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Southern Illinois University

What's Cool? Examining Brand Coolness And It's Consequences

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The word cool is everywhere, in magazines, movies and in advertising. Although the origins of the word and its general relevance to marketing have been well discussed, there has been little scientific research of coolness and its consequences in the context of marketing of specific brands or product categories. The focus of this dissertation is to build the first theory driven and psychometrically sound measure of a brand's level of coolness in the form of a brand coolness index (BCI). The concept of cool as it applies to brands is defined and the five dimensions of cool are identified with the purpose of building the BCI. A model that investigates the effects of brand coolness on consumer attitudes and several behavioral consequences is proposed. BCI is a multidimensional instrument that will be a powerful diagnostic tool for both academics and practitioners. The proposed model emphasizes the importance of being a cool brand in relation to brand affect, brand trust, brand loyalty, willingness to pay a price premium and positive word of mouth.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy
Level thesis:degree_level
Campus Only Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Business Administration
Year dc:date.available
2009

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Sriramachandramurthy, Rajendran
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Bruner II,Gordon

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/25
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:opensiuc.lib.siu.edu:dissertations-1025

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Southern Illinois University
Base URL
opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Sriramachandramurthy, Rajendran. What's Cool? Examining Brand Coolness And It's Consequences. Campus Only Dissertation thesis, 2009. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/25