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.     

Make it Your Own: How Process Valence and Self‐Construal Affect Evaluation of Self‐Made Products

Self‐production, participation of consumers in the production process of products for their own consumption, leads to consumers’ enhanced evaluations of the self‐made products. Three experimental studies investigate how and why self‐production affects consumers’ product evaluations and reveal that not all production experiences create additional value for all consumers. In particular, Studies 1 and 2, using hypothetical stories and real experiences, show that only positive (vs. negative) production experiences enhance evaluations of self‐made products over products made by others. Positive (but not negative) experiences decrease the psychological distance between the self and the product and strengthen identification with it. Study 3 manipulates self‐construal (independent vs. interdependent) to investigate its role on evaluation of self‐made products and products made with close others as a group (i.e., group‐made). Consumers with independent self‐construal evaluate self‐made (vs. other‐made) products more favorably only if the process is positive. However, consumers with interdependent self‐construal evaluate self‐made products more favorably even if the process is negative. Additionally, consumers with interdependent (vs. independent) self‐construal exhibit more favorable evaluation of group‐made products. Finally, even if consumers know how another person feels while making a product, other people's process emotions do not affect consumers’ product judgments as strongly as their own experienced process emotions.     

Matte matters: when matte packaging increases perceptions of food naturalness

Matte surfaces, that is, those that are dull or lusterless not glossy and shiny, are a current trend in packaging. But does packaging surface affect what consumers think about the product inside it? We focus on consumers’ perception of packaged food products at the point of sale. Using three experiments, we show that food in matte packaging can be perceived as more natural. Notably, the effect of matte packaging only holds for rather artificial products. When matte packaging increases perceptions of product naturalness, consumers also expect the product to be tastier and are more likely to buy it.

     

Determinants of Consumer Attitudes and Purchase Intentions With Regard to Genetically Modified Food – Results of a Cross-National Survey

Previous research has shown consumers to be highly sceptical towards genetic modification in food production. So far, however, little research has tried to explain how consumers form attitudes and make decisions with regard to genetically modified foods. The paper presents the results of a survey which was carried out in Denmark, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom to investigate the formation of consumer attitudes towards genetic modification in food production and of purchase decisions with regard to genetically modified yoghurt and beer. Altogether, 2031 consumers were interviewed in the four countries.Results show that attitude formation and decision-making are more comparable among Danish, German, and British consumers than with Italian consumers. Italian consumers turned out to be significantly less negative towards genetic modification in foods than particularly Danish and German consumers. Across countries, the attitude towards genetic modification in food production was deeply embedded in more general attitudes held by the consumers, in particular attitude towards nature and attitude towards technology. These general attitudes were found to influence perceived risks and benefits of the technology. Purchase decisions with regard to the two product examples were almost exclusively determined by attitudes towards purchasing the products. These were, in turn, significantly influenced by the overall attitude towards genetic modification in food production through their effects on beliefs held by consumers regarding the quality and trustworthiness of the products.The results suggest that attitudes towards genetically modified foods are quite strong, despite their lack of basis in actual product experience. Likewise, the strong relation of product-specific attitudes to the attitude towards using genetic modification in food production suggests that at present consumers reject the technology overall rather than evaluate products on a case-by-case basis. This situation may, however, be changed by a possible increased availability of genetically modified food products on the consumer market.     

