José Hoogland
Student number: 10679898
Date: 30 June 2014
MSc. Business Studies – Marketing
University of Amsterdam
Supervisor: Dr. K. Venetis
Terminal values as the source of
consumers’ visionary brand perceptions
The formation of visionary perceptions and its consequences
Acknowledgements
Visionariness is a topic that drew my attention right away. Today’s marketing environment is full of challenges and it is key to come up with a creative and excellent approach to deal with demanding consumers. Visionariness is such a way. Therefore, I owe my enthusiasm for visionary brands mostly to Collins and Porras. The researchers conducted a major study, which lasted five years, on this topic and came up with very interesting insights that will be thoroughly discussed in this research.
I would like to thank a number of people. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Karin Venetis, for her support and excellent advice. In addition, I would like to thank my parents for their patience and support during the past months. My boyfriend and my friends, especially Lisette and Suzanne, provided me with strength and energy during this period. Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who participated in my pre-test and experiment. Without the committed respondents I would not have been able to obtain these interesting outcomes.
Abstract
This study aims at exploring whether higher-end values play a key role in forming visionary perceptions and in turn if higher levels of perceived visionariness lead to an increase in consumer brand identification. In addition, this study analyses whether the relationship between congruence of consumer and brand values and consumer brand identification is influenced by the level of perceived visionariness. An experimental survey was conducted based on existing bands, Apple, Tesla and Volkswagen among others, which were carefully selected based on the results of the pre-test. The online questionnaire was filled in by 283 people. The statistical analysis showed that terminal values have greatest explanatory power in explaining higher levels of perceived visionariness by consumers and in turn higher levels of visionariness positively influence consumers’ identification with the brand. The relationship between value congruence and consumer brand identification is partially mediated by the level of visionariness. The results of this research supports brands in building higher levels of perceived visionariness for their consumers. In addition, this study provides valuable insights into which values are perceived as most defining for both brands and consumers.
Table of contents
1. Introduction ______________________________________________________________ 5 1.1 Problem statement ____________________________________________________________ 9 1.2 Research questions __________________________________________________________ 11 1.3 Structure __________________________________________________________________ 11 2. Theoretical framework ____________________________________________________ 12 2.1 Vision-Culture-Image ________________________________________________________ 12 2.2 Visionary brands ____________________________________________________________ 13 2.2.1 The importance of instrumental and terminal values _____________________________ 15 2.2.2 Consumer brand identification (CBI) _________________________________________ 17 2.3 Value congruence ___________________________________________________________ 19 2.4 Value system segmentation ____________________________________________________ 22 2.4.1 The influence of visionariness on the relation of value congruence on CBI ___________ 24 2.5 Conceptual framework _______________________________________________________ 26 3. Methodology ____________________________________________________________ 273.1 Population, sample and procedure _______________________________________________ 27 3.2 Measurement of variables _____________________________________________________ 28 3.3 Six sub-samples _____________________________________________________________ 29 3.4 Pre-test ____________________________________________________________________ 30 4. Analysis ________________________________________________________________ 32
4.1 Pre-test ____________________________________________________________________ 32 4.1.2 Familiarity of the brand and attitude towards the brand _____________________________ 35 4.1.3 Perceived visionariness within brand categories __________________________________ 36 4.2 Analysis experiment _________________________________________________________ 43 4.2.1 Reliability ______________________________________________________________ 46 4.2.2 Descriptives ____________________________________________________________ 46 4.2.3 Testing the hypotheses ____________________________________________________ 52 4.2.4 Overview of hypotheses ___________________________________________________ 63 5. Discussion ______________________________________________________________ 64
5.1 Discussion of the results ______________________________________________________ 64 5.2 Theoretical implications ______________________________________________________ 70 5.3 Managerial implications ______________________________________________________ 71 6. Conclusion ______________________________________________________________ 73
6.1 Summary __________________________________________________________________ 73 6.2 Limitations and future research _________________________________________________ 75 7. References ______________________________________________________________ 78 8. Appendix _______________________________________________________________ 84
List of tables
Table 1 Experimental design ... 30
Table 2 Gender distribution per sample ... 32
Table 3. Age distribution per sample ... 32
Table 4. Reliability and descriptives of scales ... 33
Table 5. Perceived visionariness banks and cars ... 33
Table 6. Perceived visionariness smartphones and beverages ... 33
Table 7. Perceived visionariness fashion and personal care ... 34
Table 8. General congruence measurement ... 34
Table 9. Pairwise comparison banks & cars ... 36
Table 10 Pairwise comparison smartphones & beverages ... 37
Table 11 Pairwise comparison personal care & fashion... 37
Table 12 Tesla’s instrumental and terminal values differing from neutral ... 38
Table 13 Volkswagen’s instrumental and terminal values differing from neutral ... 39
Table 14 Apple’s instrumental and terminal values differing from neutral ... 39
Table 15 Perception of Tesla’s instrumental and terminal values on perceived visionariness ... 40
Table 16 Perception of Apple’s instrumental and terminal values on perceived visionariness ... 41
Table 17 Age distribution ... 43
Table 18 Distributions per treatment ... 44
Table 19 Chi-square test gender ... 45
Table 20 Chi-square test age ... 45
Table 21 Chi-square test education ... 45
Table 22 Cronbach’s alpha per treatment ... 46
Table 23 Attitude towards the brand ... 47
Table 24 Familiarity of the brand ... 47
Table 25 Level of visionariness ... 48
Table 26 Instrumental values... 48
Table 27 Terminal values ... 48
Table 28 Instrumental and terminal values per condition ... 49
Table 29 General congruence, i.e. congruence on personality and self-image ... 50
Table 30 Instrumental and terminal value congruence ... 50
Table 31 Descriptives consumer brand identification (CBI) ... 51
Table 32 Correlations between perceived visionariness and CBI ... 51
Table 33. Regression analysis terminal instrumental values on perceived visionariness ... 53
Table 34 Instrumental and terminal values on perceived visionariness (high visionary brands) ... 55
Table 35 Instrumental and terminal values on perceived visionariness (medium visionary) ... 55
Table 36 Instrumental and terminal values on perceived visionariness (low visionary) ... 56
Table 37. Descriptives level of CBI ... 57
Table 38. One-way Anova Level of visionariness on CBI ... 57
Table 39. Regression analysis visionariness on consumer brand identification ... 59
Table 40. Influence of discrepancy terminal and instrumental values on CBI ... 60
Table 41. Regression analysis visionariness and value congruence on CBI ... 63
1. Introduction
Tesla offers electric cars and positions themselves as being more than an electric car by being Tesla. Brands have become like human beings with their own values, vision, physical features and behaviour. This identity enables the brand to build strong relationships, not just with consumers but also with, for instance, employees. This is all related to a stronger focus on creating meaningful brands (Jansen, n.d.). This is in line with visionary brands, which is a relatively novel construct in the literature. Visionary brands focus on a holistic approach, which is future oriented and engages not only its employees, but also its consumers. Visionary brands strive to achieve brand resonance as an outcome, based on achieving all necessary steps in order to gain relationship with consumers. To state an example, Apple is a clear example of a visionary brand. Consumers feel a deep psychological bond with the brand and engage in several activities not related to purchase and consumption of Apple products (Keller, 2001). Consumers in fact ‘buy the brand’ instead of its products.
