Consumer Feelings Research Articles

Consumer behavioural intentions in cause-related marketing. The role of identification and social cause involvement

The main purpose of this research is to analyze the role of consumer identification with the company and consumer involvement with the social cause in consumer behavioural responses to Cause-related Marketing. A theoretical model was empirically estimated based on data taken from 595 consumers of insurance and personal hygiene products and using structural equation modelling. A multigroup analysis was performed in order to test the moderating effect of consumer involvement with the social cause. Findings confirm that company-consumer identification is a powerful cognitive connection able to generate positive consumer behavioural responses to Cause-related Marketing. Furthermore, when the consumer feels more involved with the social cause, the positive influence of consumer identification on product purchase intention is amplified; however, identification influence on intention to support Non-Profit Organisation is reinforced when consumer feels less involved with the social cause.

The emotional response to wine consumption

Emotion may be defined as a special perception that informs us about current body status and its modification due to internal or external stimuli and feelings such as mental representations of bodily changes, including thoughts ( Damasio, 2003). Emotions have been generally associated with products but there has been little published research on emotions related to food, and more specifically to wine. Every culture may describe its emotions in different ways and may have its own emotional lexicon, allowing feelings to be socially shared: the purpose of this research is to develop a list of emotional adjectives appropriate to the Italian culture to describe the feelings of wine consumers. By means of three studies, we selected 16 words which allow wine consumers to describe their feelings while consuming wine. The emotion terms selected could be divided into two categories: high/low arousal and high/low pleasantness. Unlike the general prevalence in the emotional lexicon of languages of words expressing unpleasant emotions, most of the 16 Italian terms focused on emotions elicited by wine consumption fall into the pleasure category.

Comparing a customer-based brand equity scale with the Implicit Association Test in examining consumer responses to brands

Understanding consumer responses to brands has become an important topic for both academicians and practitioners. The customer-based brand equity scale asks consumers to respond to a set of questions designed to determine brand loyalty, brand associations, perceived quality and awareness, and is generally an overall measure of the strength of a brand. Another option for examining brand valence is the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The IAT taps into consumer feelings about brands without using traditional ‘paper-and-pencil’ scale items. This research compares a standard brand equity scale with the IAT to determine instances when they may diverge in their measurement of brand attitudes. The findings suggest situations when the IAT may be a more sensitive tool for detecting variation in brand attitude.

Consumer Feelings and Equilibrium Product Quality

This paper considers the possibility that a firm can invest not only in the true product quality, but also in activities such as merchandizing and store atmospherics that influence consumer perception of the product quality. Consumers make their purchase decisions based on the signal (perception) of quality they experience, where the signal is influenced by both the true product quality valued by the consumer and the affect of the consumer at the time of the signal formation. In this situation, a firm finds it optimal to invest in both product quality and in variables inducing affect, even though rational consumers, in equilibrium, correctly solve back for the true product quality. We uncover an asymmetry in the effects of the cost of producing quality and the cost of inducing affect. As a firm's cost of quality decreases, the firm will find it optimal to invest more both in the true quality and in the affect inducement, even if it does not have a lower cost of inducing affect. Conversely, if a firm finds it easier to induce affect, then the product quality decreases but affect‐inducing activities increase. Under competition, we find that the firm investing more in quality also invests more in affect creation. An implication of this is that in a competitive environment, consumers can rationally associate an up‐lifting store atmosphere, affect inducing merchandizing, or mood‐creating communication with high quality products even when the firm has no need to signal their private cost of quality information, and when there is no consumption externality of the affect. We also analyze the case in which firms might have different costs and consumers are uncertain about the costs incurred by a given firm. Here again we show that the perceived quality production is positively correlated with both the true quality and the affect inducing activities.

Online atmospherics: the impact of colour and music on purchase intention

This study examines the online atmospheric cues of colour and music and their impact upon feeling and purchase intention of consumers in the online environment. The research design was experimental and used data from a questionnaire. A pilot test of the instrument was conducted. The final questionnaire contained 39 items and a demographic section. A total of 200 questionnaires were collected. Participants were exposed to a specific set of online atmospheric elements. Results indicated a difference in regard to purchase intention when exposed to different colour. Results also found a correlation between feeling and internet purchase intention. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed along with future research suggestions.

Consumer Perceptions of Service Innovativeness and Personal Control

This article investigates the relationship between perceived service innovativeness and perceived personal control in two exploratory and confirmatory studies. Three conclusions are drawn. First, when consumers perceive innovativeness in the dimensions of exterior facilities, employees, service core, and responsiveness, they tend to find the service more predictable. Second, innovativeness in the dimensions of administration, interior facilities, and technology can enhance the consumer's feeling of control over the service creation and/or delivery. Third, consumers of services with innovatively designed interior facilities, employees, and service core tend to find the offering more desirable. The findings and limitations are discussed and the directions for future research are exposed.

