Information and its impact on consumers׳ reactions to restrictive return policies

Designing an effective return policy is a difficult task for retailers. A very restrictive return policy can keep logistic costs down and prevent fraudulent returns but it can also have a negative effect on consumer behavior. Two experiments explore the role of assortment-related information in moderating consumers׳ negative reactions to more restrictive product return policies. The results demonstrate that consumers will view an assortment characterized by a more restrictive return policy as attractive to the extent that the assortment supports the information processing strategy triggered by the return policy.     

A nonconscious processing explanation of consumer response to product design

Even though there is an established body of research concerning nonconscious memory processes and how they may influence preference formation, the importance of this work for understanding consumers' responses to product designs has been largely overlooked. Although evidence that product design can have a significant influence on consumers' reactions to products continues to grow, the process(es) by which responses to designs are formulated has received relatively little attention. The primary purposes of this article are to develop a nonconscious processing explanation of consumer response to product design and to focus attention on the area of design processing. A conceptual basis for understanding product design response formation is provided by research relating to various aspects of nonconscious processing (e.g., mere exposure, implicit learning). The implications of the proposed approach for consumer behavior and marketing are explored. Finally, several suggestions for future research directions are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Functional magnetic resonance imaging in consumer research: A review and application

Although the field of psychology is undergoing an immense shift toward the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the application of this methodology to consumer research is relatively new. To assist consumer researchers in understanding fMRI, this paper elaborates on the findings of prior fMRI research related to consumer behavior and highlights the features that make fMRI an attractive method for consumer and marketing research. The authors discuss advantages and limitations and illustrate the proposed procedures with an applied study, which investigates loss aversion when buying and selling a common product. Results reveal a significantly stronger activation in the amygdala while consumers estimate selling prices versus buying prices, suggesting that loss aversion is associated with the processing of negative emotion. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How does perceived firm innovativeness affect the consumer?

We present a broad-based, consumer-centric view of innovation—referred to as “perceived firm innovativeness” (PFI). PFI is conceptualized as the consumer's perception of an enduring firm capability that results in novel, creative, and impactful ideas and solutions. We develop and validate a PFI scale and show that PFI impacts consumer loyalty via two processing routes: a functional-cognitive route and an affective-experiential route. Our results indicate that a firm needs to consider consumer perceptions of the firm as a whole, and not just new products and technologies, and take into account a functional-cognitive perspective as well as consumer emotions and experiences.     

Is anticipation delicious? Visceral factors as mediators of the effect of olfactory cues on purchase intentions

In examining the way olfactory cues influence consumer behavior, this paper pays special attention to the crucial role of visceral factors — generally defined as ‘hot’ overwhelming urges driven by sexual lust, thirst, or hunger. Our investigation is limited to hunger driven visceral impulses, which we call ‘appetitive motivational drive states’. The results indicate that food aroma indirectly influences purchase intentions through the mediation of appetitive drive states such as taste anticipation, subjective expected pleasure, and taste enjoyment. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that food aroma as the predictor variable first activates taste anticipation, which plays a pivotal role in stimulating both subjective expected pleasure and taste enjoyment. Implications for marketing theory and industry practice are also discussed in light of the fact that visceral states can exert an unwelcome influence on purchase intentions and eating behavior.     

The effect of culture on perception and cognition: A conceptual framework

Researchers are increasingly recognizing the role of culture as a source of variation in many phenomena of central importance to consumer research. This review addresses a gap in cross-cultural consumer behavior literature by providing a review and conceptual analysis of the effects of culture on pre-behavioral processes (perception and cognition). The article highlights a series of important perceptual and cognitive differences across cultures and offers a new perspective of framing these differences among cultures—that of “culturally conditioned” perceptual and cognitive orientations. The article addresses several theoretical issues and suggests directions for future research as well as managerial implications.     

Nostalgia in post-socialist Russia: Exploring applications to advertising strategy

This article investigates nostalgia in post-socialist Russia from a consumer behavior perspective. The research includes the following components: 1) an overview of nostalgia and nostalgia proneness as a personality trait among Russians in the context of recent societal changes, 2) an analysis of four categories of nostalgia (personal, interpersonal, cultural, and virtual) and themes in nostalgia experiences provided by Russian respondents, and 3) a discussion of specific stimuli and advertising content in the Russian marketplace designed to evoke individual and collective nostalgia. The major nostalgia themes—specifically, the break-up of the Soviet Union, nature, and food—identified in the Russian responses are related to advertising and marketing elements for Russian products. The article also discusses the implications of consumer nostalgia for marketing and advertising strategy in the post-socialist Russian economy.     

