Vanitha Swaminathan | University of Pittsburgh (original) (raw)
Papers by Vanitha Swaminathan
Journal of Product & Brand Management, 2021
Purpose This paper aims to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers’ perception... more Purpose This paper aims to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers’ perceptions of outdoor consumption categories, such as retail shopping, eating out, public events and travel and how these perceptions may impact businesses in these domains in the long term. Further, this research aims to understand demographic effects on outdoor consumption inhibition during the current pandemic and discuss how businesses can use these insights to rebrand their offerings and evolve after the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach Data collected by CivicScience, a survey-based consumer intelligence research platform, during April–July 2020 forms the basis of the preliminary analysis, where the chi-square test has been used to examine significant differences in consumer attitudes between different age groups, income groups and genders. Further, a social media analysis of conversations around outdoor consumption activities is undertaken to understand the rationale behind these demog...
International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2015
ABSTRACT This research examines the roles of brand cultural symbolism and advertising type (i.e.,... more ABSTRACT This research examines the roles of brand cultural symbolism and advertising type (i.e., bilingual vs. host country language) in influencing brand liking among biculturals (people who equally identify with two distinct cultures). Across four experiments, we show that a brand's cultural symbolism (or the degree to which a brand symbolizes a cultural group) moderates the impact of bilingual advertising (vs. English-language advertising) on brand liking among biculturals. Brands low in cultural symbolism can appeal to some types of biculturals by engaging in bilingual advertising, whereas there is no significant improvement in brand liking when bilingual advertising is paired with host-culture symbolic brands. This research also highlights the role of bicultural identity integration (BII), or the degree to which biculturals perceive their mainstream (host) and ethnic (home) identities as compatible (versus incompatible), as a key process mechanism that mediates these effects. We demonstrate that at high levels of BII, biculturals react more favorably to a bilingual ad than an English ad, but only for a less symbolic brand. At low levels of BII, advertising type has no significant effect on biculturals' brand evaluations.
A company’s brand portfolio serves as its link to customers and markets, protects it from competi... more A company’s brand portfolio serves as its link to customers and markets, protects it from competitors, and provides it with a degree of channel power. Historically, brand portfolios were built, brand by brand. But in today’s fast-paced and highly competitive marketplace, companies cannot afford to rely solely on brands built from scratch. Consumer preferences change, yesterday’s star brands are today’s dogs, new segments emerge, and established competitors and nimble start-ups are quick to spot and respond to new opportunities. A brand portfolio that does not continually evolve to meet the changing strategic needs of the market risks becoming obsolete. At the same time, building brands has never been more costly, nor more fraught with risk. In response to these challenges, firms are increasingly choosing to acquire brands from other companies. Acquisitions of brands allow firms to respond far more quickly to the needs of an emerging market segment or to a competitive move. Furthermo...
Customer Needs and Solutions, 2014
Marketing Letters
Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as... more Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as providing significant benefits in terms of increased product differentiation and greater market share. The association between two brand names can both enhance and dilute the brand equity of the host brand name and the ingredient brand name. This research examines the behavioral spillover effects associated with co-branded strategies across segments of consumers that vary in their prior brand commitment or loyalty. Different from previous research, this paper uses A.C. Nielsen scanner panel data to investigate the behavioral spillover effects of ingredient branded products on choice of the host and ingredient brands in a field setting. The results suggest that there is a significant behavioral spillover impact of trial of the co-branded product on the purchase probability of both the host and ingredient brands. This effect is greater among prior non-loyal users and prior non-users of th...
Journal of Marketing
Page 1. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, & Srinivas K. Reddy The Impact of Brand Extensio... more Page 1. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, & Srinivas K. Reddy The Impact of Brand Extension Introduction on Choice This article focuses on the impact of a new brand extension introduction on choice in a behavioral context ...
