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This research reveals the presence, in online survey data, of a key pattern documented in psychology lab research: the Mirror Effect. The Mirror Effect occurs when unfamiliar stimuli are unexpectedly recognized as accurately as familiar stimuli, or more accurately. Using a set of familiar and unfamiliar words (as determined by lexical frequency), we first report that we can robustly replicate psychology lab research in an online survey, detecting the Mirror Effect. We then apply the same analytical approach to surveying consumer recognition of everyday brands (supermarkets, banks and car brands). We find that unfamiliar brands can be recognized with the same level of accuracy as familiar brands, and this effect is stronger than age and gender memory biases present in the data. However, we detect a boundary condition for branded apps, which are extremely unfamiliar brands competing in highly fragmented marketplaces, so very few get downloaded or used. For these digital brands, we find a Concordant Effect, as most respondents find it difficult to recognize highly unfamiliar branded apps (i.e., those with fewer than 5000 downloads). The Mirror Effect re‐emerges for highly experienced app users. These results demonstrate the implications of a generalizable empirical pattern from cognitive psychology for branding and advertising theory. The outcomes of this research also translate into practical guidelines for brand performance measurement via online surveys, mitigating recognition memory bias for the development of marketing strategies based on more accurate interpretation of empirical evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestream shopping can potentially contribute to impulse buying because this format's immediacy and interactive nature may induce viewers to make unplanned purchases. As a relatively new concept, livestream shopping is still being explored by retailers and consumers alike. Given its rapid rise in recent years, understanding this phenomenon and its potential is crucial. We applied a two‐study strategy to understand the influencer and environmental characteristics that may affect users' impulse‐buying behavior, adopting a stimulus–organism–response framework in both studies. We applied a partial least squares structural equation model to the gathered data (671 questionnaires), revealing that perceived usefulness influences impulse buying more than perceived enjoyment. This difference is more vivid for more experienced livestream shoppers, who tend to value perceived usefulness under the influence of streamer characteristics. With a qualitative approach, the second study evaluated the performance of a top‐streaming influencer in China to determine whether the survey's most influential variables were adopted during the most successful sale ever. Our findings suggest that endorser style and promotion strategies (scarcity and sales promotions) affect consumer behavior. This study thus provides firms with insights into effectively influencing consumers' impulse‐buying behavior in livestreaming commerce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feeling or anticipating guilt associated with consumption situations may lead consumers to adjust their behaviors to avoid those unpleasant feelings and better conform to their personal, moral, and social standards. The experience of guilt regarding a consumption situation is influenced by both contextual factors, including marketing communications, and personal traits, namely the individual's proneness to feel guilt related to consumption. While research has examined the influence of contextual variables on guilt, the individual predisposition to feel guilt associated with consumption has received little attention. Understanding individual consumer guilt proneness can assist managers in customizing strategies to diverse guilt responses: recognizing varying susceptibility to guilt enables personalized approaches across the consumer journey, fostering empathetic managerial actions. This understanding can significantly impact consumer satisfaction, loyalty, and the success of marketing strategies. This study conceptualizes and proposes a measure of consumer guilt proneness, the individual tendency to feel guilt regarding transgressive consumption situations. To define the conceptual domain, a literature review is complemented with a qualitative study. Five dimensions corresponding to sources of guilt (health, extravagance, social influence, misevaluation, and ethics and sustainability) create the initial pool of items. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses corroborate the five‐factor measurement model. The final scale demonstrates adequate convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity. Finally, the instrument is cross‐culturally validated in three countries—Portugal, Poland, and Brazil—which not only strengthens the evidence of its validity and reliability but also lends credibility to its broader application in diverse cultural environments, particularly within Western cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peer‐to‐peer‐accommodation, a sharing economy‐based business model, enables using unutilized houses, apartments, and rooms of individuals to provide shared accommodation to tourists and travelers. On account of the importance of peer‐to‐peer accommodation, many studies have been conducted on factors/stimuli driving peer‐to‐peer accommodation adoption; however, findings remain inconsistent and fragmented. Accordingly, using the stimulus‐organism‐response model, this meta‐analysis provides generalized findings on determinants driving peer‐to‐peer accommodation adoption. Our meta‐analysis shows that stimuli (service characteristics, psychological aspects, social aspects, and technological aspects) drive the organism (perceived service quality) which in turn drives peer‐to‐peer accommodation adoption. Further, our moderation analysis shows that the relationship between these stimuli and the organism, and the relationship between the organism and peer‐to‐peer accommodation adoption, vary depending on four moderators: sample type, country of study, survey administration method, and sample size. Overall, this study contributes to the stimulus‐organism‐response theory by extending it to the meta‐analytical approach and suggesting a new organism for inclusion in the original stimulus‐organism‐response model. This meta‐analysis also contributes to the peer‐to‐peer accommodation and sharing economy literature and provides practical recommendations for accommodation platform providers and their listed houses to develop marketing strategy and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 technology enables luxury fashion brands in the virtual market to quantify the value of digital items in the metaverse; thus, brands can maintain their reputations, ensure consistent and integrated luxury brand marketing, and attract new consumers in the virtual market. Understanding consumer behavior toward buying digital assets (i.e., nonfungible tokens [NFTs]) is important. By using blockchain‐based NFTs as a way to verify the authenticity of digital assets in the virtual market, luxury brands can maintain their reputations and help consumers protect their digital assets. Thus, developing global marketing strategies supported by this technology is important for the success of luxury fashion brands in the metaverse. We conducted analyses to explore consumer behavior in the metaverse