Christian Hildebrand

Product Customization via Starting Solutions

Customizing a product by choosing each of its attributes individually tends to be onerous for consumers, and the benefits of product customization may thus be offset by an increase in choice complexity. As a remedy for this dilemma, the current research introduces the customization via starting solutions (CvSS) architecture, which substantially reduces the complexity of product customization while preserving all of its advantages. Under CvSS, consumers first select one starting solution from a set of prespecified products, which they then refine to create their final customized product. Evidence from nine studies (three of which were conducted in field settings) across a wide range of product domains (shirts, cars, vacation packages, jewelry, and financial products) shows that the CvSS architecture results in substantial benefits relative to the standard attribute-by-attribute product customization format for both consumers (increased satisfaction with their product choices, reduced choice complexity, and enhanced mental simulation of product use) and firms (purchases of more feature-rich, and thus higher-priced, products).

The impact of brand gender on brand equity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of brand gender on brand equity across countries and cultures in various product domains. Design/methodology/approach – Consumers from ten countries on four continents rated 20 global brands, leading to a total of 16,934 cross-clustered observations. Linear mixed effect models examined a series of nested models, testing three novel brand gender effects with respect to the impact of androgynous brands on brand equity and the moderating role of consumers’ biological sex as well as individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Additional robustness tests provide support on form, metric, and scalar invariance of the measurements and the robustness of the observed effects across countries and cultures. Findings – The current research reveals that androgynous brands generate higher brand equity relative to exclusively masculine, exclusively feminine, and undifferentiated brands. The authors also show a brand gender congruence effect such that male c...

Social Networks in Pervasive Advertising and Shopping

With the proliferation of digital signage in the retail environment and the simultaneous rise in social networks, a new opportunity presents itself to show social network comments in stores. This chapter provides an overview of social networks and its relation to word-of-mouth marketing and will then apply these concepts to the role of social networking in advertising and retailing, particularly focusing on digital signage. Further, a case study of an experiment is presented where a chain of small-space retail stores measured the sales data in a controlled field study. This chapter will show that stores with digital signage displaying comments from social networks were able to increase sales, though not as much as those showing traditional advertising. Additionally, the data revealed that displaying product-specific social network comments are more effective than showing general brand-related comments. The chapter concludes with recommendations for placing social network comments on digital signage.

Social Product-Customization Systems: Peer Input, Conformity, and Consumers’ Evaluation of Customized Products

Abstract Many product-customization systems enable consumers to obtain input from their peers during the customization process. The design characteristics of these customization systems vary significantly, and some systems provide consumers with the opportunity to receive peer input only privately (i.e., unobservable to fellow consumers) while others allow consumers to receive peer input publicly (i.e., observable to other consumers). Building on prior research on thinking styles and social impact theory, the current work examines the interplay between user, social network, and system design characteristics in social product-customization systems as drivers of whether consumers conform to input received from others on their customized products and of their evaluation of these products. Evidence from one field study and four experiments shows that consumers with more holistic (vs. analytic) thinking styles make more conforming product modifications when receiving public rather than private peer input, and this greater conformity to peer input boosts (vs. diminishes) consumers’ evaluation of customized products when they feel close (vs. distant) to input providers. These findings offer novel insights into how the design of social product-customization systems affects consumers’ evaluation of customized products.

Increasing brand attractiveness and sales through social media comments on public displays --- evidence from a field experiment in the retail industry

Retailers and brands are just starting to utilize online social media to support their businesses. Simultaneously, public displays are becoming ubiquitous in public places, raising the question about how these two technologies could be used together to attract new and existing customers as well as strengthen the relationship toward a focal brand. Accordingly, in a field experiment we displayed brand- and product-related comments from the social network Facebook as pervasive advertising in small-space retail stores, known as kiosks. From interviews conducted with real customers during the experiment and the corresponding analysis of sales data we could conclude three findings. Showing social media comments resulted in (1) customers perceiving brands as more innovative and attractive, (2) a measurable, positive effect on sales on both the brand and the product in question and (3) customers wanting to see the comments of others, but not their own, creating a give-and-take paradox for using public displays to show social media comments.