First publication of 2019: Understanding New Religion-Compliant Product Adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic Markets

Just found out that one of my papers, titled "Understanding New Religion-Compliant Product Adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic Markets"  has been published online by the Journal of Global Marketing.

The authors of the paper were: Ali Homaid Al-hajla, Bang Nguyen, T C Melewar, Chanaka Jayawardhena, Ezlika Ghazali & Dilip S. Mutum .

Abstract:

This study examines the relationships between religious beliefs, brand personality, and new religion-compliant product adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic markets. Findings confirm that religious consumers tend to behave in accordance with a society or group that follows the same beliefs, and that these consumers’ behavior and lifestyle are influenced by similar religious groups and social relationships. In addition, the more religious the consumer, the more likely they will adopt or favour/disfavour a new product in accordance with his/her religious beliefs. Finally, the three constructs–relative advantages, compatibility and complexity–are found to partially mediate the influential relationship between religious beliefs and new religion-compliant product adoption. International firms that target Muslim markets, with an aim to profit and fit in these markets, must take into account the Islamic values, standards and guidelines.

Keywords: Religious beliefs, brand personality, new religion-compliant product adoption, Islamic branding, Muslim market

There are 50 free online copies of their article. Use the link below to view and download the paper:

https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/MtzrN5BEhsXWuD9kh3fF/full?target=10.1080/08911762.2018.1559907

Working with Bloggers - The Cambridge Satchel Company

The Cambridge Satchel Company - an amazing British company success story. Now a World famous fashion brand, it started out from necessity - a mother's desire to send her daughter to a better school which she could not afford. The company was founded in 2008, in Cambridge by Julie Deane with just £600. Initially targeted at school children, the brand suddenly developed a cult following, thanks to young fashion bloggers. They now have their own factory in  Wigston near Leicester.

The company opened their first permanent store in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. The store has a 'Bloggers Lounge' a space for the blogging community who are credited for the brand's initial success.



Working with FedEx:



Their Google Chrome ad:



Check out their blog as well.

Shop by video. Review of the HUGO BOSS movie - Shanghai Affairs

I received an interesting email about an innovative form of advertising yesterday. Hugo Boss has come up with an innovative way to show off their BOSS summers 2013 collection - a short movie (advertorial with a story-line?) called Shanghai Affairs starring Taiwanese model and actress Lin Chiling and Spanish model, Jon Kortajarena.

Supposedly, customers can shop products from the collection directly from the movie. At certain points on the movie, text links titled "discover this look" appears. Clicking the link takes you to a page listing the products shown in that particular scene.

However, contrary to their promise, you cannot buy the products directly online from the movie. I found out the links take you to their main web page and not to the products. In other words, if you are interested in any of the products, you have to find the the nearest HUGO BOSS outlet and buy it from there or have to search whether the product is available on their online shop.

I wonder if this a wonderful plan that was not clearly thought out in the beginning, when they realised that most of their customers prefer to shop at their outlets rather than online.

Of course I would have preferred it if the products in the movie had direct links to the product pages on their online store.

What do you think of the idea?

What are the key issues?

Would love to hear your comments.

Click here to watch the video Shanghai Affairs.

Ordinary Consumers as Brand Ambassadors

We normally associate Brand Ambassadors with actors and actresses, models and sports personalities. However, you might be surprised to learn that Edaran Tan Chong Motor, the official distributors of Nissan cars in Malaysia have recently selected four lucky people out of hundreds of applicants as Nissan LEAF Ambassadors. These lucky guys are using the Nissan Leaf for six weeks and are sharing their experiences.

However, when I looked at who these lucky ambassadors were, I noticed a few familiar names. they are definitely not ordinary - at least two of them are well known bloggers in Malaysia. Jason Goh who blogs at Smashin' Popstar and Daniel Yap who blogs at Eternal hobbyist.

It does make perfect sense and is not something new as companies have been using bloggers to review (and promote) their products (and services) for a while. Bloggers are opinion leaders and several blogs have readerships that run into thousands. Studies have shown that they are perceived as more credible than even traditional media, including newspapers and may be the reason that websites of newspapers are increasingly looking like blogs. And unlike other celebrities, they do not require you to pay them millions to become a brand ambassador. Plus you get fantastic original and creative consumer generated content followed by online word-of-mouth marketing.

However, it can be risky as well. Many bloggers are known to be quite independent and speaking their mind. They might end up rubbishing your product and your brand name, if they had a bad experience using them.

Reading list for Branding Module

A couple of minutes ago, a colleague asked me whether I could recommend some seminal journal papers on branding. Somehow, I could not think of a single one. All I could think of was the book Strategic Brand Management by Kevin Lane Keller. This may be due to the fact that branding is not really my area of specialisation. Contrary to what some people seem to think, marketing is such a wide field.

Anyway, had a look on the net and here is a list of some widely cited papers on branding:

 Aaker, Jennifer Lynn (1997). Dimensions of Brand Personality, Journal of Marketing Research, 34(Aug), 347-356.

Fan, Y. (2002) The National Image of Global Brands, Journal of Brand Management, 9(3), 180-192.

de Chernatony, L. (1999) Brand Management Through Narrowing the Gap Between Brand Identity and Brand Reputation, Journal of Marketing Management, 15(1-3), 157-179.

Geuens, Maggie, Bert Weijters and Kristoff De Wulf (2009). A New Measure of Brand Personality, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 26, 97-107.

Gounaris, S. and Stathakopoulos, V. (2004)Antecedents and consequences of brand loyalty: An empirical study, Journal of Brand Management 11, 283–306.

Holt, D. B. (2002), Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding, Journal of Consumer Research 29(1), 70-90.

Low, G. S. and Fullerton. R. A. (1994), Brands, Brand Management, and the Brand Manager System: A Critical-Historical Evaluation, Journal of Marketing Research, 31(2), Special Issue on Brand Management, 173-190.

Shocker, A. D., Srivastava, R. K. and Ruekert, R. W. (May, 1994) Challenges and Opportunities Facing Brand Management: An Introduction to the Special Issue, Journal of Marketing Research, 31(2), Special Issue on Brand Management , 149-158.


Please feel free to send me your recommendations and/ or comments on the list

VW engaging customers via social media

Volkswagen, the German car maker is actively targeting customers on Facebook by getting them involved in their advertising campaigns. No, I am not talking about customer generated advertising which is a popular buzz word today but rather about getting customers to say nice things about the brand or product (positive testimonials) and using these in their advertising campaigns.

This is not a new concept in advertising and businesses and organisations often use positive testimonials to promote their products. However, it is the way that VW is actively soliciting and appealing to the "ego" of customers or the novelty effect and making innovative use of the technology, which is quite interesting.

I took part in two of their campaigns - just for the experience.

The first one was the " Beetle Billboard Times Square Experience". All I had to do was "like" the new Beetle (targeted at Men) and my face appeared live on the Volkswagen Beetle Billboard in Times Square, New York for a few seconds. This was in October last year.

The second campaign was the Volkswagen "Big up the up!". All we had to do was say something nice about the new VW up! car ("bigged up the new up!") and they would then feature your FB profile on huge digital posters across the UK.

A great way to get customers engaged with the brand and product. Do you agree? Any possible issues?