Sensitivity to Ulterior Motives in Retail Settings: The Moderating Role of Dual-Identity versus Sole-Identity Consumers

The current research compares sole-identity versus dualidentity consumers in their responses to different retail persuasion attempts that occur in situations with low versus high ulterior motives. We examine different consumer responses (e.g., interaction time, perceived friendliness, future interaction intentions, and actual purchase behavior). We find that dual-identity consumers (those individuals with sales experience who have both a consumer and agent identity available) tend to automatically activate their agent identity which makes them more likely to take the perspective of the sales agent as compared to sole-identity consumers (individuals without sales experience who only have a consumer identity available). Dual-identity consumers show greater sensitivity to ulterior motives as exhibited by more accurate responses when persuasion cues suggest that ulterior motives are low, but not high. In contrast, sole-identity consumers are insensitive to differing levels of ulterior motives. The current research further demonstrates that perspective-taking can mitigate sole-identity consumers' defensive reactions which can increase their responses to sales agents' persuasion attempts with low ulterior motives.     

See How Much We’ve Sold Already! Effects of Displaying Sales and Stock Level Information on Consumers’ Online Product Choices

Many online retailers make sales and stock level information live available to customers on their websites and offline retailers also increasingly can display this information. Yet it is unclear how consumers perceive such information and how it influences consumer choice. High sales and low stock may both signal popularity and quality, which will stimulate further sales. We however argue that sales level is more diagnostic than stock level as a cue and hence the effect of sales level on consumer choice will be stronger than that of stock level. Also, when both cues are available, the effect of sales level is expected to dominate. In addition, brand familiarity is expected to moderate these effects. These hypotheses are tested in two scenario-based online experiments in which participants choose between competing products for which information about either sales levels, stock levels, or both sales and stock levels is displayed. Results support the hypotheses and also show that sales level is indeed a more diagnostic cue than stock level. Analyses further reveal how perceptions of the popularity and quality of a product mediate the effects of sales and stock levels on consumer choice. The findings imply that retailers can successfully use sales and stock level information to induce quality perceptions and influence consumer choices.     

The effect of customer dress on attitudes towards selling service by sales associates

Eliminating the criticism levelled towards customer service in retail firms is a current consumer/marketing issue. Customer satisfaction encompasses factors such as sales service and first impression. Research focusing on variables pertaining to emotional labour has the potential of increasing sales productivity and consumer satisfaction. This study represents an exploratory attempt to determine if relationships exists between customer appearance and first impressions and sales service. Results of the study suggest that the potential exists for apparel to influence sales associate customer evaluations as a positive association was found between sales service and first impression.     

Problem versus benefit focus: phrasing questions to enhance self-referencing and persuasion

ABSTRACT

This investigation adopts self-referencing as an underlying mechanism for measuring how question phrasing (problem versus benefit focus) in advertising may interact with consumer’s issue concern in determining the impact on persuasion. Research shows that issue-concerned participants were more strongly persuaded by a problem than a benefit-focused question. Those who demonstrated low concern about an issue exhibited exactly the opposite tendency. Self-referencing mediates the results. Furthermore, a variety of issue elements led to increased self-referencing and persuasion among issue-concerned participants. Emphasis on multiple benefits, however, reduced self-referencing and message influence for those low in issue concern. Finally, issue-concerned participants responded more favourably with a problem framed as perpetually unsolved, whereas for unconcerned participants, questions focusing on continued desires showed decreased persuasive effect.     

The trustworthy brand: effects of conclusion explicitness and persuasion awareness on consumer judgments

Two studies examine how a consumer’s awareness of marketing tactics influences the effectiveness of conclusion explicitness advertising (implicit, open-ended or explicit, closed-ended conclusions). Study 1 shows that persuasion awareness and conclusion explicitness influence brand evaluations. Persuasion aware consumers prefer implicit conclusions in comparative advertising that allow them to decide which brand is superior, rather than explicit conclusions which state the superior brand. Persuasion unaware consumers show no difference for conclusion explicitness. Brand trust mediates the results. Study 2 demonstrates the robustness of these effects. Research contributions include persuasion awareness as a moderator of conclusion explicitness effects and the role of trust as a mediator. For managers, results show how implicit conclusions can improve the brand evaluations of persuasion aware consumers.     

The effects of word‐of‐mouth consistency on persuasiveness

Word of mouth (WOM) consistency can be readily observed in online product evaluations. Previous studies on the influence of WOM consistency on purchase intentions have showed contradictory results. In this research, we identify how stronger persuasiveness of WOM is achieved when consistency, product type, and review content work together. Study 1 shows that regarding search goods, highly consistent factual reviews are more persuasive. Study 2 shows that concerning experience goods and credence goods, highly consistent experiential reviews have greater persuasiveness. However, low WOM consistency can also achieve stronger persuasiveness under some circumstances. Moreover, in Study 3, we replicate our findings and explore the possible underlying mechanism. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extrinsic Cues and Consumer Judgments of Food Product Introductions: The Case of Pangasius in Norway

In this article, the authors explore how the extrinsic cues corporate social responsibility, endorsement, and country of origin affect consumer evaluations of product quality, value, and expected product popularity for frozen Pangasius filets, a farmed fish product just recently introduced into the Norwegian market. The effects of these three variables are tested on purchase intentions. By means of a 2?×?2?×?2 factorial experiment in combination with survey data, the authors find that the three extrinsic cues under study had different effects on the evaluative variables. Furthermore, these variables all had positive and significant effects on purchase intentions. Hence, the general conclusion is that importers of new food products like Pangasius can benefit from focusing on extrinsic cues when the intrinsic cues are hard to evaluate or are unknown. Through the indirect effect on purchase intentions, extrinsic cues play an important role when consumers judge unfamiliar and new products.     