One of the main functions of marketing is to develop, at least temporarily, a psychological relationship between the product or service and the consumers. The means-end-chain (MEC) model is the predecessor of the brand pyramid. It is a tool to analyse and interpret consumers’ perceptions about how they perceive products or services in relation to themselves. Moreover, it also identifies the basis for consumers’ motivation, including their values and goals. The more self-relevant, the higher consumers’ level of motivation. As stated by Pruppers, ‘brands have more impact when linked to the consumer’s identity’ (Pruppers, 2014). The MEC model ranges from very concrete attributes, also referred to as product knowledge, to very abstract values, referred to as self-knowledge. The abstract beliefs include instrumental and terminal values. Even though the MEC model is widely recognised and used model, very little research
exists on the differential role that instrumental and terminal values play in consumers’ motivation. Moreover, these value have not been studied in relation to visionary brands. Therefore, it is interesting to study how visionary brands evolve, by analysing which role instrumental and terminal values play in this process. Moreover, to analyse whether the values are more instrumental or terminal oriented and in turn what the effect is of terminal or instrumental values on the brand and its relationship with consumers.
Consuming products can ultimately be ‘a means to achieve important values to the domain of goal-oriented consumer behaviour’ (Pieters et al., 1995, p. 228). The MEC model can be used to identify the linkages between attributes, consequences, and values for a consumer group in a certain product class. When knowing which values make the product or service personally relevant, the positioning of the brand and the accompanying advertising strategies can be based hereupon. Therefore, identifying brand values and their relation with consumers’ values can play a vital role.
In the research conducted by Allen et al. instrumental values are shown to be related to instrumental psychological functions. More specifically, these values relate to the importance of tangible attributes of a product/brand. Whereas terminal values are shown to be related to symbolic meaning. Thereby focusing on cultural principles such as ideals, values and traits (Allen et al., 2002). In contrast to instrumental values, the description of terminal values fits within literature on visionary brands, which are stated to be inspirational, to have a value-based core and to strive towards an ideal. Moreover, terminal values can be formed when instrumental values become internalised within the brand (Scholl, 2003). Perceived as ends or ideals, whereby the question ’why’ can no longer be asked, because it is answered by the end state value reflected in the brand.
The theory of terminal values is in line with Stengel’s research which is based on brand ideals (Stengel, 2012). His theory was explained in his book ’Grow’ in which he examined how certain global brands can outperform competitors. According to him, brands that focus on ideals, meaning that they strive to improve people’s lives, will be able to outperform competition. Moreover, Stengel states that ‘by linking a business’s core beliefs with fundamental human values, an ideal of improving people’s lives clarifies the business’s true reason for being’ (Stengel, 2012, p. 17). Therefore, it is expected that the human, terminal values play an important role for higher perceived visionary brands. This study aims at identifying the most defining values for visionary brands. Terminal values focus more on ideals whereas instrumental values are the means to achieve these ends/ideals. Thus, based on the discussed literature, terminal values are assumed to be linked more to the ‘roots’ of visionary brands, whereas non-visionary brands are expected to be linked more to lower end values.
Marketing literature has identified the importance of creating a fit, also referred to as congruence, between consumers and brands. Current marketing literature has focused mostly and exclusively on congruence in personality traits rather than values (Gaunt, 2006; Kressmann et al., 2006; Hosany and Martin, 2012; Lam et al., 2013). Creating personalities for brands in order to create congruence with consumers is frequently discussed in literature. However, research has shown that values are more closely related to behaviour than are personality traits. Moreover, values are more central and more closely related to motivations than are attitudes (Rokeach, 1973).
Therefore, this research focuses on value congruence. Within the limited research that exists on value congruence, all studies focused on the direct effect of value congruence on consumer brand identification. Nevertheless, the effect of congruence might differ for different types of
brands, i.e. visionary and non-visionary brands. For that reason, this research analyses the moderating role of perceived visionariness on the relationship between value congruence and consumer brand identification. This way the study adds insights into the growing body of literature on values and more specifically, value congruence. The research conducted by Collins and Porras indicates that because of the differential structure of visionary brands, namely they focus on higher order values and ideals, these brands might not even need congruence to increase the identification level (Collins and Porras, 1996). More specifically, the authors stated that internal alignment/congruence within the organisation is sufficient to achieve visionariness. Therefore, Collins and Porras view differs from literature on value congruence (Tuškej et al., 2013). Thus, this research will test whether a difference in the effect of value congruence can be identified for higher and lower visionary brands and where this difference comes from by analysing the types of value that are most defining for the brand.
Studying congruence between a brand and consumers can be of particular relevance for practitioners. Because if research shows that the importance of congruence depends on the level of visionariness, this means that visionary brands can focus on other important aspects to create greater success rather than aligning values with consumers’ values. Moreover, brands that are currently lacking visionariness might need to rely more on creating congruence or increasing the level of visionariness by integrating terminal values.
Visionariness is a very novel construct, but also a topic with growing interest, because brands realise more and more that they need to focus on engaging consumers and focus more on an exciting future oriented approach. Analysing visionary brands and value congruence is very relevant, because these brands might not need congruence, because of their successful approach. These brands focus on showing a visionary image of the brand and understanding
and emphasising their direction for the future whereby value congruence might not be necessary to increase identification with the brand. Additional relevance of studying visionary brands and value congruence arises from the statements of Collins and Porras, namely that values stem from the organisation instead of its leaders. Whereas leaders move away the company continues to exist.
Based on the above discussed theory, the results of this study can have great implications for brands, concerning how visionary perceptions evolve. Moreover, concerning what values are underlying these brands which in turn can support brands to be aware of these values and to focus on enacting these values rather than merely focusing on its leaders. Furthermore, for lower to non-visionary brands value congruence might play an important role in order to achieve success, whereby the values identified from this study can help marketers to target consumers that align with those values. Since visionary brands is a very novel construct in the literature, the values derived from this study can help to identify which values are most important for visionary brands. Moreover, it can identify whether these values can be categorised in order to discover certain value patterns and to examine whether consumer values actually have to align with the values of visionary brands. Furthermore, this study contributes to outline what customer promises make most sense for a given brand based upon the values to which they attach value. Additionally, from a customer point of view, the insights can provide guidelines for organisations to build emotional connections and strengthen the relationship between brands and customers, which in turn can increase brand loyalty (Stokburger-Sauer et al., 2012).
