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ABSTRACT
Intangible assets such as brands are often cited as one of the few inimitable ways in which firms can create a sustainable competitive advantage. As a company often utilizes vast quantities of financial and human resources to develop their unique brand image and capitalize on long-term differentiation, it is often without confirmation with regard to the success of these marketing efforts. It is therefore the focus of this study to determine the viability of such developments, as well as cultivate a model by which industry and consumer behavior can be explained in terms of a brand image disconnect.
SCOPE AND PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to test and develop the proposed Tactical Brand Model and determine the level of disconnect often associated with consumers as they progress from the industry-developed brand identity to the consumer-evoked brand image. Development of an implicit memory test will be paired with a product category involvement construct to determine "disconnect" or overall effectiveness of marketer efforts in terms of brand image. Results and implications for brands, marketers, and the consumer packaged goods industry will be discussed.
BACKGROUND
As independent decision making engines, consumers make product and brand choice decisions in an ever more complicated information environment. Today's consumer must process massive amounts of information from a multitude of sources to ensure they are making a brand choice that will ultimately provide the solution they seek and minimize cognitive dissonance.
The academic literature is replete with models related to the consumer processing of information leading to optimized choice (Bartels and Johnson 2015, Olshavsky and Granbois 1979, Shocker, Ben-Akiva and Nedungadi 1991, Wright 1975). It is generally accepted that the consumer decision making process includes both cognitive (thinking) and affective (feeling) modalities and that the consumer's "black box" performs a very complicated series of algorithms in arriving at the choice optimized solution.
Marketing practitioners and, more specifically, brand architects, however, are less prone to separate these consumer decision-making modalities and instead, focus on very tactical decisions...