Romancing Alpacas: A commentary

This essay, while endorsing Cathi McMullen's core thesis—that Alpaca collecting represents a new kind of rapturous, high-involvement consumption (wherein the consumer/producer distinction is challenged)—seeks to further evolve the explanatory account of this microculture. The drive behind Alpaca collecting may be located in specific trends embedded in both the modern and postmodern condition, such as the rejection of industrialized agriculture. Understanding of this remarkable phenomenon in terms of a striving for social connection is possible; the search for novelty; and the search for a nuanced, idiosyncratic expression of status within an expanding universe of consumer nonconformity.     

Using social and consumer values to predict market‐place behaviour: questions of congruency

Social values and consumption values, although intricately linked, are not exactly the same. Nonetheless, marketers contend that the central premise of social value monitoring is that, if one understands people’s values, one can better predict how they will behave in the market‐place. This paper challenges this assumption because policy analysts and industries are relying on both the consumer and social value profiles at a time when society and the market‐place are undergoing a profound transition. Using Canada as a case study, the general societal values of consumers identified by pollsters are discussed relative to nine consumer values espoused by marketers. This comparative analysis suggests that many of Canadians’ alleged consumer values seem to be in direct conflict with their espoused social values. This conclusion implies that the validity of using social values as a proxy variable or predictor for consumer values needs to be examined by researchers and policy analysts. Also, future dialogue needs to occur about adhering to the convention of monitoring social and consumer values using public opinion polls while not marrying this process with public judgement dialogues. Finally, other countries are urged to examine the situation in their market‐place so as to facilitate cross‐cultural comparative analysis of consumer market‐place values.     

A commentary on “Understanding Dog-Human Companionship”

“Understanding Dog-Human Companionship” is important insofar as the article is a quantitative study that validates many qualitative studies of the human-dog relationship and the meanings that dogs have to their owners. The article suggests questions about consumer behavior that go beyond dog ownership. Aspects of dog ownership could be applied to ownership or “consumption” of many things — including cars, spouses, and children.     

If you can’t beat them, let them join: The development of strategies to foster consumers’ co-creative practices

Faced with the challenges of consumer resistance due to the separation of roles between producer and consumer, as well as overpowering marketing tools and techniques, a company can resolve the problem by letting consumers join in the process of value co-creation. Advocating the consumer-oriented perspective, this article explains how and why consumers co-create, which leads to the development of a typology of consumers’ co-creative practices. Four interrelated categories (participation-for-self, creation-for-self, participation-for-others, creation-for-others) are illustrated with the proposed four Cs strategies—choice, complement, cause, and communality—to foster these different practices accordingly. From well-established to newly-developed, these consumer-oriented strategies work to enhance deeper consumer involvement yielding a possibility to attain continual and interconnected benefits for a company. However, implementation is based on a company's readiness and willingness to achieve different degrees of commitment. This article promotes collaborative efforts between consumers and companies, and highlights mutuality of benefits which leads to sustainable relationships.     

Are they playing by the same rules? A consumer gifting classification of marital dyads

This article sets out a research program that examines the dynamics of gifting behavior of long-term committed dyadic relationships—married couples. Our research considers the findings of a study in which the reported gifting behavior of couples reveals two gifting rulebooks; the first rulebook consisting of a set of symbolic communication rules, and a second rulebook consisting of economic exchange rules. Most importantly, we develop a consumer gifting classification of marital dyads. Finally suggestions are offered for future research and implications are drawn for marketing strategy.     

The impact of culture on consumers’ perceptions of service recovery efforts

The increasing globalization of business provides a compelling reason for understanding the cultural context of consumer behavior. The research reported here examines the impact of culture on consumers’ perceptions of service recovery efforts. In particular, we studied in an experimental setting, across East-West cultures, the combined effects of explanation and compensation in shaping customers’ attributions and post-recovery perceptions in a medium contact service—a restaurant setting. Our findings show that the differential sensitivity of East Asian and American consumers to situational constraints influence their attributions for service failures, and thus moderate their satisfaction with service recovery process. More specifically, the results suggest that a causal explanation for service failure decreases the likelihood of US consumers falling prey to the fundamental attribution error. Conversely, among East Asians, an explanation had minimal influence in attributional processes. Finally, our results indicate that attributional processes influence customer perceptions of employee effort, which in turn is linked to post-recovery satisfaction.     