Journal of Consumer Research, 2015
ABSTRACT Extant research on cobranding does not examine when and why complementarity or similarit... more ABSTRACT Extant research on cobranding does not examine when and why complementarity or similarity between cobranding partners can be more effective. This research examines consumers' reactions to cobranded partnerships that feature brands with either complementary or similar attribute levels, both of which are common in the marketplace. The results of six experiments show that consumers' evaluations vary as a function of concept combination interpretation strategy (property mapping or relational linking) and whether cobranded partners have complementary or similar attributes. Specifically, when consumers use property mapping, they evaluate cobranded partnerships with complementary (vs. similar) attribute levels more favorably. In contrast, when using relational linking, they evaluate cobranded partnerships with complementary (vs. similar) attribute levels less favorably. The results also reveal that the breadth of the host brand (broad vs. narrow) and the type of advertising influence the extent to which consumers are likely to use property mapping or relational linking in evaluating cobranded partnerships.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT Marketers increasingly use social media for marketing research, particularly to monitor ... more ABSTRACT Marketers increasingly use social media for marketing research, particularly to monitor what consumers think about brands. Although social media monitoring can potentially provide rich insights into consumer attitudes, marketers typically use it in a backward-looking manner; i.e., to measure past online word of mouth (WOM) valence (i.e., sentiment). This paper proposes a novel method for using social media monitoring in a forward-looking manner to forecast brands’ future online WOM valence. The authors’ approach takes into account information on related brands based on the premise that consumers’ attitudes toward one brand are likely relative to — and therefore associated with — attitudes toward other brands. The method infers associative relations between brands from social media monitoring data by observing which brands are mentioned at the same time in the same social media sources. This is used to construct time-varying brand “networks” from which forecasting variables are extracted. The method is empirically validated on social media monitoring data for 77 major consumer electronics brands over 16 months, and provides reasonably accurate forecasts for positive and, in particular, negative WOM valence for a number of months into the future.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widel... more ABSTRACT Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as providing significant benefits in terms of increased product differentiation and greater market share. The association between two brand names can both enhance and dilute the brand equity of the host brand name and the ingredient brand name. This research examines the behavioral spillover effects associated with co-branded strategies across segments of consumers that vary in their prior brand commitment or loyalty. Different from previous research, this paper uses A.C. Nielsen scanner panel data to investigate the behavioral spillover effects of ingredient branded products on choice of the host and ingredient brands in a field setting. The results suggest that there is a significant behavioral spillover impact of trial of the co-branded product on the purchase probability of both the host and ingredient brands. This effect is greater among prior non-loyal users and prior non-users of the host and ingredient brands and when there is a higher degree of perceived fit between the host and ingredient brands.
Proceedings of the Association of Management 13th …, 1995
Handbook of Relationship Marketing, 2000
Strategic Management Journal, 2008
The growth of alliances has generated considerable interest in this topic among both academics an... more The growth of alliances has generated considerable interest in this topic among both academics and practitioners. While multiple factors may affect alliance success, partner selection emerges as one of the most influential. Previous studies on alliances present general models that assume the factors (e.g., trust, commitment, complementarity, financial payoff) that drive partner attractiveness and, in turn, the likelihood of selection, are consistent across varying alliance projects and situations. In contrast, the present study proposes a contingency approach grounded in management control theory that suggests the criteria managers use in choosing alliance partners will vary by alliance project type. Specifically, it introduces a framework that addresses when and why managers select partners with certain, specific characteristics. The results of the present study strongly support hypotheses that the critical criteria for assessing alliance partner attractiveness and selection vary depending on the differential levels of process manageability and outcome interpretability inherent in a strategic alliance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Marketing Science, 2012
W e estimate the joint impact of the frequency reward and customer tier components of a loyalty p... more W e estimate the joint impact of the frequency reward and customer tier components of a loyalty program on customer behavior and resultant sales. We provide an integrated analysis of a loyalty program incorporating customers' purchase and cash-in decisions, points pressure and rewarded behavior effects, heterogeneity, and forward-looking behavior. We focus on four key research questions: (1) How important is it to combine both components in one model? (2) Does points pressure exist in the context of a two-component loyalty program?
Marketing Letters, 2012
Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as... more Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as providing significant benefits in terms of increased product differentiation and greater market share. The association between two brand names can both enhance and dilute the brand equity of the host brand name and the ingredient brand name. This research examines the behavioral spillover effects associated with cobranded strategies across segments of consumers that vary in their prior brand commitment or loyalty. Different from previous research, this paper uses A.C. Nielsen scanner panel data to investigate the behavioral spillover effects of ingredient branded products on choice of the host and ingredient brands in a field setting. The results suggest that there is a significant behavioral spillover impact of trial of the cobranded product on the purchase probability of both the host and ingredient brands. This effect is greater among prior non-loyal users and prior nonusers of the host and ingredient brands and when there is a higher degree of perceived fit between the host and ingredient brands.
