Factors influencing visual attention: a meta-analysis

ABSTRACT

The goal of the present study is to conduct the first meta-analysis on the antecedents (top-down and bottom-up factors) and consequences (evaluation factors) of visual attention. In this research, 201 empirical articles were examined, with a total of 781 effect sizes highlighting the visual attention effect on consumption choices. An ordered synthesis of the different types of empirical results involving visual attention in the marketing area was performed. Our research deepens and describes the effects of top-down and bottom-up factors on visual attention, demonstrating the differences between the variables that compose them.     

The CEO endorser and message source credibility: an empirical investigation of antecedents and consequences

This article investigates the antecedents and consequences of source credibility within the context of the relatively new but growing phenomenon of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) endorsers. The study results indicate that source credibility is a central determinant of a CEO endorsers' ability to effect desired outcome states. Results also indicate that the effect of message source credibility on purchase intentions, though strong, is not direct because beliefs about critical product attributes mediate the effect of a message source's credibility on behavioural intentions. The results of the study also indicate that models of source credibility derived from the celebrity endorser literature do not generalize to the CEO endorser context. Specifically, the attractiveness and expertise of the message source had no significant impact on receivers' perceptions of credibility.     

Do product reviews really reduce search costs?

The literature on online product reviews is based on the fundamental premise that reviews impact search costs and also affect consumers’ confidence in their purchase decisions. However, this proposition has not been proven in the literature. To this end, we conducted an experiment using an eye-tracking machine to measure the impact of online editorial and customer reviews on consumer’s information search costs and on decision confidence. Search costs in this study are defined in terms of time costs and cognitive effort costs. We find that when present, both editorial reviews and customer reviews separately reduce both search time and cognitive effort considerably, but not when present together. We also find that the presence of both types of reviews increases decision confidence considerably, but do not lower search costs. These results suggest that ecommerce firms can benefit from the presence of either or both editorial and customer reviews through either lower search costs, or higher decision confidence. We conclude with several managerial recommendations for ecommerce firms.     

Shopping centers revisited: The interplay between consumers’ spontaneous online communications and retail planning

This paper revisits shopping centers' characteristics in the light of consumers' choices of actual centers in spontaneous online communications. We argue that modes of shopping centers marketing, which comprise a certain set of attributes to ensure consumers' choice, need to be updated to relate to new specific consumers' needs and choices, taking into account the recent increasing role of technologies, leisure activities and changes in consumer behavior. To this end, the paper considers consumers' unsolicited communications on Twitter as an effective source of insights. Drawing upon 10,544 consumers' tweets relating to the 19 main shopping centers in UK posted in May 2019 analyzed through machine learning algorithms. Results report the interplay between consumers' unsolicited online judgments and retail planning, while suggesting new methods for understanding consumers’ insights.     

虚拟社区中推荐者特征对推荐效果的影响

本文以虚拟社区中的参与者为研究对象，通过定量研究探讨了虚拟社区中推荐者的特征——关系强度和感知专业性，是如何影响推荐的效果的，即对购买决策的影响。我们发现关系强度和感知专业性是通过信任这一中介作用于推荐对购买决策的影响的，同时产品涉入在其中起调节作用。     

A brand is forever! A framework for revitalizing declining and dead brands

Over the years, numerous brands—such as Oldsmobile, Pan Am, and Woolworth—have met untimely deaths. Many more have steadily declined into oblivion, while others have been revived. When a brand dies, significant investments that were made to build the brand are also lost. Unfortunately, even the strongest brands with high net worth are not immune from brand decline and subsequent death. In today's market, where new product introductions are both expensive and risky, it may be worthwhile to evaluate brands that are declining and invest in revitalizing them. However, there is a dearth of studies that focus on declining brands. In this article, we use findings from academic literature, detailed case studies, and interviews with marketing executives to provide guidelines in dealing with declining brands. We analyze the conditions that lead to brand decline and brand death, highlight signs that may suggest an impending decline, offer insights into assessing the viability of reviving a brand, and suggest various approaches that can be used to strengthen the brand and give it a second life.     

Brand response to environmental turbulence: A framework and propositions for resistance,recovery and reinvention

As valuable assets of corporations, governments and not-for-profit organizations, brands have attracted considerable research attention. We know a lot about how brands create knowledge in their target consumers’ minds, which leads to an attitude towards or relationship with the brand that translates into a number of favorable outcomes. The resultant brand equity is often associated with improved performance of the organization in reaching its objectives such as increasing market value. We know less about the dynamic nature of brand equity and, in particular, how it may interact with turbulence in the external environment in which the brand competes, both positively and negatively. We examine three key dimensions of brand equity—brands’ access to their target markets, perceived differentiation, and level of brand engagement with their target consumers—that influence the effect environmental turbulence has on diminishing equity or providing future opportunities for brand equity growth. Borrowing from the strategy literature, we suggest ways in which agile and resilient firms can use brand equity to resist environmental turbulence, recover from any damage that may result from it, and reinvent themselves to leverage opportunities created by a radically altered external environment. We close with a set of propositions intended to guide managers in anticipating and responding to environmental turbulence and inform and shape future research in this area.     

How the level of personalization affects the effectiveness of personalized ad messages: the moderating role of narcissism

Abstract

In this study, we examined the effects of two different levels of personalization strategies (individual-level vs. group-level) on consumers’ visual and attitudinal responses to personalized advertising. We further investigated the moderating role of recipients’ narcissism in the effect of personalization. Results show that individuals higher in narcissism paid greater and more frequent attention to ads personalized on an individual level than to those personalized on a group level, while individuals low in narcissism showed no such differences. Regarding attitudinal response, consumers with a high level of narcissism tended to have a more favourable attitude towards the individual-level personalized ad compared to those with a low level of narcissism, while consumers with a low level of narcissism tended to have a more favourable attitude towards the group-level personalized ad compared to those with a high level of narcissism. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.