Abstract 

            The article by Ravi Pappu and Pascale G. Quester tries to explain the impact that brand innovativeness has on brand loyalty. Their research is based on observations made by the researchers concerning studies conducted by other researchers and existing information regarding how brand innovativeness influences customer loyalty to a specific brand. The authors have critically put forward their argument that how consumers perceive a product determines the level of loyalty attached to the brand and why it is important for organizations to factor in perceived quality when engaging in brand innovations. This paper will therefore examine the information provided by the authors to demonstrate their efficiency in determining the impact that brand innovativeness has on brand loyalty.

Introduction

            Pappu and Quester are of the opinion that the perceived quality that customers attach to a brand plays a partial mediating role that facilitates the transmission of attitudes that they have concerning the parent brand to most, if not all of its extensions. The authors start by pointing out the varying opinions and information that exists regarding brand innovativeness and customer loyalty. According to the authors, there are those who believe that brand loyalty is as a result of the products ability to meet the customer’s needs while others believe that that it is as a result of the innovativeness used when launching the product. The authors successfully make a case for their argument and are able to demonstrate how brand innovativeness positively influences brand loyalty.

 

 

Article review

            The authors employ the use of perceived quality as a way to explain the correlation that exists between brand innovativeness and brand loyalty. The perceived quality attached to a product is based off of the subjective evaluation that the consumer has of a product rather than the products actual quality (Pappu & Quester, 2016). According to Pappu and Quester, consumers’ perception of quality is dynamic and prone to change depending on changes that occur in the market. Because of these changes, the authors argue that customers have to rely on different information provided by a brand through different platforms such as advertising to determine the quality of a product.

            Pappu and Quester (2016) further believe that consumers rely on brand innovations to formulate the perceived quality of a product because they lack the expertise or motivation needed to determine the quality of a product. Another reason suggested as the reason consumers rely on the perceived quality of a product is because of their tendencies to invoke heuristics (Brem et al, 2019). The authors point out that consumers tend to associate highly priced products with quality. The inclusion of heuristics is successfully used to demonstrate how different factors can influence the perceived quality of a product even before the consumer purchases the product. Quality is therefore not based off of the product itself but rather the brand associated with the product.

            In addition, Pappu and Quester suggest that brand innovativeness directly influences brand loyalty especially when consumers opt to commit to brands that are perceived or fully satisfy their needs (Pappu & Quester, 2016). Customers are more likely to be loyal to brands that offer emotional satisfaction and innovation ensures that the brands evolve with the consumer’s change in preference and in so doing, promotes brand loyalty.

Critical analysis

            The authors provide a compelling argument regarding the impact that brand innovativeness has on brand loyalty. In their argument, the authors use the concept of perceived quality to show how the consumer’s version of a product may vary from the actual product quality. In their argument, Pappu and Quester (2019) discuss how a brand can rely on perceived quality to determine the attitude that consumers are likely to have towards a product and can therefore manipulate it to increase brand loyalty.

Furthermore, the authors successfully use the signaling theory to explain how the market is influenced by the information available to consumers. Their argument that customers lack all the information needed to determine the quality of a product forces the consumer to rely on other avenues such as perceived quality when deciding which brand to stick with (Campbell & Ma, 2016). According to Pappu and Quester, firms responsible for launching the new products have access to all the information needed to determine the actual quality of a product. As such, the companies rely on the added information and use brand innovativeness to positively influence consumer loyalty to the brand.

Pappu and Quester further accentuate how brand innovativeness is used to manipulate brand loyalty. Their discussion on how brand innovativeness manipulates advertisements, the brand name and other features that consumers used to determine products perceived quality s quite informative (Pappu & Quester, 2016). The information is successfully used to show how the perceived quality of a product influences the consumer to purchase it over others in the market. When the product is associated with a specific brand, the consumer is likely to associate other products from the same brand as having the same quality and in so doing, attach their loyalty to the brand (Meier, 2020). Influencing brand loyalty can therefore be achieved through manipulating the consumers’ perceived quality and this can be achieved when implementing when innovating new products. 

Future implications

            In today’s market, perception plays an important role as consumers seek to gain information about a product before deciding to make a purchase. The purchase decision is influenced by both the actual qulity of a products and the perceived quality attached to products associated with a specific brand. Pappu and Quester (2016) however pointed out that researchers rarely focus on the impact that perceived quality has on the consumers’ purchase decision. Understanding the role that perceived quality has on the purchase decision can help organizations to come up with strategies to ensure that brand innovativeness positively influences the consumer’s loyalty to a specific brand. Organizations can use avenues that provide access to information such as advertisements to help formulate a perceived concept of quality regarding their products and in so doing, encourage customers to choose its products instead of those from its competitors.

Conclusion

            Companies rely on brand loyalty to improve demand for their products and services. In a highly competitive market, loyal customers ensure that there is constant demand for products and organizations must come up with ways to promote brand loyalty. As is evident from the argument presented by Pappu and Quester, brand innovativeness can positively influence brand loyalty. Its success is however dependent on the organizations ability to manipulate the platforms customers rely on to formulate their perceived quality of a product. Other than enhancing the quality of a product, Pappu and Quester successfully discuss why it is important to also improve the consumers’ perceived quality of the product so as to enhance consumers’ loyalty to the product and the brand by default.

 

 

 

References

Brem A, Daim U and Tidd J, (2019) “Managing innovation: Understanding and motivating          crowds” World Scientific Print

Campbell C and Ma J, (2016) “Looking foreward, looking back: Drawing on the past to shape     the future of marketing” Springer International Publishing

Meiser B, (2020) “Brand choice and loyalty: Evidence from Swiss car registration micro data”     Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler

Pappu R and Quester G, (2016) “How does brand innovativeness affect brand loyalty?”    European Journal of marketing