Abstract Previous research on word of mouth (WOM) has presented inconsistent evidence on whether consumers are more inclined to share positive or negative information about products and services. Some findings suggest that consumers are more inclined to engage in positive WOM, whereas others suggest that consumers are more inclined to engage in negative WOM. The present research offers a theoretical perspective that provides a means to resolve these seemingly contradictory findings. Specifically, the authors compare the generation of WOM (i.e., consumers sharing information about their own experiences) with the transmission of WOM (i.e., consumers passing on information about experiences they heard occurred to others). They suggest that a basic human motive to selfenhance leads consumers to generate positive WOM (i.e., share information about their own positive consumption experiences) but transmit negative WOM (i.e., pass on information they heard about others' negative consumption experiences). The authors present evidence for self-enhancement motives playing out in opposite ways for WOM generation versus WOM transmission across four experiments.

This article uses the functionalist perspective of emotion to demonstrate that the influence of sadness on indulgent consumption depends on the presence of a hedonic eating goal. Sadness heightens a person鈥檚 sensitivity to the potentially harmful consequences of indulgent consumption, which decreases indulgence when a hedonic eating goal is salient. As sadness is often associated with a loss, this protective function is geared toward preventing future losses. The execution of this function is mitigated by feelings of safety, a counterforce to concerns about the harmful consequences of goal pursuit. Alternatively, when a hedonic eating goal is not salient, or a salient goal does not have harmful consequences, sadness results in emotion regulation (i.e., indulging as a means of feeling better). This conceptualization and findings show that the effects of emotions on indulgent consumption can be goal-dependent, and that emotions can aid consumers in the balancing of long-term goals and well-being.

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to consider attributes that stimulate variety seeking in hedonic and utilitarian product categories and examine the interaction of product category and attribute type on variety-seeking behaviour. The results of 3 studies indicate that in hedonic product categories, consumers seek more variety in sensory attributes, whereas in utilitarian product categories, they seek more variety in functional attributes. This interaction effect is explained by the fact that the satiation rates of sensory and functional attributes depend on the nature of the product category. In product categories, which are not clearly hedonic or utilitarian, this interaction effect is not evident. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The development of a scale for measuring consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence is described. Consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence is hypothesized as a general trait that varies across individuals and is related to other individual traits and characteristics (McGuire 1968). The construct is defined as the need to identify with or enhance one's image in the opinion of significant others through the acquisition and use of products and brands, the willingness to conform to the expectations of others regarding purchase decisions, and/or the tendency to learn about products and services by observing others or seeking information from others. A series of studies provides evidence to support the convergent and discriminant validity of a two-dimensional scale.

Brand experience is conceptualized as sensations, feelings, cognitions, and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli that are part of a brand's design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments. The authors distinguish several experience dimensions and construct a brand experience scale that includes four dimensions: sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral. In six studies, the authors show that the scale is reliable, valid, and distinct from other brand measures, including brand evaluations, brand involvement, brand attachment, customer delight, and brand personality. Moreover, brand experience affects consumer satisfaction and loyalty directly and indirectly through brand personality associations.

A consumer's prior evaluation of an advertised brand is hypothesized to moderate the effectiveness of humor in advertising. Further, cognitive responses are hypothesized as mediators of the impact of humorous ads on brand attitude. The results support the hypothesized moderator role of prior brand evaluation: when prior evaluation of the advertised brand is positive, a humorous ad is more effective than its nonhumorous counterpart in changing consumer attitudes and choice behavior. When consumers have a negative prior attitude, the opposite is true: a humorous ad is less effective in changing consumer attitudes and choice behavior than its nonhumorous counterpart. The results also support the conceptualization of cognitive responses as mediators of the impact of humorous advertisements on brand attitude.

