Brand Defense Scale

Abstract

The Brand Defense Scale (Roy et al., 2023) is an inventory/questionnaire designed to measure the strength of consumers’ brand defense, conceptualized as the act of defending, forgiving, and advocating for a brand. This measure is rooted in the Fairness Theory of Folger and Cropanzano (1998) and the Social Capital perspective of Equity Theory (Adler, 2001; Adler & Kwon, 2002). The development of the scale involved generating items from existing literature and conducting focus group interviews, with findings analyzed using Thematic Content Analysis (TCA). Data collection spanned three studies. Factor analysis supported a final set of 10 items distributed across three distinct dimensions: Defending, Advocating, and Forgiving. Comprehensive results regarding the scale’s reliability and validity have been reported, demonstrating its robustness in assessing brand defense within consumer behavior contexts.

Keywords

Defending; Advocating; Forgiving; Brand Defense; Equity Theory; Social Capital Perspective; Fairness Theory

Authors

Roy, Sanjit K.; Singh, Gaganpreet; Japutra, Arnold; Javed, Mansoor

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Purpose

This measure assesses the strength of consumers’ brand defense, which encompasses the actions of defending, forgiving, and advocating for a brand.

Validity

Across two samples, the Brand Defense Scale demonstrated strong validity. Convergent validity was supported as the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values for all factors exceeded the threshold of 0.50 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). Discriminant validity was also confirmed, with the square root of AVE values being greater than the inter-construct correlations. Furthermore, the structural model revealed that brand love and brand trust serve as antecedents to brand defense, indicating that consumers with higher levels of brand love and trust are more likely to exhibit stronger brand defense. Predictive validity was also established, with significant positive relationships found between brand love and brand defense (β = 0.35, t = 5.78, p < 0.001), brand trust and brand defense (β = 0.62, t = 7.62, p < 0.001), and brand defense and brand loyalty (β = 0.74, t = 9.44, p < 0.001).

Reliability

The internal consistency of the Brand Defense Scale was confirmed across two samples, with Cronbach’s alpha values for all constructs ranging from 0.78 to 0.86. These values surpass the recommended threshold, as per Bagozzi & Yi (1988), indicating high reliability of the measurement model.

Factor Analysis

Both Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were conducted to establish the underlying structure of the Brand Defense Scale. EFA suggested a robust three-factor structure capturing the essence of the brand defense construct: (1) Defending, (2) Advocating, and (3) Forgiving. This three-factor model accounted for 73.1% of the total variance. The model fit indices for the measurement model were acceptable: χ² = 131.72, df = 71, GFI = 0.95; NFI = 0.94; TLI = 0.97; CFI = 0.97; and RMSEA = 0.05 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Additionally, when the three dimensions of the brand defense construct were integrated into a larger model including brand love, brand trust, and brand loyalty, the model fit indices for the measurement model remained acceptable: χ² = 282.41, df = 71, GFI = 0.91; NFI = 0.91; TLI = 0.93; CFI = 0.95; and RMSEA = 0.07 (Hu & Bentler, 1999).

Instrument

Test Type

Original Inventory/Questionnaire.

Format

Items are rated using 7-point Likert-type scales. The Brand Defense Scale includes 10 items.

Language Available

English. The language present in the original source is English.

Population Group

Human; Male; Female.

Age Group

Adulthood (18 years and older), including Young Adulthood (18-29 years), Thirties (30-39 years), and Middle Age (40-64 years).

Population Details

The study’s respondents were university students and consumers located in the United Kingdom.

Test Methodology

The test methodology involved various validity and reliability assessments, including Test Validity, Convergent Validity, Discriminant Validity, Predictive Validity, Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and Exploratory Factor Analysis.

Keywords

Brand Deliberation; Consumer Behavior

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier

• Roy, Sanjit K.: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4932-2222

• Japutra, Arnold: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0513-8792

Affiliation

• Roy, Sanjit K.: University of Western Australia (M263) UWA Business School

• Singh, Gaganpreet: OP Jindal Global University Department of Marketing

• Japutra, Arnold: University of Western Australia UWA Business School, Department of Marketing

• Javed, Mansoor: Creative Cores Media Group

Email Addresses

• Roy, Sanjit K.: [email protected]

Correspondence Address

Roy, Sanjit K.: [email protected]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Permissions

Contact Publisher.
The scale is not commercial.

Fee

No.

Test Year

2023.

References

Roy, S. K., Singh, G., Japutra, A., & Javed, M. (2023). Circle the wagons: Measuring the strength of consumers’ brand defense. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 31(4), 817–837. doi:10.1080/0965254X.2021.1999305

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Items of the Brand Defense Scale

Brand Defense Scale

Note: Items are rated using 7-point Likert-type scales anchored ‘1 = strongly disagree’ and ‘7 = strongly agree’.