with regard to blockchain‐based luxury NFTs. The findings reveal the psychological evaluation process as a mechanism that drives consumer behavior toward NFT luxury brand fashion items in global virtual markets. The empirical findings also extend the application of game theory and prospect theory by revealing the psychological evaluation of risks associated with (not) buying luxury fashion NFTs as another mechanism driving consumer behavior in the metaverse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Augmented reality (AR) integrates virtual content into a consumer's perception of the real world. While academic interest in AR is growing, most prior research has focused on consumer evaluations of AR content and neglected the physical context in which AR content is consumed. Addressing this research gap, two experimental studies showed that context (e.g., experiencing a virtual sofa at home vs. in a university classroom) impacts consumer judgments and evaluations. The results reveal two primary effects of context. First, contexts in which virtual objects meet users' personal and cultural expectations associated with a specific location (e.g., a sofa in a living room) increase plausibility. However, such functionally appropriate contexts (counterintuitively) decrease local presence (i.e., the perception that the virtual product is "here"). Study 2 extends this model by showing that plausibility (a rational and deliberate assessment of AR content) and local presence both impact utilitarian benefits, whereas local presence has a stronger effect on perceived physical tangibility. The findings extend prior theory on the psychological mechanisms impacting judgment and presence in AR, and they provide managers with important insights regarding the influence of context on downstream variables in their AR and metaverse marketing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiential marketing study examines the effects of body position and embodiment in shaping consumer intentions mediated by immersion and enjoyment during a virtual reality experience. After a qualitative study (n = 13) aimed at understanding what, in a virtual reality experience, motivates individuals to want to consume the promoted offer, we conducted a quantitative study (n = 300), using a partial least squares structural equation model. Our experimental context placed the users in the role of a kayaker discovering Antarctica via a virtual reality head‐mounted device. The results confirm the positive relationships implied by the conceptual model underpinning the research. The embodiment felt by the users has positive effects on immersion and enjoyment, which in turn positively shape the user‐consumer's intention to discover the destination for real. This study brings theoretical contributions that provide a clearer definition of embodiment in an experiential context. This study also provides professionals with guidance on the choice of virtual reality system contexts and experiential factors to stimulate positive behavioral intentions, in this case to discover a place for real. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product scarcity can influence purchase decisions, but this relationship is multifaceted due to the influence of various cues. This study aims to integrate knowledge of this subject through a meta‐analysis. The findings suggest that the likelihood of purchasing a scarce product is greater under (i) scarcity conditions of excessive demand (rather than restricted supply) and variety (rather than a category), but not urgency (limited quantity and limited time) scarcity, and (ii) product conditions of enduring luxuries (as opposed to transitory luxuries) and the presence (rather than absence) of social signaling and seasonality. From a theoretical standpoint, this study offers a typology of product and scarcity cues and employs a meta‐analysis to enhance our understanding of the relationships between product scarcity, product and scarcity cues, and purchase decisions, resulting in the establishment of a heterogeneous theory of product scarcity. From a managerial standpoint, the study suggests that product scarcity can affect purchase decisions and can be ethically utilized as a marketing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The usage of proper names to advertise a product is ubiquitous in the marketplace. In many cases, there is very little information about these names. For example, treatment lotion by "Lady Aiko." This research examines whether such a strategy effectively increases evaluations for a product. If so, is this strategy more effective when used by a high‐quality brand or a low‐quality brand? Across one field study, one text analytics study, and two experimental studies, we find that the proper name strategy can lead to higher product evaluations and that such names are more effective when advertised for a low‐quality brand. We first propose, using contagion effects, that products advertised with a proper name are more likely to contain the essence of human creation, resulting in greater product effectiveness than identical products without such proper names. Furthermore, we employ the expectation‐disconfirmation account to propose that when the brand has a higher (vs. lower) quality (expectation stage), the product with a proper name strategy (postexpectation stage) leads to small (vs. large) positive disconfirmation, which thereby results in assimilation (vs. contrast) and forming product evaluations similar (vs. higher) to the original assessments of the brand. We offer implications for new product marketers on how to be most effective in influencing product evaluations, as well as policymakers looking to improve consumer welfare by encouraging manufacturers of generic products to consider using a proper name strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the effect of using relationship (breakup) reminders in advertising on click‐through rates. While previous research has found that relationship reminders may backfire when consumers lack or no longer have certain social relationships (e.g., close friends, family, or a romantic partner), the authors propose that ad messages encouraging consumers after a relationship breakup, as compared with simply reminding them of a current relationship, will increase consumer perceptions of social support from a brand. This is because consumers may find readily available social support from a brand when coping with a relationship breakup. This, in turn, will pique their interest in the brand and prompt them to seek more information. Across two experimental studies, the results show that consumers who are exposed to ad messages encouraging them after a relationship breakup (vs. reminding them of a current relationship) feel greater social support, leading to higher click‐through rates. Furthermore, this effect is moderated by destiny beliefs. These findings contribute to the implicit theories of relationships and the consumer–brand relationship literature by demonstrating how destiny beliefs are important to understanding consumer responses to advertisements utilizing relationship (breakup) messages. Furthermore, the findings can benefit marketers when designing relationship reminders in online advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major challenge in new product development is how to increase consumers' adoption of new offerings. Using the socio‐ecological perspective, we reveal a largely ignored but important social factor that alters consumers' new