The impact of consumer-based brand equity on consumer attitude and intention towards electronic word-of-mouth: An empirical study on luxury brands in Saudi Arabia

The reckless pursuit of social, environmental, political and cultural issues and brands may alienate the very customer base, whom they try to impress, especially the millennials. Hence, this study intends to study the perceptions of millennials towards brand activism, so that the findings from the study can help the brand managers to steer their brands into the troubled waters of brand activism. The methodology followed is HTAB (Hypothesize, Test, Action, Business), a popular analysis framework given by Ken Black in his book titled “Business Statistics: Contemporary Decision Making (6th ed.)” A sample comprising of 286 respondents was collected. The final data had 286 observations and 45 features across seven categories.

It was found that millennials prefer to buy a brand if it supports a cause or purpose and they stop buying if brand behaves unethically. It was also observed that there is no gender difference amongst the millennials towards their perceptions concerning brand activism. Moreover, millennials across different income categories have similar perceptions of brand activism. It was also substantiated that the emotional tie of the millennials with the brand existing for a cause goes beyond price shifts and brands taking a political stance, cherry-picking of issues and being disruptive prompts and creates profound backlash for the brands.

The marketing strategy phenomenon improves significantly, narrowing from a general to a specific cultural ethnicity base and from variable to dimension analysis. This study examines the impact of culture, brand image and price on buying decisions. The study population comprised retail consumers in the sampled area of Situbondo, East Java, Indonesia. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to derive a sample of 112 respondents as a primary data source – descriptive statistics allows for the demographic characteristics of retail consumers in East Java, Indonesia. Surprisingly, the data showed that gender involvement in buyer decision-making was dominant. Most retail customers were identified as private-sector employees and indicated for higher income earners. Responses were then analyzed using multiple linear regressions to answer the research hypotheses. The results showed that Hofstede’s culture dimension and the brand image and price significantly affected consumer buying decisions at retail stores in East Java, Indonesia. Regarding the strength of Islamic culture in East Java, price was the primary consideration in buying decisions. Further research, preferably using ethnographic approaches with an emphasis on qualitative research, is needed to investigate the implications of these relationships.

Acknowledgment
We would like to thank the Research Centre (LP2M) of University of Jember, East Java, Indonesia, for their support and funding. We also want to thank Rusdiyanto, a Ph.D. student from the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia, for his helpful discussions and contributions.

The growth of consumerism in the luxury cosmetic industry in India is backed by the ability and willingness of the consumers to spend money, internet penetration, awareness, and consciousness of luxury cosmetics from exposure to beauty brands. Among other methods of marketing, the adoption of experiential marketing is gaining ground. It is specifically relevant in the cosmetic industry as it creates behavioral experience, brand experience, and brand engagement for appealing to the affective, sensory, and intellectual aspects of the consumers. The study examines the impact of experiential marketing on consumer satisfaction while identifying its importance in the industry. With the help of a close-ended questionnaire, a survey was conducted to examine the perception of 820 consumers of luxury cosmetics in India. SEM analysis was conducted to examine the impact of experiential marketing on consumer satisfaction using SPSS AMOS software. Herein, experiential marketing is represented by five components i.e. relate, feel, think, act, and sense while customer satisfaction by three components i.e. overall service quality, individual experience, and service quality, and perceived expectation-actual performance. The findings of the study revealed the presence of a positive impact.