Consumer response to product construction: the role of haptic stimulation

This study investigates how consumers are affected by haptic information, that is, the information acquired through the sense of touch, when they take part in the construction or assembly of a product. In order to create value for consumers, marketers must understand how and why haptic information affects the evaluative processes of consumers and whether there are specific segments that are affected differentially by the process. An experimental design with two between‐subjects factors was used to examine consumers' responses to haptic stimulation during the physical construction of a picture frame. The results demonstrate that positive haptic stimulation evoked by the materials used in the product's construction results in an affective response and creates emotional attachment to the finished product. However, the effect is not generalizable to the general population. It depends on the level of autotelic (not functional) need for touch (NFT) that the consumer has. Consumers who have high autotelic NFT are more likely to become attached to and, consequently, enhance their evaluation of the finished product when the product materials used during the construction evoke a positive haptic stimulation.     

The impact of 3d virtual haptics in marketing

Tactile input plays a key role in consumers' evaluation of products' substance properties. Utilization of haptic interfaces and force feedback devices that enable consumers to feel and manipulate three‐dimensional (3D) virtual products is a promising but under‐explored area in marketing and consumer behavior research. This study investigated 3D virtual touch created by Novint Falcon haptic interfaces and its impacts on consumer behavior in the interactive marketing of automobiles. It was hypothesized that consumers' instrumental Need for Touch (NFT) plays a significant moderating role in haptic interfaces. Results from a 2 (nature of tactile stimuli: haptic input with force feedback versus no force feedback) × 2 (haptic orientation: high NFT versus low NFT) full factorial between‐subjects experiment indicated that consumers high in instrumental NFT evaluate products more positively, enjoy the test‐driving experience more, and show stronger brand–self connection when there are force feedback haptic stimuli as opposed to when there is no force feedback. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Need for touch and haptic imagery: An investigation in online fashion shopping

Previous research has found evidence that, due to the lack of sensory experience, shoppers are reluctant to purchase a garment online. Despite the importance of identifying possible compensatory cues for touch information, a lack of attention to this issue has been recognized in the literature. On this premise, this study addresses this research agenda to explain the mechanism by which information presentation influences customers' cognitive evaluations and behavioral responses and the role of individual differences in terms of need for touch (NFT). Specifically, drawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S–O-R) paradigm, the study hypothesizes a model investigating whether verbal and pictorial information presentation affect haptic imagery, which in turn is supposed to influence behavioral responses (purchase intention), through a customer's cognitive evaluation (perceived product quality). To validate the research framework, a task-based online experiment was performed. Participants were requested to simulate a purchase experience on an online apparel retailer, after which they completed a questionnaire; 264 valid responses were received. The results support verbal haptic rather than pictorial information as a mechanism influencing haptic imagery and consequently behavioral responses. With regard to NFT, however, the expected moderating effect between haptic imagery, perceived product quality, and purchase intention was not supported.     

To touch or not to touch; that is the question. Should consumers always be encouraged to touch products,and does it always alter product perception?

It has previously been suggested that consumers' product evaluations are positively affected by tactile interaction. However, it is not known if it is applicable to products that people usually touch for brief periods of time. This study sets out to explore whether it is possible to influence consumers' tactile perception of fast‐moving consumer goods by altering the surface texture. In this study individual tactile sensing and visual appreciation were compared with the combined visual and tactile sensing of surface textures for two types of products (soap and biscuits). Three types of textures on the outside of either a soap or biscuit box and three separate sample swatches of the textures used on the boxes were used in the study. The three soap or biscuit boxes were visually presented to the participants. This was followed by a blind haptic evaluation of the three textures, and then by a combined visual and tactile evaluation of three differently textured boxes (either soap or biscuit boxes). The results suggest that a consumer's perception of the packaging of fast‐moving consumer goods is affected more by vision than by touch, which raises some questions with regard to when marketers should encourage consumers to engage in extensive tactile interaction prior to purchase. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How do 3-dimensional images promote products on the Internet?

The study investigates 3D virtual advertising as it affects the online shopping environment. It examines the vividness of mental imagery as a mediator, and consumers' need for touch and product type as moderators of the effects. An experiment conducted with 207 study participants and two product types, a watch and a jacket, indicates overall that 3D advertising outperforms 2D advertising in effectiveness. The vividness of mental imagery appears to directly influence attitudes and intentions by mediating the effects of 2D versus 3D. As expected, the 3D and 2D formats consistently differed more in their effects for geometric products than for material products. Consumers' NFT affected only intentions to revisit, interacting with product type and site type. For the watch product, 3D advertising is more persuasive for both high and low NFT consumers. Comparatively, for the jacket product, 3D strongly impacts low-NFT consumers only, but has no significant difference for high-NFT study participants.     

