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.     

Extrinsic Cues and the Evaluation of Political Candidates

In a political landscape where the content of politics is getting more and more complex and political parties less and less different, voters often base their voting behavior on extrinsic rather than intrinsic cues, a bundle of extrinsic cues constructed as an image and based on perceived personal traits. Based on survey data from a sample of Norwegian voters, this paper tests how a political candidate's credibility, charisma, and physical attractiveness are related to voters’ judgments of suitability for a leading political position. Across three different politicians, the results show that credibility plays a significant role in the evaluations performed by voters. More surprisingly, charisma does not have the expected effect, and to voters, physical attractiveness is found to be more important than charisma.     

The effects of audio-visual and visual-only cues on consumers' responses to co-branded advertising

Co-branded advertising (two brands featured in the same ad) is a relatively new and under-researched area of advertising that offers advertisers the opportunity to share advertising costs and leverage brand equity. Despite its growing popularity, few research studies have examined the potential benefits and/or limitations of this executional strategy, and particularly a strategy in which one brand (a focal brand) is paired with another, but less emphasized (peripheral) brand. This study reports the results of an empirical investigation that examines how modifying reference to the peripheral brand (visual-only versus simultaneous visual and audio references) influences consumers' perceived associations of the advertised brands, as well as their attitudes toward the advertisement and intentions to purchase either brand. Employing a convenience sample of undergraduate students on a university campus in the United States, the results of this study indicate that audio-visual cues enhance brand association and purchase intentions. However, additional analyses reveal that attitude toward a co-branded advertisement mediates the brand association effect on purchase intentions toward the focal brand, whereas brand association has a direct effect on purchase intentions toward the peripheral brand.     

How source cues impact consumer evaluations of direct and indirect persuasion attempts

This research demonstrates how the directness of a persuasion attempt by a sales agent, in this case flattery, changes how source cues influence consumers’ evaluation of the shopping experience. When the persuasion attempt is direct, source cues do not influence consumer evaluations. However, when an indirect persuasion attempt is used, it is only effective when positive source cues are present. In particular, when the persuasion attempt is indirect, evaluations are more effective when the sales agent is attractive to or shares similar opinions with the consumer. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Asian food: the global and the local

Advertising practice makes use of emotional cues and addresses consumers' rising desire for social connection. Research has investigated emotions within advertising, but mainly focused on negative or positive emotions. Traditional academic approaches to the analysis of persuasion according to the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) tend to emphasize central processing and thus rational advertising cues. Moreover, the role of motivation within the ELM is underspecified. We introduce the Zurich Model of Social Motivation to the regulation of social distance and investigate the specific feeling of care and security. This feeling may serve as motivational component and emerge as persuasion instrument within advertising. We seek to find means to activate viewers, independent from involvement. As we initially apply the model, we match constructs from advertising research to the framework. The feeling of care and security is determined by the autobiographical fit, the amount of personal resemblance, and familiarity with the cue. Realism of the story describes the (psychological) distance, whereas emotionality of the story refers to relevancy of the objects shown. We apply a structural equation modelling approach to test our hypotheses with smart partial least squares. Autobiographical fit is the strongest driver, followed by the realism and emotionality of the story. The feeling of care and security significantly predicts attitude toward the advertisement Group comparison according to Chin by the level of involvement shows that all causal relations remain stable for both sub-groups. Our findings suggest that specific emotional cues may have a special role within information processing and that there is no need to always focus on the central route of processing.     

The effect of atmospheric cues and involvement on pleasure and relaxation: The spa hotel context

This paper aims to incorporate, for the first time, involvement as an antecedent of emotions, as well as, satisfaction as outcomes in the S–O–R model. The proposed model was tested into the context of health and wellness tourism, in particularly hotel thermal Spas. Therefore a questionnaire was built based on literature review and information provided by the managers of such facilities. The survey was conducted using a self-administrated questionnaire distributed to individuals who received Spa service experience in Portugal. Data was treated using the PLS approach. The results revealed that atmospheric cues and involvement are important antecedents of relaxation and pleasure. The feeling of relaxation is more important to lead to satisfaction than pleasure and pleasure does not impact directly and significantly on word-of-mouth. Relaxation is the core emotion in Spa context. This article also provides important managerial implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research.     

The power of consumption-imagery in communicating retail-store deals

We show that subtle differences in textual marketing communications can impact the evocation of consumption-imagery, implicitly subsuming all the senses, which consequently affects consumer attitudes toward the communication and the product. Specifically, we demonstrate, through four experiments, that retail-store deals which communicate stronger association between products (“get matching shirt free”) are more imagery-evocative compared to those with weaker association (“get second item free”), thereby impacting consumer evaluations. We use literature on imagery, sensory perception, and information processing, specifically relational and item-specific processing, to build our hypotheses. We also provide evidence for how working memory capacity limitations disrupt imagery processing. Our results on effective communication of retail-store deals are even more crucial in today's digital marketplace where imagery is especially important.     

How do Destination Management Organization-Led Postings Facilitate Word-of-Mouth Communications in Online Tourist Communities? A Content Analysis of China’s 5A-Class Tourist Resort Websites

This study contributes to the extant literature on destination management organization (DMO)-led postings used in the online tourist community as a means to facilitate word-of-mouth (WOM) communications. Our proposed framework summarizes key antecedent variables of the usage rate and activity level of online community, number and types of information, and consumer responses. It examines the active role of DMO-led postings as a WOM communication tool to influence tourist attitudes and facilitate potential travelers' decision making. The results demonstrate that message sender and message format have both a main effect and an interactive effect on the number of information cues and consumer responses. Research contributions, managerial implications, and future research directions are considered.     

A closer look at similarity: The effects of perceived similarity and conjunctive cues on brand extension evaluation

Similarity between a core product and an extension product is regarded as a key success factor for brand extensions. However, a review of the literature reveals that the conditions under which high similarity is beneficial are unclear. In the first experiment, the authors test three models (the brand-attitude-transfer model, the incongruity-induced-affect model, and the “you cannot be good or bad at everything” principle) to predict the role of similarity. They find support only for the brand-attitude-transfer model. This suggests that high similarity is only beneficial when consumers evaluate brands favorably. Furthermore, little is known about how additional information provided by the supplier affects consumers' similarity perceptions without changing the extension product itself more than on a superficial level and without emphasizing common benefits. The authors compare the conditions of high and low core product/extension category similarity. Under the former condition, common peripheral advertising cues, similarity primes, portrayals of core products, and common peripheral design cues increase evaluations of extension products when the brand is evaluated favorably. Under the latter condition, these cues differ with respect to their effect.     

Hot Versus Cool Behavioural Styles in Electronic Negotiations: The Impact of Communication Mode

In this paper, we study the effects of synchronous and asynchronous communication mode on electronic negotiations. By applying content analysis, we compare the negotiation processes of two e-negotiation simulations conducted in a synchronous and an asynchronous setting. Our results show significant differences in communication behaviour of subjects. Synchronous negotiation mode leads to less friendly, more affective, and more competitive negotiation behaviour. In the asynchronous communication mode, negotiators exchange more private and task-oriented information and are friendlier. These results suggest that negotiators in the asynchronous mode, who have more time to reflect, cool down and control emotions better while negotiators, who communicate synchronously engage more in emotional and competitive “hot” debates. In addition, negotiators in the asynchronous mode are more satisfied with the process and outcome of the negotiation. We conclude that de-individuation and escalating effects might be caused by communication mode rather than by the ability of the media to transmit social cues.