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Introduction
The view that has traditionally prevailed is that successful brand differentiation should be focused on salient and relevant functional attributes and benefits (Aaker, 1991; Porter, 1995). However, nowadays, consumers are overexposed to functional messages (Samuelsen and Olsen, 2010), and in many product categories, brands are highly similar functionally (Brakus et al., 2009). As a consequence, functional values become less sustainable as a form of differentiation and less effective in developing and maintaining consumer-brand relationships (de Chernatony et al., 2000; Shaw and Ivens, 2002). Furthermore, functional values can have inherent disadvantages: they can often be easily imitated and they assume rational buyer decisions (Hartmann et al., 2005).
As an alternative or complementary form of brand differentiation, the branding literature currently argues in favor of an experiential view of brand consumption as a key issue that deserves special consideration (Addis and Holbrook, 2001; Brakus et al., 2009; Chang and Chieng, 2006; Schembri, 2009; Zarantonello and Schmitt, 2010).
Empirical studies have generated useful insights into brand experiential value, such as how to measure it (Brakus et al., 2009), its effects on the formation of brand meaning in consumers’ minds (Fitzsimons et al., 2008; Schembri, 2009) and its influence on satisfaction (Oh et al., 2007; Wang and Lin, 2010) and brand loyalty (Brakus et al., 2009). However, few studies have assessed the impact of both experiential and functional aspects on the relationship with the brand. For example, Zarantonello et al. (2013) focus on the relative persuasiveness of experiential versus functional appeals in an advertising setting. In a branding context, Chang and Chieng (2006) assess the impact of functional and experiential factors on the relationship with the brand, and Broyles et al. (2009a) also take into account the cultural context. Unlike these studies, we are interested in examining the dissimilar effects that experiential and functional values may have on consumers to argue convincingly in favor of an experiential view of branding.
With that in mind, the purpose of this study is to advance previous research on brand experience. It traces the differential effects of experiential and functional values on specific brand outcomes not previously addressed by earlier research: brand equity, consumer-brand identification and word-of-mouth (WOM). Brand equity is a key determinant...