THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONCEQUENCES OF BRAND PRESTIGE IN SMARTPHONE INDUSTRY IN IRAN

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents and consequences of brand prestige in smartphone industry, specifically comparing Apple and Samsung brand among Iranian people. Based on the existing theoretical background, it was proposed that four types of brand-related stimulus form brand experience and five types of brand-related stimulus form brand personality in consumer memory and thus influence the formation of brand prestige. Through a review of the literature, it was also hypothesized that brand prestige can result in five managerial outcomes: consumer well-being perception, customer brand identification, and brand relationship quality and brand loyalty. The results of data analysis indicate that all types of brand-related stimulus aid in the creation of brand prestige, and can thus help to: enhance customers’ well-being perception, customer brand identification, and brand relationship quality. The critical managerial implications of these findings are then discussed in the latter part of the article. Based on the theoretical relationships between the conceptual constructs, a model was proposed and then tested utilizing data collected from 695 smartphone consumers. The results showed that fifteen proposed hypotheses were statistically supported and tow proposed hypotheses were rejected. Theoretical/managerial implications that were derived from the analysis are presented and discussed in the last part of the article.