Local and/or organic: a study on consumer preferences for organic food and food from different origins

This paper gives a deeper insight into consumer preferences for different food products of varying place of origin (i.e. local, Germany, neighboring country, non‐EU country) and production practices (i.e. organic vs. non‐organic). Consumer surveys combined with choice experiments were conducted with 641 consumers in eight German regions. Mixed logit models were estimated to draw conclusions on consumers’ preferences for different product attributes. The Stimulus‐Organism‐Response model was applied to theoretically frame the key findings. Results reveal that consumers prefer locally produced food to organic food. However, conclusions on consumers’ preferences should not be generalized as they vary depending on product type and consumers’ place of residence. When looking at the willingness‐to‐pay estimates for ‘organic’ and ‘local’ while distinguishing among consumers from different regions of Germany, results indicate that consumers living in rural areas and consumers living in the eastern part of Germany are less willing to pay a premium for organic products than urban consumers and consumers from other parts of Germany. As preferences for origin attributes and organic production vary between different food products and in different regions of Germany, market actors should design marketing activities accordingly. This study adds to the international research on consumers’ preferences for organic and/or local food. The results provide better insights into preference structures, as more than one product has been included and surveys were conducted in different regions across Germany.     

Chirping birds and barking dogs: The interactive effect of ambient sensory cue source and valence on consumers’ choice of natural products

A longstanding assumption underlying retail atmospherics is that positive sensations are inherently more advantageous to sales than negative ones. Using an approach-avoidance motivation framework, we challenge this assumption and highlight situations where unpleasant sensations may be beneficial to both consumers and businesses. In two studies with consequential decisions involving natural and conventional/processed products, we demonstrate an interactive effect of ambient sensory cue source and valence on product choices. We find evidence for this effect across auditory and olfactory sensory modalities. We further demonstrate that this effect is mediated by accessibility of natural (vs. non-natural) concepts and that it occurs primarily among individuals who are intrinsically motivated to consume natural products. Taken together, these results support the hypothesis that ambient sensory cues may have a strong impact on consumers’ product choices. Our findings extend prior work on ambient sensations within retail environments and highlight the role of affect-laden sensations, particularly negative ones – an area that has received very little attention in the literature.     

The Catch-22 of Responsible Luxury: Effects of Luxury Product Characteristics on Consumers’ Perception of Fit with Corporate Social Responsibility

The notion of “responsible luxury” may appear as a contradiction in terms. This article investigates the influence of two defining characteristics of luxury products—scarcity and ephemerality—on consumers’ perception of the fit between luxury and corporate social responsibility (CSR), as well as how this perceived fit affects consumers’ attitudes toward luxury products. A field experiment reveals that ephemerality moderates the positive impact of scarcity on consumers’ perception of fit between luxury and CSR. When luxury products are enduring (e.g., jewelry), a scarce product is perceived as more socially responsible than a more widely available one and provokes positive attitudes. However, this effect does not appear for ephemeral luxury products (e.g., clothing). The perceived fit between luxury and CSR mediates the combined effects of scarcity and ephemerality on consumers’ attitudes toward luxury products. This study provides valuable insights that luxury brand managers can use to design their CSR and marketing strategies.     

The effect of context attractiveness on product attractiveness and product quality: the moderating role of product familiarity

Prior research has investigated a number of drivers of consumers’ perceived product attractiveness, such as a product’s shape and color. The context, in which a product is presented, has so far been largely neglected in examining consumers’ aesthetic appraisal of products. Drawing on social cognition theory, this research investigates how the attractiveness of the visual context (e.g., websites, advertisements) influences consumers’ perceptions of product attractiveness and product quality for familiar versus unfamiliar products. Results of two experimental studies show that consumers perceive unfamiliar products as more attractive and, consequently, of higher quality when products are placed in an attractive context than when they are placed in an unattractive context. No differences in consumers’ perceived product attractiveness and perceived product quality exist for familiar products. The findings extend our theoretical knowledge of product aesthetics and provide managers with insights into the effective communication of their offerings’ attractiveness.     