1.1 Problem statement
Literature on branding, more specifically brand values, is conflicting. Tuškej et al. state that the values of a brand should be defined based on either the values of potential customers or the largest segment of existing customers. Moreover, they state that brand values should change over time, moving along with customer values (Tuškej et al., 2013, p. 57). However, this contradicts the view of visionary brand researchers who state that visionary brand values are fixed and are part of its core ideology. Moreover, as Collins and Porras state, ‘the core ideology needs to be meaningful and inspirational only to people inside the organisation, not to outsiders’ (Collins and Porras, 1996). Hence, stating that these values do not need external justification. Therefore, it could be that Tuškej et al. failed to distinguish between core brand values and customers’ perceived brand values, because customer values are the ones that speak more directly to the customer with the purpose of differentiation. As stated by Urde, values can be challenged internally for not being the driver of sales or not being part of the primary expectations of customers, whereby the extended customer values are confused with the core values (Urde, 2009). Therefore, it is important to research whether the conflicting branding literature actually is the reason why visionary brands differ from non-visionary brands or whether value congruence also applies to visionary brands. Thus, at first this study will research how visionary perceptions evolve, whether this perception is formed more by terminal or instrumental values. After which to identify whether congruence is still important for visionary brands that focus mainly on terminal (end) values.
Very few studies have examined visionary brands and its outcomes, as a result further research is desirable. This study will respond to this call. Firstly, this study will focus on the relationship between visionary brands and consumers’ identification with the brands. Marketers acknowledged that creating emotional bonds is of high importance when wanting
to create exclusive brand repurchase (Thomson et al., 2005; Grisaffe and Nguyen, 2011). However, so far very little research has been conducted on how to create consumer identification with visionary brands. To gain more insights into creating consumer identification with visionary brands and what precedes this construct instrumental and terminal values will be analysed. Reasoning from the visionary point of view terminal values should be more important for visionary brands. However, this has not yet been tested. Furthemore, past research has shown a direct effect between value congruence and consumer brand identification, but the role of perceived visionariness by consumers on this relationship has not yet been researched.
1.2 Research questions
1. How do visionary perceptions evolve? Which type of values form visionary perceptions? 2. What is the importance of congruence for brands that are perceived as highly visionary? To what extent is having congruence with consumer values important for high visionary brands? In order to answer the above research question several sub-questions need to be answered:
What is the vision-culture-image alignment model within corporate branding? What are visionary brands within the branding literature?
What is consumer brand identification (CBI)? What is known about CBI in marketing? What is the importance of value congruence for brands?
1.3 Structure
This study will start by describing the existing literature on visionary brands, value congruence and consumer brand identification. This way a clear overview is obtained of what has yet been researched. In addition, the limitations of existing research will be identified in order to analyse which areas need further examination. The first chapter ends with a
conceptual framework which captures the entire structure of this study and the accompanying hypotheses. In the second chapter the methodology will be thoroughly discussed, including the research population, the research methods and the validity checks. This chapter is followed up by the analysis of the pre-test and the actual experiment including several statistical tests, after which an in-depth discussion of the results is given. The discussion includes a thorough examination of the results and the managerial and theoretical implications. The last chapter summarises the entire study, discusses the limitations and specifies suggestions for future research. The questionnaire and the corresponding statistical results are placed in the appendix.
2. Theoretical framework
In this chapter the existing literature on visionary brands is reviewed. First, the Vision-Culture-Image alignment model is discussed, after which the elements that define visionary brands are outlined. Furthermore, the two value types, instrumental and terminal, are addressed and their possible relationship with visionary brands. Moreover, the role of value congruence in obtaining organisational outcomes will be discussed, whereby value congruence is assumed to directly influence consumers’ identification with the brand. Finally, the influence of perceived visionariness on this relationship will be discussed. At the end of this chapter the conceptual model will be displayed which forms a summary of the entire theoretical framework.
2.1 Vision-Culture-Image
Corporate brands differ from products brands on several dimensions, including the target audience and the origins of the brand identity. First of all, corporate brands emphasise on a holistic approach, thereby focusing on the whole organisation. Furthermore, audience consists
of a multitude of stakeholders, including investors, distributors, community groups, employees and consumers. Secondly, the corporate brand is an important strategic asset, which creates strategic value for the brand and shapes the direction. Thirdly, there is a clear focus on relationships concerning both internal and external stakeholders. Among the external stakeholders are consumers who form the brand image. The consumers decide where the driver role is located. Thus, whether the corporation and the brand are separated or integrated. This is an important decision for corporate brands, because it concerns how much they want their brand to be visible.
In order to be successful at corporate branding it is important to have a strong coherence between what the organisation’s management aims to achieve (their strategic vision), what the organisation’s staff know and believe (woven into its organisational culture), and how the external stakeholder, such as consumers, perceive the organisations (their image of it). When these factors do not align, this may denote an underperforming corporate brand. This analysis has been referred to as the Vision-Culture-Image (VCI) alignment model (Hatch and Schultz, 2008). In this study, this alignment model plays an important role. The reason being that visionary brands aim at a strong coherence between their vision and culture. However, this study goes a step further then the described VCI model, namely by analysing whether the image, how consumers perceive the brand, actually needs to be coherent with the core values of the brand. Reasoning from a visionary brand perspective the emphasis is on internal alignment, and therefore, bringing values across internally is of greater importance.
2.2 Visionary brands
Within the domain of corporate branding, visionary organisations have recently become a well-discussed construct. Two major components of a vision have been identified, namely a
guiding philosophy and a tangible image (Collins, Porras, 1998). The guiding philosophy consists of essential motivating assumptions, principles, values, and tenets. The core values are identified as an important part of the content of a vision. In research conducted by Collins and Porras, visionary organisations were guided by a core ideology, deeply held within the organisation, holding the company together and giving it a strong feeling of identity. The term ideology was used because an almost religious tenet was found in the visionary organisations. These companies had certain ideals that were used as guiding forces (Collins Porras, 1996). This explanation is in line with the brand resonance pyramid, whereby brand strength is measured as the way consumers think, feel and act in relation to the brand. Consumers can get very attached to strong brands and can become very passionate about them, so they can even become evangelists or missionaries and make an effort to share their thoughts about the brand (Keller, 2013, p. 125). The second component that was identified was a tangible image, comprising a mission and a vivid description. This component includes both ‘a sense of concreteness, something vivid and real, and a picture of the future, dreams, hopes, and aspirations’ (Collins, Porras, 1998). Following this line of thinking visionary brands can create positive consumer outcomes.
Anisimova conducted a study on the effects of corporate brand attributes on consumer outcomes, namely altitudinal and behavioural loyalty. The core values of an organisation are viewed as internal characteristics, bringing together an organisation and its mission and vision. Even though the core organisational values, such as the vision, are found to be very important, it has not received sufficient attention in the corporate branding literature. Presumably because these values are perceived to be internal and not directly concerning the customers. However, these ‘internal values’ were found to predict consumer loyalty (Anisimova, 2007). Recently more researchers have analysed the effects of vision and found
positive outcomes, such as customer and staff satisfaction (Kantabutra and Avery, 2007). Interestingly, Collins and Porras stated that the visionary companies they identified performed better than their also well-performing competitors that did not focus on a visionary approach (Collins and Porras, 1994).
