Leveraging Top Dog Channels for underdog brand building strategy: Understanding how coupon campaigns drive top dog channel satisfaction and underdog brand loyalty

Valaei, N, Rezaei, S, Sabermajidi, N and See Kwong, G (2025) Leveraging Top Dog Channels for underdog brand building strategy: Understanding how coupon campaigns drive top dog channel satisfaction and underdog brand loyalty. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Administration. ISSN 1757-4323

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Abstract

Purpose – While top dog tech channels (i.e., Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Meta) are platforms which have developed their ecosystems encouraging the emergence of underdog brands; scholars and practitioners have not reached a consensus on how the underdog brand equity could be a result of channel selection and distribution strategy built on coupon campaign on a top dog channel. Developed upon underdog brand biography, online brand equity, and traditional brand equity as the theoretical foundation, this study examined how coupon campaign strategy on top dog channels amplifies top dog channels with underdog brand loyalty. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 324 valid responses were collected from a pool of experienced underdog brands’ coupon redeemers following coupon campaigns on top dog channels to empirically test a theoretical model applying the covariance-based structural equation modelling (CBSEM) technique. Findings – This study uncovered the strategic integration of channel selections and propose the importance of understanding the linkages between top-dog channel satisfaction and underdog brand loyalty. The results further show that the responsive service nature, online experience, and propensity to trust are positively associated with top dog’s channel satisfaction and underdog brand loyalty. Originality/value – By studying coupon shoppers/redeemers, this research is among the few attempts made to empirically investigate the role of coupon campaign strategy in building top-dog channel satisfaction and underdog brand loyalty

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please contact permissions@emerald.com
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1503 Business and Management; 1504 Commercial Services; 3505 Human resources and industrial relations; 3507 Strategy, management and organisational behaviour
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5001 Business
Divisions:	Liverpool Business School
Publisher:	Emerald
Date of acceptance:	30 May 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	30 June 2025
Date Deposited:	02 Jun 2025 13:32
Last Modified:	30 Jun 2025 17:00
DOI or ID number:	10.1108/APJBA-02-2024-0066
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/26482

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