品牌关系与社会阶层对品牌评价的影响

The Impacts of Brand Relationship and Social Class on Brand Evaluation

把对消费者社会阶层的社会认知研究扩展到消费者与品牌关系研究中,旨在探讨品牌关系类型(交换型vs.共享型)与消费者社会阶层(高vs.低)的交互效应对品牌评价的影响,并且考察企业管理者如何将品牌关系作为营销的有效手段以及如何根据消费者的社会阶层判断消费者对不同营销策略的反应。基于期望确认理论,通过验证消费者期望确认的中介效用,解释对品牌评价产生交互效应的理论作用机制。通过3项对中国真实消费者关于服务业和制造业的实验研究,采用聚光分析、方差分析和中介作用分析等统计方法对假设进行检验。研究结果表明,品牌关系与消费者社会阶层存在匹配效应,进而影响对品牌的评价。与建立共享型品牌关系相比,高社会阶层的消费者对与其建立交换型品牌关系的品牌评价更高;与建立交换型品牌关系相比,低社会阶层的消费者对与其建立共享型品牌关系的品牌评价更高。交换型品牌关系提供的高质量产品和高效率服务可以更好地满足高社会阶层消费者的期望,共享型品牌关系提供的无条件的关心和帮助可以更好地满足低社会阶层消费者的期望。因此,当面临相对应的品牌关系定位时,消费者由于其期望得以确认,对品牌的评价更加积极。企业在实际工作中需要关注消费者的社会阶层,进而选取适当类型的营销策略定位品牌与消费者的关系。通过探讨品牌关系和社会阶层的匹配效应丰富了品牌关系管理和社会阶层研究的理论应用,为企业的品牌管理提供了积极的实践价值和管理建议。将社会阶层作为提升品牌定位策略有效性的重要工具,企业应该认清目标消费者和潜在消费者的社会阶层,与其培育恰当的品牌关系以满足他们的期望。研究结果为企业更好管理品牌提供了具有启发性和实践性的方法。

The current research is a pioneer work which extends the social cognitive perspective to the research of social class and consumer-brand relationship management. It aims to explore the interactive effects between brand relationship type（ exchange vs. communal） and social class（ upper vs. lower） on consumer＇s brand evaluation. This research innovatively examines that how companies can use consumer-brand relationship as an effective tool in marketing, and how to estimate consumer response to diverse marketing tactics according to consumer＇s social class. Through three experimental studies with domestic real consumers across service and manufacturing industry, the authors testify the hypotheses via spotlight analysis, ANOVA and mediation analysis. Based on the consistent results of either measuring or manipulating consumer＇s social class, the research indicates a matching interaction effect between brand relationship and social class on consumer＇s brand evaluation. More specifically, consumers from higher social class have more favorable evaluation on the brand which builds exchange relationship with them compared to communal relationship. In contrast, consumers from lower social class have more favorable evaluation on the brand which establishes communal relationship with consumers relative to exchange relationship. Moreover, through the perspective of Expectation Confirmation Theory, the authors likewise explain the theoretical underlying mechanism of this interactive effect on brand evaluation by validating the mediating role of consumers＇ expectation confirmation. In particular, we suggest that upper-class consumers＇ expectations are better satisfied with exchange brand relationship providing well-qualified products and efficient services. On the other hand, lower-class consumers＇ expectations are better gratified with communal brand relationship offering unquestioning care and unconditional help. Thus, when experiencing a corre- sponding brand relationship position, consumers will respond more positively to brand evaluation on account of consumer expecta- tion confirmation. These convergent findings suggest that firms should pay attention to consumers＇ social class in practice and provide appropriate marketing strategies to position its relationship with them. This study not only enriches the theoretical application of brand relationship as well as research on social class by exploring the matching effect between brand relationship and social class, but also provides practical and managerial recommendations on brand management that social class can be employed as a critical tool to enhance the effectiveness of brand position strategies. The company should recognize the importance of the social class target and potential consumers, and then nurture brand relationship with consumers appropriately to meet their distinct expectations. Thus, this research provides an enlightening and practical approach for better brand management.