Chernatony identified three key features of brand vision, namely the envisioned future, the brand purpose and the brand’s values. The envisioned future inspires managers to think ahead. Hereby managers are required to reassess their ideas for the brand. The brand purpose is important because it makes staff think beyond profitability to include purposes that contribute to improving the world. The purpose is able to inspire both employees and consumers. To state an example Nike’s purpose is ‘to experience the emotion of competing, winning and crushing the competitors’ (Chernatony, 2001, p. 35), which contains several appealing elements to inspire Nike’s employees and customers. The last element, the brand’s values, is important in order to drive employee behaviour so they will actually deliver the brand promise. Also referred to as whether employees ‘walk the talk’. As shown from the research conducted by Collins and Porras, delivering the brand promise is of great importance and it is an element which led to the great success of Disney (Collins and Porras, 1994). Most strong brands are based on relatively few values. The reason being is that it otherwise becomes difficult for employees to remember all the values, which in turn could lead to brand inconsistency. Moreover, fewer values ensure that the unique benefits of the brand are easier recognised by consumers.
2.2.1 The importance of instrumental and terminal values
Within the visionary brand literature not much research exists on how visionary perceptions evolve. Moreover, no research has yet specified which type of values are important in the
formation of visionary brand perceptions. Therefore, this study will analyse different types of values in order to examine which values play a role in forming visionary perceptions.
Several researchers have shown that values play an important role beyond sociology and psychology, to include consumer behaviour. Moreover, identifying values for brands and customers is said to be very useful in real world situations by brands such as Polaroid, Mercedes Benz and Levi Strauss (Stampfl and Hirschman, 2011). For instance, values can be used to identify customers or customer groups besides the use of standard demographics. As stated by Stampfl and Hirschman, ‘promotional strategies which appeal to centrally held values may be the most effective’ (Stampfl and Hirschman, 2011). Thus, not only pointing out physical attributes and choice criteria, but also reinforcing values related to the brand. It is known that values play an important role in consumer buying patterns. However, limited research has been conducted to specify the relationships between consumption behaviour and value orientation.
Values can be defined as ‘deeply internalised, personal feelings that direct action’ (Stampfl and Hirschman, 2011). Values are projected in people’s perceptions about products. These perceptions are formed based on reference groups and people’s own consumption experience. Yet, little research exists on how values can be assessed most precisely and how they can be used to comprehend consumer perceptions of value. Nevertheless, values can play an important role to explain why consumers prefer one brand to another.
Rokeach wrote a book called The Nature of Human Values. In this book Rokeach made an important distinction between instrumental and terminal values. According to Rokeach, terminal values refer to ‘beliefs about desired end-states such as freedom, comfortable life and mature love’, whereas instrumental values are referred to as ‘beliefs about desired modes of
actions, such as being independent, ambitious or honest’ (Rokeach, 1973). This distinction was widely adopted by different researchers and has been widely used to test the influence of human values in relation to different constructs. In the research conducted by Allen et al. instrumental values are shown to be related to instrumental psychological functions. More specifically, these values relate to the importance of tangible attributes of a product. Whereas terminal values are shown to be related to symbolic meaning. Thereby, focusing on cultural principles such as ideals, values and traits (Allen et al., 2002). Furthermore, Rokeach stated that terminal values can be formed when instrumental values become internalised within the brand (Scholl, 2003). The description of terminal values fits within literature on visionary brands. Visionary brands are stated to be inspirational, to have a value-based core and to strive towards an ideal. These types of brands focus on an ideology/essence which can almost be perceived as a religious tenet. Therefore, Rokeach’s description of terminal values is in line with research on visionary brands.
Based on the discussed literature, brands that are perceived as being highly visionary are expected to be formed more by terminal (end) values rather than instrumental values. Consequently, it is expected that:
H1: When consumers perceive a brand as visionary, terminal values, in contrast to instrumental values, will have greater and significant explanatory power in explaining the formation of visionary perceptions.
2.2.2 Consumer brand identification (CBI)
Consumer brand identification can be defined as ‘a consumer’s psychological state of perceiving, feeling, and valuing his or her belongingness with a brand’ (Lam et al., 2013, p. 235). Stockburger-Sauer et al., refer to CBI as a ‘consumer's perceived state of oneness with a
brand’ (Stokburger-Sauer et al., 2012, p. 407). The definitions of CBI are all relatively similar and come down to whether consumers perceive that they belong or are ‘one’ with the brand. As can be concluded from the above definitions, the concept is more than a cognitive overlap between a brand and the self and consists as well of the affective and evaluative aspects of psychological oneness with a certain brand (Lam et al., 2013, p. 236).
Several antecedents of consumers’ identification with a brand have been identified by different researchers, such as self-brand congruity, brand image, brand awareness, brand social benefits and perceived originality of brand associations (Tuškej et al, 2013, p. 58; Lam et al., 2013). When exploring the antecedent brand social benefits, the authors argue that identification with a brand is more likely to occur when the brand supports them to connect with their peers or other important people in their surroundings, such as a community. When analysing the brand resonance pyramid of Keller this antecedent relates to the pinnacle of the pyramid, namely creating relationships with brands, which in turn is an outcome of visionary brands. Visionary brands aim to connect the brand with its employees and other stakeholders. Engaging consumers in the holistic approach of the visionary brand. Another defined antecedent of CBI is memorable brand experiences. These experiences refer to whether consumers have positive, emotionally charged memories of past brand experiences. The creation of such memorable memories can even be created for everyday brands. Moreover, over time these memories can lead to strong feelings of nostalgia.
Based on the defined literature, it can be reasoned that the way consumers’ perceive a visionary brand and the subsequent level of visionariness is an antecedent of consumers’ identification with the visionary brand. Therefore, the following hypothesis is formulated:
H2: The more consumers’ perceive brands as visionary, the higher the level of consumer brand identification.
2.3 Value congruence
The construct of value congruence has been widely researched in organisation literature. As stated earlier not many researchers made an effort to extend the construct of value congruence to include consumers as well. However, recently a few researchers studied value congruence based on relationship marketing literature and thereby focusing on consumers rather than employees. Researchers found positive outcomes, such as satisfaction, consumer identification, emotional commitment, and loyalty when analysing the influence of value congruence (Zhang and Bloemer, 2008; Tuškej et al. 2013). Tuškej et al. stated that the fundamental and intangible features of the brands, such as brand values, are key factors affecting consumers’ identification with brands. When brand values are congruent with consumers’ values this can have a major impact in affecting consumer behaviour. Their research showed that consumers are more likely to identify with brands whose core values are consistently communicated to them and relevant for them. Thus, congruency having a positive impact on CBI.However, previous research has some limitations, because the authors focused on some specific types of brands, such as service brands or consumers’ favourite brands. To gain more insights in the role of value congruence, different types of brands should be analysed.
