Experiential Image Research Articles

Emotional intelligence and demographic factors: Moderating effects in service recovery strategy

This study highlights the role of emotional intelligence, gender, income, and residence area on the relationship between brand image, service recovery strategy, and satisfaction. The multistage with purposive sampling method has recruited 600 samples of private hospital services in Thailand. Self-administered online questionnaires via Google Forms were used to collect the data online. Confirmatory factor analysis and multigroup SEM have been used for hypothesis testing. The research explores emotional intelligence (EI), with lower emotional intelligence associated with more negative perceptions of social brand image. Lower income affects the symbolic and social image, influencing satisfaction with a service recovery strategy. The upcountry areas viewed experiential images more positively compared to those from urban regions. Gender did not significantly moderate these relationships. The study also highlights thatfactors do not substantially impact service recovery satisfaction but are still vital for effective communication and brand attachment. The results underscore the intricate dynamics of the various factors that shape consumer attitudes and behaviours toward service recovery strategy.

The Impact of Hair Salon Brand Image on Self-Image Congruence and Brand Loyalty

This study aimed to investigate the influence of the congruence between brand image and self-image on brand loyalty within the context of hair salons. A total of 620 online surveys were distributed to hair salon customers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Jeju regions using Naver Form, with all 620 surveys successfully collected. The research findings revealed the following key results. Firstly, among the sub-factors of self-image congruence, both ideal self-image and actual self-image were found to significantly impact the brand image, with symbolic image, experiential image, and functional image being the order of significance. Additionally, the sub-factor of social self-image was found to significantly influence the brand image, following the order of symbolic image and experiential image. Secondly, among the sub-factors of brand loyalty, attitudinal loyalty demonstrated a significant influence in the following order: functional image, experiential image, and symbolic image of the brand image. On the other hand, behavioral loyalty showed a significant impact in the order of functional image and symbolic image of the brand image. Thirdly, both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, as sub-factors of brand loyalty, were found to be significantly influence the sub-factors of self-image congruence, with the order of importance being ideal self-image, social self-image, and actual self-image. This study emphasizes the importance for hair salon brands to focus on enhancing their brand image and strive to align consumer self-image with the brand image. By recognizing and adapting to this congruence, hair salons can effectively increase brand loyalty.

Can agrifood products generate tourist desire to visit a place? An empirical study of image transfer and self-congruity

Tourism relates to many other industries, such as hospitality, transport, and agriculture. In practice, a tourism destination or place has often been promoted together with local products, especially agrifood products. The co-marketing practice between tourism and agrifood products has faced challenges and one of them is consumer acceptance. Although the importance of local agrifood products in promoting a tourism place has been acknowledged in prior literature, little research has empirically examined the establishment of a strong product-place relationship. Using experimental designs, this study empirically investigated how image transfer and self-congruity influence tourists' evaluations of a co-marketing initiative between the tourism (place) and the agrifood (products) sectors. The study collected a sample of 662 potential tourists from China and data was analysed using Structural Equation Modelling. Results showed that an agrifood product's symbolic images can be directly transferred to a tourism place and subsequently generate stronger tourist desire to visit the place than any other product images. Functional images of an agrifood product can also be transferred to a place, but only indirectly through the process of self-congruity. Experiential images were unable to be transferred in a product-place context. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed with limitations and future research outlined.

Exploring the impact of functional, symbolic, and experiential image on approach behaviors among state-park tourists from India, Korea, and the USA

This study provides insights into the influence of state park image, visitor emotions, and place identity on visitors’ revisit intentions by considering the moderating impact of national culture. A quantitative process with the data collected in India, Korea, and the US was used. Hierarchical regression analysis evidences the moderating role of national culture, which is hardly explored in the state park context. Results confirm that most hypotheses are fully or partially accepted, which suggests that brand image and national culture influence visitor intention. This study helps practitioners better understand the relevance of national culture in developing appropriate visitor attraction/retention strategies.

Images Big and Soft: The Digital Archive Rendered Cinematic

In his recent immersive media art project titled Machine Hallucinations, artist Refik Anadol collected over 100 million images of New York City from social media and, using machine learning, created a 30-minute immersive experimental cinema experience that visualized the database. On his website, Anadol explains that computation allows “a novel form of synesthetic storytelling through its multilayered manipulation of a vast visual archive beyond the conventional limits of the camera and the existing cinematographic techniques.” With this project, Anadol demonstrates a tendency shared by a group of contemporary media artists who work at the intersection of cinema and the digital archive and who use machine learning and generative adversarial networks to render specific somatic experiences in relation to thousands of images. This essay discusses this shared focus by examining projects by three artists who use computational processes to assemble, manipulate, and then exhibit an archive of images as a part of their practice and output, translating the archival into the cinematic. The projects are significant in their evocation of what has been named by Ingrid Hoelzl the “soft-image” or “post-image,” shifting from the single image as a solid, stable representation within a collection of similarly single images, to that of the distributed, in-process experiential image. Further, each example approaches the creation of the collection with varied intentions; and each presents the material in disparate modalities that, while deeply connected to the cinematic, produce very different sensory experiences. Together, the examples offer a perspective on the archive in our current moment’s transition from representation to computation.