Advertising persuasion in China: Using Mandarin or Cantonese?

Advertising persuasion may differ based on different languages and/or dialects. Using Chinese samples, this study experimentally tests how a spokesperson's accents (standard Mandarin accent and local Cantonese accent) influence advertising persuasion across different product involvements (high- or low-involvement products) and different advertising appeals (rational or emotional ads). The results show that ads promoting high (low)-involvement products will produce higher persuasion when the ads use Mandarin (Cantonese) rather than Cantonese (Mandarin). In addition, ads with rational (emotional) appeals will result in higher persuasion when presented in Mandarin (Cantonese) rather than Cantonese (Mandarin). The findings contribute to a better understanding of an ad's persuasion with respect to a spokesperson's accents, and offer managerial implications for marketers doing advertising in a multilingual environment such as China.     

Is Publicity Always Better than Advertising? The Role of Brand Reputation in Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility

Previous studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication suggest that firms’ social initiatives should be communicated through third-party, non-corporate sources because they are perceived as unbiased and therefore reduce consumer skepticism. In this article, we extend existing research by showing that source effects in the communication of social sponsorships are contingent on the brand’s pre-existing reputation. We argue that the congruence between the credibility and trustworthiness of the message source and the brand helps predict consumer responses to a social sponsorship. The results show that a non-corporate source (publicity) generates more positive brand evaluations than a corporate source (advertising) when the sponsor has a positive reputation. However, the converse effect occurs when brand reputation is low: when the sponsor has a poor reputation, a corporate source generates more positive brand evaluations than a non-corporate source. Mediation analyses show that the interaction effect between CSR information source and brand reputation can be explained by sponsorship attitude, persuasion knowledge, and perceived fit between the brand and the cause.     

The effectiveness of number of deals purchased in influencing consumers' response to daily deal promotions: A cue utilization approach

This research proposes and empirically tests a theoretical model of consumers' response to online daily deal promotions. A unique feature of such promotions is their social influence, as they provide information about how many others have already purchased the offer. Integrating cue utilization and social influence theories, the model outlines how the social cue about the number of deals purchased by others influences consumers' deal evaluations and purchase intentions across a variety of conditions. The research findings indicate that the number of deals as an extrinsic cue affects consumers' deal evaluations and intentions only when intrinsic product and deal cues (good vs. service, discount size) and consumer personal characteristics (familiarity with the provider) are not present or are insufficient to infer deal attractiveness. The research offers managerial implications with respect to effectively designing and promoting online daily deals.     

Lost and found: Individual differences in propensity to process visual elements of persuasion

Visual processing style, defined as the relative propensity to engage in visual processing rather than verbal processing, is an individual difference variable that has been frequently investigated in the consumer psychology literature. Surprisingly, numerous studies have reported no relationship between visual processing style and viewer responses to visual elements of persuasion. We argue that this accumulation of null results is due to untenable historical theoretical assumptions that underlie the construct, along with methodological problems that are inevitably brought about by those theoretical assumptions. We reconceptualize visual processing style and test an alternative empirical operationalization of it. Using both new data and a reanalysis of data published in the Journal of Consumer Research, we find the old approach yields null results, but we find the new approach yields the expected results. The new approach reinstates the utility of incorporating propensity to engage in visual processing as an individual difference variable into consumer psychology models of visual persuasion, and it reinstates a powerful individual difference variable that can help push forward the investigation of the unique aspects of visual persuasion.     

Circular or angular? How nostalgia affects product shape preference

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.     

Priming skepticism: Unintended consequences of one-sided persuasion knowledge access

Scholars have historically assumed that consumers' persuasion knowledge is invariably linked to skepticism about advertising and marketing. As a result, studies have often used skepticism-focused stimuli to prompt persuasion knowledge access. However, as originally conceptualized, persuasion knowledge also includes an understanding of persuasion tactics that are trusted and believed, which suggests that accessing persuasion knowledge does not necessarily make consumers more skeptical. In this paper, we propose that, for at least some persuasion knowledge research questions, skepticism-focused interventions may be too “one-sided” because they bias participants to consider only the skeptical side of persuasion knowledge. The purpose of the present research is to test whether the “one-sided” persuasion knowledge interventions that are used in persuasion knowledge research encourage skepticism more than balanced interventions that focus consumers on the negative and positive motives that may underlie persuasive communication. Across three experiments with three distinct subject pools and over 2,500 participants, we demonstrate that one-sided versus balanced manipulations of persuasion knowledge can have differential effects on consumer skepticism. This is an important finding because skepticism-focused operationalizations are frequently employed in persuasion knowledge research.     

