Felipe Pantoja

How Product-Plot Integration and Cognitive Load Affect Brand Attitude: A Replication

Marketers are progressively using product placements to counteract technology that enables consumers to skip advertisements. However, consumers are increasingly multitasking while they watch videos, which might affect placement effectiveness. In France we conceptually replicate research on product–plot integration and multitasking that was originally conducted in the United States to analyze how different levels of cognitive charge influence this phenomenon. Results show that participants under moderate cognitive load liked intrusive placements. However, participants under high cognitive load were significantly less positive toward intrusive placements. The results show a potential U-shaped relationship between placement integration and levels of cognitive load.

What a Delicious Name! The Relationship Between Embodiment and Food Consumption: An Abstract

Traditionally, cognitive scientists have conceived the human brain as the main organ capable of building internal representations of the external world (van Dijk et al. 2008). However, in a shift from this paradigm (i.e., information processing), embodied cognition theories support that cognition and behavior can also derive from bodily states and its interaction with the external world (Barsalou 1999; Lakoff and Johnson 1999; Niedenthal et al. 2005). Following this stream of research, Cacioppo and colleagues (1993) found that flexor and extensor arm movements can activate approach and avoidance motivational states, respectively. In a similar way, Topolinski et al. (2014) recently shows that pronouncing a specific sort of letter arrangements that resembles the oral kinematics of deglutition (swallowing-like, inward movement) or expectoration (spitting-like, outward movement) can shape people’s attitudes toward a particular target (Topolinski et al. 2014). Extending these findings, we propose that food labels can drive human cognition and behaviors. That is, we suggest that food names might exert an unobtrusive effect on food perception, intentions, and actual food consumption through an embodied mechanism, so that names that induce inward movement lead to more favorable evaluations and higher consumption. In a series of three studies using both French- and English-speaking samples, we show evidence for the proposed embodied effect. First, we demonstrate that inward (vs. outward) oral movement activated through food name leads to lower healthiness perception of a food item. Second, we show that inducing an inward (vs. outward) oral movement can boost (vs. dampen) a dish desirability. Finally, we show that inward (vs. outward) oral movements lead to higher food consumption. This research contributes to marketing theory and practice in several ways. First, the research addresses the need for studies that explore the effects of verbal information on consumers’ perceptions (Krishna, 2012). Second, we show that the same pattern of effects stands for both English- and French-speaking samples, suggesting that the effect is not contingent on the language people speak. Finally, this research has both managerial and social implications. From a managerial standpoint, marketers should consider naming their products—food and nonfood—in order to trigger approach motivation. From a public and policy perspective, in turn, legislators could restrict the use of “approach food names” for unhealthy food, while stimulating it for healthy food as an endeavor to increase healthier consumption behavior.

What a Delicious Name! Articulatory Movement Effects on Food Perception and Consumption

Modality-specific sensory systems are capable to directly influence human perception. This research investigates how the activation of oral movements that resemble either ingestion (inward movement) or expectoration (outward movement) kinematics affect food perception and consumption. We build on the idea that oral movements serve as simple knowledge basis for more complex judgments. Five studies show that unobtrusively activating oral movements through food names that mimic ingestion (vs. expectoration) lead to increases in perceived taste and food consumption. We provide evidence on the role of oral movement as the underlying mechanism driving the effects. We show that these effects take place across different languages and are consistent when we use words only, words and image, or actual products. Marketers should find important implications in recognizing that inward names can increase food evaluation and consumption.

Old, But Gold! How Age Stereotype Affects the Evaluation of Second-Hand Products: An Abstract

