Alain d’Astous

Consumer reactions to product placement strategies in television sponsorship

Reports the results of an experimental study that examines the impact of different strategies of product placement on consumer reactions in the context of television sponsorship. Four factors were manipulated: type of placement, sponsor’s image, type of television program and sponsor‐program congruity. Uses a factorial design comprising these four factors, which was operationalised by means of 12 brief written vignettes. Indicates that strategies of product placement impact differently on consumers’ evaluative and ethical judgements and that their effects interact with the type of television program. Suggests that evaluations of product placement are most negative in the context of mini‐series/drama television programs. Furthermore, product placements that play a passive role and are not clearly expressed within the program are generally perceived as less ethical, especially when they appear in information/services magazines. Also determines that sponsor‐program congruity leads to better ethical and evaluative consumer reactions for all types of television program considered except mini‐series/dramas. Implications for research and practice are derived from these results.

Consumer evaluations of brand imitations

Reports a common occurrence in the marketplace: brand imitation. A total of 160 consumers participated in an experiment where goodness of imitation, presence/absence of the imitated brand, reputation of the store and type of product (convenience/luxury) were manipulated. The results show that consumer evaluations of brand imitations do not depend on how good the imitation is. The better the image of the store in which brand imitations of luxury products are distributed, the more positive consumer evaluations. In the case of convenience goods however, the impact of store image on consumer evaluations depends on the presence or absence of the imitated brand. Four consumer characteristics were found to correlate negatively with evaluations of brand imitations: product category involvement, product familiarity, brand sensitivity and generalised brand loyalty.

Cross‐national Evaluation of Made‐in Concept Using Multiple Cues

Investigates the effects of three countries of origin, three brand names and three levels of price and service on consumers′ perceptions of the purchase value of an automobile. Based on data collected from a random sample of 179 Canadians and 197 Belgians, the results indicate that the effects of price are not very important. Brand name is a more important cue than made‐in for Belgian consumers, but not for Canadian consumers. Concludes that modifications to marketing strategies for global products may be needed from one consuming country to another.

Understanding consumer reactions to premium‐based promotional offers

Reports the results of a three‐study research program whose purpose is to gain a better understanding of consumer reactions to premium‐based promotional offers. In the first study, elaborates and evaluates a comprehensive typology of premium‐based promotional offers with respect to its content and predictive validity. In the next study, explores the semantics that are used by consumers when they are presented with premium promotions and develops a series of research hypotheses from qualitative interviews with 12 consumers. In the final study, conducts a survey of 182 adult consumers to test these research hypotheses. The results reveal that consumer appreciation of premium‐based promotional offers is more positive when the premium is direct than when it is delayed, when there is a relatively lower quantity of product to purchase, when the value of the premium is mentioned, when brand attitude is positive, when interest in the premium is great, and when consumers are characterized by deal‐proneness and compulsive buying tendencies. Consumers’ perception of manipulation intent is affected mainly by directness of the premium, mention of the value of the premium, interest in the premium, and deal‐proneness.

The impact of technological complexity on consumers’ perceptions of products made in highly and newly industrialised countries

This article reports the results of a survey of 151 Canadian male consumers. In this study, consumer judgements of products varying in their level of technological complexity made in both highly and newly industrialised countries (NICs) were obtained in a multi‐attribute and multi‐dimensional context. The results show that the country‐of‐origin image of NICs is less negative for technologically simpler products (i.e. television) than for technologically complex products (i.e. computers). In addition, NICs are perceived more negatively as countries of design than as countries of assembly, especially for technologically complex products, but their negative image may be attenuated by making consumers more familiar with products made in these countries and/or by providing them with other product‐related information such as brand name and warranty. Three personal variables namely, computer involvement, technological sophistication and technological innovativeness were found to moderate the perceptions of countries of origin. The more technologically sophisticated a consumer was, the more favourable he/she was towards products made in more technologically advanced NICs.

Country images of technological products in Taiwan

This article presents the results of a survey of 202 male Taiwanese consumers. In this study, consumer judgements of two technological products varying in their level of complexity made in highly, moderately, and newly industrialised countries were obtained in a multi‐attribute context. The results show that the country‐of‐origin image of moderately and newly industrialised countries was less negative for technologically simpler products (i.e. a television) than they were for technologically complex products (i.e. a computer). It appears that the negative image of moderately and newly industrialised countries can be attenuated by making Taiwanese consumers more familiar with products made in these countries and/or by providing them with other product‐related information such as brand name and warranty. Newly industrialised countries were perceived more negatively as countries of design than as countries of assembly, especially in the context of making technologically complex products. The image of foreign countries as producers of consumer goods was positively correlated with education. The more familiar consumers were with the products of a country, the more favourable was their evaluation of that country. Consumer involvement with purchasing a technologically complex product such as a computer was positively associated with the appreciation of products made in moderately industrialised countries. Managerial and research implications are derived from these results.

