Avoiding through glossiness and approaching through matte: The effect of visual finish on perceived product effectiveness

This research examines whether, how, and why visual finish (i.e., whether a product/package is glossy or matte) can affect consumers' perceived effectiveness of problem-solving products. Drawing on approach–avoidance goal pursuit theory, this work classifies problem-solving products into problem-approaching and problem-avoiding ones according to their operation processes. A pilot study demonstrates that participants are more likely to choose a glossy finish over a matte one for a problem-avoiding (vs. problem-approaching) product. Studies 1 and 2 collectively find that glossy (vs. matte) finishes increase consumers' perceived effectiveness of a problem-avoiding product while the reverse is true for a problem-approaching product. Moreover, this effect is mediated by perceived trustworthiness of product function (Study 3). Studies 4–5 further document its consequential implications on willingness-to-pay (Study 4; incentive-compatible paradigm) and consumers' actual ad clicks (Study 5; field study). The findings contribute to the visual finish, product effectiveness, and approach–avoidance goal pursuit literatures. They also have significant managerial implications on product appearance design.     

The effects of perceived product-extrinsic cue incongruity on consumption experiences: The case of celebrity sponsorship

The level of congruity is determined by the degree of match or mismatch between an object and its associated attribute. Product evaluations are positively influenced when there is moderate incongruity between a product and its association; this finding is termed the moderate schema incongruity effect (Mandler 1982). The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of incongruity between a product and one of its extrinsic cues on consumers' product evaluations. Furthermore, we examined the moderating role of consumers' level of product knowledge. Incongruity was created by partnering a product with a sponsor. We found that consumers who were highly knowledgeable of the product gave the highest taste evaluations to the moderately incongruent product–sponsor pairing, whereas taste evaluations for consumers with low product knowledge did not differ across product–sponsor pairings. The results of our study have important practical implications for marketers, namely that product–sponsor fit can enhance consumers' consumption experiences.     

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.     

Similar or contrastive? Impact of product–background color combination on consumers' product evaluations

Based on arousal theory, this study explores the impact of product–background color combination on consumers' product evaluations through four empirical analysis. As predicted, the interaction of product–background color combinations and product types has a significant influence on consumers' product evaluations. For functional products, the product–background similar color combination can cause consumers' higher product evaluations. However, for sensory-social products, the product–background contrastive color combination can cause consumers' higher product evaluations. Moreover, the arousal level mediates the interaction effect of product–background color combinations and product types on consumers' evaluations. This research also demonstrates that only when the product color matches product type, the interaction of product–background color combinations and product types can improve consumers' product evaluations through increasing (decreasing) the arousal level, however, the interaction effect is no longer significant when the matching degree of product color and product type is low. We contribute to the visual marketing research by providing new insights and useful implications for using color clues to present products in marketing practice.     

The existence and perception of redundancy in consumer information environments

Two studies are reported which examine the existence of attribute redundancy as well as consumers' ability to perceive attribute redundancy in consumer information environments. The results of the first study suggest that attribute redundancy varies widely from product category to product category. The results of the second study suggest that consumers' ability to perceive attribute relationships improves with product knowledge. Unexpected was an observed U-shaped relationship between consumers' perceptions of attribute redundancy and attribute knowledge. Together the results suggest a number of policy implications regarding the value of consumer information programs.     

Retail-consumer commitment and market segmentation

Customer's commitment has become a main mediating goal for many companies. It appears to be a promising market segmentation criterion. In this sense, the present work focuses on commitment as a possible criterion to segment the consumers' market. It starts by analysing the importance of consumer commitment for companies. After the review of the literature of commitment at different relationship levels, a definition and a multidimensional structure is proposed for this construct. The study performs a segmentation analysis of bank customers. Three clusters of clients are identified according to their level of commitment. Main conclusions and its implications for marketing management are pointed out.     