Modeling strategic management for cause‐related marketing

PurposeA number of research findings point to positive motivational attribution about the donor brand as an essential element of cause‐related marketing (CRM) effectiveness. However, there still lacks sophisticated delineation to explicate the antecedents and consequences of positive motivational attribution. The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a strategic management model to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe current study, integrating pertinent theories, develops the conceptual CRM strategic management model. A multi‐phase investigation, alongside statistical technique of structural equation modelling, is used to estimate the causal path relationships among the latent constructs as hypothesised in the model.FindingsPositive motivational attribution about the donor brand refers to the target consumer's perception that the donor brand is motivated with more altruism than egotism. Only when the consumer's prior experience of the donor brand reaches an acceptable level, such perception becomes possible to emerge. Then, the consumer feels stronger moral pleasure for participating or stronger moral displeasure for not participating in the campaign. Eventually, moral pleasure and moral displeasure exert immediate impact on purchase intention.Originality/valueThe empirically validated CRM strategic management model contributes to brand‐marketing research and practice by providing more strategic clues for maximising CRM effectiveness.

Charitable organizations' storytelling influence on donors' emotions and intentions

The stories told by charitable organizations are typically designed to take the consumer through different emotional stages. This research probes the view that following exposure to the inciting incident or problem statement in the appeal for a particular charity, the consumer feels negative emotions. These feelings convert into anticipated positive emotions when the consumer is given the opportunity to help the person in need through a donation. Feedback that donors receive from the charitable organization will help to strengthen the emotional pay-off and enhances future donation intentions. The research utilizes an experimental design and data from 319 undergraduate students in a large U.S. university to confirm these hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications are then presented.

Impact of genetic advances and testing for hearing loss: Results from a national consumer survey

Hearing loss is a common neuro-sensory deficit; nearly 50% of children with hearing loss have a genetic etiology. With the discovery of 40 genes and more than 100 loci involved in hearing loss, genetic testing is becoming more widely available. The information obtained through genetic testing can be perceived and used in different ways by parents of deaf children and deaf adults, based on their prior knowledge and understanding of these advances. It is therefore important to clarify the feelings of these potential consumers towards genetic services for hearing loss and understand their goals for genetic testing. The present study evaluates the feelings of consumers towards the advances in the genetics of hearing loss, the motivations for pursuing testing, and the perceived impact testing may have on their lives. We surveyed 808 parents of children with hearing loss nationally and 156 young deaf adults at Gallaudet University. In this study, learning the etiology of the hearing loss was the most commonly cited motivation for pursuing genetic testing and for parents was the most commonly cited outcome that genetic testing may have on their children's lives. Culturally Deaf respondents were less likely to believe that genetic testing will impact their lives or their children's lives and were less likely to report positive feelings about advances in the genetics of hearing loss. Cultural affiliation and genetic testing status, rather than hearing status, contributed more to the participants' responses.

The impact of involvement on key service relationships

PurposeThis paper aims to report a study that focuses on the moderating role of involvement in the relationships between customer contact employees' customer orientation and service quality perceptions and satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 869 consumers is drawn from four different service providers, scale measures are validated via confirmatory factor analysis and a conceptual model is tested using non‐monotonic moderated regression analysis.FindingsHigher levels of involvement lead to greater levels of consumer loyalty and a lower need for scarce marketing resources. Hence, involvement does play a significant moderating role; in most cases the relationships are stronger for consumers with higher involvement.Research limitations/implicationsFindings are generalizable only to the four industries investigated.Practical implicationsRelative to customers with low levels of involvement, managers must be sure to motivate their employees to work with customers to help solve their problems and thus enhance the level of involvement. Conversely, for highly involved customers, contact employees must be aware that they may not play as significant a role in the overall purchase experience as the consumer feels they (the consumer) are an “expert” relative to the products offered. In such cases, customer‐oriented employees' role is to be willing to play a supporting and less important role in a customer's purchase decision.Originality/valueWhile many studies have investigated service quality and satisfaction, the research represents the first effort to determine whether the relationship between these two variables differs based on a consumer characteristic; in this case, involvement.

Social identity threat and consumer preferences

Although marketers often link brands with an aspect of consumer social identity, the current research demonstrates that such brand-identity linkages may sometimes have negative consequences. Consumers motivated to protect and maintain feelings of individual self-worth alter their product evaluations and choices to avoid a threatened aspect of their own social identity. Whereas those low in collective self-esteem (CSE) tend to exhibit such identity avoidance effects, those high in CSE maintain associations with an identity-linked brand even when that social identity is threatened. Moreover, when the consumer feels positively about the self via self-affirmation, the effect among low CSE consumers is mitigated. Finally, it is demonstrated that differences in the use of identity as a resource underlie the effects.