In line with previous research, in this study values will be referred to as ‘general beliefs about the importance of normatively desirable behaviours or end states’ (Edwards and Cable, 2009, p. 655). Consumers use their values to guide their choices and actions. Values will be referred to as concepts or beliefs that concern desirable end states or behaviours that go beyond specific situations, and guide choice or assessment of behaviour and events (Schwartz, 1992,
p. 4). This study will focus on value congruence defined as the congruence between consumers’ values and brand values (Tuškej et al., 2013; Zhang and Bloemer, 2008).
According to social psychology value congruence is also seen as a very important construct for maintaining valuable relationships, for instance between consumers and brands (Sweeney and Chew, 2000; Tuškej et al., 2013). In that case the focus is on whether the values of the brand are congruent with the values of consumers. According to Schwartz and Bilsky, the type of motivational goal values express is what differentiates values. This is based upon the theory of human values (Schwartz and Bilsky, 1987). When a consumer attaches more importance to a value, the achievement of goals linked to that value will become more important. Human values can serve value-expressive, instrumental, knowledge and social-adjustive psychological functions (Allen et al., 2002, p. 111).
Current marketing literature has focused mostly and exclusively on congruence (similarity) in personality traits rather than values (Gaunt, 2006; Kressmann et al., 2006; Hosany and Martin, 2012; Lam et al., 2013). One of the very few studies that has been conducted on value congruence between consumers and (service) brands is the study by Bloemer and Zhang. The authors focused on different consumer-brand relationship outcomes, such as trust, affective commitment, and loyalty (Bloemer and Zhang, 2008). The authors implicitly chose service brands, since strong relationships are perceived as key in this category. Moreover, previous research proposed that in order to achieve brand success, identifying and sustaining the values of a service brand is important. Their findings show that value congruence has a significant direct, positive effect on four outcomes, namely satisfaction, trust, emotional commitment, and loyalty. Moreover, congruence has an indirect effect on loyalty through the other outcomes, because the researchers argue that consumers with low perceived value congruence would use the service brand once, but are less likely to preserve and develop their relationship
with the service brand to attain their personal values, as compared to consumers with high value congruence. Therefore, value congruence enhances the effect of consumer satisfaction on loyalty (Zhang and Bloemer, 2008, p. 172).
This study will not focus on one specific brand or category, but will research different brand categories in order to extend the application of the results across more brand categories. Additionally, several brands within each category can be compared to each other in terms of visionariness and their accompanying values to identify differences and possible patterns in values.
Tuškej et al., focused on consumer brand identification (CBI), this was one of the other few studies that specified congruence based on consumer and brand values instead of personalities. The authors researched the relationship between value congruence, brand identification, brand commitment, and word of mouth. The researchers found that ‘value congruity positively affects consumers’ identification and that, through identification, value congruity affects consumers’ commitment to a brand’ (Tuškej et al., 2013, p. 57). A shortcoming of the study is that it focused on consumers’ favourite brand. One of their concluding remarks was that when the core values of a brand are consistently communicated and relevant for consumers this would lead consumers to more likely identify with those brands.
To conclude, so far research has been conducted on the direct effect of congruence on identification and as shown in the discussed literature above creating congruence between consumer and brand values has led to an increase in consumer brand identification. Value congruence has been measured based on the discrepancy score between consumers’ and brand values (Stokburger-Sauer et al., 2012; Zhang and Bloemer, 2008), whereby a higher
discrepancy score indicates a lower level of value congruence. Therefore it is hypothesised that:
H3: The lower the discrepancy score between consumers’ values and brand values the higher the level of identification and in turn the higher the discrepancy score the lower the level of identification.
2.4 Value system segmentation
Several researchers conducted studies about values and made different scales or frameworks to analyse values accordingly, such as, The Hartman Value Inventory, Study of Values, Schwartz Value Scale and the Rokeach Value Survey (Schwartz, 1992; Austin and Garwood, 1977). One more general approach to get a better grasp of consumer behaviour and values is Jung’s archetypes. Jung’s archetypes are well-known in the marketing literature (Jung, 1981). Basically referred to as patterns of thought and related behaviours that exist in every human being. Strong identity brands have a strong belief and set of consistent values, therefore, consumers and staff feel connected with the brand and are willing to identify with them. If all parties, including employees and consumers, comprehend the brand intuitively, the offerings of the brand will be more effectively aligned. Twelve archetypes have been identified, all with their own value sets, ambitions, intentions and behaviour. Jung’s approach shows the importance of consumers and employees being able to identify and connect with the values and beliefs of the organisation (Branding: The pyramid scheme, 2009).
Rokeach’s work is probably one of the most well-known values inventory. In this measurement a distinction has been made between terminal and instrumental values, comparable to the values in a means-end-chain. The terminal values include beliefs about desired end-states, e.g. freedom, a comfortable life, and mature love. The instrumental values
include beliefs about desired models of action, e.g. being independent, ambitious or honest (Allen et al,, 2002, p. 111). This survey has been used in several studies (Scott & Lamont, 1974; Vinson et al., 1977). For instance, to research the role of values in evaluating product attributes, product preferences, market segmentation, and in analysing the structural configuration of consumer’s value-attribute system. Nevertheless, Rokeach did not precisely specify the relationship between terminal and instrumental values (Braithwaite and Law, 1985). Several authors have done an attempt in follow up studies to analyse this relationship. For instance, selected values from the RVS have been used in a study to analyse value congruence between consumers and brands (Tuškej et al., 2013).
As discussed above, the Rokeach Values Survey is a very popular method to measure values. When analysing the literature on the instrumental and terminal values more in-depth a research was found that goes beyond dividing the values into instrumental and terminal, namely dividing the values even further. The RVS Values can be divided into seven motivational domains combining both instrumental and terminal values. The first domain is enjoyment, which is tied to the terminal values pleasure, a comfortable life and happiness and the instrumental value of being cheerful. The second domain is security, which relates to the terminal values family security, national security and a world at peace. The third domain, achievement, forms the basis for the terminal value, social recognition and the instrumental value capable and ambitious. The self-direction domain focuses on instrumental values, such as imaginative, independent, intellectual and logical. This domain focuses on a person’s own capacities. The fifth domain is restrictive conformity, which emphasises on instrumental values such as being obedient, polite, clean and self-controlled. The next domain emphasises on the pro-social domain, emphasising terminal values of equality and instrumental values of being helpful, forgiving and loving. The last domain, maturity, focuses solely on terminal
values, namely wisdom, mature love, true friendship and a world of beauty. The authors divided these seven domains based on the interests they serve, either individualistic, collectivistic or mixed. The authors found a pattern in their research, for instance individuals for whom achievement is important will also, as a secondary goal, value self-direction and allocate little importance to security. Therefore, these values offer great opportunities to organise values into different groups which make researchers able to predict where consumer give most meaning to (Kamakura and Novak, 1992).