It is different than what I saw online: Negative effects of webrooming on purchase intentions

Webrooming is a two-stage shopping process that begins with examining product options online followed by making a purchase at an offline store. In four experiments, we investigate webrooming effects on product evaluation and purchase intentions. The results suggest that webrooming (vs. non-webrooming) has negative impacts on (1) perceived product performance vis-à-vis expectations and (2) purchase intentions for the products offline. Our moderated-mediation analyses show that webrooming leads to lower perceived product performance, which in turn results in lower purchase intentions, and participants’ Need for Touch (NFT) moderates the negative mediation effect, which is stronger with instrumental NFT than autotelic NFT. However, this moderated-mediation effect is attenuated when products are searched across multiple categories. These findings contribute to the marketing literature by providing a more nuanced understanding of how two-stage, webrooming behavior affects consumers’ cognitions and purchase decisions. They also provide several managerial implications that when controlling for time intervals between the stages, (1) webrooming may adversely affect retailers’ business outcomes when webrooming within a single (e.g., blankets), related (e.g., baby products), and unrelated product categories; (2) thus, creating an integrated online-to-offline cross-channel customer experiences is critical to minimize the negative webrooming effects on final sales.     

Can Consumers Forgo the Need to Touch Products? An Investigation of Nonhaptic Situational Factors in an Online Context

Touch is an important source of information for consumers, and there is much to learn about its role in an online purchase decision context where the ability to touch products is not (at least currently) possible. The present investigation examines three nonhaptic situation‐specific factors that moderate the relationship between haptic motivation and consumer responses. The results indicate that positive mood, price promotions, and level of situation‐specific product expertise are influential, yielding greater purchase intentions and product judgment confidence when touch is not available. Additionally, the findings of the investigation suggest that imagining a Web site is comparable to actually viewing a Web site. Several implications for consumer behavior research and online marketers are discussed.     

The effect of product touch information and sale proneness on consumers' responses to price discounts

Since price discounts are costly and can negatively affect consumers' perceptions of quality, it is crucial to identify the factors that make them effective in stimulating purchase behavior. Drawing on cue utilization theory, we examine price discount effectiveness in affecting consumers' reliance on the sale cue based on the provided product touch information as an intrinsic cue and individual consumer differences in sale proneness. Two experimental studies indicate that price discount information, product touch information, and sale proneness interact to determine consumers' responses. Perceived quality is the underlying mechanism behind the observed effects. For nonsale-prone consumers, product touch information favorably influences responses to large price discounts by addressing product quality concerns and enhancing purchase confidence, but has no effect for regularly priced or low discounted products. For sale-prone consumers, product touch information is not effective in increasing their responses regardless of the discount size. A qualitative study provides support for these results and highlights the role of perceived quality and purchase confidence. The research contributes to behavioral pricing, cue utilization theory, and sensory marketing and suggests that marketing managers should provide consumers with product touch information when implementing high discounts for products for which prepurchase touch is important.     

The Influence of Consumer Degree of Knowledge on Consumer Behavior: The Case of Spanish Olive Oil

This article analyses the influence of perceived quality measured across intrinsic and extrinsic attributes on satisfaction and consumer loyalty for a traditional food product as with PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) olive oil “Aceite del Bajo Aragón.” In addition, the article highlights the influence of consumer's degree of knowledge on these relationships. The results suggest that the main drivers to explain consumers' satisfaction and loyalty are the perceived quality of the intrinsic attributes (color, appearance, flavor, etc.). However, when consumers are classified attending to their degree of knowledge the main explanatory variable of satisfaction and loyalty of the more experienced consumers are the extrinsic attributes of the product (brand name, place of origin, images associated to the product, etc.). These findings allow us to develop important managerial implications for building a brand image for a PDO.     

Product Touch and Consumers’ Online and Offline Buying: The Role of Mental Representation

As offline retailers struggle to compete with online ones, the importance of a consumer’s ability to touch a product prior to purchase becomes important to study. Prior research has found inconsistent results on whether product touch facilitates consumers’ product-related decision making. Some studies report a positive effect, whereas others do not. The current research reconciles this inconsistency and draws retailing implications. Across three experiments, we show that the effect of product touch on consumers’ purchase intentions and willingness to pay for a product being evaluated is evident when consumers’ mental representation of the product is concrete, but not when abstract. We further show that perceived risk and perceived ownership simultaneously mediate this moderating effect of mental representation. Implications are drawn for both offline and online retailers.     

