The thesis expounded in this work is that the relationship between a customer and a brand can be described in two dimensions as communal and exchange, and that these dimensions can be measured by means of a practical metric. The novel brand relationship metric proposed in this research is based on theories of human-to-human relationships in defining customer-brand relationships by means of a set of questionnaire attributes describing the communal and exchange dimensions. Results of experimental validation studies confirm the effectiveness and relevance of such communal and exchange relationships norms in the quantitative characterisation of customer-brand relationships. A controlled experiment is described with a cohort of 69 customers of the Case Bank using Internet and automated teller machine technologies in the context of incentive schemes from the Bank. The experiment examines the impact of the design of incentive schemes on perceptions of relationship with the brand and demonstrates significant evidence that the brand relationship questionnaire is effective in quantifying differences in customer-brand relationship, the extent of the effect depending on what relationship attributes are salient and experienced by the customer within the incentive schemes. In addition, results of a longitudinal empirical study, with a cohort of 66 (different) customers of the Case Bank, confirms that incentive schemes based on communal and exchange attributes are successful at producing statistically significant improvements in perceptions of customer-brand relationship. The longitudinal study also provides evidence that displays of adherence to, or violation of, the norms of communal and exchange relationships also exert a considerable influence on the resultant dynamic perceptions of brand relationship.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:651000 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Foo, Nicole Min-Hui |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/12023 |
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