Consumer similarity judgments: A test of the contrast model

A general model is described that views similarity judgment as a contrasting of product features. The relative influence of common and distinctive features on perceived similarity is considered a function of the context or task environment. A memory probe is used to measure the common and distinctive features consumers associate with various products. The feature measures are then used to estimate the model under three different task environments: similarity, dissimilarity, and subject/referent similarity. The results support the model and the effect of the task environment on judgments of interproduct similarity.     

The effect of a similarity versus dissimilarity focus in positioning strategy: The moderating role of consumer familiarity and product category

Results of three studies show that the effectiveness of positioning strategies based on similarity and dissimilarity vis‐à‐vis other brands or with respect to the product category as a whole is moderated by the degree of familiarity of the consumer with the objects of comparison (Study 1) and by the degree of imageability and concreteness of the memory representation of the product category (Studies 2 and 3). Perceptual judgments appear to be more responsive to similarity and dissimilarity positioning either when consumers are more familiar or when product categories allow consumers to form clear, concrete memory representations. Study 3 shows that such effects are due to a shift in the relative proportion of common and distinctive features made salient under similarity and dissimilarity instructions. Methodological and practical implications are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

If all their products seem the same,all the parts within a product seem the same too: How brand homogeneity polarizes product experiences

Many different factors affect brand homogeneity, including the different products associated with a brand, how they are made, and how they are branded. How does the perceived homogeneity of a brand’s offered products, in turn, affect consumers’ experiences with those products? Nine experiments reveal that consumers have more polarized judgments of product experiences when the sampled products are perceived to belong to more homogeneous brands. When a consumption experience is positive, the consumer has an even more positive experience when they think the sampled product came from a homogeneous brand; however, when a consumption experience is negative, the consumer has an even more negative experience when they think the sampled product came from a homogeneous brand. This polarization occurs because the individual product inherits the brand-level quality of perceived internal consistency—when a brand seems homogeneous (i.e., consisting of homogeneous products), consumers also perceive any individual product from the brand as similarly consisting of homogeneous ingredients or parts. We suggest that brand homogeneity leads to selective processing of individual product experiences, which makes products seem more coherent, products rated faster, and ratings of different product ingredients or features more highly correlated. The perception that all of the parts within the individual sampled product are homogeneous in quality polarizes judgments of the product experience.     

When does an ethical attribute matter for product evaluation? The role of warm-glow feelings for low-rated products

Research on the effects of ethical attributes has recently gained traction. However, limited research has addressed consumer response to ethical attributes in the current context where product ratings have become of primary importance to make decisions. Specifically, this study examines the relative effect of ethical attributes on product evaluations across different product ratings. Building on cue consistency theory and the negativity bias, we suggest that ethical attributes gain weight when consumers evaluate a low-rated product. This process leads consumers to anticipate more warm-glow feelings, generating better evaluations for such low-rated products featuring an ethical attribute (vs. another type of attribute). Two experiments provide consistent empirical support for this prediction, and demonstrate that, compared to other attributes or no attribute, an ethical attribute increases product evaluations to a larger extent when the product received low (vs. higher) ratings. We show that this effect occurs because of warm-glow feelings: when product ratings are low, consumers anticipate more warm-glow feelings from purchasing a product with an ethical attribute (vs. another type of attribute), leading to better product evaluations. These findings have direct managerial and ethical implications for practitioners.     

Cross-buying evaluations in the retail banking industry

Is a customer’s past purchase experience of traditional banking products applicable to the continuing purchase of insurance and investment products at a bank branch? Are service attributes used with similar extensions evaluated differently from when used with dissimilar extensions? In response to these questions, this study develops and examines a framework of service attributes (e.g., locational and one-stop shopping convenience, functional and technical service quality, and firm reputation and size) having positive effects on cross-buying. Meanwhile, this study also examines the mediating roles of satisfaction and trust on the relationship between services attributes and cross-buying. Our results indicate that the relative importance of locational convenience and functional service quality is likely to decline, while the relative importance of one-stop shopping convenience and firm size is likely to increase as category dissimilarity increases. Technical service quality and firm reputation only have indirect effects on cross-buying dissimilar product categories through trust. Instead, satisfaction plays the mediating role for cross-buying similar product categories. Our findings reinforce the view that the relative effects of service attributes, satisfaction and trust on cross-buying vary under different category similarity conditions.     

