Gita Venkataramani Johar

Two roads to updating brand personality impressions : Trait versus evaluative inferencing

This research examines the dynamic process of inference updating. The authors present a framework that delineates two mechanisms that guide the updating of personality trait inferences about brands. The results of three experiments show that chronics (those for whom the trait is accessible) update their initial inferences on the basis of the trait implications of new information. Notably, nonchronics (those for whom the trait is not accessible) also update their initial inferences, but they do so on the basis of the evaluative implications of new information. The framework adds to the inference-making literature by uncovering two distinct paths of inference updating and by emphasizing the moderating role of trait accessibility. The findings have direct implications for marketers attempting to understand the construction of brand personality, and they emphasize the constantly evolving nature of brand perceptions and the notion that both the consumer and the marketer have important roles to play in this process.

Effects of Inconsistent Attribute Information on the Predictive Value of Product Attitudes: Toward a Resolution of Opposing Perspectives

This article examines the effects of evaluative inconsistencies in product attribute information on the strength of the resultant attitude, as manifested in its predictive ability. The existing literature makes opposing predictions regarding the effects of information inconsistency on attitude strength. We seek to resolve this dilemma by investigating the likelihood of inconsistency reconciliation--that is, whether or not people elaborate on inconsistencies with the goal of achieving an integrated evaluation. A strengthening effect should result when the processing goal is conducive to reconciliation and goal-facilitating factors are present in the environment; however, a weakening effect should be obtained when conditions are unfavorable to inconsistency reconciliation. Results from three experiments provide support for this conceptualization and offer a possible resolution of the opposing theoretical perspectives present in the literature. Copyright 2002 by the University of Chicago.

Market prominence biases in sponsor identification: Processes and consequentiality

It has been recently suggested that sponsor identification may be biased in favor of prominent brands. All things equal, consumers are more likely to attribute sponsorship to brands that they perceive to be more prominent in the marketplace, such as large-share brands. This article offers additional empirical evidence for this phenomenon and examines the underlying processes. The results of a controlled laboratory experiment replicate the phenomenon and show that this bias arises only when consumers are unable to retrieve the name of the sponsor directly from memory. In other words, direct retrieval is the default process of sponsor identification. The prominence bias is therefore more likely to occur in cluttered media environments where learning the event-sponsor associations is difficult. The findings further suggest that this bias emanates from a relatively controlled hypothesis-testing process that combines retrieval and constructive processes. During identification, the prominence of the brand is used as a confirmation cue that either validates or conflicts with peoples vague recollections. The results also indicate that prominent brands identified or misidentified as sponsors do in fact benefit from enhanced brand image.

The Role of Myth in Creative Advertising Design: Theory, Process and Outcome

Abstract In an empirical study using five real-world creative teams from an advertising agency, participants were given a strategic brief for a new beverage product and asked to design the layout for a print ad. Think-aloud concurrent protocols obtained from each teams copywriter, art director, and the two working together were analyzed to examine the creative process and its relationship to the created advertisement. Interpretive analyses of the protocols reveal that the teams access culturally available plot patterns but in different ways. In this study and with the particular materials and situational context explored here, four of the five teams chose to pursue a single mythic structure to the apparent detriment of their final product. Only one team engaged in fully diversified idea generation involving a wide range of alternative scenarios. Not coincidentally, as a tentative conclusion, this more flexible team produced the ad judged most successful by advertising professionals. This still-to-be-tested exploratory finding deserves further investigation in future research that embodies various methodological refinements.