product adoption. Specifically, we propose that residential mobility—the frequency with which individuals change their residence—acts as an antecedent of new product adoption. Six studies—using different operationalizations of residential mobility—provide convergent evidence that residential mobility (vs. stability) augments new product adoption in both laboratory settings and real business settings. This effect is driven by openness to new experiences and moderated by the voluntariness of moving. Our findings add to the literature on new product adoption and residential mobility. Moreover, marketers should take residential mobility into full consideration when designing marketing strategies for new products and presenting contextual cues to activate consumers' residential mobility mindset to enhance their acceptance of new products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of artificial intelligence (AI) as a marketing strategy and explains its contribution to firms and the factors influencing their development. The study tests an empirical model based on the research variables and constructs identified using structural equation modeling and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (FsQCA) approach. Data were collected from 278 food firms. The findings indicate that the implementation of an AI marketing strategy affects performance. Additionally, this study shows that marketing capabilities, customer value co‐creation, and market orientation are positively related to performance. Finally, the results highlight that marketing capabilities, customer value co‐creation, and market orientation affect the development of AI marketing strategies. The research results of FsQCA find that causal conditions of marketing capabilities, customer value co‐creation, market orientation, and AI marketing strategy are necessary and sufficient recipes for higher firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important marketing strategy, nostalgia marketing is widely used by enterprises to attract consumers and influence their decision‐making. Besides, feelings of nostalgia can be easily elicited in people's daily life and exert a great impact on them. Though the effect of nostalgia on consumer behavior has been extensively studied, whether and how nostalgia affects consumer preference for products with certain visual designs remain underexplored. Our research extends this domain by focusing on product shape preference as a new downstream consequence of nostalgia. Five studies (including one field experiment) demonstrate that nostalgia can increase consumer preference for circular‐shaped products, with social connectedness as the underlying driver. Moreover, the indirect effect of nostalgia on circular shape preference via social connectedness is moderated by consumers' current social connections, such that the effect holds true for consumers with a low number of current social connections but is eliminated for those with a high number of current social connections. Together, marketers seeking to increase the sales of circular‐shaped products may use nostalgic elements or cues in marketing campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose that the positive effect of coming‐of‐age songs on ad effectiveness arises from a mediation process where the music‐evoked interpersonal memories of growing up stored in the brain and their accompanying emotions inevitably play a role, but not so straightforwardly as previously suggested. Rather, their effects work through the heightened familiarity of and peaked preferences for coming‐of‐age songs. We also propose that these sequentially mediated effects are moderated by viewers' developmental attachment styles. We test and find support for these propositions in three multimethod studies with more than 1200 participants born between the 40s and the mid‐70s and almost 60 popular songs released between the 60s and the 2010s. We discuss the implications of our findings, namely for age‐segmented video ads, and suggest future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of product convenience on premiumness perception. A comparative survey and four experiments confirm that products viewed as convenient are perceived as more premium than their less convenient counterparts. This effect persists even when the overall quality and preference of the convenient product is equivalent to a less convenient counterpart. The convenience–premiumness relationship is driven by perceptions of convenient products' manufacturers being more customer‐oriented. Moreover, the mediating effect of perceived customer orientation is stronger for consumers with higher productivity orientation, which suggests that the benefits obtained from convenient products are valued more by those who value efficient time management. Furthermore, our results confirm that convenience, besides influencing premiumness perceptions of the product, also positively influences downstream consumer behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer subversion refers to consumer acts that are intended to impede the ability of marketers to develop and implement a marketing strategy, including market segmentation, target marketing, and the formulation of a marketing mix. Consumer subversion has featured across many bodies of marketing literature, yet it has not been explicitly defined and studied. This paper identifies and organizes examples of consumer subversion from marketing literature. It delineates how consumer subversion is related to, yet different from, related terms, such as anti‐consumption, consumer revenge and retaliation, dysfunctional and deviant consumer behavior, and consumer movements. Consumer subversion can be proactive or reactive, and can be targeted at specific firms or towards the marketing function in general. Such acts range from individual exit or using ad blockers to extreme hostility via revenge or sabotage. This study derives a classification of consumer subverters, discusses the psychological "need to win" linked to consumer subversion, and presents a research agenda organized around consumers who subvert, firms that are subverted, and antecedents and consequences of subversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores Internet celebrities' personal brand development motivations and their strategies for successful personal branding practices. It divides the motivations of Internet celebrities to build their personal brands into internal and external factors as a basic framework to explore the establishment of a personal brand. We collect empirical data on 280 Internet celebrities from Taiwan through online and paper‐based questionnaires and conduct structure equation modeling to examine any causal relationships. Statistical results support the main hypothesis that both internal and external motivations push them to adopt involvement and information sharing as their main activities when building a personal brand. However, only involvement is able to create a successful personal brand, as information sharing alone fails to demonstrate the expected effects. We employ the mixed‐method approach to collect data through qualitative and quantitative sources. In‐depth qualitative interviews of successful Internet celebrities also corroborate the empirical results. This study suggests that future Internet celebrities should focus on involvement activities, rather than just sharing information, if they want to create a successful personal brand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initial