representatividad a los datos. Se utilizó una muestra de 190 personas escogidas por muestro no probabilístico por cuota, las cuales fueron encuestadas con un cuestionario elaborado de 24 preguntas el cual fue aplicado de manera presencial en papel. Posteriormente, se aplicó un análisis de correlación, cuyos resultados arrogaron que la relación entre el Brand Equity y la intención de compra en los Homecenter fue positiva. Dentro las dimensiones establecidas, se utilizó: calidad percibida, Brand Loyalty y Brand Trust. El resultado más destacable fue con la dimensión “Calidad percibida” que obtuvo la mayor fuerza de relación hacia la intención de compra con una correlación de: 0,423. Por último, cabe destacar que estos resultados son de utilidad para todo el sector de mejoramiento del hogar o pinturas, para demostrar que las estrategias de Brand Equity forman parte de los factores que fomentan las ventas en la categoría y le agregan valor a la empresa. / The purpose of this research is to find the relationship between Brand Equity strategies and the purchase intention for Homecenter. The research was conducted for the category of decorative paints, in men aged 36 to 45 years old, with a socioeconomic level of C at Metropolitan Lima. The research methodology had a mixed nature, qualitative and quantitative tools were applied. The qualitative research had: four interviews with experts, three focus groups to the target and four direct observations at Homecenter. On the other hand, to compare the information of the experts, a quantitative investigation was applied. The sample was conformed of 190 people that were chosen for non-probabilistic sampling by quota method, which were surveyed with a paper questionnaire made of 24 questions which was applied in person. Subsequently, a correlation analysis was applied, that showed up that the relationship between the Brand Equity and the purchase intention in Homecenter were positive. To measure the relationship a three-dimension model was created for the Brand Equity model which included: perceived quality, Brand Loyalty, and Brand Trust. The most notable result was the dimension of “perceived quality” that obtained the greatest relation with the purchase intention with a correlation of: 0.423. Finally, it should be noted that these results are useful for the entire Homecenter or painting sector, to demonstrate that Brand Equity strategies are part of the factors that promote sales in the category and add value to the retailer. / Trabajo de investigación

Brand Trust is the trust consumers have in brands and have been previously proven to be affected negatively by dark patterns (i.e. design patterns used in websites to deceive their customers). This study is aimed to find out if Brand Trust is affected negatively by dark patterns when used for charity. The study is a between-group to determine Brand Trust based on six different scenarios (three using dark patterns for profit, three using dark patterns for charity) using the Brand Trust Scale that is divided into two dimensions, Fiability and Intentionality. This was measured in the form of two questionnaires. There were two groups that completed the questionnaires, one group that watched the scenarios for profit (for profit) and one that watched the scenarios for charity (for charity). The study consisted of 69 participants in total (37 completed the for-profit questionnaire; 32 completed the for-charity questionnaire). The hypothesis was that the group for-charity would have a higher value of Brand Trust. The results showed no significant difference between the two groups to support the hypothesis, however, an exploration of the results indicated that men have a higher Brand Trust in the dimension Intentionality and that the participants who valued themselves as really good at being source critical had a higher Brand Trust in the dimension Fiability. / Det förtroende konsumenter har för varumärken kallas varumärkesförtroende och har tidigare visat sig påverkas negativt av dark patterns som är designmönster som webbsidor använder för att lura sina kunder. Denna studie syftar till att ta reda på om varumärkesförtroendet fortfarande kommer att påverkas negativt om dark patterns används för välgörenhet. Studien är en mellangruppsstudie för att fastställa Brand Trust baserat på sex olika scenarier (tre använder dark patterns för vinst, tre använder dark patterns för välgörenhet) med hjälp av Brand Trust Scale som är uppdelad i två dimensioner, Fiability och Intentionality. Detta mättes i form av två frågeformulär. Det var två grupper som fyllde i frågeformulären, en grupp som tittade på scenarierna för vinst (för vinst) och en som tittade på scenarierna för välgörenhet (för välgörenhet). Studien bestod av totalt 69 deltagare (37 fyllde i frågeformuläret för vinst; 32 fyllde i frågeformuläret för välgörenhet). Hypotesen var att gruppen för välgörenhet skulle ha ett högre värde av Brand Trust. Resultaten visade ingen signifikant skillnad mellan de två grupperna för att stödja hypotesen, dock indikerade en utforskning av resultaten att män har ett högre varumärkesförtroende i dimensionen Intentionality och att deltagarna som värderade sig själva som riktigt bra på att vara källkritiska hade en högre Brand Trust i dimensionen Fiability.