*Article* **Sustainable Brand Management of Alimentary Goods**

**Jana Majerova 1,\*, Wlodzimierz Sroka 2,3, Anna Krizanova 1, Lubica Gajanova 1, George Lazaroiu 4 and Margareta Nadanyiova 1**


Received: 20 November 2019; Accepted: 9 January 2020; Published: 11 January 2020

**Abstract:** Sustainability of food production and consumption has become one of the most discussed topics of sustainable development in global context. Thus, traditional managerial patterns have to be revised according to the social request. The revisions that have been done so far are based on relevant specifics of production and have mostly general character. Moreover, traditional managerial postulates do not change; only their way of implementation is modified. These two facts are possible reason of the practical fails in sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> of alimentary goods. One of these traditional managerial concepts is brand. Within this context, it has been considered as a facilitator of CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities. But the situation has changed, and the suspicion that brand loyalty is not a facilitator but an obstacle to the sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> is high. Thus, the importance of research of brand loyalty in scope of sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> of alimentary goods is indisputable. According to the above mentioned, the main goal of the contribution is to identify relevant brand value sources of loyalty in scope of sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> of alimentary goods. To achieve this, the factor analysis has been applied to provide statistical evaluation of data obtained from our own questionnaire survey. We have found out that components of brand value sources do not vary when comparing brands and those without loyal consumers. Based on this, appropriate recommendations for the theory and practice of sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> of alimentary goods have been formulated.

**Keywords:** brand; branding; brand management; sustainability; alimentary goods; brand loyalty

**JEL Classification:** Q01; M11; M31

### **1. Introduction and Current Situation Insight**

Contemporary scientific literature highlights the importance of corporate social responsibility in the sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> process, not only in general, but also regarding the sectoral specifics of production [1–3]. Thus, according to this trend, producers of alimentary goods should put moral pressure on their suppliers, and consumers should be more involved in their buying decision processes [4]. In order to achieve these changes in so far functioning stereotypes, the issue of brand and brand managemen<sup>t</sup> should be highlighted. But the fact that alimentary goods are characterized by traditional habitual buying behavior creates a specific obstacle to such an approach, because the reason is that, in this type of buying behavior, consumer's loyalty is the leading motivation for purchase whether or not the brand is socially responsible on the market [5,6]. The above-mentioned fact can be considered as a real problem when seeking to achieve sustainability in scope of food production and consumption. The main reason for this is that brand managers of alimentary goods in case of brands subjectively perceived as valuable are not motivated enough to act responsibly towards society, and consumers are not motivated to play active role in the process of information searching [7]. In this case, socially responsible activities are not directly connected with desired e ffect, even if they are applied in accordance with contemporary state of knowledge. While the main theoretical attention is generally paid to the issue of facilitators of sustainable management, practice shows the need of application of an opposite approach—that is, a focus on possible obstacles to optimal implementation of managerial patterns. Thus, it is vital to change the approach and to focus not on the facilitators but on the contrary, also on the obstacles to sustainable development. Only when these barriers are identified will it be possible to manage them and to eliminate their negative impacts on the e ffectiveness of sustainable management. Thus, the irony is, on the one hand, the phenomenon of consumer loyalty can be considered as a stimulus, and on the other hand, as an obstacle to sustainable performance of brands on alimentary goods market. According to this fact, it is vital to analyze value sources of brands characterized by presence vs. absence of consumer loyalty and to apply a conscious and responsible approach to the consumer´s loyalty as one of the leading buying behavior motivations.

Thus, this article focuses on the meaning of brand loyalty research in the scope of sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> of alimentary goods. The first part of the article analyses interactions between loyalty and sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> in general, as well as in case of alimentary goods. This is followed by a methodological part of the article where the main postulates of the article as well as factor analysis and relevant statistical tests are described. The next part synthetizes obtained results formulated on the basis of detected discrepancies in value sources of brands characterized by presence vs. absence of consumer's loyalty. The discussion is also an immanent part of the article and it is included in the same part as results of the research itself. The last part contains the summary of the main results and outcomes of research with implications for the future.