2.4.1 The influence of visionariness on the relation of value congruence on CBI
Visionary brands are the type of brands that do emphasise on uniformly communicating a consistent message. Nevertheless, it has not been researched whether a fit of consumer and visionary brand values leads to higher levels of identification. Moreover, Collins and Porras stated that core values do not need to be aligned with customers. The authors state that it is important to create internal alignment, whereby the employees play a central role and that this way the organisation’s values do not need to be in line with consumers’ values. Previous literature has shown that value congruence leads to higher levels of consumer identification with the brand. However, one research used consumers’ favourite brands and the other research used service brands to test this relationship. Therefore, it has not been tested yet what the influence of the type of brand, high versus low visionary, is on this relationship. Analysing this effect is of great importance, because this will indicate whether brands with different levels of visionariness need to focus on a different approach to achieve consumer brand identification.
Therefore, researching the process of creating value congruence is of high importance, whereby this research specifically focuses on value congruence within the context of
visionary brands. Additionally, in line with the reasoning of visionary brand research, the level of perceived visionariness is expected to influence the relation between value congruence and consumers’ identification with the brand. For that reason it is hypothesised that:
H4: The (positive) relationship between value congruence and consumer brand
identification is stronger for lower visionary brands than for higher visionary brands.
2.5 Conceptual framework
H1: When consumers perceive a brand as visionary, terminal values, in contrast to
instrumental values, will have greater and significant explanatory power in explaining the formation of visionary perceptions.
H2: Consumers will identify more with a brand when it is perceived as visionary, compared
to when it is perceived as non-visionary.
H3: The lower the discrepancy score between consumers’ values and brand values the higher
the level of identification and in turn the higher the discrepancy score the lower the level of identification.
H4: The relationship between value congruence and consumer brand identification is
moderated by the perceived visionariness of the brand. The (positive) relationship between value congruence and consumer brand identification is stronger for lower visionary brands than for higher visionary brands.
Consumer brand
identification
Value congruence
(Discrepancy score)Perceived visionariness
(low/medium/high)
H3 H4 Value type Instrumental TerminalPerceived visionariness
by consumers
H1Consumer brand
identification
H2 263. Methodology
This chapter discusses the methods that have been used to conduct the experimental study. First of all, the key characteristics of the sample will be described. Second of all, a description will be given of the variables and the way they are measured. In addition, the pre-test and its accompanying design will be discussed. Finally, the statistical procedures will be outlined.
3.1 Population, sample and procedure
In order to conduct this study a non-probability, self-selection sampling is used by executing an experimental online survey. The survey was distributed via social media and forums. The survey randomly presented one of the six treatments, whereby similar questions were used for the different treatments. However, respondents were not aware of the ‘experimental’ nature of the survey. Existing brands were used, because this way consumer identification with the brand can be more easily grasped. It is very difficult to create identification with a ‘fictitious’ brand in ten to fifteen minutes time. Allen et al. conducted a research on instrumental values and stated the following, ‘individuals must have direct experience and knowledge of the object to appreciate its benefits and means to an end’ (Allen et al., 2002, p. 115). Therefore, existing brands were used and respondents were asked whether they have used or are in possession of the brand in order to measure whether the respondents have experience and/or knowledge of the brand. Consumers were also asked about their existing brand attitudes in order to control this variable. After being presented with the brand, respondents were asked to evaluate the brand in terms of its perceived visionariness, the level of identification with the brand and whether the respondents’ values are congruent with the brand’s values. The survey was conducted in English. The reason being that the theoretical scales that have been used are in English. Moreover, all respondents were assumed to be fluent in the English language.
3.2 Measurement of variables
Different scales have been used to gain relevant insights about the different constructs. The measurement scales that have been selected have been previously used by different researchers.
Consumer Brand Identification (CBI)
To measure consumer brand identification (CBI) a 5-items scale was used. Originally two items were created by Bergami and Bagozzi (2000) and three items by Bhattacharya and Sen (2003). Currás-Pérez et al. (2009) tested the entire 5-item scale in their research about consumer identification with socially responsible companies (Currás-Pérez et al., 2009). To state an example of an included item, ‘the way I am fits in with what I perceive of brand X’. CBI was measured with a 5-point likert scale, anchored by 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree).
Perceived visionariness by consumers
In order to measure consumers’ visionary perceptions, the scale by Griffin et al. (2010) was used. Jon Thissen (2013) has previously tested this scale. This scale consists of three items, including ‘the brand has a clear understanding of where it is heading in the future’. Perceived visionariness was also measured using a 5-point likert scale, anchored by 1 (strongly disagree) and 5 (strongly agree).
Value congruence
In order to test value congruence two scales were used, one measuring respondents’ values and the other measuring brand values. From the two scores the absolute discrepancy score will be calculated, namely how much the brand’s values differ from the consumers’ values. The lower the discrepancy score the higher the level of value congruence. Values were measured using a 5-point likert scale, anchored by 1 (not defining at all) and 5 (very
defining). The values have been derived from the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS) (Rokeach, 1973). The RVS was chosen, because research has proven that the instrumental and terminal values serve instrumental and expressive functions. Since attitudes can actually be affected by human values, Rokeach chose to develop a measure for values instead of attitudes. Research has shown that human values can take on value-expressive, instrumental, knowledge and social-adjustive psychological functions (Allen et al., 2002). Each value on the survey list was accompanied by a few key words to further explain the meaning of each value in order to avoid confusion and misinterpretation.
General congruence measure
In this research it is important to make sure that the values given to the brand are based on value congruence and not on other types of congruence, such as self-image, personality etc. Therefore, a general congruence measurement has been developed based on a 5-item scale, such as ‘My image and the image of Brand X are similar’ and ‘Brand X and I fit well together’. This measurement has been adopted from Speed and Thompson (2000). General congruence was measured with a 7-point likert scale, anchored by 1 (totally disagree) and 7 (totally agree).
Attitude (brand evaluation) and familiarity
In order to measure the brand attitude a scale was used by Mittal (1990), with three bipolar items: bad/good, dislike/like, and undesirable/desirable. This scale was measured on a 7-point likert scale, -3 (very bad) to +3 (very good).
Control variables
The results of this study were controlled by three control variables, namely gender, age and education. The respondents were asked to fill in these items at the end of the survey.
3.3 Six sub-samples
The experimental design for this study consists of eight conditions, whereby value congruence is measured as a within-subject variable. Therefore, the survey consists of six samples, which differ in terms of visionariness (either high visionary, medium visionary or non-visionary) and brand category (smartphones or cars).
