Nguyen Pham, Maureen Morrin and Melissa G. Bublitz
This paper aims to examine how repeated exposure to health-related products that contain flavors (e.g. cherry-flavored cough syrup) create “flavor halos” that can bias perceptions…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how repeated exposure to health-related products that contain flavors (e.g. cherry-flavored cough syrup) create “flavor halos” that can bias perceptions about the healthfulness of foods that contain the same flavors (e.g. cherry-flavored cheesecake).
Design/methodology/approach
Six experiments, using both between- and within-subjects designs, explore the effects of flavor halos in hypothetical and actual consumption settings. They test the underlying mechanism, rule out competing explanations and identify an opportunity to correct the cognitive biases created by flavor halos.
Findings
Flavor halos can be created via repeated exposure to flavored medicinal products in the marketplace. These flavor halos bias dieters’ judgments about the healthfulness of vice foods containing such flavors. Dieters are motivated toward a directional conclusion about food healthfulness to mediate the guilt associated with consuming indulgent products. Providing dieters with corrective information mitigates these effects.
Research limitations/implications
The authors examine one way flavor halos are created –via repeated exposure to flavored medicinal products. Future research should explore other ways flavor halos are created and other ways to mitigate their effects.
Practical implications
Considering the prevalence of obesity, organizations striving to help consumers pursue health goals (e.g. weight watchers) can use flavors to improve dietary compliance. Health-care organizations can help consumers understand and correct the cognitive biases associated with flavor halos.
Originality/value
By identifying flavor halos, this work adds to the literature investigating how flavors influence consumers’ judgments about healthfulness. The results suggest dieters apply flavor halos as they engage in motivated reasoning to license their indulgent desires.
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Jessica Keech, Maureen Morrin and Jeffrey Steven Podoshen
The increasing desire of consumers for socially responsible luxury products combined with fluctuating supplies in consumer markets are leading various industries to seek…
Abstract
Purpose
The increasing desire of consumers for socially responsible luxury products combined with fluctuating supplies in consumer markets are leading various industries to seek alternative sources to be able to meet the needs of its customers. One possible solution that may meet the demands of the future is lab-grown products. Because these products confer multiple benefits, this study aims to investigate the most effective ways to appeal to consumers by aligning the benefits of the products with their values as marketers seek to find effective promotion for these items.
Design/methodology/approach
We examine the effectiveness of an ethical positioning strategy for two types of luxury lab-grown (synthetic) products among high versus low materialism consumers in three experiments.
Findings
Findings suggest that a positioning strategy stressing product ethicality is more effective for low materialism consumers, whereas the strategy is less effective, and may even backfire, for high materialism consumers. The impact on social status consumers perceive from a lab-grown product explains why this effect occurs among low materialism consumers. Therefore, marketers should take caution and use specific appeals for different segments based on values such as consumers’ materialism levels.
Originality/value
If lab-grown products represent the wave of the future, it is important to understand how consumers will respond to this emerging technology and how promotion strategies may enhance their evaluation.
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Maureen Morrin, Susan Broniarczyk and J. Jeffrey Inman
This paper seeks to promote an understanding of gender effects on retirement plan participation as a function of fund assortment size.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to promote an understanding of gender effects on retirement plan participation as a function of fund assortment size.
Design/methodology/approach
A decision simulation was conducted among 349 US adults whose task was to invest in a hypothetical 401(k) retirement plan. The number of mutual funds offered for investment was varied and the effects on the incidence and extent of participation observed.
Findings
The results indicate that larger fund assortments tend to reduce participation among women, but increase it among men.
Research limitations/implications
Replication in other contexts and with other data sets would be worthwhile.
Practical implications
To enhance retirement plan adoption/participation, financial service firms may want to tailor such plans according to gender (and other consumer characteristics) according to the present set of findings.
Originality/value
First time authors are aware that the interaction between gender and assortment size is examined.
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Jonathan Lee, Maureen Morrin and Janghyuk Lee
Service organizations such as retail banks are attempting to increase their customers' lifetime value through the introduction of service innovations such as integrated banking…
Abstract
Purpose
Service organizations such as retail banks are attempting to increase their customers' lifetime value through the introduction of service innovations such as integrated banking. To date, these efforts have met with mixed success. This research proposes that strategic consideration of barriers to adoption can significantly alter and enhance the effectiveness of segmentation and communication efforts for service innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper utilizes a latent class regression with concomitant variables on a large‐scale multinational consumer survey (n=2,702).