Modeling Simultaneity in Survey Data

Responses to questions in a survey can reflect a behavior process that influences multiple response items. Respondent ratings of brand attributes, for example, can be affected by past purchases by making a brand more salient, or by respondents attributing higher performance to justify their purchases. When multiple response items are influenced by a common underlying process, there is simultaneity in the data. This paper proposes an approach to model the simultaneity in different survey responses by using common parameters and structural relationships motivated by behavioral theories on how consumers respond to surveys. Specifically, the proposed models show how brand usage and attribute perception responses are jointly determined by justification, order, and brand halo effects in two brand positioning studies. We detect a significant tendency for respondents to inflate their reported beliefs for particular brands as well as the selected brand across five countries in an international survey as well as in a domestic study. JEL Classification: C35, C53, D12, M31     

Multiattribute perceptual mapping with idiosyncratic brand and attribute sets

This article proposes an extremely flexible procedure for perceptual mapping based on multiattribute ratings, such that the respondent freely generates sets of both brands and attributes. Therefore, the brands and attributes are known and relevant to each participant. Collecting and analyzing such idiosyncratic datasets can be challenging. Therefore, this study proposes a modification of generalized canonical correlation analysis to support the analysis of the complex data structure. The model results in a common perceptual map with subject-specific and overall fit measures. An experimental study compares the proposed procedure with alternative approaches using predetermined sets of brands and/or attributes. In the proposed procedure, brands are better known, attributes appear more relevant, and the respondent??s burden is lower. The positions of brands in the new perceptual map differ from those obtained when using fixed brand sets. Moreover, the new procedure typically yields positioning information on more brands. An empirical study on positioning of shoe stores illustrates our procedure and resulting insights. Finally, the authors discuss limitations, potential application areas, and directions for research.     

When distinction does not pay off - Investigating the determinants of European agritourism prices

Agritourism aims to deliver a particular kind of travel experience when compared to more mainstream types of hospitality, calling for the development of a specific model to design pricing strategies. This research examines the impact of three groups of factors on price: (i) internal attributes, classified as common or distinctive to other hospitality categories, (ii) external attributes, in terms of natural environment or cultural attractiveness and (iii) reputation, in the form of online and offline ratings.The proposed methodology, which provides a possible solution to collinearity among attributes, is the Shapley Value Regression. The database consists of 1268 agritourism establishments in five European countries. The findings show the relevance of the services that are common to mainstream types of hospitality and of the cultural attractiveness of the area. Managerial and policy implications build on the threat to the exclusivity of agritourism establishments with respect to traditional hotels in rural areas.     

Cancelation efficiency: Why the effect of comparison direction strengthens with choice set size

Past research has shown that, when consumers compare two options, they pay more attention to one option (the focal option) and weigh its unique features more heavily than those of the other option. This leads to a stronger (weaker) preference for the focal option when each option has uniquely favorable (unfavorable) features. This research shows that the effect becomes more pronounced as the number of options increases. This is due to a higher efficiency in eliminating common attributes from the comparison when succeeding options are considered, which grants more extensive elaboration of the unique features of the focal option.     

Perceptions of the media in three different cultures: the US,Australia & Taiwan

This paper examines business students' perceptions of the media in the United States, Australia, and Taiwan across four attributes—informative, entertaining, boring and irritating. Management implications of the findings are also discussed. Newspapers, radio, billboards, television, direct mail and magazines were selected for analysis. The findings revealed that 16 different paired comparisons out of a possible 72 tests show statistical significance. Media perception patterns describing respondents' ratings of different media classes for given attributes were examined. The perception patterns in Australia and the United States were similar with respect to the informative, entertaining and boring attributes, and significant differences in perception patterns were found between Taiwan and the other two countries.     