Advertisers commonly use celebrity endorsers to increase the effectiveness of advertising in persuading consumers. In many cases, these celebrities endorse more than one brand. Little is known, however, about the benefit to brands from these multiple endorsements by the same celebrity. This research applies classical conditioning theory to an exploration of multiple brand endorsements by a single celebrity, and examines how brand concept consistency between endorsed brands affects consumers' evaluations of the endorsed brand. The findings, over two separate studies, indicate that exact and high concept consistency between endorsed brands positively influences consumers' attitude toward these brands. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Standard diffusion models capture social contagion only coarsely and do not allow one to operationalize different contagion mechanisms. Moreover, there is increasing skepticism about the importance of contagion and, as has long been known, S-shaped diffusion curves can also result from heterogeneity in the propensity to adopt. We present hypotheses about conditions under which specific contagion mechanisms and income heterogeneity are more pronounced, and test these hypotheses using a meta-analysis of the q/p ratio in applications of the Bass diffusion model. The ratio is positively associated with the Gini index of income inequality in a country, supporting the heterogeneity-in-thresholds interpretation. The ratio also varies as predicted by the Gamma-Shifted Gompertz diffusion model, but the evidence vanishes after controlling for national culture. As to contagion, the q/p ratio varies with the four Hofstede dimensions of national culture--for three of them in a direction consistent with the social contagion interpretation. Furthermore, products with competing standards have a higher q/p ratio, which is again consistent with the social contagion interpretation. Finally, we find effects of national culture only for products without competing standards, suggesting that technological effects and culturally moderated social contagion effects might not operate independently from each other.

ABSTRACT In this paper we quantify the economic worth of celebrity endorsements by studying the sales of endorsed products. We do so with the use of two unique data sets consisting of monthly golf ball sales and professional golfer (celebrity) quality levels. In particular, we examine the impact Tiger Woods had on sales of Nike golf balls. Our identification of the causal effect of a celebrity is grounded in the celebrity’s random performance over time. Using two different approaches, reduced form and structural, we find that there are substan- tial celebrity endorsement effects. From our structural model we determine that endorsements not only induce consumers to switch brands, a business stealing effect, but also have a primary demand effect. We determine from 2000-2010, the Nike golf ball division reaped an addi- tional profit of $103 million through an acquisition of 9.9 million sales from Tiger Woods’ endorsement effect. Moreover, having Tiger Woods endorse a brand leads to a price premium of roughly 2.5%. As a result, approximately 57% of Nike’s investment of $181 million en- dorsement contract was recovered just in US golf ball sales alone.

A bidimensional (hedonic/utilitarian) approach to understanding consumer attitudes was recently introduced by Batra and Ahtola (1991); they reported three construct validation studies and proposed a set of items to measure the construct(s). In the present paper, the Batra and Ahtola (1991) scales are applied to a wide variety of product categories. Results of the present series of measure validation studies suggest that there are hedonic and utilitarian elements comprising attitudes toward product categories and that, although problematic, the Batra and Ahtola (1991) scale items are a useful first step in measuring these components.

The extant literature on celebrity endorsement effects largely focuses on the endorsement effects on consumer evaluations of the endorsed brand. The current study extends the literature by assessing the impact of endorser credibility on two consumer–brand relationship-oriented outcomes – brand relationship quality and consumer self-brand connections. Additionally, the self-brand connection is positioned as a partial mediator of the effect of endorser credibility on relationship quality. A conceptual model is developed and estimated on a sample of 535 Generation Y (youth) consumers from India. The hypotheses are supported and the model demonstrates acceptable fit to the data. Overall, the present study introduces a relationship-building perspective to the celebrity endorsement literature. The results suggest that celebrity endorsers possess the ability to provide meaningful self-definitional benefits to consumers as well as cultivate enhanced relationship quality with the endorsed brands, thus contributing novel insights into celebrity endorsement dynamics.

Previous research on advertising effectiveness of celebrity endorsers has applied immediate measures only and neglected delayed effects, although the literature suggests that endorser traits, such as attractiveness or expertise, trigger either cognitive or affective processes that do not necessarily occur immediately and simultaneously. In order to fill this research gap, this study applies the affective-cognitive framework and investigates immediate versus delayed effects of celebrity endorsers鈥 attractiveness and expertise on attitude towards brands (as related to transformational products). The results show that attractiveness is the dominant driver in the immediate condition, whereas in the delayed condition a high expertise exerts its influence. High expertise is particularly effective when the celebrity endorser is highly attractive, whereas the impact of less attractive celebrity endorsers with low expertise can even worsen over time.

