Adam Duhachek

Themed flagship brand stores in the new millennium: theory, practice, prospects

Abstract The flagship brand store is an increasingly popular venue used by marketers to build relationships with consumers. As we move further into an experience economy in the new millennium, retailers are refining the flagship brand store into new forms such as the themed retail brand store. This new form not only promotes a more engaging experience of the brand’s essence but also satisfies consumers looking for entertainment alongside their shopping. In this article, we conceptualize and explore themed flagship brand stores in terms of the mythological appeal of the narratives conveyed by their physical and symbolic structure. We utilize a field study of ESPN Zone Chicago to examine these features in a sports-themed retail brand store. Finally, we offer some projections, based on our research, of the possible transformations of the flagship brand store as the new century unfolds. We conclude that mindscape-related themes, which combine entertainment, therapeutics, and spiritual growth, are at the frontier of retail theming.

Advancing Alpha: Measuring Reliability with Confidence

In this research, we present the inferential statistics for Cronbach’s coefficient alpha. This index of reliability is extremely important in consumer research. The estimation of alpha and its confidence intervals are described and an analytical demonstration illustrates the effects on these statistics of their components, including the number of items, the item intercorrelations, and sample size. SAS and SPSS programs are offered for easy implementation. We conclude with a prescription that every time a researcher reports a coefficient alpha, the confidence interval for alpha should accompany the alpha estimate.

Coping: A Multidimensional, Hierarchical Framework of Responses to Stressful Consumption Episodes

This research explores a phenomenon that pervades many realms of consumer behavior-the various ways that consumers cope with stress and negative emotions. In study 1, I generate and test a multidimensional scale to measure the coping construct, revealing a more diverse set of strategies than accounted for in the consumer literature on coping. I test competing theories about the hierarchical structure of the coping construct. Study 2 validates these findings and begins to establish theoretical links between the coping dimensions and their antecedent relationships with discrete emotions. In contrast to extant research linking emotions and coping, which has only investigated main effect hypotheses, I conceptualize and find empirical evidence for a model in which emotions interact with appraisals jointly to enact coping strategies. This research contributes to the emerging consumer coping literature by enriching existing theoretical conceptualizations of consumer coping processes and by validating a scale that should prove useful in consumer research. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Being in the Zone Staging Retail Theater at ESPN Zone Chicago

Experiential consumption is a topic of growing interest in the social scientific and managerial literatures. While consumer experience is profoundly shaped by the built environment, a critical eye has been cast on the oppressive nature of themed environments. While offering multisensory sensual opportunities, themed retail environments cater primarily to the visual impulse and have been theorized to both direct and misdirect attention in ways beneficial to marketers. In this ethnography of the servicescape of ESPN Zone Chicago, the ways in which retail theater encourages consumers to animate a themed sporting venue and the ways consumers respond to these cultural prompts are explored. The authors explore the instrumental relationship between retail space and consumer experience in themed environments and attend to the interrelated role of the visual, the sacred, brand, mass media, and sport. Conclusions find that consumers watch marketers in these spaces as much as marketers watch consumers—a finding termed obverse panopticism.

Mapping the Hierarchical Structure of Coping: Unifying Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives

Consumer researchers have become increasingly interested in the study of coping. This research contributes to this emerging paradigm by investigating structural theories of coping using a hierarchical modeling approach to better understand the basic dimensional properties of this multifaceted construct. This research makes gains along several fronts. First, the authors empirically examine a new lower order theory of coping based on a comprehensive synthesis of the literature, reconciling nomenclatural and conceptual redundancies found in the structure of coping literature. Analyses across 2 studies using different methods offer support for a 2-dimensional higher order model of coping. Finally, a third study using an experimental approach validates these findings by showing unique effects relating an approach-avoidance based higher order model to theoretically predicted emotional antecedents. By examining the mapping of lower order coping strategies onto several higher order coping theories, this research addresses the extant disjuncture between coping theory and measurement found in the literature and offers reconciliation between these 2 perspectives. The findings suggest the need for future coping research to focus on other 2-dimensional theories beyond problem-focused versus emotion-focused coping. The findings build on the synergies among the many coping perspectives, and the implications of a better understanding of copings hierarchical structure for consumer researchers is discussed.

Order of Entry and the Moderating Role of Comparison Brands in Brand Extension Evaluation

The current research proposes that order of entry moderates the impact of fit on brand extension evaluation. We conceptualize a model in which new brands enter the market dynamically, driving consumers to engage in differential processing as a function of pioneer and follower evaluation scenarios. We posit that consumers rely on singular evaluative processing in pioneer contexts and comparative evaluation in follower contexts, producing unique moderating effects based on the existence of comparison brands. Experimental results indicate that follower brands can actually benefit from comparison with pioneering brands that have a relatively lower fit with the extension category.

FAC-SEM: A Methodology for Modeling Factorial Structural Equations Models, Applied to Cross-Cultural and Cross-Industry Drivers of Customer Evaluations

This article presents factorial structural equations models (FAC-SEM). An experimenter conducting ANOVAs on means can use FAC-SEM on covariance matrices. To illustrate, the authors model customer evaluations and examine how construct relationships vary by sector and country. The methodological approach presented in this article is new to the literature and easily implemented.

Themed Flagship Brand Stores in the New Millennium

Einzelhandelsmarkte sind diversifizierter und fragmentierter denn je; sie konfrontieren die Konsumenten mit einem Ubermas an Informationen und Alternativen. Um die Konsumenten anzuziehen, haben die Handelskonzeme begonnen, ihre Hauser und Einkaufstatten atmospharisch aufzuladen, um den Konsumenten dadurch ein deutlich einpragsameres und attraktiveres Einkaufserlebnis bieten zu konnen.2 Entertainment-Berater Michael J. Wolf (1999) meint hierzu, das Shopping aufgrund der Tatsache, das das Entertainmentmotiv bis in die letzten Nischen der Wirtschaft vorgedrungen sei, inzwischen zu etwas geworden ist, was er „Shoppertainment“ nennt. Dieser offensichtlich futuristische Trend ist tatsachlich die Wiederkehr eines althergebrachten Imperativs. So erzahlen uns Anthropologen, das die Ursprunge des kommerziellen Marktplatzes bei den festlich arrangierten Marktplatzen fruherer Zeiten liegen, bei Platzen, die sich traditionellerweise an den Randern der Stadte befanden, wo Vorfuhrungen, exotische Personen, Mysterien und Gaukler zugegen waren (vgl. Lears 1994; Sherry 1995). Um die Aktualisierung dieser Tradition zu verstehen, bei der die Geschafte Geschichten erzahlen, musten die Einzelhandelsmanager der asthetischen Seite ihrer Verkaufsladen sowie den Verkaufsprozessen besondere Aufmerksamkeit schenken, mittels derer es den Konsumenten gelingt, die physische Erfahrung solcher Platze mit Bedeutung aufzuladen.