Tour guides as a supportive tool for the experiential image of Jordan's destination: a French tourists' perspective

Tour guides as a supportive tool for the experiential image of Jordan's destination: a French tourists' perspective

Tour guides as a supportive tool for the experiential image of Jordan's destination: a French tourists perspective

Tour guides as a supportive tool for the experiential image of Jordan's destination: a French tourists perspective

Mapping coexistence in Italy: Reshaping the cartographic feelings of the plural nation

Rarely considered from the perspective of ordinary citizens as opposed to institutional actors, national maps have been primarily deconstructed as abstract tools of power that express nationalist agendas. This paper offers an alternative examination of the map as a performative tool of national pluralism. In tune with the most recent conceptualizations of everyday forms of nationhood, I explore multiple creative auto-cartographies of Italy as experiential images for investigating the coexistence of several senses of nationhood and cultural diversity. To this end, I combine an inductive visual content analysis of nearly three hundred remappings of Italy, uploaded online by readers of a popular national newspaper, La Repubblica, with a visual semiotic reading of six samples. Here, the playful idea of remapping the nation becomes a catalyst to produce or resist a sense of belonging to the nation, while eliciting a wider spectrum of feelings with regard to internal and external perceived meaningful others. This paper concludes that the different ways in which ordinary people map the nation have to be taken seriously, as they show evidence that these readers absorb and decode, but also resist or challenge, different mainstream discourses regarding the idea of nationality, coexistence, and cultural diversity.

An Empirical Analysis of Green Experiential Loyalty: A Case Study

The purpose of this study is to elaborate the structural relationships among the experiential quality dimensions, experiential trust, emotional attachment, experiential image, switching experience, experiential satisfaction, and experiential loyalty from the green perspective. The study findings are based on structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis of a convenience sample of 560 customers at one green restaurant in Taipei City, Taiwan. The findings show that investing resources in an increase in the experiential quality dimensions and a decrease in green switching experience is useful to enhance green experiential trust, green emotional attachment, green experiential image, green experiential satisfaction, and green experiential loyalty.

The experiential image of North Cyprus destination as perceived by German tourists

This study aims at examining the experiential image (EI) of North Cyprus and how it is perceived by international tourists from Germany. A total number of 450 questionnaires were distributed to tourists coming from Germany; 385 questionnaires were considered valid for analysis. In order to increase the reliability as well as validity of research inputs and outputs, the primary data was collected at the last days of the tourists' stay to ensure that they have actually experienced North Cyprus destination. Results revealed that tourists from Germany have a positive EI of North Cyprus destination as well as they strongly recommend this destination. Results and recommendations are discussed.

The experiential image of North Cyprus destination as perceived by German tourists

This study aims at examining the experiential image (EI) of North Cyprus and how it is perceived by international tourists from Germany. A total number of 450 questionnaires were distributed to tourists coming from Germany; 385 questionnaires were considered valid for analysis. In order to increase the reliability as well as validity of research inputs and outputs, the primary data was collected at the last days of the tourists' stay to ensure that they have actually experienced North Cyprus destination. Results revealed that tourists from Germany have a positive EI of North Cyprus destination as well as they strongly recommend this destination. Results and recommendations are discussed.

The Interference Effect of Perceived CSR on Relationship Model of Brand Image

In recent years, both business enterprises and society at large have begun to assign significant value to corporate social responsibility (CSR), and consumer health has come to be an important factor in this regard. This study therefore explores whether different levels of awareness of CSR result in differences in the relationships among brand image, brand attitude, satisfaction and repurchase intention, as well as their intensity. Fast-food chain MOS Burger is used as a case study. In addition, the interference effect of consumer’s awareness of CSR on the brand image relational model is analyzed. In order to achieve the above goal, a consumer survey was conducted in Taiwan, from which 535 valid questionnaires were collected. The average value of consumer awareness of CSR was used to categorize respondents into two groups. SEM (structural equation modeling) analysis showed that the impact of experiential image on brand attitude was significantly stronger among consumers with low awareness of CSR, as compared to those who were highly aware of CSR. This suggested that CSR has a partial interference effect. These results can serve as reference for companies in making CSR-related decisions and formulating brand strategies.

The Influence of the Brand Image and Information Involvement on the Evaluation of Brand Extension - The Case of Taiwan

The aim of this research is to explore how the images of current brands, the involvement of information the consumers receive and the interaction between the consumer characteristics affect their evaluation of brand extension in developing the brand extension. The research results report that the different brand images (functional, symbolic and experiential images) have significant influence on the evaluation of extension brands and the subjects with high information involvement would make better evaluation of the extension brand than the subjects with low information involvement.