screening decision that marketing managers make is critical. It requires the selection of what innovation project to invest in, which is fundamental to marketing success. However, our knowledge of how managers make these decisions and how this impacts performance is limited. By drawing upon cognitive psychology and the managerial decision‐making literature, we address two critical questions. The first question focuses on identifying specific decision‐making types (e.g., specific heuristics, intuition) used when making an innovation screening decision. Based on this analysis and prior research, we develop specific decision‐maker profiles about how an individual manager decides. The second research question is about connecting these profiles with performance. Specifically, it addresses what the consequences of different decision‐maker profiles are on the perceived accuracy and speed of decision‐making? Data were collected from 122 senior managers in these industries. We find that when heuristics are used alone, or concurrently with intuition, managers make decisions that are as accurate as when they rely on analytical decision‐making. However, the process is significantly faster. The findings provide an important step toward a more comprehensive understanding of decision‐making at the front‐end of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Faces in general and attractive faces, in particular, are frequently used in marketing, advertising, and packaging design. However, few studies have examined the effects of attractive faces on people's choice behavior. The present research examines whether attractive (vs. unattractive) faces increase individuals' inclination to choose either healthy or unhealthy foods. In contrast to the beliefs held by most marketing professors, but consistent with visceral state theories, exposure to attractive (vs. unattractive) opposite‐sex faces increased choice likelihood of unhealthy foods. This effect was moderated by self‐view‐relevant attributes and exerted a particularly powerful influence on individuals who were single (vs. in a relationship) and individuals rating themselves as unattractive (vs. attractive). Furthermore, the effect was mediated by arousal, was stronger for men than for women, but did not generalize after exposure to attractive (vs. unattractive) same‐sex faces. As pictorial exposure is sufficient for the effect to occur, these findings have important implications for marketing, advertising, and public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the social media strategy and performance of fashion brands. Drawing upon the resource‐based view, the study explores the influence of entrepreneurial orientation, innovation orientation, and market orientation on social media strategy and performance. Analysis was conducted using data on 207 Taiwanese fashion brands. These data were collected from a mail survey. Structural equation modeling and fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis were used to test the empirical relationships proposed in the research hypotheses. The results indicate that social media strategy affects performance; entrepreneurial orientation and innovation orientation affect social media strategy; entrepreneurial orientation positively affects performance; and innovation orientation and market orientation positively affect performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the point of view of firms' managers, the knowledge of the factors which explain their firms' financial results is considered of great usefulness to propose the most appropriate and profitable marketing strategies and actions. This research sets out from this central idea and proposes a model of relationships that considers the marketing results, the marketing capabilities, and the innovation capability as key factors for achieving good financial results. This model is verified via an empirical investigation carried out among 200 directors of hotel establishments in Andalusia, a region in the south of Spain which is one of the country's main tourist destinations. The results indicate that innovation capability is strongly conditioned by marketing capabilities and resources and that this innovation capability affects the financial results of the firms analyzed. Likewise, it is deduced that a market‐oriented management philosophy contributes to the development of these marketing capabilities. The implications for management are considered very relevant as they must lead these firms to invest in the development of marketing resources and capabilities, and apply a market‐oriented management philosophy if they wish to improve their financial results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Half a century of research on celebrity endorsement has led to the advancement of four grand celebrity endorsement theories. Most scholars have adopted the meaning transfer model, proposed 30 years ago by Grant McCracken, as the most appropriate theory to explain effective celebrity endorsements. In this conceptual study, we present a literature search and analysis that finds strong support for the validity of all four grand endorsement theories (source credibility, source attractiveness, match‐up hypothesis, and meaning transfer model) and thus show that each theory constitutes an effective construct for a particular set of endorsements. We argue that, contrary to the assertion in the literature, no single theory is able to holistically explain celebrity endorsements. Only a comprehensive framework comprising all theories can explain the great variety of different celebrity endorsements executed in advertising praxis. Moreover, we present a prescriptive framework that allows marketers to identify the most effective celebrity endorsement strategy based on a product's or brand's value proposition, as we believe traditional product categories are no longer an appropriate concept on which to base an effective advertising strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inaction inertia is the phenomenon in which people are less likely to accept a less attractive opportunity after having missed a relatively more attractive one. Previous studies have mainly explored the inaction inertia effect on single products or services, whereas this study explored how the promotional frames of sales packages influence inaction inertia toward the individual items within the sales packages and the inaction inertia effect of the target product under different price strategies. On the basis of the cost assignments of mental accounting and comparisons of the current inferior promotion with missed superior promotion, this study found evidence that when consumers encounter a freebie (bundle) condition, they assign a higher cost to the focal (supplementary) product and a lower cost to the supplementary (focal) product. Therefore, consumers who have missed a freebie (bundle) promotion exhibit lower (higher) inaction inertia toward the focal product, but higher (lower) inaction inertia toward the supplementary product. Applying a similar internal mechanism to pricing strategies, the findings also show that when consumers encounter a two‐component sales package with a surcharge promotion using a partitioned price (vs. a price discount promotion using an all‐inclusive price), they assign a higher cost to the base product and a lower cost to the surcharge. So, consumers who have missed the surcharge (vs. price discount) promotion show higher inaction inertia when the surcharge