Older consumers’ perceptions of functional foods and non‐edible health‐enhancing innovations

Increasing interest in health and well‐being is likely to drive a growth in demand for products that have positive effects on health. Consumers’ acceptance of and willingness to buy functional foods has been widely studied, but there has not been research on consumers’ attitudes towards innovative non‐edible products with health effects. This study examines how older consumers perceive functional foods and novel non‐edible health‐enhancing products, how willing they are to purchase such products, and how health orientation influences their views. As an example of a ‘radical’ innovation, consumers’ acceptance of rubbing their hands in a specific soil‐based mixture to modulate the immune system is explored. The research material, 13 thematic interviews, was collected in Lahti region, Finland, in 2015. The study indicates that the older consumers’ market is not homogeneous. Based on a qualitative, in‐depth approach, the study distinguishes four consumer segments with different lay understandings of health and attitudes towards health‐enhancing products, which influence people's willingness to purchase such products. The segments are health‐seeking consumers, cautious consumers, critical consumers and natural health consumers. Various motives and barriers for using products with health claims are also identified. The case of rubbing hands in organic soil‐based mixture indicates the difficulty of predicting which consumer segment will first adopt this kind of ‘radical’ innovation. The results highlight that the credence qualities of a novel product must be communicated and advertised before entering the market while also taking into account the sensory properties of the product. ‘Radical innovations’ must be in a form that consumers can easily accept.     

The role of cultural values in green purchasing intention: Empirical evidence from Chinese consumers

Environmental problems, especially in the case of water and air pollution, are the harmful result of the overconsumption of fossil fuels as well as various forms of industrial sewage water discharge. Recently, growing environmentally friendly purchasing behaviour of consumers has become regarded as an effective method for alleviating such environmental problems. Due to concerns regarding the natural environment, consumers have increasingly begun to exhibit favourable attitudes towards environmentally friendly products, and as a result, are more likely to purchase “green” products. However, green purchasing behaviour of consumers varies across different nations and cultures. This study aims to reveal how Chinese cultural values (specifically, the Doctrine of the Mean) influence green purchasing intention of Chinese consumers. As the lifestyles of consumers will be deeply affected by their cultural values, this study examines the mediating effects of the four dimensions of Chinese lifestyle have on consumers. At the same time, environmental knowledge is considered as a moderating variable in order to investigate the relationship between the Doctrine of the Mean and green purchasing intention. The study’s data were collected from Chinese consumers. Empirical results reveal that such Chinese cultural values are positively associated with green purchasing intention, and that three dimensions of consumer lifestyle (namely leadership, cost consciousness and development consciousness), are all found to play mediating roles in the relationship between the Doctrine of the Mean and green purchasing intention in Chinese consumers. The moderating effects of environmental knowledge are exhibited in the influence of leadership as well as development consciousness on green purchasing intention. The study’s findings have theoretical implications for understanding green purchasing intention as well as behaviour of Chinese consumers further. The study’s findings also present practical implications for how to promote green purchasing intention in Chinese consumers better.     

Consumers’ value perception and value construction: the case of bottled water in the Middle East

This study illustrates how consumers realize the concept of value creation when making quick selections for a commodity in the Saudi market. Data were collected through a self-administered survey to customers; 1,045 completed and usable responses were received and analysed. The proposed model was tested through structural equation modelling using AMOS 22. Results indicate that product design and brand trust affect electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), and product design, brand trust, and e-WOM influence consumers’ value creation. However, e-WOM does not mediate the relationship between product design and consumer value nor does it mediate the relationship between brand trust and consumers’ value creation. This study focused on one product (bottled water). Caution must be exercised in generalization of the results to other products/countries. Theoretically, this study extends the perception of value creation on a commodity and the influence of trust on perceived value. Although this study is based on a sample of Saudi Arabian consumers that is oversampling the age group of young consumers, it extends the rare empirical evidence base on the perception of value creation in the bottled water market, and the influence of trust on perceived value. The results suggest that firms could benefit from altering the design of their bottled water products to create higher perceived value and higher brand trust, differentiating themselves further from competition. The study contributes to the existing literature on consumers’ perceptions of bottled and branded water, taking into account e-WOM communication, and providing rare evidence on brand trust from outside of Europe and North America.     

