Spontaneous visualization and concept evaluation

This paper proposes that customers often respond to brand extension concepts by visualizing the product. We call this process spontaneous visualization and suggest that it precedes concept evaluations. In two studies, we show that spontaneous visualization is enhanced by the fit between the parent brand and the extension category and by the ease with which the product category can be imagined. The appeal of the visualized image in turn determines whether visualization enhances or decreases concept evaluations. In addition, we find a stronger link between product evaluations and delayed choice when evaluations are based on visualization; evaluations based on visualization hence appear to be more “valid” in the sense of predicting subsequent behavior. Implications of these findings and ideas for future research are discussed.

A comparison of perceptions of loyalty between bank tellers and internal customer groups in a retail bank in South Africa

The paper paints a portrait of service industry workers who are outside the institutional parameters of industrial relations. It considers the effects of hard work on the personal horizons of the working poor. By asking workers to describe target earnings and what a ‘better job’ means against a background of long hours, the study shows what distress selling of labour actually looks like. The results indicate that subjects correctly perceive their lack of opportunity and have horizons circumscribed by industrial norms.