Research in Consumer Behavior: Volume 12

These contributions constitute a partial, but quite well-rounded view of the factors involved in consumption: psychological and sociological, online and physical environments, culture and cohorts, institutions and media, luxury and coolness, advertising and brands. Moreover, the focus of the chapters varies from the micro level of meaning cues and the self to the macro level of material discourse and myth. There is a good geographic range found in the volume as well, with data from North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. In bringing in culture, the chapters invoke cultural comparison, cultural mobility, and cultural inferences. The result is a stimulating cornucopia of ideas and perspectives. The open-minded reader should find that the diverse perspectives presented here mutually inform, challenge, and interrogate one another.

Purpose – This study explores U.S. consumer attitudes toward organic foods in order to demonstrate that multiple and meaningful segments can be identified based on attitudes and beliefs rather than demographics and that a more targeted marketing strategy could likely create a better fit with consumer wants and needs.

Methodology – Q-methodology is employed, in part to demonstrate its usefulness for segmentation purposes.

Findings – Six meaningful segments of consumers are generated based on attitudes toward organic foods: Health Enthusiasts, Organic Idealists, Hoban's Hogwashers, Unengaged Shoppers, Bargain Shoppers, and Cynical/Distrustfuls. These groups vary in attitudes toward organic food, and despite conventional wisdom, exhibit a reasonable match between attitude and purchase behavior. Segments are also generated for viewpoints toward conventionally grown foods, revealing that consumers do not simply hold binary positions (pro-organic, anticonventional), but instead consider each food type on its respective merits. Positioning and media choice strategies are considered for each organic food segment.

Originality – This chapter distinguishes between different types of consumers of organic food by using Q-methodology, with the result being a rich, detailed description of the values and preferences of each group. With these descriptions, the organic food industry can better align its marketing efforts with the priorities of individual consumer groups, rather than their simplistic demographics as are commonly utilized. The chapter also offers a unique perspective on the attitude–behavior gap, revealing that when the attitude is understood in greater detail, the gap appears to disappear.

Purpose – This study examines the meaning of shopping for Taiwanese students visiting England. It asks how this activity takes place, what purposes it serves for the students, and how the resulting purchases make meaning for the students once they return to Taiwan.

Methodology/approach – The study is ethnographic, involving observation and interviews in England as well as visual elicitation and interviews with the students once they returned to Taiwan and also some time later.

Findings – Shopping for souvenirs in England is found to be part of the process by which young Taiwanese tourists come to understand cultural differences. It is also a part of the process by which these students fulfill social obligations to those family members who have largely funded their trips. It is also a way of engaging with locals through the medium and excuse of shopping. Both the items selected and the memories they encode form thesomewhat stereotypical condensations of the experience of going abroad to “The West.”

Research limitations/implications (if applicable) – Those studied represent a young group with limited prior travel experience. Their retrospective recollections are subject to some distortion, although this is a part of the normal process of remembering.

Practical implications (if applicable) – For those planning foreign educational exchange programs, the critical role of shopping in this process should not be neglected.

Originality/value of paper – The researcher accompanied the students on their trip to England and also followed up with them once they returned home to Taiwan. This produced a rare insight into the process of tourist meaning-making during and after their trip abroad.

Purpose – To better understand the general marketing sensitivities of Generation Y and the manner in which Congruency Theory and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) may apply.

Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative two-factor (peripheral cue congruency and relative product involvement) between-subjects design was used to determine the attitudinal impact associated with the use of congruous peripheral cues in high- and low-involvement product situations.

Findings – Generation Y's attitudinal responses to peripheral cues both align with and vary from the general predictions of the ELM. Relative product involvement is more important than peripheral cue congruency in the formation of attitudes toward an advertisement.

Originality/value – Generation Y is a powerful social and economic consumer group whose attitudinal responses to marketing appeals have not been extensively studied. The current study furthers understanding within this important arena.

Research implications/limitations – The use of congruent peripheral cues is not sufficient to generate positive attitudes in both high- and low-involvement product scenarios. Effective marketing must move beyond cue congruency to include an involved “lifestyle fit” that will effectively generate positive attitudes. Limitations include the sole review of print advertisements and a sole reliance on college-attending members of Generation Y. Future research should examine the impact of congruency on advertisements whose strategic intent focuses on awareness or action rather than on mere attitude change.

Purpose – The marketing literature does not provide a satisfactory explanation for the role of consumer's attention in the process of how Country-of-Manufacture (COM) information influences consumer product evaluations. The research contributes to an improved understanding of this process by integrating the construct of “attention to Country-of-Manufacture” into the model and examining its relationship with the influence of COM.

Design/methodology/approach – Survey data are collected from American consumers aged 18 years and above. To test the research hypotheses, MANOVA and canonical correlation analysis are performed in analyzing the data.

Findings – COM has more influence on the attentive group (consumers consciously paying attention to the COM information on a product label), on their evaluations of abstract product attributes such as durability and reliability than it does on the inattentive group (consumers not paying conscious attention to such information). In contrast, COM's influences on evaluating concrete product attributes such as style, model, availability, and quality are all significantly related to involvement with COM, but not to attention.