Psychometrické zisťovanie predstavy o Bohu v slovenských podmienkach

Research on the psychological characteristics of the image of God is one of the dynamically developing areas in psychology of religion. The aim of the paper is to present certain information on God Image Scales - a psychometric instrument which identifies psychological characteristics of the image of God in six dimensions: Presence, Challenge, Acceptance, Benevolence, Influence, and Providence. The author of the questionnaire, Richard Lawrence, based this instrument on two particular theories: the Attachment theory and the Object relations theory, with both applied to religion. In the present case the instrument primarily focuses on an experiential image of God as opposed to a rationally learned image of God. The paper also presents the Slovak adaptation of the questionnaire and explains how the Slovak version was developed using item analysis of three independent research samples. An exact translation of the original version does not guarantee the same psychometric characteristics as the original version. In conclusion, the advantages and disadvantages of using the instrument are discussed from the point of view of psychology and theology as well. The Slovak adaptation of the God Image Scales may contribute to research studies, clinical practice and pastoral work as well.

Brand personality and destination image of Istanbul

This study investigates brand personality and destination image of Istanbul, Turkey and compares the perceived image and personality across different nationalities visiting the city. The survey instrument included quantitative and qualitative (open ended) items and questions to better understand the first-time visitors' individual perceptions. Text analysis was utilized to reveal experiential image patterns in qualitative data. Respondents were grouped into four segments depending on the geographic and cultural proximity of their nationalities: USA, UK, Europe, and East Asia. Factor analyses were conducted to find underlying image and personality dimensions. Next one-way ANOVA was conducted to identify significant image and personality variations across different nationalities. The results showed that there are statistically significant perception differences across different nationalities for cognitive and overall image, as well as for brand personality perceptions and behavioral intention. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Cross‐cultural consumer values, needs and purchase behavior

This study examined the relationship of consumer values, needs and purchase behavior in two Asian consumer markets, China and South Korea. Between self‐directed values and social affiliation values, self‐directed values were the underlying determinant of needs to be satisfied by apparel products. Among the three types of needs identified to be satisfied through apparel (i.e. experiential, social and functional needs), experiential needs were the most important needs that influenced apparel purchases of female consumers in both Asian markets. Consumers in both country markets exhibited brand loyal behavior in apparel purchases, fulfilling all three needs. However, actualization patterns of each need through brand loyal behavior differed between the two consumer samples. While for brand‐loyal Chinese consumers experiential image was the most important aspect of the branded apparel appeal to female consumers, social image with performance quality assurance was a more important feature of the branded apparel appeal to consumers in Korea. Implications for brand image management for international markets were discussed.

Experiential perceptions of two winter sun destinations: The Algarve and Cyprus

The image, or perception, of destinations is a significant influence on the decision-making process of tourists. To identify whether the images of apparently similar destinations might differ, this paper explores the perceptions of tourists visiting two winter sun destinations: the Algarve in Portugal and Cyprus. The paper examines the primary (the motivations for the visit), the cognitive (attribute-based beliefs describing the destination) and the affective (the emotional reaction) images of each of the destinations. The results presented, based on surveys of visitors to each of the destinations, demonstrate that while the two destinations may have similar brochure images, appealing to similar markets, the images, and in particular the experiential images, held by visitors are probably different: a difference which is important for those responsible for ‘selling’ the destinations.

Marketing Relationships in a Computer-Mediated Environment

We propose a conceptual model of the retailer-consumer relationship in a computer-mediated environment (CME) and suggest that a trust-based approach to consumer marketing relationships be applied. We believe that the relationship between the retailer and their customers can be defined through the dis-confirmation of expected virtual (service brand related) and real (service process related) experiences of flow while shopping on-line. We argue that the consumer has two experiential images in their mind in the interaction between the consumer and on-line shopping CME: (1) the inter-organisational service brand and, (2) the inter-organisational service process interaction. Consequently, the consumer assesses their overall quality of the on-line shopping service experience through the phenomenological process of dis-confirmation. That is, high levels of service quality are perceived when the actual- real service experience is greater than the expected- virtual experience resulting in the development of trust. In the long term this leads to consumer motivation to the service brand and can be described as leading to loyalty (customer retention) to the on-line shopping service. The paper uses the setting of an interactive home-shopping supermarket to examine the changing nature of relationships in a computer-mediated environment. We present a discussion of preliminary, qualitative, empirical evidence from executive interview case studies that support our propositions. Implications and future research directions are also considered.

Lang's theory of emotional imagery

Abstract An appraisal is presented of Lang's theoretical and experimental work on emotional imagery. Lang has adopted a “propositionalist” theory of imagery which emphasises the role of the activation of cognitive structures associated with imagery. Questions are raised about the exact properties of these structures and the relation between their activation and the experiential image. Lang's experimental work has provided a generally convincing demonstration of the prediction that response training enhances the subjective vividness of imagery and the level of emotional responsiveness associated with it, although questions remain about the explanation of this effect. hg's predictions regarding the modification of emotional responsiveness associated with imagery have so far received little support from habituation studies, and the available data is considered in the context of the dual-process habituation theory of desensitisation.