Malleability of taste perception: biasing effects of rating scale format on taste recognition,product evaluation,and willingness to pay

Product-related cues, such as brand or price, can influence consumers’ taste perception. Going beyond this observation, we examine the extent to which a stimulus-extrinsic factor, such as the format of the measurement tool on which consumers describe attributes of a taste sample, influences concurrent taste perception, and in turn, later taste recognition, overall product evaluation, and willingness to pay (WTP). The results of two experiments show that rating scale format (i) influences consumers’ concurrent impression of a taste sample, (ii) systematically biases later identification of the sample in a taste recognition test, and (iii) affects overall product evaluation and WTP. However, scale format (iv) does not influence ratings and downstream judgments when consumers are highly knowledgeable in the product domain. These findings demonstrate that the experience of taste is fleeting and not well represented in memory, and that like other subjective experiences, taste needs to be reconstructed based on accessible cues.     

Effectiveness of promotional premiums: The moderating role of affective state in different contexts

This research explores the influence of affective state on ad and product judgments for advertising that features promotional offers of high and low price value. Consistent with expectations, Study 1 found that for happy participants, high‐price value premiums generated higher ad believability ratings, which in turn enhanced ad and brand attitudes. For sad participants, however, the positive effects of high‐price value premiums were attenuated due to message believability discounting. It is proposed that the moderating influence of affective state on responses to ads featuring premiums should be more likely to emerge when attention to premiums is high, as in situations where ads feature less important product attributes or when consumers plan to purchase a product. Study 2 found that the interaction between affective state and premium value was significant when ads featured less important product attributes, but not when they featured important product attributes. Study 3 found that the interaction was significant for participants who intended to purchase the product in the near future, but not for those who did not have purchase intentions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Brand name influence on brand perception

The impact of hotel names on the evaluation of the hotels by customers prior to their stay was investigated. In general, hotels were rated higher on attributes consistent with the semantic associations of the name than on inconsistent attributes. This name effect was somewhat reduced—but still strong—when actual feature information was given, when consumers were explicitly told that the hotels bearing different names had exactly the same features, when consumers were provided with testimonials from former hotel guests, when consumers were informed that the name had changed in the past or would change in the future, and when the actual features were in with the image evoked by the name. The results corroborate the widely accepted assertion that consumers use brand names as diagnostic and legitimate search attributes. Most notably, the findings imply that the effects are robust and resistant to elimination. Four hundred clients of a travel agency participated in this research. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Diversity in Demographic Characteristics,Abilities and Personality Traits: Do Faultlines Affect Team Functioning?

This study examines the impact of faultlines within teams on cohesion and conflicts. Faultlines concern the attributes of several team members simultaneously and mirror the structure of diversity within a team. The strength of a faultline indicates the level of similarity within potential subgroups and its width the extent of dissimilarity between them. The faultlines addressed in this study are based upon the demographic characteristics, abilities and personality traits of team members. We also address the interaction of team autonomy on the effects of faultlines. Data for this study were collected by means of questionnaires administered to 99 teams of undergraduate students. The results indicate that demographic faultlines directly impair the functioning of a team. Team autonomy conditioned both the relationship between the strength of the ability faultline and team cohesion and the relationship between the depth of the personality faultline and intra-team conflict. In other words, these faultlines are more detrimental to team functioning when team autonomy is high. Ability faultlines seem to emphasize similarities within subgroups, while personality faultlines accentuate dissimilarities between subgroups.     

Perceptions of task cohesiveness and organizational support increase trust and information sharing between host country nationals and expatriate coworkers in Oman

Information sharing between expatriate and host country national (HCN) employees is strategically significant. In a sample of Omani HCNs, we hypothesize and find that perceiving task cohesiveness is positively associated with HCNs’ willingness to share information with expatriates and that trust mediates this association. In addition, perceiving organizational support strengthens the relationship between expatriates’ task cohesiveness and HCNs’ trust, whereas interpersonal similarity has no influence. This research highlights important ways in which trust and information sharing may be encouraged, and that HCN–expatriate interpersonal similarity is less important to building trust when more diagnostic cues are available.     