of the current inferior opportunity is salient, but show less inaction inertia when it is not salient. Moreover, the percent of a surcharge as a part of the total package value moderates the impact of promotional price strategy frames on inaction inertia. These findings have significant implications for both theoreticians and practitioners interested in inaction inertia, promotional frames, and price strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In traditional cause‐related marketing (CRM) campaigns, companies support a cause by donating a portion of the proceeds from product sales (i.e., monetary giving). Recently, some companies have used the funds to buy something or just donate their own products for the beneficiaries (i.e., nonmonetary giving). We compare these two giving styles along with two moderators: product–cause fit and product type. Three experiments with various sampling methods (mall intercept data and online pool) and donation information (percentage of sales price, the amount of the product price, or one‐for‐one campaign) are conducted to enhance the robustness of the results. Study 1 shows that when the product and the cause fit well together, the nonmonetary giving strategy evokes a more positive consumer attitude and a stronger purchase intention than does the monetary giving strategy. When the product–cause fit is low, the opposite holds true. Studies 2 and 3 consider product type and product–cause fit simultaneously. When the product–cause fit is high, nonmonetary giving is more effective than monetary giving, regardless of the product type. On the other hand, when the product–cause fit is low, nonmonetary giving is more effective in promoting utilitarian products, but monetary giving is more effective in promoting hedonic products. In Study 3, consumer attributions regarding the company's motives for making the donation (i.e., inferred motives) is used to explain the underlying mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service providers build relationship with their customers for mutual satisfaction and benefits. However, little is known about the relational antecedents and outcomes of relationship satisfaction among young adult consumers. The goals of this study are to evaluate the incremental effect of trust and commitment in determining relationship satisfaction, and the mediating effect of relationship satisfaction in the association of relationship trust and commitment with relationship outcomes (such as attitudinal loyalty, behavioral loyalty, and switching restraint). The model was tested and compared between samples of Malaysian and Australian young adult consumers of healthcare services. The findings reveal that relationship trust and relationship commitment have unequal and equal incremental effect in determining relationship satisfaction in Australia and Malaysia, respectively. Moreover, the mediating role of satisfaction in the association of relationship trust and commitment with attitudinal loyalty, behavioral loyalty, and switching restraint differ between Malaysia and Australia samples. Theoretical, contextual, and managerial implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companies commit considerable resources to building brand associations that resonate with consumers' identities and facilitate strong consumer–brand bonds. The current research investigates a potential disadvantage of this popular strategy. The results from three studies show that consumers with a high degree of self‐brand connection respond negatively to brand developments (e.g., brand acquisitions and repositioning) that change brand meaning. The authors show that this effect is due to a change in the identity signaled by the brand. The results contrast with existing research, which has consistently found that brand connections promote probrand behavior and serve as a buffer against negative brand information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Counter‐stereotypical products (CSPs) are targeted at groups that are opposite to the stereotypical users of these products (e.g., face‐cream for men, construction tools for women). Such products entail adoption barriers, as they are associated with a dissociative out‐group (e.g., men avoid products used by women). A theoretical framework is developed to investigate such barriers by outlining consumers’ cognitive and affective responses to CSPs; namely: stereotyping (CSP is considered appropriate only for the stereotypical user group), subtyping/subgrouping (CSP is useful for certain individuals or subgroups), and derogating (disparaging the CSP due to a perceived threat to self). Study 1 verifies these responses and demonstrates their effect on the evaluation of CSPs targeting men versus women. Overall, CSPs targeting men faced more barriers than those targeting women, and this was especially so for publicly consumed CSPs (e.g., purse for men) as compared to privately consumed ones (e.g., hair‐remover for men). Study 2 examined the effect of a common marketing tool—product design color (e.g., using blue for men and pink for women)—in reducing the above barriers. It was found that blue is effective in reducing stereotype‐based barriers for CSPs targeting men. For CSPs targeting women, using pink was only effective for women scoring high on femininity, and it backfired for those scoring low on femininity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The current article sheds light on an important issue in marketing: how marketers can prevent consumers from returning previously purchased goods. This research examines the relationship between a gift-with-purchase promotion and consumer product returns, hypothesizing that consumers who purchase products that come with a free gift will be less likely to return the products. Evidence shows that a gift-with-purchase promotion reduces consumer product returns and that this relationship is mediated by perceived loss in returning a product. Then, the results indicate that the choice of free gifts reduces product return intention and that this relationship is serially mediated by perceived ownership and perceived loss. The findings further suggest that when consumers with high product involvement can select free gifts among alternatives, they tend to perceive more ownership and loss and thereby are less likely to return the promoted product. Overall, the current research proposes that consumers prefer to seize the deal rather than to return it when they get a gift-with-purchase, have a chance to select a free gift, and are highly involved with the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Cause-related marketing (CRM) is almost ubiquitous as brands of all price points participate in this marketing strategy in the United States and internationally, as well. The value that CRM brings to the firm, the consumer, and the nonprofit organization has made it a popular and valuable tool for marketers. Academic research on CRM has gained momentum in recent years as the strategy has matured. However, insights have occurred without a framework to provide structure and direction for this body of research. Given CRM's continued popularity, the purpose of this article is to (1) propose an evolutionary process model (EPM) of CRM to explain the iterative process (2) utilize this model as a framework for (a) organizing the systematic review of the empirical literature on CRM and (b) for identifying some gaps in the literature. Propositions based on these gaps are provided