Youbranding - The marketing strategy of replacing the corporate brand name with personal names.

Abstract: The importance of obtaining and retaining loyal customers, instead of attracting as many customers as possible, is and always has been a constant struggle among businesses. New marketing strategies are utilized in order to attract attention and to differentiate the brand from the competition. In this thesis, the new concept of Youbranding is introduced. It is a marketing strategy that includes replacing the corporate brand name on a product with personal names. The purpose of this study is to investigate if a Youbranding campaign has a positive long-term effect on a customer's loyalty towards the brand. The social science of this is important to research since it will increase the understanding of what can motivate a customer to become more loyal towards a brand. More specifically, if the use of personal names in a campaign cause stronger relationships among customers and businesses. Results are conducted by investigating the effect on the three variables of loyalty: brand attitude, repurchase intention and identification with the brand. The "Share a Coke" campaign, carried out by Coca-Cola in the summer of 2013, exemplifies the concept of Youbranding and is applied to investigate this new area. The implication of this study is that a Youbranding campaign does show a positive long-term effect on the loyalty variables repurchase intention and identification with the brand. However, a Youbranding campaign does not have a positive long-term effect on a customer's brand loyalty in terms of brand attitude. This study contributes with the empirical finding that a Youbranding strategy can be beneficial for companies with a desire to strengthen their customers' loyalty in terms of repurchase intention and brand identification.