Exploring the relationship between consumer knowledge and purchase behaviour of value‐based labels

Despite an increasing market presence, little research has been conducted regarding consumer‐purchase behaviour of food products bearing ‘value‐based’ labels. Moreover, as the effectiveness of these labelling formats is dependent upon consumer's knowledge of their existence, this paper aims to explore the relationship between knowledge, openness to experience (i.e. validated personality trait related to intellectual capability) and purchase behaviour upon consumer behaviour in this context. Using structural equation modelling techniques, causal influences on purchases of fresh meat bearing ‘value‐based’ labels are identified and three multi‐attribute attitude models are proposed. The paper concludes that these labels are of value to consumers and that product knowledge plays a significant role in aiding purchase decisions. Consequently, marketing communication implications arising from the proposed multi‐attribute attitude models are discussed.     

Trust during retail encounters: A touchy proposition

Adopting an interpersonal communication perspective, this study examines the propositions that a salesperson's touch increases trust, which increases product evaluations and purchase intention. These relationships are evaluated in a contact and non-contact culture, with need for touch (NFT) examined as an additional moderator. An exploratory series of in-depth interviews provides an initial understanding of these relationships, followed by a 2 (touch/no touch condition) × 2 (consumers in France/Germany) experiment with wine serving as the example category. The findings indicate that touch does not uniformly instill trust in customers. Instead a salesperson's touch relates to greater trust only when consumers have an inherent NFT or when they are from a culture where personal touching behavior is less prevalent. Trust, in turn, relates positively to evaluations of product attractiveness, quality, and to purchase intention.     

Avatars as information: Perception of consumers based on their avatars in virtual worlds

The presence of consumers and companies in the virtual worlds has increased in recent years. It is predicted that 80% of active Internet consumers and Fortune 500 companies will have an avatar or presence in a virtual community, including social networks, by the end of 2011 (eMarketer, 2007 ). The increase in the number of consumers with avatars emphasizes the need for a better understanding of who these consumers behind the avatars really are in order to convert these individuals to online and real‐world customers. The objective of this paper is to investigate how avatars reflect the personality of their creators (targets) in virtual worlds. Using the Brunswik Lens Model as the theoretical framework, an investigation of real consumers in the virtual world Second Life reveals that perceivers who view targets' avatar use particular thin‐slices of observations such as avatar cues (e.g., attractiveness, gender, hairstyle) to form accurate personality impressions about targets. The findings support the premise that real‐life companies that intend to expand to virtual worlds can use member avatars as a proxy for member personality and lifestyles. As a future research direction, avatars and other consumer‐generated media could be used as the basis for targeting and segmentation of online consumers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

I love the product but will you? The role of interpersonal attachment styles in social projection

Individuals often have a need to predict the preferences of others (e.g., offering a recommendation, gift giving). In doing so, it is not uncommon that individuals project their attitudes and preferences onto others. Extant consumer research literature related to social projection focuses largely on particular situational variables that influence social projection. The current research adds to a smaller body of consumer research which focuses on specific characteristics of consumers’ selves that may drive an individual's tendency to project his/her attitudes onto others. Specifically, the present paper explores an individual‐level moderator of social projection, namely, interpersonal attachment style. Across five studies, interpersonal attachment style, and attachment anxiety, specifically, is shown to influence social projection. In addition, the mechanism underlying this relationship is demonstrated. The results show that high (vs. low) anxious attachment individuals tend to naturally consider more counter‐valence attributes of a product, that is., liked attributes of a disliked product and disliked attributes of a liked product, and this availability of counter‐valence attributes lowers social projection. Important theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The Eyes Have It: How a Car's Face Influences Consumer Categorization and Evaluation of Product Line Extensions

This research focuses on a previously unexamined risk associated with the widely used new product development strategy of line extensions. Specifically, it explores consumer reactions when line extensions become too visually similar and examines both short‐term and longer term strategies for solving the problem. Examined in the context of consumer durables, specifically, automobiles, the results show that consumers who make categorization mistakes when trying to distinguish between two visually similar product lines have more negative attitudes not only toward the product but also toward the parent brand. The results of Study 1 confirm that providing a design vocabulary that articulates the car's design features is effective in reducing consumer's categorization mistakes. In addition, results of Study 2 indicate that changes to the car's “eyes” (headlights) are more effective than changes to the car's “mouth” (grille) in helping consumers to differentiate among cars in the line.     