The conceptualization of the research is as follows: (1) literature review and current situation summary; (2) formulation of original presumptions of authors; (3) creation of the model of research based on questionnaire survey; (4) realization of the research itself; (5) statistical testing and evaluation of obtained data; (6) formulation of conclusions and managerial implications, and (7) critical consideration of framework conditions of applicability of the research outcomes, obstacles and limits of the research, and possible ways of further research in scope of sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> of alimentary goods. Doing all the mentioned activities while respecting the contemporary state of knowledge in the area of brand management, corporate social responsibility, strategic management, and statistics.

### **2. Literature Review and Theoretical Background of Research Itself**

In recent decades, many researches in scope of the complex issue of corporate social responsibility have been carried out. However, it is still necessary to continue investigating its benefits and causalities in scope of marketing [8]. Thus, nowadays, it is crucial that the attention is paid to the impact of contemporary global trends on the practical aspects of managerial challenges stimulated by incorporation of the concept of corporate social responsibility. The reason is the assumption that it a ffects significantly the success of each company and its competitiveness by modifying traditional managerial patterns according to the postulates of corporate social responsibility [9]. Until now, the research has investigated this issue separately, without any deeper interactions with overall managerial framework. The representative example of such an approach is a huge scientific school focused on the analysis of supply chain managemen<sup>t</sup> and its importance in sustainable management. It has been concluded that such an approach is insu fficient, and formulated advices for managers should be revised according to the wider consequences of implementation of sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> [10]. Despite this fact, the importance of sustainable supply chain managemen<sup>t</sup> as an immanent part of corporate social responsibility with significant impact on consumer buying behavior is indisputable. The reason is that consumers adapt supply chain practice to the real socially responsible behavior of the company and they perceive their own value across the prism of the market performance of the company and its

transformation into real corporate citizenship [11]. So it is obvious that brands strongly a ffect overall sustainable development of the society as they can be considered as a powerful tool to create and maintain public opinion [12]. According to the above mentioned, brands are becoming parts of people's lives all over the world. They form an immanent part of human beings' reality and they co-act in the process of own value creation as they have strong interpretation power about their consumers [13]. Moreover, brands have become a very e ffective tool of communication. By these, consumers inform other members of their social group who they are and if they really belong to a specific social group. It is a way to communicate one's own social status and life values. Thus, once the brand starts to be perceived as valuable from the point of view of selected group of consumers, it is very likely that this group starts to be identified with this brand and all the group members will transform into loyal consumers who consider such a brand as subjectively valuable for them. A logical consequence of this situation is that there will be many benefits, like less price sensitivity, lower need of communication activities of such a brand, less critical approach towards quality, and so forth. Thus, a loyal consumer is a dream of each brand manager because only by personalizing a consumer with a brand, can brand managemen<sup>t</sup> be considered as really e ffective. However, there is not only a one-way influence between brand and consumers. While, at the beginning, the brand is created by consumers, very shortly after creating a loyal consumer platform, consumers start to be modified by the brand. It means that the brand has potential to change social attitudes and life values and it is willing to be the real tool of social change leading to the sustainable development [14]. Thus, brands characterized by their environmental conformity can be transformed into a strong tool to learn who their consumers are. On the one hand, there is a huge amount of brands who are primarily focused on already environmentally oriented consumers, but on the other hand, there are many more brands (traditionally perceived as valuable and significant for selected social groups) that can change the environmental orientation of their consumers [15]. In scope of the above mentioned, it is vital to pay attention to the detailed segmentation of consumers. The reason is that the segmen<sup>t</sup> of socially responsible consumers can vary internally according to the highlighted green attitudes connected to brands. It means that there is at least a double construct of a socially responsible consumer: (1) a consumer who is really internally environmentally oriented and who prefers socially responsible brands when making a buying decision and (2) a consumer whose environmental attitudes are only derived and narrowly connected with the essence of his/her favorite brand. The main di fference between these two types of consumers lies in the fact that, while in the first case, socially responsible orientation of the brand is the key attribute of its brand value building, in the second case, such a consumer does not prefer socially responsible brands automatically as it is only consequence of long-term subjectively perceived brand value and the main motive for brand value substitution would not be its replacement by a more environmentally friendly brand. Thus, it is vital to identify real internal attitudes of consumers and to discover if the subjectively perceived brand value is reason or consequence of its socially responsible market behavior [16]. So the main task for managers of not only formally but really sustainably manageable brands is to identify internal motives and brand value sources of their consumers and to co-act in the process of market education as one of the prerequisites of socially sustainable development [17].