Findings
The results demonstrate that incorporating barriers to adoption significantly alters the segments into which customers are classified, resulting in improved model fit and out‐of‐sample prediction.
Originality/value
Future innovations will present other types of barrier. The authors show here that marketers can benefit from managing perceived barriers instead of directly analyzing consumer demographics.
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Carol Kaufman‐Scarborough, Maureen Morrin and Eric T. Bradlow
Retail buyers' decisions result in billions of dollars of merchandise being purchased and offered for sale by retailers around the world. At present, retail buyers do not appear…
Abstract
Purpose
Retail buyers' decisions result in billions of dollars of merchandise being purchased and offered for sale by retailers around the world. At present, retail buyers do not appear to be adequately harnessing consumer input to improve their forecasts. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by introducing a new approach involving both retail buyers' consensus forecasts and those from a sample of “ordinary” consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors introduce a new approach to online forecasting that involves both retail buyers' consensus forecasts and those from a sample of “ordinary” consumers.
Findings
The results suggest an opportunity to create what are termed retail prediction markets that offer significant potential to improve the accuracy of buyers' forecasts.
Originality/value
The authors go beyond crowd sourcing technology and show how retail prediction markets may offer significant potential to improve the accuracy of retail buyers' forecasts.
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Usha L. Pappu, Peter T.L. Popkowski Leszczyc, Ravi Pappu and Neal M. Ashkanasy
This research aims to examine the conditions under which individuals’ olfaction is actively engaged in purchase decisions. Consequently, it introduces the concept of need for…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to examine the conditions under which individuals’ olfaction is actively engaged in purchase decisions. Consequently, it introduces the concept of need for smell (NFS) to measure differential motivation for the extraction and use of odor information in buying contexts. A ten-item NFS scale was developed that consists of hedonic and utilitarian dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach
The scale’s dimensionality and construct validity were examined in five studies. The moderating role of NFS and the mediating role of emotions in the relationship between odor perception and consumer responses were examined. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analyses and customized PROCESS models.
Findings
The results show that NFS is a two-dimensional construct. The results further support the scale’s internal structure as well as its reliability, convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. NFS moderates the relationship between odor perception and consumer responses, and emotions mediate this relationship. While hedonic NFS strengthens the impact of odor perception on consumer responses, utilitarian NFS weakens this effect.
Research limitations/implications
The present research extends Krishna’s sensory marketing framework, De Luca and Botelho’s scent research framework and Herz et al.’s scent benefits framework, by introducing the concept of NFS into these frameworks. The study demonstrates the relevance and functionality of NFS construct and NFS scale. The study extends the consumer scent research by introducing NFS and illustrating the interplay of odor perception and NFS on consumer responses to scent stimuli.
Practical implications
The NFS scale used in this study adds to the genre of individual difference scales such as need for cognition and need for touch. Given its smell-specific focus, it has applications in a range of consumption contexts. Using NFS, marketers could effectively identify low and high hedonic and utilitarian NFS consumers and position product or ambient scents to serve these segments better. The NFS scale also has implications for the areas of product and service design and development, consumer information search, brand judgments and choice preferences in both scented and non-scented environments.
Originality/value
This work is one of the first attempts, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to explain motivational differences in active engagement of olfaction, especially in purchase decisions. As a critical step in exploring olfactory information processing, the study demonstrates the relevance and functionality of NFS construct and NFS scale. The study extends the consumer scent research by introducing NFS and illustrating the interplay of odor perception and NFS on consumer responses to scent stimuli.
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Leo Yat Ming Sin and Suk‐ching Ho
Looks at consumer research in Greater China including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Maps out the contributions within this area and guides future research. Examines the…
Abstract
Looks at consumer research in Greater China including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Maps out the contributions within this area and guides future research. Examines the state of the art over the 1979‐97 period, with particular emphasis on the topics that have been researched, the extent of the theory development in the field and the methodologies used in conducting research. Uses content analysis to review 75 relevant articles. Suggests that, while a considerable breadth of topics have been researched, there remains much to be done, there is further room for theoretical development in Chinese consumer behaviour studies; and the methodologies used need improvement and further refinement.