Flag backlash: Why does the presence of the American flag reduce product evaluation?

The American flag is often incorporated into product branding. However, little research has investigated how the use of American flag imagery as a marketing tool for products influences consumer behavior. The present research examines (1) whether the presence of the American flag on a product affects consumers’ evaluation of products and (2) the social cognitive mechanisms underlying the effect of the flag on product‐related judgments. This research provides evidence that the presence of the American flag on a product induces negative product evaluation (Study 1). This negative effect is found to be moderated by participants’ trait level of psychological reactance (Study 2) and mediated by participants’ outrage (Study 3a) and perceived persuasion (Study 3b). When the American flag's link with the product is broken, its negative impact on product evaluation disappears (Study 4).     

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.     

How the Temporal Framing of Energy Savings Influences Consumer Product Evaluations and Choice

Consumer interest in behavior that is good for the environment is increasing, but actual behavior consistent with this objective has not risen accordingly. This may in part be due to consumers not realizing that their environmentally protective behaviors may have tangible future benefits for them. These studies examine the influence of message frames and a consumer's propensity to think about the future for products that have future benefits. More specifically, these studies examine how consumers respond to temporal frames of savings on product packaging for energy efficient products. Two studies suggest that the temporal framing of savings can influence product choice, purchase intentions, attitudes, and perceptions of savings. The results indicate that future‐oriented consumers are likely to have more positive evaluations when savings are framed in the distant future compared to the near future. In addition, there is a mediating effect of perception of savings. These experiments provide information of interest to marketers and researchers regarding the influence of temporal frames and a consumer's temporal orientation on products that have future benefits.     

Facing the “Right” Side? The Effect of Product Facing Direction

Product image display in advertising plays an important role in consumer perception and behavior. In this research, we establish important downstream consequences of one significant aspect of product image display—facing direction—on product evaluations. Building on the literature of visuospatial attention and grounded cognition, we show that products with their images facing toward the left (versus right) in advertising are evaluated more favorably when consumers’ temporal focus is on the past, whereas the reverse holds true when consumers focus on the future. Furthermore, we establish that the impact of facing direction on product evaluations exists regardless of the horizontal position of product images. In addition, we demonstrate that for products higher on desirability features, a mismatch (versus match) between facing direction and consumers’ temporal focus leads to higher product evaluations, whereas the reverse holds true for products higher on feasibility features. Important implications for advertising theory and practice are discussed.     

The effects of traffic light labels and involvement on consumer choices for food and financial products

Traffic light (TL) labels that inform consumers regarding product safety have received increasing attention in different fields. Behind the background of behavioural economics, this paper presents the results of a split‐sample choice experiment conducted in Germany to evaluate the impact of TL labelling on purchases of food and financial products. We hypothesize that consumers experience different levels of involvement with these two types of products, leading to different recommendations regarding the use of TLs. The results show that TLs affect consumer purchases of both product groups by focusing their attention on specific product attributes. For food, whereas the low‐fat attribute has no significant impact on food choices that do not include TLs, this attribute has a positive impact on choices once it is signalled with a TL label. The positive evaluation of the organic production attribute of a food product without a TL decreases when the same product is labelled with a TL. In the case of financial products, TLs significantly reinforce the impact of all characteristics on choice probability. TLs also generate a halo effect with regard to return variance. Although consumers demonstrate different levels of involvement for the two types of products, involvement does not always impact the evaluation of attributes. Compared with less involved consumers, more involved consumers exhibit more heterogeneous evaluations of the return variability attribute in the case of the financial product and the organic attribute in the case of the food product.     