Tense from touch: Examining accidental interpersonal touch between consumers

Retail shopping research recognizes that other consumers in a store can impact a consumer's experience. However, the effects of accidental interpersonal touch (AIT) are only beginning to emerge in the literature. The current research presents three field experiments to illuminate the process that drives AIT effects. This research is the first to show that AIT effects are driven by arousal; specifically tense arousal rather than energetic arousal. The findings build on prior research to investigate moderators of the AIT effect—trait anxiety and social visibility. The findings show that AIT effects are amplified for anxious female consumers and situations where store bystanders activate feelings of embarrassment. Theoretical and managerial implications are offered.     

Combining verbal analysis protocol and wireless audiovisual observation to examine consumers' supermarket shopping behaviour

The study investigates the benefits of using a verbal analysis protocol combined with wireless audiovisual observation technology to collect information about consumer behaviour in real‐life environments. A sample of consumers (n = 36) were given a task to select food products in 11 different categories in a supermarket. Combining methods enabled simultaneous collection of multiple forms of qualitative and quantitative data by recording data simultaneously from different perspectives: the consumer's visual range; the wider shopping environment, to provide context; the consumer's verbalizations. Qualitative data on extrinsic and intrinsic factors that affect decision making and quantitative data on product selection time were taken as an example of rich and real‐time data obtained using the combined methods. Audiovisual material was analysed by Usability Test Software 2.0, verbal analysis data were sorted by a database programme and quantitative data were processed using SPSS 17.0. The study design provided sensitive verification of the nature of consumer interaction with the shopping environment: e.g. during the product selection time (average 23 ± 10 s/product), the interaction with the environment varied between individuals and among products selected. The approach represents a useful technique to enable the value of consumer input to direct innovation in consumer‐oriented product development. It also offers new perspectives to consumers and authorities and related organizations to understand shopping behaviour and the role of critical factors behind the food choices at the supermarket.     

The Impact of Warnings,Disclaimers, and Product Experience on Consumers’ Perceptions of Dietary Supplements

Two experiments explored the impact of disclosures (warning and disclaimer) and product experience (heavy, light, and nonusers) on consumers’ perceptions of dietary supplements. In general, the government‐mandated disclaimer did not impact consumers’ beliefs about either the efficacy or the safety of dietary supplements; for most consumers, the disclaimer is unlikely to achieve its intended results. However, when product experience was examined, analyses show that heavy product users responded differently to the disclosures than did light product users and nonusers. Results point to the importance of understanding the influence of individual differences on the interpretation of product disclosures by specific consumer segments.     

Japanese consumers' use of extrinsic and intrinsic cues to mitigate risky food choices

The stated preference data were used to simulate and examine consumers' valuation of important extrinsic and intrinsic cues that are associated with risky foods. This analysis generates information on how consumers assess trade‐offs between price and selected intrinsic and extrinsic cues to determine their choice among alternative products. From this, optimum level of product quality attributes (i.e. intrinsic cues) and optimum price level for import products can be derived. Also, most effective sources of communicating food safety and risk management can be identified. The results show that the country origin cue is a key factor in understanding consumers' choice behaviour for food product that entails potential risk, which may suggest that consumers are using this information as a risk‐reduction strategy.     

Consumer Evaluations of Competing Brands: Perceptual versus Predictive Validity

This study applies the concepts of consumer predictive and confidence values of information to consumer evaluations of food quality. Examining hypothetical findings from a thought experiment, the study offers advances in cue utilization, predictive validity, and achievement of consumer's perceived quality and actual quality. Separately, metrics for these concepts were applied in a consumer product‐quality evaluation study of three brands of peanut butter. Actual quality was operationally defined in terms of Consumers Union ratings of the peanut butter. Using a between‐groups, posttest only experimental design, female graduate students (n = 98) tasted and rated one of three peanut butters on the basis of quality and nine product attributes. These informants received no knowledge of brand names or comparative qualities prior to the test. The analysis indicates a nonsignificant correlation between actual quality of the brands and quality as perceived by the informants. The major cues used by informants in making their qualitative judgments (cue utilization) differed from the significant dimensions associated with actual quality (predictive validity). The findings inform the suggestion for consumer training in the process of making accurate quality evaluations.