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Auditory branding is the association of a non‐verbal, auditory identity for a brand. Sonic logos, or “sogos,” are a key element of sonic branding. This paper seeks to examine the systematic influence of an objective property, the number of tones in a sogo, on consumers' willingness‐to‐pay for the associated brand.

A laboratory experiment was conducted to test hypotheses.

Findings suggest that the number of tones in a sogo systematically influences willingness‐to‐pay in a non‐linear manner. Sogos with very few (three) tones or numerous (nine) tones are perceived to be less valuable than sogos with a moderate number (six) tones. This influence is mediated by the fluency with which the sogos are processed.

Although this study examines only one objective property of a sogo, it lays the theoretical foundation for a new research stream by connecting the processing fluency literature and logo literature to provide objective design guidelines for auditory branding elements. Future research could address the influence of other objective properties such as the contour (ascending/descending) of a sogo.

Although sogos are important and costly branding devices, their creation depends on intuition rather than objective parameters. Findings demonstrate that number of tones in a sogo systematically influences willingness‐to‐pay for the associated brand – a direct economic practical implication.

Despite its undeniably central role, sonic branding is a sparsely researched area. This paper demonstrates a strategic outcome for a brand leveraging sound as information.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an important exception to the “value congruity hypothesis,” which holds that advertising should be more effective when it is congruent with cultural values. It documents a paradoxical “reverse authority effect” among young adult consumers in traditionally high power distance (PD) countries.

Two experiments were conducted using data from traditionally high (South Korea in Study 1, Thailand in Study 2) and low (USA in Study 1) PD countries. Data are analyzed by variance analyses (multivariate analysis of covariance, analyses of variance) and regression.

Results show a reverse authority effect in Korea and attenuation of this effect in the USA (Study 1). Results also show a reverse authority effect in Thailand (Study 2), suggesting the generality of the effect across young consumers in traditionally high PD countries. It appears that a shift away from traditional cultural values has occurred in the course of modernization, as Western ideology gains popularity among young adult consumers in Eastern countries.

Findings suggest that traditional national culture alone is not a good predictor of responses to authority‐based ads. Rather, the extent to which a segment embraces or rejects traditional cultural values is more relevant.

This paper documents a notable exception to the value congruity hypothesis, i.e. a negative effect of authority‐based ads among young consumers in high PD cultures. It extends prior research and has implications for both theory and practice in global advertising.

The purpose of the paper is to develop and test a psychometrically valid scale for musical intelligence as an individuating variable. This scale can elicit individual differences on reactions to sonic branding stimuli such as audio logos, radio jingles and commercial music.

A two-step confirmatory factor analysis followed by structural equation modeling was used to develop and test the scale. Data were collected across three studies consisting of 470 participants. The scale was developed and nomologically validated.

Findings suggest that musical intelligence discriminates reactions to music as evidenced by the three component conceptualization of musical intelligence.

This study offers an original, three-component conceptualization of musical intelligence, proposes a measurement scale and then presents evidence of construct validity. Finally, the paper discusses potential applications of the scale in personality research.

Confirms the empirical test of Hunt and Vitell’s general theory of marketing ethics by Mayo and Marks across four cultures. Uses path analysis to show the core relationships of the general theory of marketing ethics were successfully replicated using over 1,500 students from seven universities in the USA, Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia. States that tomorrow’s managers appeared to use a more deontological approach to making ethical judgements about personal selling. Extends its original research by confirming the positive relationship between the probability and the desirability of consequences. Concludes that, although the model was originally intended to explain management ethical decision making, the study shows that it may be possible to generalize as to how individuals make ethical life decisions.

Suggests that an understanding of the difference between friendliness and courtesy can help providers to meet customer expectations and improve perceptions of service quality in a variety of service situations. Focuses on the issue of first‐name usage as a gesture of friendliness which is open to misinterpretation. Notes that this aspect of friendliness has been much debated in the popular press and has been identified as part of consumer service by some service organizations. Concludes that consumers express strong preferences for the level of friendliness they want from any type of service encounter, and that expectations will vary from one service to another and also from one customer to another.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how brand communities collectively react towards brand transgressions, an area where previous research has been scant.

This study adopts a netnographic approach in studying the reactions of one particular brand community and its reactions to a marketer-initiated brand transgression.

Building on coping theory, we find evidence of brand community coping, a temporally bounded process in which the community seeks to come to terms with and even overturn the transgression. Overall, we define the brand community coping process as unfolding through three overlapping and temporally bounded stages of (1) making the problem communal, (2) exploring the problem’s meaning, and (3) co-creating responses.

Studies of consumer coping particularly in cases of brand transgressions have predominantly adopted an individualistic approach to coping, or have treated communities as coping resources for individual consumers. This study is the first study to truly look at brand communities’ collective coping endeavors. We also offer managerial implications by questioning the overtly positive tone of brand co-creation literature and underline potential threats to marketers when consumers decide to use their co-creative practices to punish the marketer.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of background music on consumer's psychological and physiological responses when watching sports advertisements. We investigated how consumers' exposure to background music affects emotional arousal, attention, brand attitude and purchase intentions; and further tested consumers' information processing by using the same measures. Effects of music on viewer responses were hypothesized using arousal theory while the information processing was hypothesized using hierarchy-of-effects model.

We employed a between-subjects experimental design with random assignment. Fifty-four participants were recruited with 27 in an experimental group and 27 in a control group. Quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) and self-report measures were used to assess information processing. A multivariate analysis of covariance was conducted to compare the mean differences of variables between the groups. Partial least squares algorithm and bootstrapping were performed to further explore the relationships among the measures.

Mean differences indicated that the background music exposed group's emotional arousal, attention, brand attitude and purchase intention were significantly higher than those of the non-exposure group. Path analysis showed that the level of arousal induced by watching sports advertisements affected attention, attention affected brand attitude and brand attitude affected purchase intention. Indirect paths from arousal to brand attitude and attention to purchase intention were significant.

This study provides practical implications for sports marketers regarding methods to increase the effectiveness of sport advertisement. Results might contribute theoretically to the sports advertisement field by demonstrating the relationship between physiological and marketing-effect factors. Our method of measuring physiological response using qEEG is also expected to influence physiological measurement in sports marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to determine which two dimensions of music, happy/sad or liked/disliked, have significant effects on shopping intentions, thereby providing guidance for decision‐makers in service environments.

Subjects viewed videotapes of an unfamiliar store in an experimental research design. Subjects were exposed to one of several musical treatments while viewing and were asked to speak their thoughts about the store aloud. Happy/sad musical treatments were determined through pretests while subjects' unprompted comments were used to assess like/dislike for the music. Subjects also reported intentions to shop in the stimulus store. The hypothesized model was then tested.

Happy/sad music had a significant direct effect on shopping intentions while the direct effect of liked/disliked music was marginally significant. However, the combination of the two music dimensions investigated is perhaps most noteworthy. Shopping intentions were greatest when subjects were exposed to happy music that was liked.

Only a women's clothing store service setting with a limited target market was utilized. Care should be taken when generalizing beyond this setting and subject group.

Happy music that is liked by the target market can significantly increase intentions to shop in a retail service environment.

Little research has been done investigating the effects of the affective, or happy/sad, component of music in service settings. This study helps fill that gap in the literature. In addition, studies investigating music's effects in retail environments often examine only one dimension of music. The value of assessing effects of multiple dimensions of music is demonstrated.