The investigation on dimensions of e-satisfaction for online shoes retailing

Purpose—Online retailing has become a standard component in companies' multi-channel structure. This trend also involves an increasing number of experience attribute dominated products, which traditionally rely on brick-and-mortar retailers. These manufacturers have started to open their own online retail stores. This study identifies the key determinants of e-satisfaction at different stages of shoes online shopping process.Design/methodology/approach—We collect consumers' reviews about their online shopping experiences from online review websites. We use both qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyze the dataset, and investigate the complete process of consumers' e-tailing experiences.Findings—this research identifies the two key factors driving e-satisfaction of purchasing experience attribute dominated products online: product selection and customer service. In particular, our findings show that product selection is critical for e-satisfaction in the pre-purchase stage, and that customer service is more important in the post-purchase stage. Lastly, the study finds that manufacturers' websites often receive more negative reviews because of their poor service recovery strategies in the post-purchase period.Research limitations/implications—This study emphasizes the importance of adopting a dynamic approach by considering various stages of the consumer's online shopping experience. This study focuses on one specific experience good; the shoe industry.Practical implications—The results of this study are invaluable to firms interested in providing experience attribute dominated products online. Our findings indicate that product selection and especially post-purchase service are critical for a successful e-tailing.Originality/value—This paper emphasizes the importance of taking a dynamic view to investigate consumer's e-tailing experience. We adopt both qualitative and quantitative approaches in our study.     

How a “China-made” label influences Chinese Youth's product evaluation: The priming effect of patriotic and nationalistic news

This study is to verify whether and how a “China-made” label can influence online consumers' product evaluation as adding labels to highlight products' attributes has become an acquainted measure online by e-tailers/firms to attract online consumers' attentions. For this purpose, we conduct a 2 (label of “China-made” vs. no label) x 3 (patriotism priming vs. nationalism priming vs. no priming) between-subject factorial design to verify hypotheses. The results reveal that when consumers' nationalism is primed, the label significantly enhances the product evaluation by increasing the perceived social value of the product. Priming consumers’ patriotism, on the other hand, does not play a moderating role for this effect. A follow-up study confirms such effects for both low involvement and high involvement products. Therefore, e-tailers/firms that own China-made brands/products are advised to signal the “Chinese identity” of their products to online consumers under the current circumstance when nationalism and domestic brands are rising in China. The results also indicate that although products produced in a developing country are marked with a negative country of origin effect, marketers can turn it into a strength in marketing in certain conditions.     

Research on the influencing factors of consumers’ green purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era

The severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world has caused consumers to think about environmental issues. Although green products are very important to environmental sustainability, the factors that influence consumers' purchase behavior of green products is unclear. This study aims to explore the impact mechanism of social media marketing on consumers' green product purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study constructs an extended TPB model to understand the influencing factors of Chinese consumers' green product purchase behavior in the post-pandemic era. The empirical results of 489 questionnaires show that social media marketing, product knowledge and crisis awareness have a direct or indirect positive influence on purchase intentions. Perceived behavioral control and intentions have positive effects on behavior. The attribution of responsibility facilitates the relationship between intentions and behaviors. The results have important implications for enterprises’ sustainability strategies and provide a framework for investigating green buying behaviors in Chinese culture in the post-pandemic era.     

Consumer Perceptions of Health Claims in Advertisements and on Food Labels

It has been hypothesized that consumers are more skeptical of health claims made in food ads than of health claims made on food labels. Therefore, the current research explores consumers' skepticism of health claims when the source of such claims is identified as a food ad or a food label. The study also examines whether consumers' beliefs are affected by nutrition information on food labels and whether health claims that have been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and by consumer groups are more likely to affect consumers' beliefs than are unchallenged health claims. The findings have implications for understanding the role of education in reducing consumer misperceptions of health claims.     

The effects of endorsers' facial expressions on status perceptions and purchase intentions

The facial expressions that endorsers convey in a print ad can influence consumers' reactions to the product being advertised. This effect, which is mediated by perceptions of the endorsers' social status, depends on whether the endorser is male or female. Consumers expect endorsers' facial expressions to conform to normative expectations for how men and women present themselves to others and they attribute high social status to those whose expressions deviate from these expectations. Thus, they perceive smiling male endorsers to have high status but smiling female endorsers to have low status. These perceptions, which are independent of warmth and competence, influence consumers' willingness to purchase products whose social prestige value is unknown a priori. Five experiments confirm these conclusions and demonstrate their implications for actual purchase behavior.     