MAPping the Frontiers: Theoretical Advances in Consumer Research on Memory, Affect, and Persuasion

Information processing research published in the Journal of Consumer Research has produced theoretical advances in our understanding of consumer behavior. This article highlights two themes that have emerged in consumer research over the past 15 years. These are the interplay between motivation and cognition and the impact of implicit processes on consumer behavior. We examine these themes in three core areas of information processing research-memory, affect, and persuasion. We also discuss methodological innovations that have enabled theory building and conclude with suggestions for future theoretical work in consumer research. (c) 2006 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

The Use of Concurrent Disclosures to Correct Invalid Inferences

In four experiments we examine the ability of simple concurrent disclosures to correct invalid inferences about brand quality based on advertising claims. We ensure that the disclosure is always encoded, yet we find that it is utilized to correct invalid inferences only under high-capacity conditions. Across the experiments, cognitive capacity is operationalized as opportunity to process (time), ability (explicitness of disclosure), and motivation (accuracy incentive). Two experiments use open-ended brand-claim recall and cognitive responses to establish that elaboration on the qualified claim and disclosure mediates its utilization in updating quality judgments. Given an impression-formation goal, such elaboration can occur on-line at the time of processing brand information or at the time of judgment, provided that the disclosure is internally or externally available. Practical strategies for facilitating the use of disclosures to correct inference errors are offered. Copyright 2000 by the University of Chicago.

How Event Sponsors Are Really Identified: A (Baseball) Field Analysis

ABSTRACT Event sponsors often do not receive proper credit for their efforts. This issue was examined in a field study involving over 300 baseball fans attending minor league games during the summer season. Signal detection analyses reveal that, even among such sports fans, the ability to correctly discriminate actual official sponsors of the home team from matched foils, although above chance, was rather poor. Consistent with recent laboratory findings, sponsor identification responses were further found to be heavily influenced by the mere plausibility of the brand as a potential sponsor. This plausibility effect was equally pronounced for actual sponsors and for foils. The phenomenon seems to be driven by a reliance on plausibility-based inferences that was widespread across respondents (as opposed to limited to a few). These plausibility-based inferences, whether correct or incorrect, can have as much influence on attributions of sponsorship as actual exposure to genuine sponsorship information. Implications for potential sponsors and properties are discussed.

Where there is a Will, is there a Way? Effects of Lay Theories of Self-Control on Setting and Keeping Resolutions

We demonstrate the effect of consumers’ lay theories of self-control on goal-directed behavior as evidenced by New Year’s and other resolutions. Across three studies, we find that individuals who believe that self-control is a malleable but inherently limited (vs. unlimited) resource tend to set fewer resolutions. Using respondents’ own idiographic resolutions, this result is shown to hold in general as well as in consumption-specific domains regardless of whether lay theories are measured or manipulated. The effect is reversed if respondents contrast beliefs regarding their own levels of self-control with their lay theories. The final field experiment shows that “limited self-control theorists” are less likely to succeed at their resolutions if they have low (vs. high) self-efficacy.

Babyfaces, Trait Inferences, and Company Evaluations in a Public Relations Crisis

We investigate the effects of babyfaceness on the trustworthiness and judgments of a companys chief executive officer in a public relations crisis. Experiment 1 demonstrates boundary conditions for the babyfaceness-honesty trait inference and its influence on company evaluations. Experiment 2 shows that trait inferences of honesty are drawn spontaneously but are corrected in the presence of situational evidence (a severe crisis) if cognitive resources are available. We demonstrate that these babyface-trait associations underlie evaluations by reversing the babyface effect on judgments in (a) experiment 3, where a priming task creates associations counter to the typical babyface-unintentional harm stereotype, and (b) experiment 4, which creates a situation where innocence is a liability. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Tempted or Not? - The Effect of Recent Purchase History on Responses to Affective Advertising

Three experiments investigate the emotions that arise from buying or not buying at an unintended purchase opportunity and how they color evaluations of affective advertising appeals that are viewed subsequently. We demonstrate that buying can cause happiness tempered with guilt, while not buying causes pride. Consistent with the felt affect, respondents who had bought at time 1 subsequently prefer happiness appeals to pride appeals, while those who had refrained prefer pride appeals. Drawing attention to the initial purchase decision and varying the affect by manipulating the discount both moderate this effect. These results contribute to the literatures on self-regulation, emotions, and persuasion.