One of possible tools to achieve this state is to apply a conscious and responsible approach to the consumer´s loyalty and its creation through brand managemen<sup>t</sup> [18]. The reason of such a postulate is that the traditional educational model of consumers (push model) has failed and thus, it is necessary to apply the opposite one (pull model). The main idea of such a model lies in identification of appropriate brand value sources of brands characterized by loyal and nonloyal attitudes and in subsequent usage of relevant brand loyalty sources (brand value sources in case of loyal brands) for purposes of sustainable management. Thus, subconscious consumers' education would be applied—that is, brands will a ffect consumer´s environmental attitudes through existing brand value sources, and this change in attitudes will a ffect their general attitudes towards sustainable development of society. Unless this is done, the consumer's loyalty can be, in specific product categories, considered as a significant obstacle to the development of sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> and corporate social responsibility. That is why companies who are devoting significant resources to socially responsible activities, insights into the optimal formulation, implementation, and e ffectiveness estimation of socially responsible strategies are nowadays still on the crossroad [19].

Although the scientific literature clearly stated strong positive correlation between corporate social responsibility implementation into strategic managemen<sup>t</sup> of the company and its positive image, the individual processes and mechanisms which are relevant from the point of view of this positive effect creation have not been analyzed in details so far [20]. Although the possible significant impact of psychographic characteristics of consumers on the process of a brand's positive image creation has been highlighted, there is a scientific gap lying in the need of the mechanisms of behavioral economics investigation [21]. In scope of the above mentioned, Song et al. focused on the identification of a relationship between selected structural associations and brand loyalty. They provided a case study on the example of co ffee shop brands. As a result of the scientific e ffort of Song et al., it has been discovered that the phenomenon of so-called love brands is extremely e ffective in the process of brand loyalty creation and managemen<sup>t</sup> [22]. Other researches have proven the significance of brand satisfaction and brand trust in the process of brand loyalty creation and maintenance [23,24]. On the other hand, not only the impact of selected subjectively perceived brand value sources on the brand loyalty has been investigated, but also the impact of brand loyalty and its value sources on the e ffectiveness of brand social responsibility has been analyzed. As a result, it has been concluded that brand loyalty is essential in the process of sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> implementation via systematic manipulation with (1) attitudinal loyalty, (2) expenditure level, and (3) intention to buy and recommend [25].

Since the very beginning of brand loyalty research, authors have examined separately purchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty as two main aspects of brand loyalty. Recently, the first of them has been connected with factual brand performance, while the second one has been described as only a hypothetical construct of brand loyalty without significant impact on brand performance on the market [26]. This research rejected the original concept of dual structure of brand loyalty, which was constructed on the presumption of the meaning of attitudinal loyalty as a key issue in the pricing fences setting [27].

In addition to this dual approach to the brand loyalty research, also another one has been applied—brand as a way to build loyalty and loyalty as a way to build a brand. Bhattacharya and Sen have determined the conditions under which consumers enter into an emotional relationship with brands. Based on this, they have detected loyalty as one of the presumptions of subjectively perceived brand value. Thus, they have applied the opposite concept to the so far implemented. According to this, Bhattacharya and Sen doubt subjectively perceived brand value as an antecedent of brand loyalty creation [28]. Following this approach, Stocchi and Fuller identified brand loyalty with the main brand equity source, discussing di fferent segments of consumers and di fferent markets [29]. In their approach, we can see another dimension of brand loyalty research because they draw from the general approach and they also apply a diversified approach. They conclude that di fference in ranking of individual brand value sources (not only its quantity but also quality) perceived by loyal and nonloyal consumers exists.

Thus, also the relationship between the sources of sustainable brand value managemen<sup>t</sup> and brand loyalty is analyzed [30]. It has been found that there is a positive correlation between (1) sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> and brand attitude; (2) brand attitude and brand loyalty, and (3) brand loyalty and sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> [31]. This conclusion is essential as so far, the authors have mainly stated that sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> has a positive impact on perceived brand value. The key importance of brand loyalty in this process has not been detected until now. Moreover, it has been also highlighted that the concept of brand value and its patterns could vary across socio-cultural specifics of consumers. It means that the need of focusing on the consumers at the regional basis has been stated. According to this trend, contemporary research not only highlights the importance of consumer loyalty in the process of brand managemen<sup>t</sup> in general, but authors also focus on identification of sources of brand loyalty across markets (in both product and regional prospective) [32,33].