for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT With the rise of obesity in America, especially within the African-American community, it is essential to identify strategies to encourage healthier food choices. Limited research has examined what, apart from socioeconomic indicators and targeted marketing, affects African Americans' food choice. The current research explores how a self-focus or racial group-focus, in the absence of explicit eating-norm primes, social influence, and identity threats, affects food choices and this varies by race. A group-focus leads African Americans (Caucasians) to demonstrate unhealthy (healthy) food choices. On the contrary, a self-focus leads African Americans to demonstrate healthier preferences while there is no change in Caucasians' food preferences. Additionally, the current research shows how self-affirmation, in the absence of threat, can be an effective mechanism for behavior change, for both African Americans and Caucasians. Affirming valued self-attributes, after a group-focus, leads to healthier food choices for individuals of both races. These findings are important as they may help identify ways to increase healthier nutrition choices in general and specifically for African Americans. Potential marketing strategies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the effect of stylistic information about a product, defined as verbal product information aimed at helping consumers to interpret a product's visual design, on consumers' aesthetic responses. The results of three experimental studies show that for consumers with higher centrality of visual product aesthetics (CVPA), stylistic information positively influences aesthetic responses through perceived meaningfulness of product design (i.e., the extent to which an individual is able to make sense of a product's visual appearance and understands what it represents). Further, these effects translate into consumers' purchase intentions. For consumers with lower CVPA, stylistic information neither affects aesthetic responses nor perceived meaningfulness of product design. These findings contribute to existing research on consumers' aesthetic processing by highlighting the importance for consumers to grasp a product's design meaning in order to maximally appreciate its visual appeal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional attachment (EA)-the emotional bond connecting an individual with a specific target-has been identified as an important construct within the marketing domain. Despite all the research, there is no consensus on how the construct should be measured. A major factor contributing to this confusion is that current definitions and, consequently, scales of EA focus on describing reactions toward specific referents of attachment rather than on capturing the extent of emotion an individual feels; hence, hindering construct validity. In this article, the authors scrutinized the concept validity of EA. After defining the construct, scale development procedures were followed to propose an alternative one-dimensional scale that reflects the abstract nature of EA. Three studies support the scale's reliability as well as the discriminant, convergent, criterion, and nomological validity of the measure. The studies tested the scale under different marketing contexts. Moreover, by employing the new measure, the findings showed that EA and self-concept maintenance (SCM) are related, yet different constructs. Specifically, the results showed that these constructs interact to predict willingness to pay (WTP) for a brand such that when SCM is low, WTP is predicted by EA. However, when self-concept is high, the effect of EA on WTP is not that strong. This new scale will help researchers extend research on EA to a broader set of contexts, explore the relationship between EA and related constructs, develop nomological networks, and prevent the confounding of terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have investigated the performance of frontline employees (FLEs) and how these employees influence organizational success. Because customer-perceived outcomes are important, much attention has been devoted to the customer orientation (CO) construct. The weak influence of CO on external measures, however, has led to numerous research questions. The current work addresses these questions by introducing a new construct, 'productivity propensity,' while examining its relationship with CO and multiple outcome measures. Results from two distinct samples suggest that the construct is a valuable addition to the FLE literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Values are an important concept in marketing because they comprise part of peoples' identity and can thus help marketers separate and target different audiences. Unsurprisingly, places and their marketing initiatives increasingly try to appeal to (potential) residents' identity by communicating core values. While the notion of value congruence is not novel, most empirical methods in marketing to date only account for the degree rather than the level of congruence. To address this issue, the present article utilizes polynomial regression and response surface methodology (Edwards & Parry, ) in the context of place marketing. Accordingly, the first study shows that the perceived congruence of residents' own values and the values of stereotypical city inhabitants significantly affect residents' feelings about their own cities ( N = 1257), but with different effects for different values and levels of congruence. This finding holds not only for popular target groups such as the 'creative class' but also across all groups. The second study ( N = 449) shows that city slogans can effectively communicate specific values and that value congruence leads to a more positive evaluation of the city brand. Finally, the article discusses the benefits of differentiating between levels of congruence both in marketing research in general, and place brand management in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introducing cross-gender brand extensions-masculine or feminine brands that extend to the opposite gender-is a growing trend on the marketplace, though not always a successful one. This research examines the effect of consumer multifactorial gender and biological sex on consumers' evaluation of cross-gender brand extensions. The influence of gender role attitudes is demonstrated: consumers with traditional gender attitudes are significantly more reluctant to accept these extensions than consumers with more liberal attitudes. Hence the extensions have a negative impact on the subsequent attitude of the former group toward the parent brand, contrary to their effect on more egalitarian consumers. No significant impact of the consumer's biological sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation is identified. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings for the development of cross-gender brand extensions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New technologies are hitting the marketplace every day. In trying to make sense of these new technologies, consumers perceive a series of risks and benefits of consumption and use those perceptions to form product judgments. One way for managers to mitigate organizational related risk is to understand how consumers perceive consumption-related risk. To illustrate this point, the case of genetically modified (GM) food is examined and a series of focus groups is conducted in which participants examined different product labels that either framed the technology as a benefit gained or as a risk avoided. The results indicate that consumers do indeed form very different product evaluations based on how the new technology is framed, but these evaluations vary based on the level of the consumers' preexisting knowledge. This study provides support for the contention that a better understanding of consumer risk perceptions is an important first step in developing marketing strategies for new technology-oriented products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research augments efforts to produce a richer understanding of the drivers of choice confidence. It investigates the interplay of a contextual factor that is readily influenced by marketing channel members (i.e., information diagnosticity) and an individual difference variable that alters the nature and extent of information processing (i.e., Need for Cognitive Closure; NFCC). Findings from two experimental studies demonstrate a positive influence of NFCC on choice confidence when information diagnosticity is low, but not when it is high. Furthermore, at high levels of NFCC, the influence of information diagnosticity is fully attenuated such that people with high NFCC derive equivalent choice confidence from information that is high or low in diagnosticity. The NFCC effect appears to operate by undermining the influence of information diagnosticity on perceptions of information adequacy and performance expectations. This research holds implications for marketing communications strategy, targeted marketing practices, and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of brand extensions has become fundamental to the business model of most luxury brands. Many traditional luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton or Chanel have expanded into traditional luxury sectors beyond their core business. Some brands such as Armani or Prada even crossed boundaries to nontraditional lifestyle segments to pursue new business opportunities. Given the high practical relevance of brand extensions for luxury brands and the importance to understand the success factors for their extendibility and potential backward effects on the parent brand, surprisingly little research has addressed these issues for luxury brands in comparison to nonluxury brands. The current research reveals extension-related differences between luxury and nonluxury brands by simultaneously analyzing key dimensions of parent brand value, fit, and extension category involvement on the consumer's attitude toward the brand extension, which in turn influences the postextension image of the parent brand. Results of a structural equation model based on a survey among 492 participants show that the predominant driver of brand extension success for both luxury and nonluxury brands is overall extension fit, followed by the consumer's involvement in the extension category. The influence of functional value of the parent brand on the extension evaluation is more important for nonluxury brands. The hedonic value of the parent brand is found to be of relevance only in case of luxury brands. Moreover, a reciprocal spillover effect between the extension evaluation and the parent brand evaluation is observed. The degree of luxuriousness of the parent brand moderates this relationship. This effect is weaker for luxury brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Marketing communications that utilize partnerships between a brand or corporation and a sport, art, or community activity are thoroughly integrated into our understanding of business behavior. Despite the ubiquity of sponsorship relationships as the bases of communication platforms, we still do not understand fully how they work when successful, and how they do not work when they fail. Memory is important to the communication function of all sponsorships and a strategic objective of many. Thus, we explore memory for sponsorship relationships. The aim is to codify our progress to date in measuring memory-related sponsorship outcomes, to identify where shortcomings in our understanding remain and to move toward more complete and explanatory models of sponsorship effects. Topics discussed include: memory as a measure of sponsorship success, strong and weak memory objectives, implicit and explicit memory, interference from competitors, strategic encoding processes, cueing memory retrieval, redefining memories, and enhancing memory for sponsorship relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compares the influence of sales promotions on brand attitude across promotion types over time. An experiment is conducted with 154 subjects, who are exposed to test materials for 12 weeks. Evidence shows that the long-term effects of sales promotions on brand attitude vary across deal types. Non-monetary promotions seem to work better in eliciting consumers' favorable brand attitude than monetary promotions over time. However, such effects are moderated by consumers' deal proneness. Although monetary promotions may induce more negative effects than non-monetary promotions, these effects are weaker for high deal-prone consumers than for low deal-prone consumers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing the case-based reminding theory in analogical reasoning, this research proposes that the evaluation of a brand extension can be improved by reminding consumers of a similar brand in the extension category. This effect is derived from a brand-to-brand similarity, in addition to the product-to-product and brand-to-product similarity identified in prior literature. Experiment 1 explores the idea that the effect of similar case reminders is most pronounced in moderately similar extensions than in highly similar or highly dissimilar extensions due to schema congruity. Experiments 2 and 3 distinguish the levels of similarity (i.e., product-to-product, brand-to-product, and brand-to-brand similarity) as a source of consumers' evaluations on a brand extension and further eliminate an alternative explanation of instantaneous learning in the advertisement setup of Experiment 1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implications of recent consumer research for information system usage in the e-marketplace are still poorly understood. However, understanding consumers' intentions to continue to use these systems remains a priority in practical marketing management, as leading marketplaces such as Amazon.com have widely embraced online reputation systems as a useful tactic in online marketing. The re-ported study proposes an approach that differs from past research on this theme by incorporating Foxall's style/involvement model, which relates innovative behavior to cognitive style and involvement in the product area. Based on a sample of 387 buyers from a top e-marketplace in Taiwan, the findings indicate that consumers' underlying style/involvement levels significantly shape their continuance use intentions toward online reputation systems. The paper argues that consumers' cognitive styles and involvement levels should be adopted by researchers as major influences on system users' decision making in virtual purchase environments. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customers' preference for the hedonic benefits (e.g., aesthetics) and utilitarian benefits (e.g., functionality) offered by a product varies depending on the context—buying versus selling, and choice versus willingness-to-pay. However, a customer's preference formation could involve brand information or price information in addition to the benefits offered by the product. It is unclear how the consideration of brand or price information influences customers' relative preference for hedonic and utilitarian product benefits. Does this information alter preference in favor of a product that offers greater utilitarian or greater hedonic benefits, and why? The results show that (1) hedonic (utilitarian) attributes have a significantly stronger influence on consumer preference when accompanied by a strong (weak) versus a weak (strong) brand; and (2) in the presence of price information, hedonic attributes have a dominant influence on consumer preference compared to in the absence of price information. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical contributions and managerial implications of design for synergy with brand or price information. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in positioning strategy suggests that a product schema, when presented in a moderately incongruent fashion, can evoke a greater degree of positive evaluation than if presented congruently with consumer expectations. This phenomenon has been coined the schema congruity effect. To date, one of the limitations of the phenomenon is that it has been applied almost exclusively to taxonomic stimuli, with little reference to thematic, eventlike stimuli. Two experiments verified that taxonomic and thematic product categories differ with respect to their unique characteristics. Consequently, despite successful replication of the schema congruity effect during taxonomic interpretation, when pushed thematically, the schema congruity effect failed to manifest. Furthermore, both experiments confirmed that, unlike taxonomic product categories that benefit from abstract and moderately incongruent positioning, thematic product categories benefit from concrete and congruent positioning. Implications for understanding the moderating role of thematic positioning on congruity-based product evaluation as well as the differences between taxonomic and thematic stimuli are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a new perspective on consumer knowledge analysis that combines Human Associative Memory (HAM) models from cognitive psychology with network analytic approaches in order to gain deeper insights into consumers” mental representations, such as brand images. An illustrative case study compares the associative networks of a manufacturer brand with a retail brand and is used to demonstrate the application and interpretation of various network measures. Network analysis is conducted on three levels: Node-level analysis yields insights about salient brand image components that can be affected through short-term marketing activities. Group-level analysis is concerned with brand image dimensions that characterize a brand and can be strategically influenced in the medium term. Finally, network-level analysis examines the network structure as a whole, drawing parallels to brand imagery, which needs to be managed over the long term. Management implications are derived and suggestions for further research are provided. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical paper explores the antecedents and consequences of trust in the online retail context and examines the moderating role of consumers' familiarity with a Web site in the relationship between Web site quality and trust. Data were collected with an online questionnaire. The research highlights the importance of the Web site interface in consumer online behavior by systematically examining how different quality features affect consumer trust. A multidimensional view of Web site quality with the following dimensions is developed: Web site usability, security and privacy assurance, and product information quality. Trust is shown to lead to positive consequences, such as the formation of positive attitudes and behavioral intentions toward the Web site. The study also identifies the moderating role of Web site familiarity in the relationships between aspects of Web site quality and trust. The implications for e-retailers in terms of Web site design and marketing communications strategy are explored. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that priming independent and interdependent self-concepts affects responses to advertisements. In Experiment 1, for a privately consumed product, the influence of product assortment size on ad effectiveness was moderated by the accessibility of these self-concepts. Experiment 2 replicated this finding for a publicly consumed product and also examined an additional ad feature, consensus information. Ad effectiveness was enhanced by larger product assortment only when the independent self-concept was primed and by the presence of consensus information only when the interdependent self-concept was primed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A table of contents for the issue is presented which mentions stories about topics such as choice complexity, the use of dead celebrities in marketing, and coupon redemption, and it provides information on the journal's editorial review board members and editor-in-chief Dr. Ronald Jay Cohen.

Although price discounts are by far the most common form of sales promotions employed by firms, the increasing use of premiums as a promotional strategy may imply that they are occupying a more important place in the promotional strategy. Since price discounts are quite costly and can reduce consumers' reference prices, undermine perception of quality, and hurt brand equity, it is crucial to know what type of promotion is the most preferred and valued by consumers. As the most recent works in the field have argued that the promotional benefit level is an important determinant of promotional effectiveness, this research reports the results of two experimental studies that investigated the interaction effect between promotional benefit level and promotion type across three levels of benefit (low, moderate, high). The results obtained suggest that at high benefit levels price discounts are more effective than premiums, while the opposite occurs at low levels. However, a similar evaluation of promotional tools was found at moderate benefit levels. The findings offer guidance to managers who might benefit from knowing what is the best strategy to promote their products and services. Our work also extends prior related research because, to this date, the effectiveness of price discounts and premiums across promotional benefit levels is an under-researched issue. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spacing effect refers to the advantage in memory for information repeated at separate points in time over information repeated in massed fashion. This phenomenon has been extensively studied in psychology and has a wide scope of application. In spite of its possible applications, particularly related to advertising effectiveness, the spacing effect and its underlying theories have received limited attention in marketing. Evidence suggests that encoding variability theory, the one most frequently cited in marketing to explain the spacing effect, cannot explain existing empirical evidence as well as two other theories, reconstruction theory and study-phase retrieval theory. This paper reviews these theories, as well as extant research, and discusses implications for advertising and directions for future research in marketing. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]