Perceptions of Power in Brands and an Investigation into Market Dominance

Abstract

This dissertation outlines a new construct, brand power, to help to explain psychological and behavioral reactions to brands. A variety of constructs from psychology such as values and personality have been applied to brands (Aaker 1997, Torelli et al 2012.) These constructs have helped to not only illustrate the attributes of various brands but also to study the reactions of consumers to various marketing actions. Power is a commonly used construct in psychology but has yet to be applied to brands. This is somewhat surprising given that power is pervasive in social psychology research and the terms “powerful brands” are regularly used by business publications. This research attempts to not only understand the dimensions by which consumers perceive power in brands but also the nuances associated with a brand possessing or lacking each of these dimensions of power. This dissertation consists of three essays. Essay 1 provides a conceptual overview of brand power and reviews four proposed dimensions of power in brands. Additionally, this essay reviews three studies which validate the four dimensions of brand power and develop scale items to measure each of these dimensions. The second two essays then delve into the dimension that is one of the most pervasive in marketing, market dominance. Essay 2 begins to explore how consumers perceive market dominance in brands. Essay 3 then continues the exploration of brand dominance by researching the impact of communicating market dominance on a brand.