(2016). Hedonic and utilitarian use of user-generated content on online shopping websites. Journal of Marketing Communications. Ahead of Print. doi: 10.1080/13527266.2016.1143383

ABSTRACT Purpose ‐ The purpose of this paper is to investigate leaders' use of humor as an expression of how they value themselves relative to others. The paper suggests that humor can minimize or exacerbate the status differences between leaders and followers. The paper hypothesizes that leaders' use of self- or in-group-deprecating humor would be positively associated with ratings of transformational leadership as they minimize those distinctions, whereas leaders' use of aggressive humor would be negatively associated with ratings of transformational leadership because it exacerbates status distinctions. Design/methodology/approach ‐ A total of 155 undergraduates (58 males, 97 females; M age=20 years, SD=1.31) were assigned randomly to one of four conditions, each depicting a different type of humor in a leader's speech. Findings ‐ Leaders using self-deprecating humor were rated higher on individualized consideration (a factor of transformational leadership) than those that used aggressive humor. Research limitations/implications ‐ The authors encourage future field research on the role of humor as an expression of leaders' self- versus other-orientation. Originality/value ‐ Humor and work might seem inconsistent, but this study demonstrates how leadership can use humor to improve leader-follower relationships. Furthermore, it contributes to our understanding of self-deprecating humor which has received scant attention relative to other forms of humor.

社交网络的发展弱化了传统媒体的影响力,强化了消费者的影响力;在这种情况下,企业需要思考如何借助消费者传播营销信息,以影响其他消费者。本文从企业如何设计营销信息入手,探究消费者与企业所处的关系范式对消费者信息转发行为的影响。通过二手数据分析与实验法,本文得出如下结论:经济类刺激对触发交易关系范式下消费者的转发行为更有效;情感类刺激对触发共有关系范式下消费者的转发行为更有效;交易关系范式下消费者出于回报企业的动机分享,共有关系范式下消费者出于利己动机而分享。

The notion of peer influence in new product adoption or trial is well accepted. We propose that peer influence may affect repeat behavior as well, though the process and source of influence are likely to differ between trial and repeat. Our analysis of the acceptance of a risky prescription drug by physicians provides three novel findings. First, there is evidence of contagion not only in trial but also in repeat. Second, who is most influential varies across stages. Physicians with high centrality in the discussion and referral network and with high prescription volume are influential in trial but not repeat. In contrast, immediate colleagues, few of whom are nominated as a discussion or referral partner, are influential in both trial and repeat. Third, who is most influenceable also varies across stages. For trial, it is physicians who do not consider themselves to be opinion leaders, whereas for repeat, it is those located towards the middle of the status distribution as measured by network centrality. The pattern of results is consistent with informational social influence reducing risk in trial and normative social influence increasing conformity in repeat.

This paper examines the effects of sequential movie releases on the dilution and the enhancement of celebrity brands. The authors use favorability ratings colle

This paper reports on research contrasting three different explanations of the relationship between endorsers and products in producing effective product endorsements. A full-factorial model, varying endorsers and products, was used to compare the effects of endorsers and products on perceptions of endorsement effectiveness. Additionally, explanations of endorsement effectiveness ratings were classified and analyzed. Results indicate that the matches between endorsers and products, rather than the nature of products or endorsers themselves, affect the perceived effectiveness of endorsements.

Why do people purchase objects that were once owned by celebrities, such as film stars or politicians, and also by despised individuals, such as serial killers and notorious dictators? The present studies examine three potential explanations: mere associations, market demands, and contagion (the belief that these objects contain some remnants of their previous owners). Results indicate that while market demands do play a role, contagion appears to be the critical factor affecting the valuation of celebrity possessions. Manipulating the degree of physical contact that a celebrity has with an object dramatically influences consumers’ willingness to purchase it, and individual differences in sensitivity to contagion moderate this effect. Additionally, the valuation of celebrity possessions is principally explained by measures of contagion, and subliminally activating the concept of contagion changes consumers’ willingness to purchase celebrity objects. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Because it is harder to justify hedonic purchases than utilitarian purchases, it is proposed that promotions will have a stronger positive effect on the purchase likelihood of hedonic than utilitarian products. This and related propositions are tested in multiple studies using a variety of product categories and promotions. The results demonstrate that promotions are more effective in driving purchase decisions when: (a) the product is hedonic rather than utilitarian; (b) the product is framed as more hedonic; and (c) the consumer has a hedonic rather than utilitarian consumption goal. Consistent with our conceptualization, the enhanced impact of promotions on hedonic purchases is attenuated when: (a) the hedonic product is intended as a gift for others; (b) consumers can construct justifications for their purchase ahead of time; (c) consumers are not accountable for their decisions; and (d) the promotion is contingent on purchasing additional product units (i.e., a quantity discount like “Buy 10, get 50% off”). Importantly, the present research reconciles and explains the seemingly inconsistent prior findings regarding the effects of price versus quantity promotions.