Journal of Marketing Research, 2008
Event Study Methodology. Unanticipated events cause a change in the firm's security price as soon... more Event Study Methodology. Unanticipated events cause a change in the firm's security price as soon as the market learns of the events. The magnitude of the change is an unbiased estimate of the value of the event to the firm's expected future cash flow. Event studies have been widely used to study marketing-related events' effects on firm's stock market prices (e.g., Lane and Jacobson 1995). The event study method compares the actual stock return on the event day for firm i with the return that would be expected if the event had not taken place [E (R it )]. The stock return is the percentage change in the stock price between time t-1 and t.
Journal of Marketing, 2001
Page 1. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, & Srinivas K. Reddy The Impact of Brand Extensio... more Page 1. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, & Srinivas K. Reddy The Impact of Brand Extension Introduction on Choice This article focuses on the impact of a new brand extension introduction on choice in a behavioral context ...
Journal of Marketing, 2009
Page 1. 52 Journal of Marketing Vol. 73 (September 2009), 5269 © 2009, American Marketing Associ... more Page 1. 52 Journal of Marketing Vol. 73 (September 2009), 5269 © 2009, American Marketing Association ISSN: 0022-2429 (print), 1547-7185 (electronic) Vanitha Swaminathan & Christine Moorman Marketing Alliances, Firm Networks, and Firm Value Creation ...
Journal of Consumer Research, 2007
Consumer-brand relationships can be formed based on individual-or group-level connections. For ex... more Consumer-brand relationships can be formed based on individual-or group-level connections. For example, a consumer's relationship with a Mercedes may be based on the desire to express individual-level unique identity (e.g., self-concept connection), whereas a relationship with a local brand (e.g., Ford) may be based on a group-level patriotic national identity (e.g., country-of-origin connection). We suggest that the effects of self-concept connection and brand country-of-origin connection vary based on self-construal. Results across two studies reveal that, under independent self-construal, self-concept connection is more important. Under interdependent self-construal, brand country-of-origin connection is more important.
Journal of Product & Brand Management, 2021
Purpose This paper aims to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers’ perception... more Purpose This paper aims to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumers’ perceptions of outdoor consumption categories, such as retail shopping, eating out, public events and travel and how these perceptions may impact businesses in these domains in the long term. Further, this research aims to understand demographic effects on outdoor consumption inhibition during the current pandemic and discuss how businesses can use these insights to rebrand their offerings and evolve after the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach Data collected by CivicScience, a survey-based consumer intelligence research platform, during April–July 2020 forms the basis of the preliminary analysis, where the chi-square test has been used to examine significant differences in consumer attitudes between different age groups, income groups and genders. Further, a social media analysis of conversations around outdoor consumption activities is undertaken to understand the rationale behind these demog...
International Journal of Research in Marketing, 2015
ABSTRACT This research examines the roles of brand cultural symbolism and advertising type (i.e.,... more ABSTRACT This research examines the roles of brand cultural symbolism and advertising type (i.e., bilingual vs. host country language) in influencing brand liking among biculturals (people who equally identify with two distinct cultures). Across four experiments, we show that a brand's cultural symbolism (or the degree to which a brand symbolizes a cultural group) moderates the impact of bilingual advertising (vs. English-language advertising) on brand liking among biculturals. Brands low in cultural symbolism can appeal to some types of biculturals by engaging in bilingual advertising, whereas there is no significant improvement in brand liking when bilingual advertising is paired with host-culture symbolic brands. This research also highlights the role of bicultural identity integration (BII), or the degree to which biculturals perceive their mainstream (host) and ethnic (home) identities as compatible (versus incompatible), as a key process mechanism that mediates these effects. We demonstrate that at high levels of BII, biculturals react more favorably to a bilingual ad than an English ad, but only for a less symbolic brand. At low levels of BII, advertising type has no significant effect on biculturals' brand evaluations.