Table 1 Experimental design
Brand category 1 Brand category 2
Visionary brands Treatment 1 Treatment 4
Medium visionary brands Treatment 2 Treatment 5
Non-visionary brands Treatment 3 Treatment 6
3.4 Pre-test
A pre-test was conducted to analyse how consumers perceive visionary brands. This way, the attitudes of consumers towards the brand can be measured. This is of particular relevance when choosing existing visionary brands.
In order to test visionariness, several brands have been selected which were evaluated by respondents on their perceived visionariness. Therefore, in the pre-test respondents rated different brands based on a 3-item vision scale, from which was derived which brands were perceived as most (and least) visionary by consumers. The most contrasting brands in each category were included in the experimental survey. The brands were selected based upon criteria for visionary brands (Collins and Porras, 1996).
Besides testing for perceived visionariness, the brands were tested on their perceived values, both instrumental and terminal, because it needed to be tested whether visionary brands evoke both instrumental and terminal values and what differentiates them. For this study polarised brands have been used, which means that consumers’ ratings of the brand are highly dispersed, consisting of consumers with contrasting values. The reason being is that this way the assumption is made that roughly half of the respondents have congruent values and the
other half does not have congruent values. A similar approach has been used in previous research, whereby a brand dispersion measure was used to measure polarisation (Luo et al., 2013).
The RVS scale consists of 36 items, of which some of them are less relevant for consumer behaviour, namely salvation, forgiving, and being obedient. Therefore, several researchers shortened the RVS list. However, in this case the values are concerning the brand instead of consumers, therefore all values were included and are relevant to identify values of the brand. In the pre-test the instrumental values will be mixed with the terminal values, so the order of the values will not influence the responses of the respondents.
From the results of the pre-test the most defining instrumental and terminal values will be derived to use in the experimental survey. Tuškej et al., have used the same method in their study, showing that the RVS can be successfully used to study value congruence. However, in contrast to Tuškej et al., this experimental study will use more values from the RVS to analyse the possible differential role of instrumental and terminal values in consumers’ evaluation of brands.
List of (polarised) visionary and non-visionary brands:
Category 1 smartphones: Apple, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, Blackberry Category 2 cars: Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, Toyota, Citroën
Category 3 beverages: Heineken, Bavaria, Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Pepsi Category 4 personal care: The Body Shop, Dove, Fa, L’Oréal
Category 5 fashion: Zara, Primark, H&M
Category 6 banks: Rabobank, ASN bank, Triodos bank, SNS bank
The brands listed above have been divided into subgroups whereby each respondent who participated in the pre-test had to evaluate a sub-set of the brands listed above, containing
both visionary and non-visionary brands in two different categories (banks and cars, beverages and smartphones, fashion and personal care).
4. Analysis
In this chapter the statistical analysis will be described and the results will be shown. The first sub-chapter concerns the analysis of the pre-test after which the analysis of the experiment will be outlined based on the formulated hypotheses.
4.1 Pre-test
In order to test the proposed measurements and to examine the values a small sample of respondents were exposed to the pre-test. In the pre-test 60 respondents participated, 47% male and 53% female. Therefore, there is a relatively equal distribution of gender. The majority of the respondents were between 18-25 years old. The sample of the main research is expected to consist of people between 18 and 35 years old and therefore this pre-test sample is perceived as reasonably representative.
The pre-test consisted of three samples, which can be compared to each other because the age and gender distribution do not differ much from each other especially for the categories banks, cars, mobile devices and drinks, as shown in table 2 and 3. The category fashion and personal care consists of more female respondents.
Table 2 Gender distribution per sample
Gender Cars & Banks
Gender
Phones & Drinks
Gender Fashion & Care
Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency
Male 55% 11 60% 12 25% 5
Female 45% 9 40% 8 75% 15
Total 100% 20 100% 20 100% 20
Table 3. Age distribution per sample
Age Age Age
Cars & Banks Phones & Drinks Fashion & Care
Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency
18-25 45% 9 35% 7 80% 16
26-34 45% 9 45% 9 20% 4
35-54 5% 1 15% 3 0% 0
55+ 5% 1 5% 1 0% 0
Total 100% 20 100% 20 100% 20
Table 4. Reliability and descriptives of scales
N items Cronbach’s alpha Mean Standard Deviation Perceived visionariness 3 ,723 3,58 0,676 General congruence
(e.g. personality and self-image congruence)
5 ,872 4,00 0,947
As shown in table 4, the reliability of the scale measuring visionariness was above ,700, which means that the scale was consistently measuring perceived visionariness. Furthermore, the general congruence measurement is also reliable. Additionally, the cronbach’s alpha for all individual brands was above ,700.
Table 5. Perceived visionariness banks and cars
Sample N Mean Standard deviation
Triodos 20 4,333 ,700 Rabobank 3,817 ,617 ASN 3,317 ,532 SNS 2,317 ,596 BMW 4,383 ,510 Tesla 4,500 ,701 Volkswagen 3,667 ,665 Toyota 3,600 ,608 Citroën 2,567 ,692
Table 6. Perceived visionariness smartphones and beverages
Sample N Mean Standard deviation
Apple 20 4,500 1,020 Samsung 4,133 ,490 HTC 3,300 ,348 Nokia 3,283 ,498 Blackberry 2,450 ,697 Heineken 4,517 1,012 Bavaria 2,533 ,616 Redbull 4,050 ,887 33
Coca-Cola 4,317 ,640
Pepsi 3,367 ,425
Table 7. Perceived visionariness fashion and personal care
Sample N Mean Standard deviation
Zara
20
3,800 ,558
H&M 3,750 ,615
Primark 2,750 1,038
The Body Shop 4,033 ,743
Fa 2,450 ,711
Dove 4,133 ,798
Nivea 2,966 ,935
L’oréal 3,850 ,614
In tables 5, 6 and 7, an overview is given of the perceived visionariness among the different brands. The most visionary brands from each category are Triodos Bank, Tesla, Apple, Heineken, Zara and Dove. The least visionary brands are SNS bank, Citroën, Bavaria, Primark and Fa. The standard deviations show whether the answers of the respondents varied across the scale. Apple, Heineken and Primark are brands with high standard deviations, meaning that respondents differed in their answer concerning the perceived visionariness of the brand.
Table 8. General congruence measurement
Sample N Mean Variance of item means
Banks and cars
60
3,93 1,006
Smartphones and beverages
3,88 0,628
Fashion and personal care 4,25 1,375
In table 8 the general congruence scale is displayed. In the category banks, the average congruence is below neutral (3,64). The category cars scores a little above neutral (4,22). Both smartphone brands and beverage brands score below neutral, namely 3,90 and 3,85. The fashion brands also scored closest to neutral (4,18). The personal care brand category scored on average highest of all categories, namely 4,31. However, 4,31 is still below ‘somewhat
agree’, meaning that all scores were closest to neutral. These scores have important implications for this research. The reason being is that this way congruence on other constructs than values, e.g. personality and image, can be monitored. This way it can be analysed whether congruence is based solely or to a large extent on values rather than other constructs.
