How Does the Congruence of Customer Brand Memory and Nostalgia Proneness Affect Customer-Based Brand Equity: Consequences in the Chinese Time-Honored Brands Context

Abstract

Under the backdrop of Chinese time-honored brands, this paper examines the impact and mechanism of customer brand memory (CBM) and customer nostalgia proneness (CNP) on customer-based brand equity (CBBE). It takes into account the customer’s perspective and utilizes polynomial regression and response surface analysis. The study focuses on three aspects: consistency condition, difference under consistency condition, and asymmetry under inconsistency condition. The results show that: (1) CBBE increases when CBM and CNP are congruent or at similar levels; (2) the combination of high levels of CBM and CNP is more favorable for CBBE than the combination of low levels of CBM and CNP when they are congruent or at similar levels; (3) the combination of high levels of CBM and low levels of CNP is more conducive to customer-based brand equity (CBBE) than the combination of low levels of CBM and high levels of CNP when they are incongruent or at different levels. This study comprehensively examines the role of the memory-nostalgia relationship in the development of brand equity for Chinese time-honored brand enterprises. It offers new research insights for future studies and provides recommendations for brand management in these traditional brand enterprises.