Perceptions of functional clothing by able-bodied people: the other side

Functional clothing was examined as a factor in social interactions between physically disabled and non-disabled people. In the present study, the perceptions of able-bodied college students were compared with the evaluations of students with physical disabilities from a previous study. Seven line drawings of clothing with functional features were rated on semantic differential scales in a self-administered questionnaire. The non-disabled students were more positive than the disabled students on all of the scales for five of the seven styles. The able-bodied subjects also tended to use more global constructs when perceiving the styles than did their disabled counterparts, who were more likely to distinguish function as a separate dimension. Sex differences were found, with a tendency for the females to be more positive than the males in their ratings of the styles. Implications of the data and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Advancing laddering and critical incident technique to reveal restaurant niches

This study, based on means-end chain and dramaturgical theories, aims to reveal critical attributes/incidents that influence consumers to dine in a restaurant and proposes a complete picture for restaurant operators to understand consumer inner thinking that can be used to carve out their restaurant niches. By using the laddering and the critical incident techniques, this study proposes a theoretical explanatory scheme to identify the most critical attributes/incidents for the restaurant operators. From the perspective of dramaturgical theory, the results of the hierarchical value map show that the most common attributes/incidents dining in the restaurant are related to the physical facilities or customer–staff interaction system. Such a map can help restaurant operators easily and quickly capture their strengths and weaknesses from the relationship between restaurant features and customer value demands. If managers would like to know more specific critical attributes/features for their restaurants, they may simply follow the same procedure outlined in this work to find out what is the niche for their services and establishments, in order to survive in a highly competitive environment.     

How important is appearance? Consumer preferences for mandarins in Indonesia

The purpose of this research was to determine consumer preferences for attributes of mandarins in Indonesia, in particular the preferences between domestic and imported mandarins. A focus group was conducted to identify some salient attributes of mandarins to Indonesian consumers. Intrinsic fruit attributes that are important to consumers include the appearance, taste, texture and overall quality of fruit segments and skin colour. Based on the results of the focus group, a survey questionnaire was developed and used in the interview process with the consumers. Evaluations were made on a seven‐point intensity scale for two domestic lines of mandarins and one imported line. Respondents did not know the origins of the fruit when evaluating the intrinsic qualities of mandarins. The results from 113 respondents in the city of Surabaya showed that domestic mandarins were rated higher on all intrinsic attributes. Imported mandarins were rated the best only on skin colour as domestic fruit are normally green or only partially orange when ripe. The fact that imported mandarins continue to command premium prices in the Indonesian market is an interesting phenomenon. Two possible explanations are suggested. The prestige of supermarket retailers (where imported produce is mostly sold) may advantage imported fruits. Alternatively, consumers may hold persistently favourable perceptions of imported fruits. Whether this represents the influence of subjective psychological and status factors requires further investigation.     

On the Marketing of Nations

Abstract

Deciding on how and where to begin a new regional expansion is a highly important and complex task for multinational companies. The importance and complexity stems from the fact that these decisions involve relatively high uncertainty (i.e., risk) and, at the same time, require an intensive multidimensional evaluation process. Many countries, however, particularly in emerging markets, work to encourage multinational companies to establish a base of operations there or to enlarge existing regional headquarters. Consequently, multinationals and countries have a common interest in identifying key elements in this multidimensional decision process and estimating the likelihood that a particular country will be more suitable to fill this task than others. In order to gain a deeper understanding as to the attractiveness of a host country for establishing a base of operation (BOO) of multinational corporations, we explore the perceptions of corporate managers of different Mediterranean countries. Our analysis highlights the different country characteristics that contribute to the difference in perceptions. In addition, we find specific attributes that contribute the most to these differences. We conclude with a discussion of actions that can be taken by a specific country to close, or expand, some perception gaps.     

When will larger‐sized female models in advertisements be viewed positively? The moderating effects of instructional frame,gender, and need for cognition

A variety of negative consequences for girls and women have been associated with women's and men's viewing unrealistic portrayals of women in advertising. However, research on the positive consequences of presenting larger‐sized women in advertisements, and the conditions under which they are effective, has been lacking. The present research examined such positive effects and found that larger‐sized female models in ads were rated as more attractive when an instructional frame activated nontraditional beliefs (a new women's magazine that features larger‐sized models) than when it activated traditional beliefs (a traditional women's magazine). These effects were more pronounced for women than for men, and particularly for women who scored higher in their need for cognition. The degree to which women generated positive thoughts about themselves in response to the ads tended to correspond with their ratings of increased attractiveness of the models in the ads. Implications of findings for using positive larger‐sized female models in ads are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.