2402 アルミボトルの持ちやすさ・開けやすさ評価法に関する検討(OS14-1 感性と設計I,OS14 感性と設計)

This paper has studied factors that affect consumer's feeling when opening and griping an aluminum beverage bottle, and suggests a method of evaluating opening and gripping ease. Gripping ease of three different kinds of shell diameters (φ50, φ60, φ70) has been evaluated by using semantic differential (SD) method of Kansei engineering. As a result, major subjects have evaluated that the shell diameters φ50 and φ60 is easier to grip than shell diameter φ70. On the other hand, opening ease of an aluminum beverage bottle has been evaluated by measuring grip force of unopened cap. Therefore, the diameter φ70 is the easiest to open than the other diameters.

The role of confidence in attitude–intention and beliefs–attitude relationships

Confidence – how certain a consumer feels about his or her evaluation of a brand – is of interest to advertising researchers since it appears to be more susceptible to advertising exposure and repetition than other, more commonly used outcome variables, such as brand attitude and purchase intention. However, the role of confidence is not clear. A number of studies in marketing find that confidence predicts purchase intention, whereas other studies, mostly in psychology, find that confidence moderates attitude–intention or attitude–behaviour relationships. These differences in results may be the result of method differences, as the two groups of studies differ in several ways in their methodologies. The present study tests the role of confidence using data from four largesample internet advertising surveys and finds that confidence moderates the attitude–intention relationship. In addition, the study tests whether or not confidence moderates the belief–attitude relationship and finds that confidence moderates this relationship too.

품질기능전개(QFD)를 이용한 의류제품 디자인 설계요소 연구 -중.노년층여성정장의 의류제품품질을 중심으로-

The subjects of this study were middle-aged women in their 40s50s and older women aged 60 and over who were living in Seoul and Kyonggi-do, Korea. Through studying the participants` responses to the questions regarding the attributes of apparel quality in terms of the levels of satisfaction and importance, the target consumers` demand has been studied. And, they are applied to a QFD Matrix, to find out the relationship between the attributes of product quality and the guidelines of clothing design. For this study, apparel product quality is composed of five parameters: practicality, aesthetics, brand image, ease of care and fit. For the parameters of apparel product quality, the result of this study show that product improvements are needed in fit, aesthetics and practicality(in order of importance). The level of satisfaction(how satisfied consumer feels) was marked higher in brand image than that of importance(how important it is). To review demands for the apparel product attributes of formal suits for middle-aged and older women, the priority of these attributes through QFD Matrix that shows the relationship between the attributes and dress elements emphasized by designers has been examined. Material was the most important design element in designing formal suits. The shape of the pants was the second because the harmony between the jacket and the pants is important in formal suits. These were followed by trim and color tone of the jacket.

Economic Reality versus Consumer Perceptions of Monopoly

When a Senate committee considered regulating access to a popular National Football League (NFL) broadcast in 2007, the context was familiar to marketers: accusations of abusing monopoly power. The specific issue of NFL telecasts was eventually resolved outside the public policy arena, but it raises a more general question: What “monopolies” should governments regulate? Antitrust laws in the United States arose from a desire to protect competition. However, public policy is beginning to apply them in marketplaces that are monopolies only in the sense that consumers perceive a lack of competition, even though, in actuality, competitors are free to operate. Examples range from the NFL to iPod to De Beers. The authors refer to the dominant suppliers in these markets as “psychological monopolies” created by consumer beliefs and feelings, not by economic reality. The authors argue that the regulation of such monopolies is misguided.

QUESTIONNAIRE PRACTICE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE JAR SCALE IS PLACED BETWEEN TWO “OVERALL” ACCEPTANCE SCALES?

ABSTRACT Using the observational analysis of two different foods as test products, this note examined some interesting findings that emerge when the just‐about‐right (JAR) scale was placed after the overall liking rating, and before the preference ranking. The JAR data appeared to be statistically uncorrelated with the overall rating scales. First, this fortuitous observation from several studies suggests that the JAR scale can play a diagnostic role to determine how the consumer feels about changing the product. Second, the statistical analysis of the JAR ratings (e.g., bipolar nature of the JAR scale, its skewness and kurtosis) all suggest that the appropriate measure is %JAR, an incidence metric, rather than scale average, ought to be used both to report the results, and to create models relating to the JAR versus sensory magnitude or versus liking, respectively. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSThe results of the present analysis suggest that overall acceptance/liking can be the last question in the questionnaire design. That location is very important for the sensory analysis of foods eaten over time and then rated, as well as personal care and cosmetic studies where the products are used over time periods, and where the true evaluation of performance ought to be made at the end of the trial. In these long‐term uses, overall liking is generally the last question given at the end of the time period of product evaluation. The facts that the just‐about‐right (JAR) scales are independent of this final overall liking rating suggest that the integrity of the overall evaluation and usefulness of JAR as diagnostics will not be compromised.

