Purpose: Universities are increasingly encountering high levels of national and international competition. In order for universities to continue with their business success and expansion, they have relied on developing and maintaining a differentiated brand identity by improving their branding strategy. The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of students’ identification with the brand of public universities in Iran.Design/methodology/approach: Sampling was done in multiple stages. In the first stage – using stratified sampling – students were recruited from distinct degree programs and universities based on the Iranian national demographic proportions. In the second stage, convenient sampling was used within each degree program category. For data collection, the interviewer distributed questionnaires among students regardless of age and gender. The number of questionnaires distributed in each university (i.e. the sample size in each university) was determined using the number of students in the country and percentage of students at each university.Findings: The results showed support for the hypothesized positive relationship between brand identification and the antecedent factors including prestige, interorganizational and intraorganizational competition. On the other hand, the results showed no significant relationship between brand identification and the antecedent factors including distinctiveness and memorable experience. Outcomes (i.e. word-of-mouth, active engagement and loyalty) of brand identification were also tested and their relationships with brand identification are supported.Research limitations/implications: This study was conducted in the higher education sector in one cosmopolitan Iranian city (i.e. Tehran) to which Iranians from other cities travel to for studying. Thus, the results of this survey include a variety of sub-cultures. In the future, a study that incorporates all major metropolitan cities of Iran may increase the generalizability of the findings. Unrelated to the purpose of this study, a future research study may extend the currently studied geographical dimensions and examine the antecedents of students’ identification with the brand of public universities across different nations using a cross-cultural approach.Practical implications: A study of the antecedents of students’ identification with the university brand can provide a guide for universities to manage their brand and marketing strategies. Managers of higher education institutions can take important steps in establishing a link between students and university brands. Managers can highlight interorganizational competitions. The authors recommended universities publicize and honor students’ success in academic competitions on the university website, via ceremonies dedicated to the student winners, and using print banners that identifies their name and achievement, among other mediums. Additionally, competitions can be promoted among students through professors and motivational speeches from recognized leaders.Originality/value: Results revealed that brand prestige of public universities positively affects students’ identification. This study highlights the importance of national and international rankings of universities and the sensitivity of students to such rankings. Undoubtedly, this is evident in Iranian students’ behavior in selecting their university. Additionally, this study showed that brand distinctiveness of public universities does not significantly affect students’ identification with the university brand. Further examination is recommended to help explain this finding and a cross-cultural comparison will assist in this endeavor.

Purpose: In this paper, two studies examine the effects of Hispanic-targeted ads on three consumer-brand relationships (i.e. brand love, brand attachment and attitude toward the brand) and their behavioral outcomes. Additionally, this paper aims to examine how product involvement moderates these effects.Design/methodology/approach: Study 1 demonstrates the linkages between three consumer–brand relationships (i.e. brand love, brand attachment and attitude toward the brand) and their antecedents. In Study 2, by testing the nomological network of the antecedents and consequences of brand love, the authors extend the results of the previous study.Findings: Study 1 provides evidence that ethnic advertising has the strongest effect on brand love in comparison with other alternative consumer-brand relationship constructs. In Study 2, results show that only for low-involvement products, the perceived similarity of customers with Hispanic models in ads could lead to a higher positive attitude toward the ad. However, in the high-involvement condition, perceived similarity did not mediate the relationship between those constructs, which is in line with Elaboration Likelihood Model.Practical implications: From the practical and managerial perspective, this paper proposes that managers should concentrate on ads with ethnic cues, especially for low involvement products. Hence, it would be worthwhile for companies to consider ads with ethnic cues to effectively develop deep consumer–brand relationships.Originality/value: This paper investigates the effects of targeted ads on deeper relationships (e.g. brand love) and its behavioral consequences. Therefore, the authors show how Hispanic targeted ads could lead to deep consumer–brand relationships which encompass both the mind and heart of customers.

This study is a conceptual replication of Appiah and Liu (2009). Distinctiveness theory and social identity theory are used to study the effect of embedding African American cultural ethnic primes beyond the use of ethnic minority models in ads on ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intentions. Empirical results show that African American consumers respond significantly different when viewing a high African American cultural ethnic primed ad compared to a low and high white cultural ethnic primed ad (i.e., high, low = high, low levels of African American cultural ethnic primes found embedded in the ad). No significant responses from African American consumers were found when exposed to a high African American cultural ethnic primed ad versus a low African American cultural ethnic primed ad. This indicates it is not enough to include cultural ethnic primes beyond ethnic minority models to influence significantly different responses. This study recommends that situational and psychological factors (e.g., strength of ethnic identification, ethnic self-awareness, usage rate of cultural ethnic primes in media and geographic location of target audience, levels of ethnocentrism, and proportion of minority group to overall population in geographic location of target audience) need to be considered by marketers to increase ad effectiveness.

This study examines the salient organic food related values driving consumers’ attitude and purchase intentions in a developing country (Iran) and a developed country (US). Additionally, we explain and compare the role of subjective norms in organic food purchase intention between these countries. To examine, the organic food values and patterns of consumers’ organic food choices, we collected data from 217 and 210 respondents in Iran and the US, respectively. Our findings show that “Price” in Iran and “Authenticity/naturalness” in the US were the strongest predictors of attitude toward the organic food. Eating culture, consumer’s knowledge, perceptions, and concerns in society could be the underlying reason for the differences in importance of values between two societies. We also found the relationship of subjective norms with purchase intention varies across societies. At the end of this study, we discuss the implications for international marketing campaigns and for policy makers in each country.

This paper aims to explore the influence of four types of imagery stimuli (i.e. visual, olfactory, gustatory and auditory) on food craving intensity based on the Elaborated Intrusion theory and the central role of mental imagery in the food craving experience. The roles of overall perception of sensory imagery attributes and perceived availability in moderating this process were also tested. The aim is to extract the positive aspects of food cravings by increasing them and shifting them toward healthy foods. In an online experiment, 314 participants were randomly primed with each imagery condition. After being exposed to either healthy or unhealthy food pictures, participants completed a questionnaire measuring their craving state, trait food craving, imaging ability, BMI, dietary restraint, hunger and mood. At the end, the impact of food craving intensity on marketing outcomes (i.e. willingness to pay, price sensitivity and food intake) were tested. As predicted, visual imagery was found to be the strongest stimulus inducing food craving followed by olfactory, gustatory and auditory stimuli. Furthermore, the results indicate that perceived availability of food is the only important variable moderating this process. Additionally, the results show that hunger makes consumers more susceptible to food cravings than mood. Moreover, food craving intensity showed significant impact on the two marketing outcomes: willingness to pay and food intake. First, the authors used a cheeseburger as unhealthy food and salad as healthy food, future studies can increase the generalizability of the findings by using other types of food. Second, physiological and psychological disorders should be considered and studied as influential factors on food cravings in future studies. Third, future studies should include some behavioral measures besides the analysis of state and trait craving. Fourth, although the main objective of this study was to compare the effect of different imagery stimuli on consumers’ food craving, there was no control (no-stimulus) condition. Marketing strategists may benefit from the fact that encouraging consumers to visualize some specific type of food product along with informing them about its availability will elevate their craving for that food product. Hence, using this strategy in shopping environments could be beneficial. In the context of improving people’s diet, our results showed that encouraging people to visualize healthy foods (e.g. fruits and vegetables) might be more helpful than priming them with the benefits of eating healthy. There has been a recent enthusiastic interest in identifying the role of food related mental imagery and stimuli in consumers’ decision making and their final consumption (Christian et al., 2016). Nevertheless, very few studies in marketing have paid attention to these underpinning stimuli driving food craving and the significant influence of this food craving phenomenon on marketing outcomes.