Research limitations/implications – The product assessments sought from respondents are generally on “foreign” products. Future research needs to obtain product-specific evaluations within each product category in testing the model and see how the results may differ or not differ across product categories.

Practical implications – Marketers selling products with high performance in abstract attributes such as durability and reliability should increase consumers’ attention to the COM through effective product labeling.

Originality/value – This research identifies and empirically investigates the difference of COM effects on consumers’ product judgment between consumers who are attentive and the ones who are inattentive to COM information.

Purpose – The present research seeks insights into the consumer socialization process of both children and adults in a developing country, Peru. The role played by two socialization agents, media and church, has been explored in terms of how each is related to an important facet of consumer attitudes, level of materialism.

Methodology/approach – Male students attending a faith-based high school in Peru, as well as one of their parents, completed a survey in Spanish seeking information on their television viewing, their faith, and their views regarding possessions.

Findings – The more traditional socialization institution, church, appears to be less important to younger consumers than to their parents; but it has a greater influence on materialism for youth than their parents. The power of media as a socialization agent for both groups is seen not only via television advertising, but also through television programming.

Research implications – As one considers how consumers learn to be consumers, both from a purely theoretical standpoint as well as from a strategic marketing perspective, one should take into account both avenues for information transmission. The role played by both seems to change people's lives, both in terms of perceived importance, as well as actual consumer decision making.

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese consumers’ motivations for purchasing luxury products, and to unravel the interrelationships among individual differences, motives, and luxury consumption.

Methodology – Data were collected from general consumers living in a large cosmopolitan city of China. A total of 473 questionnaires provided usable data and were analyzed using SPSS.

Findings – Eight motives were identified: self-actualization, product quality, social comparison, others’ influence, investment for future, gifting, special occasions, and emotional purchasing. Results showed that personal income, age, the motives of gifting, others’ influence, and product quality were significant predictors of luxury spending. Younger consumers, who did not typically make plans before buying, were more likely to buy luxury products out of emotion and less likely to do so for self-actualization or future investment.

Research limitations – The conceptualization and operationalization of some concepts used in this study (e.g., luxury brands, luxury consumption, and motives) may not be robust. Social desirability bias could comprise the validity of some research findings.

Originality – Despite a large body of research on luxury consumption, to date, most studies have been conducted in Western developed countries. Past research has showed that the symbolic and social values related to luxury consumption are deeply embedded in culture. As such, it is meaningful to investigate luxury consumption in China, whose culture is vastly different from the West.

Purpose – We use data from the United States and Finland, a literature review, and historical analysis to understand the concept and role of cool within global consumer culture.

Methodology/approach – This is a conceptual review and qualitative analysis of data from depth interviews, journals, and online discussion groups in two U.S. locations and one Finnish location.

Findings – Cool is a slang word connoting a certain style that involves masking and hiding emotions. As cool diffuses we find that it is both distilled and diluted. The concept itself has also evolved. What was once a low-profile means of survival and later a youthful rebellious alternative to class-based status systems has become commoditized.

Research limitations/implications – The study has been conducted in two cultures with a limited range of ages thought to be most susceptible to the appeal of being cool.

Practical limitations/implications – Marketers may not yet have exploited cool as effectively as they have exploited sex, but mainstream consumers now look for cool in the marketplace more than within themselves. The result is a continuous race to offer the next cool thing.

Originality/value of chapter – It is argued that coolness is a new status system largely replacing social class, especially among the young.

Purpose – We introduce the concept of a brand biography to describe an emerging trend in branding in which firms author a dynamic, historical account of the events that have shaped the brand over time. Using a particular type of brand biography, “the underdog,” we empirically show how managers can strategically use brand biographies in brand positioning, in this case to mitigate the curse of success. As brands grow and become successful, they are often marked by the negative stigma associated with size and power, which elicits anticorporate sentiment from consumers. An underdog brand biography can be strategically wielded to prevent or offset anticorporate backlash stemming from consumers’ negative perceptions of firms’ size and/or market power.

Methodology/approach – Lab experiments.

Findings – We find an underdog effect: consumers like and prefer brands with underdog brand biographies because they identify with them. We show that an underdog brand biography can mitigate the curse of success by making large firms more attractive to consumers.

Practical implications – Firms can use brand biographies to weave compelling narratives about their brands that help protect them from negative consumer attitudes and actions.

Originality/value of the chapter – Extant branding theory has a dearth of theoretical constructs and frameworks that allow for the dynamism and evolution of brands over time. Through our observation and study of emerging marketplace branding practices, we have identified a new construct, the brand biography, to complement existing theoretical frameworks for understanding brand meaning.

Purpose – Stemming from extant literature on consumer brand narratives and the rising quest for consumption authenticity, the chapter aims at merging these two streams of knowledge. How can brand authenticity be defined and narrated? To what extent do companies and consumers interact? What are the consequences for branding?