Illusion of safety: How consumers underestimate manipulation and deception in online (vs. offline) shopping contexts

Online commerce changes how consumers shop for products and services—while also giving firms more control over consumers' shopping experience, more access to their information, and leading more firms to use these platforms to their financial advantage. In this research, I examine consumer perceptions of firms when they shop for products and services online (vs. offline), to determine whether consumers feel firms might use certain kinds of manipulative and deceptive tactics against consumers. Results show consumers believe firms are less likely to use manipulative and deceptive practices to increase consumer spending, when they shop online (vs. offline) for products and services. These findings remain consistent despite key individual differences (in ethnicity, gender, age, and time spent online). This research also demonstrates how certain cues can make consumers more (vs. less) suspicious of firms when they shop online and discusses the implications these findings have for consumer financial welfare.     

It's about our values: How founder's stories influence brand authenticity

Companies increasingly share the stories behind their brand's founding to engage consumers. The current studies explore how the motives that underlie business formation in founder's stories influence consumer brand perceptions. Specifically, stories that highlight self‐transcendence (vs. self‐enhancement) founder values enhance the perceived authenticity of the focal brand. We examine narrative co fidelity as a mechanism of narrative persuasion through which the audience judges whether the motives underlying character actions represent “good reasons” for action. Across three studies, we show that the values underlying a founder's motivation to start a business influence the perceived authenticity of the associated brand, and this relationship is mediated by narrative fidelity. Further, reader's personal values moderate the influence of founder's values on narrative fidelity judgments, and the relationship between narrative fidelity and brand authenticity is attenuated by a merger between the original company and another company, demonstrating a boundary condition of the observed relationships.     

Managing critical success factors for IS implementation: A stakeholder engagement and control perspective

Enterprise information systems (IS) implementation is often part of an organization's strategic IT initiatives and requires a large investment of organizational resources, yet may fail due to inadequate management of critical success factors (CSF). Using a revelatory case study of a multi‐partner COTS implementation process by a large Canadian government organization, this research investigates successful management of CSF through optimal stakeholder engagement and a balancing of control configurations. This research identifies four distinct project orientations related to stakeholder engagements—strategic, responsibility, harmony, and persuasion—that can be of significant value in managing CSF and other challenges during implementation and post‐implementation phases. In addition to the identification of a need for control balancing in a multi‐partner IS implementation, three key drivers responsible for triggering control balancing are identified: (a) shared understanding, (b) negative anticipation, and (c) deviation of expectations. Copyright © 2017 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of brand personality and relative brand identification on brand loyalty in the European mobile phone market

This study investigates the influence of brand personality on consumer loyalty and the moderating role of relative brand identification for multiple brands in the same product category. Survey data were collected from 1,651 respondents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Results indicate that dimensions of brand personality that are positively associated with consumer brand loyalty vary across brands in the mobile phone category. Furthermore, relative brand identification not only positively affects consumer loyalty, it also moderates the relationship between brand personality and consumer loyalty. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Should businesses use religious cues in advertising? A comparison of consumer perceptions across Christianity and Islam

While religious cues are used in advertising efforts, research has yet to adequately understand perceived motives behind such religious cue use and how this influences consumers’ evaluations of a brand. Thus, this research addresses this gap through two studies examining cue measures, businesses’ motives for using cues, consumer affect, and brand evaluations. Specifically, Study 1 (an exploratory study) explores evaluations and associations evoked by religious cues representative of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Study 2 narrows down the focus to Christianity and Islam to probe the outcome of religious cue use on businesses employing them in their advertisements. Specifically, Study 2 finds that consumers perceive businesses’ motives behind religious cue use as primarily trying to reach a specific target market but also as trying to witness and communicating reverence to God. Surprisingly, religious cue condition (Christian, Muslim, or none) did not directly influence business evaluations. Further analysis revealed that when affect toward the ad with religious cue was included in the model, that Muslim cue condition had a significant influence on affect, and such affect significantly influenced business evaluations. Interestingly, no similar effect could be established for the Christian condition. Discussion builds on the theory of visual rhetoric. Implications for marketing practice are also provided. The studies are limited by data collection only in the United States.     

Do consumer expectations match experience? Predicting the influence of price and country of origin on perceptions of product quality

This study investigates the respective influences of price and country of origin as extrinsic cues on consumer evaluations of wine quality when all intrinsic cues are experienced through sensory perceptions, and then compares these results with those of a survey employing identical intrinsic and extrinsic cues. Taste testing experiments were conducted (N = 263) using Chardonnay and a three (COO) by three (price) by three (acid level) conjoint analysis fractional factorial design. Price and COO were both found to be more important contributors to perception of wine quality than taste. The study advances our understanding of the influence of extrinsic cues to dominant quality assessment and shows conjoint analysis to be a credible means of measuring consumer reactions to specific wine attributes.