Heuristic and Analytic Processing in Online Sports Betting

This article presents the results of two studies that examine the occurrence of heuristic (i.e., intuitive and fast) and analytic (i.e., deliberate and slow) processes among people who engage in online sports betting on a regular basis. The first study was qualitative and was conducted with a convenience sample of 12 regular online sports gamblers who described the processes by which they arrive at a sports betting decision. The results of this study showed that betting online on sports events involves a mix of heuristic and analytic processes. The second study consisted in a survey of 161 online sports gamblers where performance in terms of monetary gains, experience in online sports betting, propensity to collect and analyze relevant information prior to betting, and use of bookmaker odds were measured. This study showed that heuristic and analytic processes act as mediators of the relationship between experience and performance. The findings stemming of these two studies give some insights into gamblers’ modes of thinking and behaviors in an online sports betting context and show the value of the dual mediation process model for research that looks at gambling activities from a judgment and decision making perspective.

Leveraging Research on Activation: Quester and Thompson’s (2001) Impact on the Field of Sponsorship

Sponsorship activations—that is, the ancillary marketing communication actions purported to enhance the association between sponsees and sponsors—are what make sponsorships come to life. Activations are generally considered to be critical elements of a sponsorship strategy; for some, perhaps even more so than the sponsorship itself. The work of Quester and Thompson (2001) was a landmark contribution to the study of sponsorship activation on conceptual, empirical, and methodological grounds. It led the way to a host of studies and, to this day, still strongly influences sponsorship research. This chapter highlights why at the time Quester and Thompson (2001) was a significant leap forward in the context of the existing sponsorship literature, calling attention to the fact that this article presented the results of the first study to put to the test the common belief that increasing the intensity of sponsorship activation is beneficial for sponsors. This chapter also makes the point that the rigorous methodological approach of Quester and Thompson (2001), which cleverly addressed issues of both internal and external validity, enhanced the impact of their research in the field of sponsorship. Finally, the chapter discusses the research studies that followed up on Quester and Thompson’s (2001) study, the current research topics that echo its contribution today, as well as the future research directions that it suggests.

Understanding Consumer Reactions to Premium-based Promotional Offers–Abstract

This paper reports the results of a three-study research program whose purpose is to gain a better understanding of consumer reactions to premium-based promotional offers. In the first study, a comprehensive typology of premium-based promotional offers is elaborated and evaluated with respect to its content and predictive validity. In the next study, the semantics that are used by consumers when they are presented with premium promotions are explored and a series of research hypotheses are developed from qualitative interviews with 12 consumers. In the final study, a survey of 182 adult consumers is conducted to test these research hypotheses. The results reveal that consumer appreciation of premium-based promotional offers is more positive when the premium is direct than when it is delayed, when there is a relatively lower quantity of product to purchase, when the value of the premium is mentioned, when brand attitude is positive, when interest in the premium is great, and when consumers are characterized by deal-proneness and compulsive buying tendencies. Consumers’ perception of manipulation intent is affected mainly by directness of the premium, mention of the value of the premium, interest in the premium, and deal-proneness.

Development of a Short and Valid Scale to Assess Consumers’ Cognitive Justifications for Not Behaving Ethically: A Canada-China Study

This paper reports the results of a study aimed at validating a shortened version of a scale purported to assess consumers’ reasons for not behaving ethically. The original scale (d’Astous and Legendre 2009) is a 28-item multidimensional instrument assessing the degree to which consumers invoke different justifications for not behaving ethically in the context of their consumption activities. The three dimensions covered by the scale are organized around reasons based on (1) economic development (ED), i.e., the tendency to believe that the economic development of countries justifies the adoption of consumption behaviors that are not socially responsible, (2) government dependency (GD), i.e., the degree to which consumers believe that when there are no laws regulating the unethical actions of social actors, these actions are legal and they cannot be blamed for them, and (3) economic rationalization (ER), i.e., the degree to which consumers think that ethical consumption is costly and, consequently, justify their behaviors based on the argument that in ethical consumption, prices are higher and quality is lower (see Eckhardt et al. 2006). The scale reduction responds to the need of applied researchers and to expectations of organizations for the construction of efficient measuring instruments (Richins 2004; Smith et al. 2001). The 28-item scale has been reduced to 9 items (3 per dimension) following a scale reduction methodological procedure proposed by Stanton et al. (2002), as well as scale reduction and validation recommendations put forward by Marsh et al. (2005), Netemeyer et al. (2002) and Smith et al. (2001).