Imagine you are looking for a second-hand armchair on the Internet. You soon come across an armchair you like, but you notice the seller is a senior person. Would the age of the seller—whether he/she is old or young—affect the chances of buying this armchair? The global population is aging (United Nations 2013). Due to a combination of increased life expectancy and reduction in fertility rates (Lutz et al. 2008), the percentage of people over 60 years old is expected to double by 2050 (United Nations 2013). The online presence of seniors is rapidly expanding as well. In Europe alone, Internet usage has doubled among people over 65 years old (Edwards et al. 2015). The so-called silver surfers are turning to online technology to increase interpersonal interaction (Fosman and Nordmyr 2015; Jyoti 2014), but also to earn additional income (Telegraph 2014). Online second-hand markets are one of the fastest growing markets (Walia 2013; Walia and Zahedi 2013). It is worth noting, however, that these markets are peculiar to the extent that available products are pre-owned by someone that buyers often do not know. Research suggests that certain invisible properties of former owners can transfer to goods (Kapitan and Bhargave 2013). It seems thus that consumers draw inferences about used goods based on available information of previous owners (e.g. age), which can shape product perceptions and intentions. Drawing on age stereotyping literature (Fiske et al. 2002; Cuddy et al. 2008; Couto and Koller 2012), and consumer contamination theory (Argo et al. 2006, 2008), we investigate how a senior (vs. young) seller contaminates second-hand products. Specifically, we examine whether being a senior (vs. young) seller in a second-hand goods market can increase or decrease consumers’ purchase intentions toward the product. Two experimental studies suggest that consumers prefer to buy used goods that were previously owned by senior people. Findings show that interpersonal warmth fully mediates this effect. Our results suggest that the growing senior population might have competitive advantages when it comes to the online second-hand marketplace. Future studies will investigate if these effects hold with different product categories.

Special Doctoral Colloquium Session: The Bumpy Road to Academia, Difficulties, Challenges, and Concerns Doctorate Students Face in the USA and Beyond (An Abstract)

Few would argue that current doctorate students face numerous challenges and difficulties on their road to becoming assistant marketing professors. This journey is becoming even more demanding when considering continuous influence of globalization evident in the discipline due to (1) international students studying in the USA, (2) international applicants for faculty positions at US universities, (3) international authors publishing in American journals, and (4) American authors publishing in international journals. Thus, young aspiring academicians face the pressure to publish in top tier marketing journals while dealing with cultural and often unknown expectations displayed in numerous markets. As such, a fundamental question that needs to be examined is “what difficulties, challenges, and concerns doctorate students face in the USA and beyond?”

Towards a New Hierarchy of Personal Values: Activating Values in Biculturals Through Language

The modern world is a cultural mosaic, and many people continue to move across borders, contributing more and more to this ongoing process. This reality increases levels of diversity and cultural innovation around the world and also develops biculturalism, which is the internalization of two different cultures. So how can the use of different languages influence the way biculturals judge themselves? This study aims to study personal values in an innovative way, proposing that values are not very stable as proposed in the main theory about this construct. The results of a field experiment show that Brazilian-Argentine biculturals can ‘slide’ between self-enhancing and self-transcendence value’s dimensions according to the language they are dealing with.

Improving the Effectiveness of Nutritional Labeling: The Role of Color

Overweight and obesity rates are increasing worldwide. Public authorities tackle this problem by developing interventions that help people to adopt healthier eating habits. One of these interventions is providing information in the form of nutritional labels. This study claims that the use of colors on nutritional label’s background might help consumers to choose healthier options. Results suggest that using red background increases willingness to pay (W2P) and purchase intention of a non-healthy product. Contrarily, using blue background has a reversed effect (i.e. reduces W2P and purchase intentions). Findings suggest that a blue background on nutritional labels may stimulate healthier behavior.

Shining Bright Like a Diamond? It Might Be Rich, But Only in Calories! A Structured Abstract

Overweight and obesity rates are increasing all over the world (USDA 2010) and almost three million people die each year due to its consequences (WHO 2012). In the USA, for instance, where inexpensive, high-calorie food is ubiquitous (Young and Nestle 2002) about 154 million people aged over 20 are overweight or obese, leading to estimated direct and indirect costs of

This Cannot Be a Private Label: Effects of Private Labels on Consumer Sensory Evaluation

254 billion (Mozaffarian et al. 2013). It is widely accepted that something must be done to change this reality and persuade people to switch to a healthier lifestyle (Wansink 2010).

Old, But Gold! the Role of Aging Stereotypes on Consumers’ Purchase Intentions in Second-Hand Marketplaces

Despite the growing number of premium private labels, many consumers still perceive these products as cheaper substitutes for national brands. This paper proposes a boundary condition for this phenomenon by examining the moderating role of brand disclosure in the relationship between brand label (national brand vs. private label) and sensory evaluation for different product categories. Results show that brand disclosure can reverse consumer sensory evaluation, demonstrating a negative perceptual bias against private labels. When consumers are informed of brand label, national brands taste better than private labels; however, results reverse in blind tests. This paper explores possible strategies for retailers to deal with the gap between private labels and national brands.