Nina Åkestam, Sara Rosengren, Micael Dahlén, Karina T. Liljedal and Hanna Berg
This paper aims to investigate cross-gender effects of gender stereotypes in advertising. More specifically, it proposes that the negative effects found in studies of women’s…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate cross-gender effects of gender stereotypes in advertising. More specifically, it proposes that the negative effects found in studies of women’s reactions to stereotyped female portrayals should hold across gender portrayal and target audience gender.
Design/methodology/approach
In two experimental studies, the effects of stereotyped portrayals (vs non-stereotyped portrayals) across gender are compared.
Findings
The results show that advertising portrayals of women and men have a presumed negative influence on others, leading to higher levels of ad reactance, which has a negative impact on brand-related effects across model and participant gender, and for gender stereotypes in terms of physical characteristics and roles.
Research limitations/implications
Whereas previous studies have focused on reactions of women to female stereotypes, the current paper suggests that women and men alike react negatively to stereotyped portrayals of other genders.
Practical implications
The results indicate that marketers can benefit from adapting a more mindful approach to the portrayals of gender used in advertising.
Originality/value
The addition of a cross-gender perspective to the literature on gender stereotypes in advertising is a key contribution to this literature.
Details
Keywords
Magnus Söderlund, Jonas Colliander, John Karsberg, Karina T. Liljedal, Erik Modig, Sara Rosengren, Sofie Sagfossen, Stefan Szugalski and Nina Åkestam
This paper aims to assess the impact of perceived effort related to packaging on overall product evaluations. Perceived effort, defined as the consumer’s perceptions of how much…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the impact of perceived effort related to packaging on overall product evaluations. Perceived effort, defined as the consumer’s perceptions of how much manufacturer effort that lies behind an offer, is assumed to contribute to evaluations by signaling unobservable characteristics of an offer.
Design/methodology/approach
Three between-subjects experiments were conducted with soft drink bottles, which were subject to variation in perceived effort.
Findings
The results show that perceived effort was positively associated with overall evaluations. The results also show that the impact of perceived effort was mediated by product quality perceptions, which indicates that effort signals quality.
Originality/value
Perceived effort has to date not been examined in the packaging literature. The present findings thus imply that models of packaging characteristics and their impact on consumers would benefit from including the effort aspect.
Details
Keywords
Anna Essén, Sara Winterstorm Värlander and Karina T. Liljedal
Many scholars have urged firms to empower consumers to become co-producers, arguing that this empowerment leads to a win-win situation that benefits consumers and providers alike…
Abstract
Purpose
Many scholars have urged firms to empower consumers to become co-producers, arguing that this empowerment leads to a win-win situation that benefits consumers and providers alike. However, critical voices have emphasised that co-production is a way to exploit rather than empower consumers and hence represents a win–lose idea that benefits providers only. Regrettably, these polarised positions remain disconnected and lack empirical investigation. The aim of the present study is to move the debate beyond this stalemate by integrating these perspectives using an empirical study to explore enabling and constraining implications of the attempts to “empower” consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a qualitative empirical study of an internationally unique example of a long-term co-production process in rheumatology care. Data were collected using both focused interviews and observations.
Findings
The study indicates that both the optimistic and the critical perspectives of co-production are valid and the implications of “empowering” consumers are two-edged.
Research Limitations/implications
The study highlights the need to zoom in and analyse how empowering and disempowering mechanisms relate to specific aspects of particular co-production processes rather than to co-production as a general phenomenon.
Practical Implications
The empirical data illustrate the feasibility of employing patients in everyday healthcare production through simple means while raising numerous issues related to, for example, traditional healthcare roles and process design.
Originality/value
The present study of a unique, long-term co-production illustrates how both perspectives of co-production are valid.
Details
Keywords
Karina T. Liljedal and Hanna Berg
Co-creating consumers are often featured prominently in marketing communications for new co-created products. Previous research has only investigated the responses of…
Abstract
Purpose
Co-creating consumers are often featured prominently in marketing communications for new co-created products. Previous research has only investigated the responses of non-participating consumers by describing co-creating consumers in text. This paper aims to examine consumer responses to combinations of text descriptions and pictures of co-creating consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental study used a reference group perspective to explain non-participating consumer responses to communications about co-creation with consumers in new product development.
Findings
Pictures of co-creating consumers moderate the effects of texts describing consumer co-creation on brand attitudes. The brand effects of describing the co-creating consumer in text as belonging to a dissociative group are negative when the picture looks similar to the non-participating consumers. If the co-creating consumer looks dissimilar to the in-group, the reference group text has no effect. Self–brand connection mediates these effects on brand attitudes.
Research limitations/implications
A reference group perspective is introduced as a boundary condition to the research on the communication of consumer co-creation. The effects on brand attitudes depend on the pictorial representations.
Practical implications
Companies should be advised to avoid portrayals of co-creating consumers that could cause dissociation in relevant consumer groups.
Originality/value
Neither reference group associations nor pictorial descriptions of co-creating consumers, have hitherto been investigated with regards to consumer co creation, despite the frequent inclusion of consumer imagery in advertising for consumer co-created new products.
Details
Keywords
Magnus Söderlund, Veronica Liljander, Johanna Gummerus, Pia Hellman, Michaela Lipkin, Eeva-Liisa Oikarinen, Marianne Sepp and Karina T. Liljedal
The purpose of this paper is to examine reactions when customers in service encounters receive preferential treatment (i.e. something extra in relation to other customers). The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine reactions when customers in service encounters receive preferential treatment (i.e. something extra in relation to other customers). The examination is conducted in a social context that allows the customer to compare what he or she receives with what other customers receive. The main effect variables are perceived justice and customer satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
An experimental method is employed to examine the effects of providing customers with preferential treatment. The study involves four treatment groups with various combinations of receiving or not receiving preferential treatment.
Findings
Customers perceived preferential treatment as relatively unjust. This was true for customers who received the preferential treatment and for those who did not. However, customer satisfaction among those receiving preferential treatment was enhanced, thus signaling that preferential treatment affects perceived justice and satisfaction differently. In addition, different contexts for receiving preferential treatment (i.e. receiving it alone or sharing it with another customer) produced different levels of customer satisfaction.
Originality/value
The extant research on preferential treatment has failed to acknowledge that this treatment often occurs in the presence of several customers, which is likely to evoke perceptions of justice. At the same time, extant research on perceived justice in service situations has mainly focussed on service failures as antecedents of justice perceptions. This study attempts to extend theory on both preferential treatment and perceived justice in service-encounter settings.