Winning Versus not Losing: Exploring the Effects of In-Game Advertising Outcome on its Effectiveness

Prior literary works on product placement in games predominantly focus on a host of game and brand characteristics to eventually explore their effects on consumers' psychological responses and behavior. One primary facet of in-game advertising (IGA) that has largely been ignored is game outcome in terms of winning and losing and its effect on consumers' nature of information processing. This article explores the effect of IGA outcome and performance feedback shown to players on their motivation expressed in terms of induced regulatory focus. Further, the effects of regulatory focus are examined on players' implicit and explicit memory, game and brand attitude, and emotions. A conceptual framework highlighting afore-mentioned relationships is developed and empirically tested which reveals that IGA outcome and performance feedback in the form of game messages plays a major role in explaining players' motivation which in turn also affects their memory and attitude. Managerial implications, limitations, and scope for future research are also discussed.     

Magic odd numbers: The effect of numerical parity on variety-seeking

Numbers are widely employed to convey product and other marketing related information and thereby influence consumer judgment and behavior. Drawing on the literature of numerical cognition, associative learning, goal activation, and variety-seeking, the current research examines how numerical parity affects consumers' variety-seeking behavior. Across one Implicit Association Test (IAT) and four experiments, we demonstrate that consumers associate odd (vs. even) numbers with changeability (vs. stability) in their minds (Study 1). We further find that exposure to product and other marketing related information that is presented with odd (vs. even) numbers increases consumers' tendency to seek variety in subsequent purchase decisions, and that this effect consistently appears in the voluntary selection of a set of options (Study 2a), the preference for diversified products (Study 2b and 3), and the choice of diversified product bundles (Study 2c). We further demonstrate that desire for change underlines this effect, such that exposure to odd numbers (vs. even numbers) activates consumers' desire for change, which in turn elevates their subsequent variety-seeking behavior (Study 3). The findings of the current research not only contribute to the literature, but also provide marketers with effective ways to facilitate consumers' variety-seeking behavior, such as by strategically using odd numbers in their marketing efforts.     

Turning the other cheek: Facial orientation influences both model attractiveness and product evaluation

The layout of visual elements in advertising influences consumers' perception and judgments. The research reported here investigates the influence of the face orientation of a human model on the perception of their attractiveness and its downstream consequences on product evaluation. Across five experiments, we first demonstrate that consumers tend to perceive a model's face showing his or her left cheek as more attractive than when showing the right cheek, even when the images are otherwise identical. More importantly, we demonstrate the downstream influence of face orientation on the evaluation of advertised products whereby the leftward (vs. rightward) model's face increases the evaluation of the advertised product through perceived model attractiveness. We identify the underlying mechanism of the face orientation effect, namely, that consumers perceive those faces showing their left (vs. right) cheek as more prototypical, and that this perception of prototypicality elicits an aesthetic preference for the model's leftward face which in turn carries over to influence product evaluation. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are also discussed.     

In the consumers’ eye: A mixed-method approach to understanding how VR-Content influences unbranded product quality perceptions

Virtual reality (VR) is an exciting technology that offers great promise as a novel promotional tool. The notion that promotional tools can signal brand quality to consumers is supported in the literature, but the impact for products when brand signals are not paramount is less understood. We use a mixed-method approach to explore how VR-content influences consumers' quality perceptions for products where branding is less relied upon. Findings from a qualitative study reveal that the perception of VR-content's innovativeness acts as a heuristic to signal product quality for unbranded property products. Results from two quasi-experimental studies reveal that while industry-perceived innovative VR-content may not signal consumers' product quality perceptions, consumers' perception of media innovativeness can signal product quality for the offering and increase purchase intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Measuring the impact of online reviews on consumer purchase decisions – A scale development study

Consumers' exposure to online reviews influences their online retail shopping behavior. They search for reviews while evaluating products for purchase decisions. Past studies have indicated that online reviews affect the credibility and trust of the sellers and the products they sell on online platforms. Keeping this in view, the current paper aims to develop and validate a scale to understand the impact of online reviews on consumer purchase decisions. Data were collected from 431 young online shoppers for this research. The initial exploratory factor analysis (EFA) results helped identify four factors, viz. source credibility, volume, language and comprehension, and relevance which constitute the scale. The scale was validated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The study's findings fill the gap of having a standardized scale that online retailers can use as indicators to assist consumers in their online decision-making. The discussions and implications support consumers' susceptibility to online reviews, an essential source for product and brand information in facilitating online consumers' purchase decisions.     

