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Introduction
Consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) is a key concept in marketing (Hoeffler and Keller, 2003) and has been linked to several positive business outcomes, including: brand extension potential (Aaker and Keller, 1990), willingness to pay a premium (Yoo and Donthu, 2001), Word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendation (Vazquez et al., 2002), slower advertising wear-out effects (Campbell and Keller, 2003), reduced firm risk (Rego et al., 2009), usage and purchase intention (Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Vriens and Martins Alves, 2017), sales (Attaman and Ülengin, 2003) and positive stock returns (Madden et al., 2006; Mitzik and Jacobson, 2008). Several brand equity conceptualizations have been proposed: e.g. using scanner data (Kamakura and Russell, 1993), using conjoint (Cobb-Walgren et al., 1995; Ferjani et al., 2009) and several derived from Aaker’s (1991) or Keller’s (1993) conceptualizations (Yoo and Donthu, 2001; Netemeyer et al., 2004; Pappu et al., 2005; Baalbaki and Guzman, 2016; Christodoulides et al., 2015). In these latter frameworks, brand equity is seen as multi-dimensional; the dimensions include brand image [associations that can differ in terms of favorability, strength and uniqueness (Keller, 1993)] and perceived product quality and unaided awareness, both which can be viewed as associations as well. Hence, brand managers need to understand the role of brand associations.
Branding is memory-based (Walvis, 2008), and according to the spreading activation theory (SAT), memory retrieval depends on the spreading of activation in an associative network consisting of nodes (Quillian, 1967; Collins and Loftus, 1975; Anderson, 1983; Nelson et al., 1993; Janiszewski and Van Osselaer, 2000; Heckler et al., 2014). Nodes refer to concepts (e.g. brand associations) in a semantic network. When a buyer is cued by something associated with a brand, this then activates that brand: for example, “I need toothpaste” may evoke the association Colgate. The more associations a brand has in a consumer’s mind, the easier it will be for a consumer to recall and consider the brand (Nedungadi, 1990; Coates et al., 2004; Walvis, 2008). Brands that are evoked or recalled first are more likely to be chosen (Thelen and Woodside, 1997; Woodside and Trappey, 1992; Duncan, 2006; Walvis, 2008), and hence, purchased.
This theory has two features that to our knowledge have not yet or not...