Brand building by associating to public services: A reference group influence model.

Finding new ways to build brands that achieve a differentiated status in the minds of customers has become increasingly difficult. Nevertheless, companies today recognise that brands are one of their most important assets and have made them an axial component of their strategy. One line of research that has been evolving in order to help brands achieve such differentiation is with respect to social values. This paper presents a reference group influence model which considers brand building with social values by leveraging brand equity with public services. Study data were analysed using a mixed factorial MANOVA, and results show that, in general, it makes more sense for private companies to associate to public services that are both secondary (requiring an extra payment for their consumption) and publicly consumed (when others are aware of consumption). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]