A company’s brand portfolio serves as its link to customers and markets, protects it from competi... more A company’s brand portfolio serves as its link to customers and markets, protects it from competitors, and provides it with a degree of channel power. Historically, brand portfolios were built, brand by brand. But in today’s fast-paced and highly competitive marketplace, companies cannot afford to rely solely on brands built from scratch. Consumer preferences change, yesterday’s star brands are today’s dogs, new segments emerge, and established competitors and nimble start-ups are quick to spot and respond to new opportunities. A brand portfolio that does not continually evolve to meet the changing strategic needs of the market risks becoming obsolete. At the same time, building brands has never been more costly, nor more fraught with risk. In response to these challenges, firms are increasingly choosing to acquire brands from other companies. Acquisitions of brands allow firms to respond far more quickly to the needs of an emerging market segment or to a competitive move. Furthermo...
Customer Needs and Solutions, 2014
Marketing Letters
Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as... more Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as providing significant benefits in terms of increased product differentiation and greater market share. The association between two brand names can both enhance and dilute the brand equity of the host brand name and the ingredient brand name. This research examines the behavioral spillover effects associated with co-branded strategies across segments of consumers that vary in their prior brand commitment or loyalty. Different from previous research, this paper uses A.C. Nielsen scanner panel data to investigate the behavioral spillover effects of ingredient branded products on choice of the host and ingredient brands in a field setting. The results suggest that there is a significant behavioral spillover impact of trial of the co-branded product on the purchase probability of both the host and ingredient brands. This effect is greater among prior non-loyal users and prior non-users of th...
Journal of Marketing
Page 1. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, & Srinivas K. Reddy The Impact of Brand Extensio... more Page 1. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, & Srinivas K. Reddy The Impact of Brand Extension Introduction on Choice This article focuses on the impact of a new brand extension introduction on choice in a behavioral context ...
Journal of Consumer Research, 2015
ABSTRACT Extant research on cobranding does not examine when and why complementarity or similarit... more ABSTRACT Extant research on cobranding does not examine when and why complementarity or similarity between cobranding partners can be more effective. This research examines consumers' reactions to cobranded partnerships that feature brands with either complementary or similar attribute levels, both of which are common in the marketplace. The results of six experiments show that consumers' evaluations vary as a function of concept combination interpretation strategy (property mapping or relational linking) and whether cobranded partners have complementary or similar attributes. Specifically, when consumers use property mapping, they evaluate cobranded partnerships with complementary (vs. similar) attribute levels more favorably. In contrast, when using relational linking, they evaluate cobranded partnerships with complementary (vs. similar) attribute levels less favorably. The results also reveal that the breadth of the host brand (broad vs. narrow) and the type of advertising influence the extent to which consumers are likely to use property mapping or relational linking in evaluating cobranded partnerships.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT Marketers increasingly use social media for marketing research, particularly to monitor ... more ABSTRACT Marketers increasingly use social media for marketing research, particularly to monitor what consumers think about brands. Although social media monitoring can potentially provide rich insights into consumer attitudes, marketers typically use it in a backward-looking manner; i.e., to measure past online word of mouth (WOM) valence (i.e., sentiment). This paper proposes a novel method for using social media monitoring in a forward-looking manner to forecast brands’ future online WOM valence. The authors’ approach takes into account information on related brands based on the premise that consumers’ attitudes toward one brand are likely relative to — and therefore associated with — attitudes toward other brands. The method infers associative relations between brands from social media monitoring data by observing which brands are mentioned at the same time in the same social media sources. This is used to construct time-varying brand “networks” from which forecasting variables are extracted. The method is empirically validated on social media monitoring data for 77 major consumer electronics brands over 16 months, and provides reasonably accurate forecasts for positive and, in particular, negative WOM valence for a number of months into the future.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
ABSTRACT Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widel... more ABSTRACT Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as providing significant benefits in terms of increased product differentiation and greater market share. The association between two brand names can both enhance and dilute the brand equity of the host brand name and the ingredient brand name. This research examines the behavioral spillover effects associated with co-branded strategies across segments of consumers that vary in their prior brand commitment or loyalty. Different from previous research, this paper uses A.C. Nielsen scanner panel data to investigate the behavioral spillover effects of ingredient branded products on choice of the host and ingredient brands in a field setting. The results suggest that there is a significant behavioral spillover impact of trial of the co-branded product on the purchase probability of both the host and ingredient brands. This effect is greater among prior non-loyal users and prior non-users of the host and ingredient brands and when there is a higher degree of perceived fit between the host and ingredient brands.
Proceedings of the Association of Management 13th …, 1995
Handbook of Relationship Marketing, 2000
Strategic Management Journal, 2008
The growth of alliances has generated considerable interest in this topic among both academics an... more The growth of alliances has generated considerable interest in this topic among both academics and practitioners. While multiple factors may affect alliance success, partner selection emerges as one of the most influential. Previous studies on alliances present general models that assume the factors (e.g., trust, commitment, complementarity, financial payoff) that drive partner attractiveness and, in turn, the likelihood of selection, are consistent across varying alliance projects and situations. In contrast, the present study proposes a contingency approach grounded in management control theory that suggests the criteria managers use in choosing alliance partners will vary by alliance project type. Specifically, it introduces a framework that addresses when and why managers select partners with certain, specific characteristics. The results of the present study strongly support hypotheses that the critical criteria for assessing alliance partner attractiveness and selection vary depending on the differential levels of process manageability and outcome interpretability inherent in a strategic alliance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Marketing Science, 2012
W e estimate the joint impact of the frequency reward and customer tier components of a loyalty p... more W e estimate the joint impact of the frequency reward and customer tier components of a loyalty program on customer behavior and resultant sales. We provide an integrated analysis of a loyalty program incorporating customers' purchase and cash-in decisions, points pressure and rewarded behavior effects, heterogeneity, and forward-looking behavior. We focus on four key research questions: (1) How important is it to combine both components in one model? (2) Does points pressure exist in the context of a two-component loyalty program?
Marketing Letters, 2012
Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as... more Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as providing significant benefits in terms of increased product differentiation and greater market share. The association between two brand names can both enhance and dilute the brand equity of the host brand name and the ingredient brand name. This research examines the behavioral spillover effects associated with cobranded strategies across segments of consumers that vary in their prior brand commitment or loyalty. Different from previous research, this paper uses A.C. Nielsen scanner panel data to investigate the behavioral spillover effects of ingredient branded products on choice of the host and ingredient brands in a field setting. The results suggest that there is a significant behavioral spillover impact of trial of the cobranded product on the purchase probability of both the host and ingredient brands. This effect is greater among prior non-loyal users and prior nonusers of the host and ingredient brands and when there is a higher degree of perceived fit between the host and ingredient brands.
Journal of Marketing Research, 2008
Event Study Methodology. Unanticipated events cause a change in the firm's security price as soon... more Event Study Methodology. Unanticipated events cause a change in the firm's security price as soon as the market learns of the events. The magnitude of the change is an unbiased estimate of the value of the event to the firm's expected future cash flow. Event studies have been widely used to study marketing-related events' effects on firm's stock market prices (e.g., Lane and Jacobson 1995). The event study method compares the actual stock return on the event day for firm i with the return that would be expected if the event had not taken place [E (R it )]. The stock return is the percentage change in the stock price between time t-1 and t.
Journal of Marketing, 2001
Page 1. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, & Srinivas K. Reddy The Impact of Brand Extensio... more Page 1. Vanitha Swaminathan, Richard J. Fox, & Srinivas K. Reddy The Impact of Brand Extension Introduction on Choice This article focuses on the impact of a new brand extension introduction on choice in a behavioral context ...
Journal of Marketing, 2009
Page 1. 52 Journal of Marketing Vol. 73 (September 2009), 5269 © 2009, American Marketing Associ... more Page 1. 52 Journal of Marketing Vol. 73 (September 2009), 5269 © 2009, American Marketing Association ISSN: 0022-2429 (print), 1547-7185 (electronic) Vanitha Swaminathan & Christine Moorman Marketing Alliances, Firm Networks, and Firm Value Creation ...
Journal of Consumer Research, 2007
Consumer-brand relationships can be formed based on individual-or group-level connections. For ex... more Consumer-brand relationships can be formed based on individual-or group-level connections. For example, a consumer's relationship with a Mercedes may be based on the desire to express individual-level unique identity (e.g., self-concept connection), whereas a relationship with a local brand (e.g., Ford) may be based on a group-level patriotic national identity (e.g., country-of-origin connection). We suggest that the effects of self-concept connection and brand country-of-origin connection vary based on self-construal. Results across two studies reveal that, under independent self-construal, self-concept connection is more important. Under interdependent self-construal, brand country-of-origin connection is more important.