2112 アルミボトルの開けやすさ・握りやすさ評価法に関する検討

This paper has studied factors that affect consumer's feeling when opening and griping an aluminum beverage bottle, and suggests a method of evaluating opening and gripping ease. Gripping ease of three different kinds of shell diameters (φ50, φ60, φ70) has been evaluated by using semantic differential (SD) method of Kansei engineering. As a result, major subjects have evaluated that the opening φ50 and φ60 is easier to grip than φ70. On the other hand, opening ease of an aluminum beverage bottle has been evaluated by measuring grip force and torque. As a result, the torque to grip the bottle in diameter φ60 shows the largest torque than the other diameters.

Corporate Reputations in China: How Do Consumers Feel About Companies?

This article provides an overview of the reputation landscape in China. Consumer surveys demonstrate the existence of cognitive barriers to competition that favor international firms over domestic firms, and private firms over state-owned companies. In particular, Chinese consumers ascribe higher reputations to international companies such as Nokia, Intel, BMW and IBM and downgrade Chinese-branded companies. Few domestic companies do well, but privately held Haier Group, Tsingtao Brewery and Yili Group largely outdistance larger state-owned companies like China Telecom and SINOPEC, China's mammoth energy complex. Finally, Beijing 2008 Olympic partners already appear to be benefiting from the enhanced visibility pre-game publicity provides. The results reinforce the importance of examining reputation dynamics as an important factor shaping the rapidly evolving Chinese economy, both domestically and internationally.

The emotional impact on mothers and midwives of conflict between workplace and personal/professional ethics

Research problem The way we see or interpret our social world determines how we are and how we act (our ‘being with’) in that world. Midwifery is currently promoting a partnership model of practice ( Guilliland & Pairman 1995). Workplace Codes and policies usually promote universal ethical principles and objective ethical decision-making both of which exclude so called subjective aspects such as emotions, context and relationship ( Thompson 2004). A qualitative study conducted in Australia, explored the implicit and explicit ethics surrounding childbirth, including the ethical nature of the mother-midwife relationship. One aspect of that research analysed the impact of any conflict between workplace and personal/professional ethics, as expressed by participating mothers and midwives. This paper discusses one of the emergent themes, ‘Emotions and Feelings’. Participants Eight women who had recently birthed a baby, and eight currently practicing midwives recruited from a variety of birthing and midwifery practice areas in Queensland, including public and private health care categories. Method Narrative inquiry was guided by feminist constructivism and feminist ethics. Through in-depth interviews, participants told of their personal experiences, and described how they felt when an encounter with either a midwife or doctor was ethically unsatisfactory for them. Participants were co-researchers in that during both the interview and analysis process, feedback was sought from them to validate the researcher's interpretation and jointly construct consensual meanings. Findings Conflict between workplace/service provider ethics and personal/professional ethics has an emotional impact according to the mothers and midwives interviewed for the present research. Implication A significant implication of the research is that ethical midwifery practice and decision-making ought to include not exclude, the emotions and feelings of consumers and practitioners. Emotions are our response to a social situation, and reflect our cognitive belief of concepts such as justice and integrity: when we know something is ‘wrong’ we are sad, or angry, or feel ‘bad’. Rarely do we search for which ethical principle has been breached. Ethical practice is based on human engagement in relationship, not merely abstract principles.

A robust design approach for enhancing the feeling quality of a product: a car profile case study

A consumer's feeling plays a key role in determining his or her affection for a product. However, estimating, reviewing, and enhancing this feeling are difficult since (1) no suitable criteria are available to do so, (2) a variance exists between different consumer's evaluations, and (3) no practicable design process is available. This paper develops the concept of “feeling quality” to concretize the feeling effects evoked by a product. A robust design method is applied to enhance this quality by reducing the discrepancy between the actual consumer feeling and the target feeling, and by reducing the feeling ambiguity induced by the highly individualized characteristics of the consumers. The proposed robust design is verified in a case study concerning a passenger car profile. A target feeling is specified and three original car shapes are redesigned on the basis of the optimal parameters identified by the robust design in order to minimize the feeling discrepancy and the feeling evaluation variation. The results confirm that compared to the original profiles, the redesigned profiles evoke an enhanced “feeling quality”. Specifically, the feeling discrepancy and the feeling ambiguity are reduced by 41.31% and 51.49%, respectively. Relevance to industry This paper presents a robust design approach, which assists designers in enhancing the feeling quality of their products. The approach enables the optimal design parameters to be identified and overcomes the problem of consumer differences through the use of a simple experimental and analysis procedure. Adopting the proposed method substantially reduces the likelihood of generating faulty designs.