The Impact of Stress on Consumers' Willingness to Pay

Stress is a companion in most consumers’ lives and as such should impact purchase behavior in many ways. Drawing on construal‐level theory, which relates to information processing on different levels of abstraction, the authors propose that consumers’ stress deteriorates their evaluation of products. The latter effect results from a stress‐induced focus shift, from product characteristics with high levels of construal to those with low levels of construal (Study 1). This shift also decreases the price that consumers are willing to pay (Study 2), though the product category moderates the impact of stress on willingness to pay (WTP), such that the decline in consumers’ WTP is smaller for products characterized by lower levels of construal (Study 3). This research extends existing knowledge on the impact of relaxation on consumers’ WTP by including stress in the analysis. Effect sizes are similar to those in related studies. In terms of managerial implications, this study recommends decreasing consumers’ stress levels at the point of purchase and tailoring marketing mix activities to match prevalent stress levels, if firms hope to mitigate the negative effect of stress.     

A comparison of determinants of consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the performance of apparel products between South Korea and the United States

The purpose of the present study was to identify the determinants of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction (CS/D) with the performance of apparel products at the purchase and product-consumption stages for Korean consumers, and to examine if these determinants were similar to those for US consumers. Results showed that at the purchase stage, the three variables, found significantly related to CS/D at purchase for US consumers, were also significant for Korean consumers. These three at-purchase variables were: perceived at-purchase performance, performance expectation and experience-based norm disconfirmation (i.e. the discrepancy between consumers’ experience-based norm and their perception of product performance at purchase). When the variables related to CS/D at the product-consumption stage were examined, both similarities and differences were found between Korean and US consumers. For both countries, perceived consumption performance and satisfaction at purchase were significantly related to CS/D at the product-consumption stage. Differences were found in the effects of expectancy disconfirmation and performance expectation on CS/D at the product-consumption stage. Expectancy disconfirmation is the discrepancy between consumers' performance expectation and their perception of product performance after consumption. Expectancy expectation was found to be a significant determinant of CS/D for US consumers, but was not a determinant for Korean consumers. Performance expectation, which was found not to be a significant determinant of CS/D for US consumers, was a significant determinant for Korean consumers.     

Consumers’ perception of food packaging in Trinidad,West Indies and its related impact on food choices

The purpose of the study was to investigate consumers’ perception of food packaging and its impact on food choices. The study population comprised 82 people who were ultimately consumers of packaged food products. The sample was drawn from six major supermarkets located in different geographical areas in Trinidad, West Indies. Data collection was carried out by using a questionnaire based on five topics: visual impact or attractiveness of the packaging; type of packaging material; labelling and nutritional information; new products; and fruit preserves. The packaging feature that influenced most of the respondents’ choice of products was information on the label (41.5%); it was followed by quality and type of packaging (24.4%), brand name/popularity (22.0%) and visual impact (12.2%). When asked if they would purchase a product that was most attractively packaged, 85.4% responded in the affirmative. Most respondents (92.7%) believed that packaging material could adversely affect the quality of performance of a food product. Also, 92.7% of respondents agreed that nutrition information should be shown on all food products, although 36.6% admitted that they do not read the label because of its complexity. Influence of gender was not significant (P < 0.05) on consumer perception of food packaging and on food choices. Although the sample was small, the data highlighted the need to educate consumers of packaged foods, so that informed decisions could be taken in respect to food quality, safety and nutrition.     

产品评价的来源国分解效应:欠发达国家视角

出于不同的目的,无论是发达国家还是欠发达国家,都呈现出产品来源国分解的趋势。以往的研究表明,发达国家为了降低成本将生产转移到欠发达国家,而欠发达国家的消极形象并未降低消费者对产品的评价;当欠发达国家为了提高消费者对产品的评价而利用发达国家的技术和设计时,结果却并不理想。为此,文章引入混合产品的解释机制,着重从欠发达国家视角探讨来源国分解效应。通过实验发现:欠发达国家产品来源国分解后,在一般情况下,由于消费者启动的是关系解释而不会改变对产品的评价,当启动属性解释时,有助于提高消费者对产品的评价;而对欠发达国家本国的消费者而言,则无论是否启动属性解释,对产品的评价都会显著提高。