Methodology – The chapter is case-based, and illustrates the branding strategy of l’Occitane en Provence, a company producing toiletries with a strong Mediterranean rooting. Data were collected through multisited ethnographic fieldwork in Paris and Manosque, Haute Provence. Depth and short interviews with customers and managers of l’Occitane were complemented by extensive observation and secondary data. The comprehensive dataset was analyzed consistently with interpretive research tenets.

Findings – Data document (i) five dimensions of brand authenticity contextualized to l’Occitane Mediterranean brand; (ii) the different branding strategies made possible to companies by the varied combination of these five dimensions; and (iii) the distinct profiles of brand consumers according to the specific authentic narrative each of them is more receptive to.

Practical implications – Implications for authentic brand narratives are drawn. I argue that when companies adopt a narrative approach to branding they can establish a stronger dialogue with customers and defend their competitive advantage more effectively. Actually, each brand narrative cannot be easily imitated by competitors since its imitation would turn out as a fake, unauthentic tale for the market.

Originality of the chapter – The chapter contributes to the fields of branding and authenticity, by extending the notion and understanding of consumption authenticity to brands.

Purpose – This chapter examines individual and collective quests for authenticity, as experienced through consumption activities within an urban neighborhood. It investigates the interplay between consumption experiences as authenticating acts and authoritative performances (Arnould & Price, 2000), and considers the implications with regard to Zukin's (2010) theories on urban authenticity, and how it may be experienced as new beginnings and origins.

Methodology – The chapter is based on autoethnographic research that explores how interaction and identity definition within servicescapes can work to construct place-based community.

Findings – It describes how a servicescape of new beginnings offered opportunities for individual authentication that also enabled personal identification with a specific cultural group. This authentication drew on the cultural capital embedded in such locations, including their association with gentrification. This is contrast with the collective identification offered by a servicescape operating as a place of exposure. This site of origins displayed the social practices of a different demographic, which worked to highlight a relational link between the authentication practices of the broader neighborhood. These sites also worked cumulatively, to highlight the inauthenticities within my identification practices and offer opportunities for redress. Through this interplay it was possible to establish an authentic sense of neighborhood that drew on its new beginnings and its origins, and was both individual and collective.

Originality – Through the combination of urban and consumption-based perspectives of authenticity, and an autoethnographic methodology, this chapter offers a different insight into the ways identification with, and attachment to, a neighborhood can develop through consumption experiences.

Purpose – The first purpose of this chapter is to better understand, and to propose a means to understand the ways selves are constructed in daily contingencies during consumption experiences. To do so, the second purpose, which aims to bring an additional contribution, is to investigate the materiality of consumer experiences in a technological context.

Methodology/approach – We have investigated materiality (as conceptualized by Miller) of experiences in online discussion forums in a community of video games enthusiasts. Grounded theory is elaborated from an ethnography mixing interviews and nonparticipative online observation. The focus is on consumers' perceptions of their constructions as subjects in relationship to the various objects and practices they face.

Findings – The process through which subjects are contingently constructed follows three intertwined logics. Each of these logics, namely (1) finding a position, (2) building “appropriation logics” and accomplishing practices, and (3) enacting meaning empowerments, is detailed in its specific contingencies and modalities.

Research limitations/implications – Contribution of this research relies mostly on findings from one online community.

Practical implications – This research opens new ways to understand technological consumption experiences as they are lived by consumers, and it allows for an understanding of structuration in experiences characterized beforehand by their indeterminacy.

Originality/value of chapter – This chapter belongs to the few ones that propose a methodological approach to tackle with the construction of the self in daily contingencies and with dynamic materiality. It also opens new ways to de-essentialize ordinary consumption activities.

Purpose – The purpose of our study was to better understand how bloggers organize branded storytelling in fashion and luxury blogs using explicit and implicit self-brand association.

Methodology/approach – We have carried out a Netnography on a sample of 60 fashion and luxury blogs. Data analysis relied on a visual denotational and connotational analysis. We have also conducted hermeneutic interviews of influential fashion bloggers and readers to validate our findings.

Findings – Bloggers differently combine explicit and implicit textual and visual branded stimuli depending on their character types. The most influential blogs combine textual implicitness and visual explicitness, regardless of their character types. Other influential bloggers combine visual and textual elements of the story more or less explicitly depending on the archetypes they have constructed. Bloggers reintermediate the relationship between brands and consumers and serve as a “lens” through which readers may select a brand and decide on purchase. The quality of the relationship between the bloggers and the readers relies on the initial reading contract, the evolving presence of the advertised brands in the blog's content, and the amount of privacy shared by the bloggers with their audience.

Research limitations/implications – Our sample is very limited and includes very influential and professionalized blogs.

Practical implications – Our study should help brand managers in selecting fashion blogs as a new relay for advertisement or sponsored content.

Originality/value of paper – Our study provides a framework to brand managers by highlighting recognizable storytelling patterns.