Cécile Plaud and Bertrand Urien
Bereavement is far reaching and has a significant impact on many lives as widow(er)s are faced with countless changes to their everyday routines, their relationships and their…
Abstract
Purpose
Bereavement is far reaching and has a significant impact on many lives as widow(er)s are faced with countless changes to their everyday routines, their relationships and their consumption patterns. It is in this context that the purpose of this study is to examine the links between the meanings of bereavement for widows and the types and sources of social support sought. This deepens the understanding of the reasons for the success or failure of service encounters and thus contributes to consumer well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study was carried out to gain more insight into this issue. A total of 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with French widows 59 years of age and older. To fully understand the diversity of bereavement experiences, the authors examined the following factors: life trajectory, life, as the spouse’s/partner’s death, support received and/or solicited and the success or failure of service encounters.
Findings
The findings suggest that bereavement experiences hold different meanings related to the types and sources of the preferred support. The following six classes were identified: dealing with administrative and financial issues, maintaining parental roles, enduring the memories of the circumstances of the spouse’s/partner’s death, reorganizing daily life, facing the loneliness of widowhood and expressing the affects of bereavement. These classes help to identify the conditions for the success or failure of service encounters.
Originality/value
The following two avenues emerge that contribute to the well-being of widows: “loss-oriented” and “restoration-oriented” bereavement classes of meanings. The former is embodied by widows primarily seeking “nurturant support” who expect self-oriented and relationship-focused service behaviour on the part of service providers, and the latter by widows primarily seeking “action-facilitating” support who expect “task-oriented” service behaviour from service providers. These results should allow service providers to be aware of when to prioritize the task, the self and/or the relationship, to provide a successful service encounter for consumers of bereavement services.
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Franck Celhay and Juliette Passebois
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the level of perceived atypicality in a wine label's design on the consumer's aesthetic appreciation and purchase intent…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the level of perceived atypicality in a wine label's design on the consumer's aesthetic appreciation and purchase intent. Furthermore, it intends to highlight the moderating role of perceived risk in the relationship between these three variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Four Bordeaux wine labels providing the same information but with different designs are tested on a sample of 166 individuals. The respondents evaluate the labels in terms of perceived typicality and aesthetic appreciation. They are then asked to indicate what their purchase intentions would be for each label in respect of five different consumption occasions.
Findings
The results indicate a strong preference for the most typical label. However, this preference decreases when the perceived risk associated with the consumption occasion also decreases. For those consumption occasions perceived as less risky, the respondents seem more willing to choose labels with a moderately atypical design.
Originality/value
This research provides some answers to a problem recently raised with representatives of the wine industry: given that consumers seem to prefer traditional labelling, to what extent is it possible to differentiate a product in terms of design? The authors' results indicate that the acceptance of atypical designs is linked to the level of perceived risk at the moment of purchase. A brand that targets consumption occasions that are perceived as only slightly risky will therefore more easily be able to depart from the visual codes of its product category.
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Bernard Korai and Nizar Souiden
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the service literature by investigating post-consumption evaluation in the context of unwanted services. In particular, it intends to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the service literature by investigating post-consumption evaluation in the context of unwanted services. In particular, it intends to delineate the main characteristics of funeral services.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the lack of substantive literature on funeral services, a qualitative exploratory design was used from in-depth interviews with ten managers of funeral services companies in Quebec (Canada).
Findings
The study shows that compared to other traditional services, funeral services are characterized by their strong emotiveness, non-recurrence, irreversibility, uncommonness, high level of symbolism and personalization and emotion control of the service provider. The study also argues that funeral services quality is strongly dependent on funeral houses’ integrated logistics, proximity and integrity.
Practical implications
Because of consumers’ lack of competency, funeral companies need to guide and educate consumers about the criteria they should use to evaluate the service quality. Because funeral consumers are strongly emotion-driven at the purchase time, funeral services providers should find the right balance of emotions to express. Thus, more staff training is needed.
Originality/value
Because funeral services are emotionally challenging and deal with grief and distressed clients, the present study contributes in shedding light on service quality assessment in the funeral industry. Although they have some characteristics of traditional services (intangibility, perishability and variability), funeral services are also different in many ways.