Consumers' intentions to remain loyal to online reputation systems

The implications of recent consumer research for information system usage in the e‐marketplace are still poorly understood. However, understanding consumers' intentions to continue to use these systems remains a priority in practical marketing management, as leading marketplaces such as Amazon.com have widely embraced online reputation systems as a useful tactic in online marketing. The re‐ported study proposes an approach that differs from past research on this theme by incorporating Foxall's style/involvement model, which relates innovative behavior to cognitive style and involve‐ment in the product area. Based on a sample of 387 buyers from a top e‐marketplace in Taiwan, the findings indicate that consumers' underlying style/involvement levels significantly shape their continuance use intentions toward online reputation systems. The paper argues that consumers' cognitive styles and involvement levels should be adopted by researchers as major influences on system users' decision making in virtual purchase environments. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

An investigation on the effectiveness of hedonic versus utilitarian message appeals in luxury product communication

This research studies the role of hedonic versus utilitarian message appeals in luxury goods communication, investigating how using one or the other type of message appeal affects product perceived luxuriousness and, in turn, product attitude, and consumers' willingness to buy. This research presents three experiments in which message appeal and brand prominence have been manipulated, while perception of luxuriousness, attitude toward luxury products, willingness to buy them and consumers' conspicuous consumption orientation have been measured. Hedonic, compared with utilitarian, message appeals increase perceived luxuriousness, thereby increasing product attitude and consumers' willingness to buy the product promoted. This effect is particularly likely to occur for consumers with lower levels of conspicuous consumption orientation and for products carrying lowly prominent logos. We extend the literature on luxury communication by studying the effect of hedonic versus utilitarian message appeals on consumers' responses, and the literature on hedonism versus utilitarianism by studying this dichotomy in the context of luxury goods communication. This research suggests that different message appeals used in luxury goods communication produce different effects on consumers' responses and that this differential effectiveness is particularly likely to manifest for certain types of consumers and certain types of luxury products.     

Differences in Perceived Image of Fruit and Vegetables from a Specific Origin: The Moderating Role of Familiarity

Only a small number of works in the literature examines the role of familiarity in the perception of products from a specific origin, despite the importance of this variable in the formation of product image and its effects on consumer behavior. The current work aims to fill this gap in the literature by carrying out a cross-national analysis of consumers' image of fruit and vegetables that includes a defined origin. For this purpose, the authors examine the influence of product cues on the formation of a global image of the product, and considers the moderating role of familiarity in this relation. The results indicate that product familiarity has an effect on the relation between the product cues and the image perceived by the consumer, and that differences exist between the nationalities considered.     

Convenience,Satisfaction, and Post-Purchase Behavior in India's Health Insurance Market

ABSTRACT

Understanding the antecedents and implications of “service convenience” has acquired added importance with consumers' growing desire for ease during product or service exchange. Although the effects of service convenience, as a first-order construct, on post-purchase behavior have been studied in different business contexts, not much has been done in the case of a second-order construct which has been attempted here. The present study seeks to examine the mediating role of consumers' satisfaction as well as the moderating role of organizational and consumer personal factors that have not been sufficiently explored in the marketing literature. Structural equation analysis is adopted to test the hypothesized relationships using responses from 424 consumers who have purchased health insurance from six leading insurers in India. The findings validated that the service convenience affects consumer satisfaction, which, in turn, plays both a direct and mediating role in influencing consumers' repurchase intention. However, the role of organizational and consumer personal factors as moderators between service convenience and consumers' satisfaction could only be established indirectly through post-hoc analysis, which calls for further research. The results have important implications for planning, designing, and managing the health insurance business.