An experimental investigation of the relative effects of different forms of endorsement on brand trust
Endorsement is a popular marketing communications tool that has been used bymarketers for many years. However, traditional methods of marketing are now beingsurpassed as sophisticated consumers become more cynical and seek out unofficial, noncommercialinformation about brands. Due to the advent of technology, consumers are able to communicate independently via the internet in order to seek out, and provide, their own endorsements for products and brands.
This study differentiates between different forms of dependent (paid-for) endorsementsand independent (non-paid-for) endorsements; namely regular consumer endorsements,expert endorsements and association endorsements, and investigates their relative effectson brand trust. In addition, this study introduces a new form of endorsement, namelyimplied independent association endorsement, and tests its effect on brand trust.
First, a conceptual framework of the structure of the relationship between endorsementsand brand trust was compiled from relative endorsement literature. The study theninvestigated these relationships amongst South African nutritional supplement users whomake use of the Internet to gather product information. The study made use of an Internetbased experimental research design.
The study divided subjects into two experimental groups and one control group. The effect of each form of endorsement on brand trust was tested comparatively between the groups.The measurement instrument used to measure brand trust was an adapted version of thebrand trust scale (BTS) designed by Delgado-Ballester (2004:573-592).
Three one-way between-groups ANOVAs were conducted to compare the variability ofbrand trust scores between the different experimental groups.
The covariate brand familiarity was included to account for previous experience with thebrand used in the experiment. One-way between-groups ANCOVAs were used to controlthe potential confounding that the covariate brand familiarity had on each dependentvariable.
The results indicate that neither dependent nor independent regular consumerendorsements have an affect on brand trust scores. However, whilst independent expertand independent association endorsements do significantly influence brand trust scores,dependent expert and dependent (implied independent) association endorsements do not.Finally, it was found that independent endorsements have a greater affect on brand trustscores than dependent (implied independent) endorsements in the associationendorsement category.
The first implication for managers is that different forms of endorsement influence brandtrust differently, therefore, managers should be able to distinguish between different formsof endorsement available to them to use in their marketing communications mix.
Secondly, managers should start investigating methods of monitoring or influencingindependent expert and association endorsements to benefit from their positive influenceon brand trust, which in turn has a positive affect on brand equity, consumer loyalty, brandextension acceptance and retailer re-purchases decisions.
Copyright © 2009, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
Please cite as follows:
Saar, HM 2009, An experimental investigation of the relative effects of different forms of endorsement on brand trust, MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-07232010-193046/ >
E10/297/gm
Year of publication: |
2010-07-23
|
---|---|
Authors: | Saar, Honorata Maria |
Other Persons: | Mr T G Kotze (contributor) |
Publisher: |
University of Pretoria |
Subject: | Marketing and Communication Management |
Saved in:
freely available
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