Consumer perceptions of refund depth and competitive scope in price-matching guarantees: effects on store patronage

The study investigates the effect of two characteristics of price-matching guarantees—the depth of refund offer and the scope of competitors eligible for price matching—on consumer perceptions of price-matching guarantee believability and value and consumer intentions to patronize the retailer. The results show that large refund offers built consumer patronage intentions by enhancing perceptions of the value of the price-matching guarantee, while simultaneously exerting a negative impact on patronage by reducing believability of the price-matching promise. The competitive scope also affected the patronage intentions by influencing the perceived value of the price-matching policy.     

How focused identities can help brands navigate a changing media landscape

In today's rapidly changing and fast-paced media landscape, consumer attention is a rare and fractured commodity. Within this environment, marketing and branding must serve customers who are attending to multiple media simultaneously, while brand placement moves brands outside of advertisements and into incidental exposure. Some brands offer a strong, consistent, and focused brand identity on all consumer-facing fronts, from advertising to event promotion and retail environments. These brands can retain their effectiveness in this new media reality, as mere exposure is all that's required to activate their rich brand identity. At the same time, brand exposure effects illuminate the vast role of nonconscious attention and processing in consumer cognition and behavior. New research shows that even incidental exposure to a brand can alter consumer behavior in manners consistent with brand identity, producing effects which may persist outside of marketing contexts and occur even when the product is not purchased or consumed. These findings suggest that strong brand identities can retain effectiveness in the modern media environment, but further work is needed to explore their multi-dimensional effects on consumer life.     

Leveraging social media-based determinants to build customer-based brand equity of a retailer

ABSTRACT

Social media is all about consumer networks and consumer relations that challenge marketers to leverage social media as a means to develop and improve their connections with consumers. Though tremendous opportunities via social media are alluring, businesses are still finding it hard to penetrate the clique of consumer interactions that are largely personal in nature. Despite the opportunities available through social media marketing activities, understanding customers and their behavior, and incorporating that information in marketing strategy formulation is critical to successful strategy implementation. This study takes a significant leap forward in this direction. Theoretically grounded in diverse fields, this study demonstrates how retailers can build customer-based brand equity using social media-based brand determinants. Using seemingly unrelated regression technique, this study examines how retailer brands can leverage consumer characteristics on social media to successfully integrate and capitalize on social media marketing activities. This research study has important implications for both marketing theory and practice.     

Consumer showrooming: Value co-destruction

PurposeThis research employs value co-destruction as a theoretical lens to investigate the antecedents of consumer showrooming behavior. Drawing on relevant literature, a research model specifying showrooming dynamics from the consumer's perspective is conceptualized and empirically tested.MethodologyUtilizing survey data from 275 consumers, structural equation modelling is employed to assess a research model including thirteen hypotheses.FindingsThe study findings reveal that showrooming behavior is complex and comprises differing degrees of accumulative value co-destruction and value co-creation behavior across online and offline channels. Specifically, consumer characteristics, channel characteristics and product characteristics are shown to be associated with in-store value taking and online value co-destruction and co-creation.Originality and valueScholarly insights into the antecedents of consumer showrooming are rare. In responding to calls for research, this paper represents the first empirical investigation of consumer showrooming behavior utilizing the lens of value co-destruction. The study adds to academic understanding of the showrooming phenomena and demonstrates that co-destructive and co-creative behaviors can occur in a simultaneous, concurrent and iterative fashion. Focusing on practice, the findings reveal opportunities for experience-led shopping environments.     

Organic food corporate image and customer co-developing behavior: The mediating role of consumer trust and purchase intention

The impact of organic food corporate image on customers' surpassing purchasing behavior is absent in prior literature. Based on the S–O-R framework, the current study focuses on organic food member customers to explore the influence of corporate ability (CA) image and corporate social responsibility (CSR) image of organic food company on the consumption behavior and co-developing behavior of customers. The consumer samples came from 269 member customers of an organic food enterprise in southwest China. The results show that organic food company CA and CSR image positively affect consumer trust and co-developing behavior. CSR image enhances consumer trust and co-developing behavior than CA image does. Additionally, consumer trust and purchase intention play a multi-step mediating role in the relationship between corporate image (CA and CSR) and consumers' co-developing behavior. In conclusion, our findings provide new insights for understanding the relationship between the corporate image of organic food and the co-developing behavior of customers. The research results provide support for organic food companies that can effectively promote consumer trust, continuous purchase, and active engagement in the co-development of products and services by creating an image of ability and social responsibility.