4.1.2 Familiarity of the brand and attitude towards the brand
Banks
Only one respondent was not familiar with the Triodos Bank. The attitude towards the Triodos Bank was closest to neutral (3,35). Every respondent was aware of the Rabobank, whereby the attitude was closest to neutral (3,40). Four respondents were not familiar with the ASN Bank. The respondents attitude towards the ASN Bank was neutral (3,05). All respondents were familiar with the SNS Bank. The attitude towards the brand was slightly negative (2,75).
Cars
All respondents were familiar with the different car brands except for Tesla, whereby one respondent did not know the brand. Respondents had on average the most positive attitude towards BMW and the least positive attitude, namely on average neutral, towards Citroën.
Smartphones
The respondents were familiar with all smartphone brands. Samsung scored highest on attitude towards the brand (3,85), which was closest to positive. Blackberry scored lowest on brand attitude, which was very close to neutral (3,05).
Beverages
All respondents were familiar with all beverage brands. The average brand attitude was closest to neutral, whereby Bavaria had the least positive attitude namely (2,74).
Personal care
A very slightly positive attitude (3,6) towards The Body Shop was detected. The attitude towards Dove (3,95) was closest to positive. The respondents had on average a more neutral attitude towards the other personal care brands. All respondents were aware of the personal care brands.
Fashion
One respondent was not familiar with Primark. Besides that all respondents were familiar with all fashion brand. Respondents had a neutral attitude towards Primark. Furthermore, their attitude towards H&M and Zara were very similar, namely 3,65 and 3,60 accordingly.
4.1.3 Perceived visionariness within brand categories
In order to test whether the perceived visionariness of different brands within a category significantly differ from each other a ANOVA repeated measures test has been performed for each brand category.
Table 9. Pairwise comparison banks & cars
Banks Mean difference Std. Error Sig.
Triodos Rabobank ,517 ,517 ,010 Triodos ASN 1,017 ,136 ,000 Triodos SNS 2,017 ,193 ,000 Cars BMW Volkswagen ,717 ,106 ,000 BMW Tesla -,117 ,119 1,000 BMW Toyota ,783 ,101 ,000 BMW Citroën 1,817 ,168 ,000
From table 9 it can be concluded that a significant difference between Triodos - ASN and Triodos SNS exist in terms of perceived visionariness. The difference between Triodos -Rabobank is ,517. However, this different is not significant (p > ,05). Furthermore, table 10 shows that no statistical difference in visionariness exists between BMW and Tesla. Besides BMW and Tesla, only Volkswagen and Toyota did not significantly differ from each other.
The reason for this non statistical significant result could be that respondents rated BMW and Tesla very similar in the entire pre-test, in terms of visionariness and attitude. All other car brands significantly (p < .05) differed from each other.
Table 10 Pairwise comparison smartphones & beverages
Smartphones Mean difference Std. Error Sig.
Apple Samsung -,367 ,223 1,000 ‘’ Blackberry 1,683 ,172 ,000 ‘’ HTC ,833 ,092 ,000 ‘’ Nokia ,850 ,107 ,000 Samsung Apple ,367 ,223 1,000 ‘’ Blackberry 2,050 ,230 ,000 ‘’ HTC 1,200 ,196 ,000 ‘’ Nokia 1,217 ,198 ,000 Beverages RedBull Heineken -,467 ,070 ,000 ‘’ Bavaria 1,517 ,206 ,000 ‘’ Coca-Cola -,267 ,117 ,350 ‘’ Pepsi ,683 ,161 ,000 Heineken Coca-Cola ,200 ,136 1,000
Table 10 shows that the smartphone brands significantly (p < ,05) differ from each other in terms of visionariness except for Samsung and Apple. The mean difference between Apple and Samsung is -,367, but the brands do not significantly differ from each other. There is no significant (p >,05) difference between Red Bull and Coca-Cola and Heineken and Coca-Cola. All the other beverage brands significantly (p < ,05) differ from each other in terms of visionariness. Heineken and Bavaria differ most from each other in terms of visionariness.
Table 11 Pairwise comparison personal care & fashion
Personal care Mean difference Sig.
Body Shop Fa 1,544 ,000 ‘’ Dove -,105 1,000 ‘’ Nivea 1,053 ,011 ‘’ L’Oréal ,158 1,000 Dove Fa 1,649 ,000 Fashion Zara H&M ,035 ,021 37
‘’ Primark 1,000 ,000
Primark H&M -,965 ,000
Statistically significant differences in visionariness exist between Body Shop and Fa, between Body Shop and Nivea, between Fa and Dove, between Fa and L’Oréal, between Dove and Nivea, between Nivea and L’Oréal. Whereby the largest mean difference in visionariness exists between Dove and Fa (1,649) (p <,05). There is a significant difference between Zara and Primark and H&M and Primark (p <,05). However, there is no significant difference between H&M and Zara.
4.1.4 Instrumental and terminal value scale results
Table 12 Tesla’s instrumental and terminal values differing from neutral
The table above shows how much the instrumental and terminal values differ from neutral (‘3’ on a 5-point likert scale), whereby neutral is displayed as 0%. The purple bars represent the terminal values and the green bars represent instrumental values. The table clearly shows that the terminal values are differing considerably more from neutral in comparison to the instrumental values. The table also shows that most instrumental values are close to neutral, whereby eight instrumental values are even scoring below neutral. It can be concluded from this table that terminal values are more defining for Tesla. In addition, a one sample t-test has been performed to test whether the terminal values significantly differ from neutral. The test showed that 13 out of 18 terminal values for Tesla significantly (P < 0.01, 2-tailed) differed
-20% 0% 20% 40% 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 Tesla Terminal Instrumental 38
from neutral. In contrast, the majority of instrumental values, namely 14 out of 18, did not significantly differ from neutral (P > 0.01, 2-tailed). The four instrumental values that did significantly differ from neutral were, ambitious, courageous, forgiving, and imaginative.
Table 13 Volkswagen’s instrumental and terminal values differing from neutral
Table 13 shows how much the terminal and instrumental values differ from neutral for the brand Volkswagen. The one sample t-test showed that 8 out of 18 instrumental values significantly differ from neutral and 7 out of 18 terminal values significantly differ from neutral. Volkswagen scored highest on instrumental value average of all tested brands. When comparing Tesla with Volkswagen several important conclusions can be drawn. Terminal values are more defining for Tesla than for Volkswagen. In addition, more generally, less higher-order values are defining for Volkswagen, whereby the most defining values are instrumental instead of terminal.
Table 14 Apple’s instrumental and terminal values differing from neutral
-25% -5% 15% 35% 55% 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 Volkswagen Terminal Instrumental -25% -5% 15% 35% 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 Apple Terminal Instrumental 39
