Purpose
Brand experience is a key factor that helps elucidate why consumers choose a given brand among others. The purpose this paper is to investigate how previous experience with store brands affects store brand purchase intention in two emerging markets and whether the cultural context moderates the relationships between store brand positive or negative cues and store brand purchase intention.
Design/methodology/approach
A store-intercept survey undertaken in the Latin American context generated 769 usable responses from consumers of two metropolitan cities (Brasilia and Bogota), respectively, in Brazil and Colombia. The questionnaires were collected in four well-established retail chains by professional investigators. Structural equation modelling was used to test a series of proposed hypotheses.
Findings
Overall, this paper reveals that consumers in Latin America do care about brand experience when shopping. More specifically, the results indicate that previous positive experience with store brands has a positive effect on consumer purchase intention in both countries investigated. In Brazil, store brand price perceptions mediate rather strongly the relationship between previous experience with store brands and purchase intention. In contrast, this effect is weak in Colombia. Store brand perceived risk has significant mediation effects in Brazil, but no mediation effects in Colombia. The authors also underline heterogeneous moderation effects of the cultural context, suggesting that common perceptions of Latin America as a culturally homogeneous region are stereotypical.
Research limitations/implications
Respondents were consumers of only two Latin American emerging countries (Brazil and Colombia) and shoppers of two retail chains in each country. Caution should therefore be exercised when generalising the results to other emerging markets.
Practical implications
The paper offers recommendations on how to standardise/adapt brand experience management in different Latin American markets. Overall, retailers should go beyond the transaction itself and establish true differentiation using different store brand ranges. However, due to differences in cultural contexts, marketing communication should adopt different approaches to each country: emphasise the price advantages of store brands in Brazil, but focus on other factors such as quality in Colombia. Because they are culturally bound, risk perceptions towards store brands should also be managed carefully. It would be possible to target premium consumer segments with standard store brands in Colombia while a more sophisticated approach is necessary in Brazil (e.g. co-branding or launching more premium store brands).
Originality/value
By employing three theoretical frameworks (learning theory, cue utilisation theory and culture theory), this research investigates the effect of previous experience with store brands on purchase intention in two emerging countries that are geographically close but culturally different. It highlights direct and indirect processes of brand experience and underlines significant structural path differences between the two Latin American countries investigated in terms of consumption behaviour towards store brands.
Purpose
This study aims to introduce transformative place management – TPM – (defined as the deliberate efforts of place managers in commercial settings to provide a pool of restorative resources to improve the consumers’ emotional well-being) by merging the REPLACE framework and transformative service research. Additionally, this research analyzes the direct and indirect impacts of restorative resources as a form of TPM on consumers’ emotional well-being and place attachment, considering the moderating role of employee emotional labor.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 240 customers were surveyed in an experience-based store in a developing country by using a questionnaire. Then, a moderated mediation model was applied to analyze the moderating role of employee emotional labor in the relationship between TPM and place attachment through consumers’ well-being.
Findings
TPM that provides restorative resources to consumers influences place attachment by improving consumer well-being. However, surface acting by employees reduces the ability of TPM to increase place attachment through the improvement of consumers’ emotional well-being. Deep acting, on the other hand, does not enhance the effect of TPM on place attachment through consumers’ emotional well-being.
Originality/value
This paper proposes new developments in the transformative service research (TSR) paradigm by introducing TPM. By showing how the place of consumption increases the well-being of customers, this paper helps TSR researchers to accomplish the purpose of transforming the lives of consumers through relevant research. Although marketing researchers and environmental psychologists have theoretically anticipated the positive effects on well-being from consumption settings, this paper explains how commercial places promote customer well-being through the provision of restorative resources. Also, this paper shows how the place of consumption transforms consumers’' lives and identifies some of the boundary conditions at which such a transformation occurs.
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