The Effect of the Gap Between Expectation and Satisfaction on Corporate Brand Value

In recent years, with the advancement of technology and globalization, commoditization has been progressing in various markets in Japan. Therefore, in recent years, brand building has been attracting a lot of attention as a means of “de-commoditization” to break away from the current market. However, due to the lack of knowledge about branding among Japanese managers, few companies are working on it. In this study, we focused on the beauty esthetic industry in Japan and analyzed the effects of prior expectations and satisfaction on the brand value of companies. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the positive impact on brand value between high and low prior expectations. On the other hand, the negative impact of low prior expectations on brand value was more than twice as large as the negative impact of high prior expectations. Considering the negative impact on the brand, this study suggests the necessity of increasing the level of prior expectations, contrary to the argument that prior expectations should be controlled not to be too high to prevent the negative divergence between expectations and satisfaction. As for the negative divergence, it is necessary to control it using causal attribution and Cognitive Dissonance theory. Since the results of this research are very abstract, it is unlikely that individual managers will implement strategies based on these results. We will analyze what specific items are more effective in managing expectations and study them to the point where they can be incorporated into concrete strategies.