Chatzipanagiotou et al. have applied a cross-cultural approach to the analysis of brand value sources [34]. They state that most of the so far created models of brand value building and managing are very simple and they do not take into account the complexity of relevant factors. As such a factor, it is identified also the consumer behavior and its individuality and difficult predictability due to the rejection of the traditional neoclassical concept of so-called *Homo Oeconomicus*. So, they have constructed regression model with significant factors affecting the final subjectively perceived brand value as well as they have identified critical points of this model implementation when applying it to cross-cultural environment. Regional specifics in perception of brand value sources with implications to brand loyalty have been discussed by Sukalova et al., Tamuliene and Pilipavicius, Rozgina, Jain and Zaman, and Christodoulides et al. These authors have verified the effectiveness of traditional Aaker's quadratic model of brand value sources in the wider perspective of unified European single market as well as individual national markets, formulating advices for the practice of international brand value managemen<sup>t</sup> [35–39].

Not only regional but also sectoral specifics are relevant for the research of interactions between brand loyalty and sustainable management. Rather et al. focused in their research on sectoral specifics of brand loyalty using factor analysis [40]. They have developed an integrated model of brand loyalty building based on the consumer's perception of identified key brand value sources (brand commitment, brand trust and brand satisfaction).

Emotional attributes of brand loyalty in general (not respecting product or regional prospective but focusing on the pure nature of brand value sources in scope of consumer's characteristics) have been analyzed by Poushneh and Vasquez-Parraga [41]. On the one hand, they have removed the traditional heterogeneous approach, but on the other hand, they have incorporated another selective criterion—consumer typology. This approach follows the research which examined the changes in brand loyalty over time, a case study of plenty of product categories worldwide [42].

Since then, product categories have been analyzed mainly separately, focusing on these product categories where the loyalty can be considered as main motivation of buying behavior due to the capital demanding of the purchase [43]. Previously, customer satisfaction and image were priority proven as the main attributes of brand loyalty creation across product categorization. Unfortunately, only a few scientists have focused on their synergic effect and complex research of the mechanisms of causalities and correlations between customer satisfaction and image in the process of brand loyalty creation in the light and shadow of sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> [44]. One of these studies has formed the main premise for future research aimed to tourist services, as a significant subcategory of services where the decision-making process is based on rational pillars [45].

Similarly, the importance of brand loyalty in scope of corporate social responsibility has been analyzed in the banking sector. According to the results of this study, it has been proven that sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> directly influences brand image and brand value subjectively perceived by consumers. Moreover, dominant importance of brand loyalty in the process of sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> has been identified [46,47]. IT sector is another field where consumer's loyalty has been discussed as one of the pillars of CSR (corporate social responsibility) effectiveness [48]. Not only stating but also investigating the significance of consumer's loyalty has been the aim of the study provided in scope of luxury brands [49]. Generally, all above-mentioned researches focused on the identification of brand value sources relevant in scope of brand loyalty creation in a specific product category. The comparison of brand value sources in case of presence vs. absence of brand loyalty has not been done so far. However, contemporary trend in brand loyalty research indicate such an ideological change. On the contrary, research becomes more complex, trying to find common mechanisms in wider groups of brands.

Such a wider group of brands is also the category of so-called private label brands. Contemporary research of brand loyalty in case of this category escalates turbulently nowadays [50]. One of the trends identified in this field is the investigation of seasonality in brand loyalty, which has been detected by the practice of private label brands. Mainly in case of private label brands of alimentary goods

has the observation of seasonality in consumer's preferences been really obvious [51]. This can be considered as a possible obstacle to sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> based on brand loyalty. This is because the variability in brand loyalty has not described in details so far, and thus, complex analysis of this phenomenon needs to be carried out [52]. Moreover, this fact partially rejects theoretical constructs based on presumption of positive effect of brand loyalty on the overall effectiveness of sustainable brand management. This is because such fluctuations in brand loyalty could affect negatively sustainable brand managemen<sup>t</sup> activities. Thus, although many approaches to brand loyalty and its importance in sustainable managemen<sup>t</sup> have been applied so far, there is still a scientific gap lying in the fact that brand loyalty is traditionally considered as a facilitator of corporate social responsibility while there are various indicators of the opposite—especially in the category of products characterized by habitual buying behavior.

In scope of the above mentioned, these research questions have been set:

