The Moderating Role of Market Mavens in Explaining the Impact of Brand Positioning Strategies on Brand Love

Abstract

Market mavens are people who voluntarily spread information regarding brands not expecting any rewards or appreciation in return. With the presence of increasingly similar products in high street fashion apparel retail industry, the real challenge is to steer marketing communication efforts in the direction of developing interpersonal consumer-brand bond and also acknowledging the crucial role of market mavens as a strong external influence. This study aims to (a) determine the relationship of each of the three brand positioning strategies namely; benefit brand positioning strategy, surrogate brand positioning strategy and feature brand positioning strategy with brand love, (b) understand whether market mavens moderate the relationships between the three brand positioning strategies and brand love, and (c) identify demographic characteristics of likely market mavens. Building onto extant literature, a theoretical model is proposed and empirically tested with the help of survey responses from 607 young consumers of private universities in Pakistan. Results show that benefit brand positioning strategy, surrogate brand positioning strategy and feature brand positioning strategy have a relationship with brand love which is moderated by an interpersonal influence of market mavens. However, the interaction effects of all three brand positioning strategies vary in strength. Results of the study also draw up a demographic profile of market mavens suggesting that they are mostly females, well educated, slightly older consumers residing in metropolitan cities, thereby suggesting concrete practical implications towards the end.