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine women reactions to celebrity endorsers holding positive and negative public images and the consequences for purchase intentions of the endorsed product. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on the social comparison literature and applies the theory of upward and downward comparisons to the celebrity endorsement context. Findings Study 1 shows that exposure to celebrities holding a positive public image decrease consumers temporal self-esteem, while celebrities holding a negative public image increase temporal self-esteem. Study 2 suggests that this change in self-esteem transfers to the product depending upon the type of social comparison focus (similarity vs dissimilarity) which people have. Study 3 shows that for consumers low in true self-esteem, i.e. self-esteem based upon a stable foundation, celebrities holding a positive public image decrease purchase intentions. For consumers high in true self-esteem, there was no difference between exposure to celebrities holding a positive and a negative public image for purchase intentions. Study 4 focused on replicating the results found in Studies 1-3 in the context of an achievement celebrity (as opposed to a regular celebrity). The findings in Study 4 provide further support for the results of Studies 1 and 3, and identify expert celebrities as a boundary condition for the effects found in Study 2. Practical implications The results provide evidence suggesting that celebrities holding a negative public image can be used as celebrity endorsers in product categories in which it can be considered helpful to protect women self-esteem, such as beauty products or self-expressive products. Originality/value This research contributes to the literature on celebrity endorsement by adding a boundary condition for the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement. According to the results, choosing a positive celebrity can, for some groups, have negative effects on purchase intensions and that a negative celebrity might be the safer choice.

Baron and Kenny’s (1986) procedures for determining if an independent variable affects a dependent variable through some mediator are so well known that they ar

幽默可以促进沟通效果,实践中许多企业运用幽默来回应消费者抱怨。然而既有文献对于幽默能否以及如何有效化解抱怨缺乏系统深入的研究。本文则基于良性冲突理论与关系范式理论探究了企业幽默式抱怨回应策略对不同关系范式下消费者的影响。通过二手数据分析和实验法,本文发现:对于唤醒度较低的负面情感导致的消费者抱怨,企业幽默(相较于非幽默)的抱怨回应策略更有助于改善消费者品牌态度;而且,不同类型的幽默化回应作用不同,自强型幽默的抱怨回应对改善共有关系范式下消费者品牌态度更有效,自嘲型幽默的抱怨回应则有助于改善共有和交易关系范式下消费者的品牌态度;幽默回应策略与关系范式通过影响消费者的良性评价而作用于品牌态度。

This article discusses the diffusion process in an online social network given the individual connections between members. The authors model the adoption decision of individuals as a binary choice affected by three factors: (1) the local network structure formed by already adopted neighbors, (2) the average characteristics of adopted neighbors (influencers), and (3) the characteristics of the potential adopters. Focusing on the first factor, the authors find two marked effects. First, an individual who is connected to many adopters has a greater adoption probability (degree effect). Second, the density of connections in a group of already adopted consumers has a strong positive effect on the adoption of individuals connected to this group (clustering effect). The article also records significant effects for influencer and adopter characteristics. For adopters, specifically, the authors find that position in the entire network and some demographic variables are good predictors of adoption. Similarly, in the case of already adopted individuals, average demographics and global network position can predict their influential power on their neighbors. An interesting counterintuitive finding is that the average influential power of individuals decreases with the total number of their contacts. These results have practical implications for viral marketing, a context in which a variety of technology platforms are increasingly considering leveraging their consumers' revealed connection patterns. The model performs particularly well in predicting the next set of adopters.