Ingrid Poncin

The avatar in marketing: Synthesis, integrative framework and perspectives

The marketing literature on the graphical representation of the online consumer and its effects on consumption and exchanges is still in its infancy. This article contributes by carrying out a multidisciplinary synthesis on this theme. The proposed integrative model focuses on the identification with the avatar, its antecedents and consequences in a commercial context. Based on this framework, the article concludes with specific propositions for future research in this domain.

Beyond Place Sharing, The Shopping Experience of Tourists and Natives: The Case of the Medina of Sousse

The marketing literature abounds on the importance of environment and atmospheric variables in the consumer shopping experience. Moreover, numerous authors underline the importance of the individual differences, in particular the influence of shopping motivations. Yuksel (2004, 2007) and Hsieh and Chang (2006) specify that the motivations of a tourist to frequent a trading place are often multiple; besides an utilitarian shopping motivations, they can include, learning of the local traditions, search of sensory stimulation or the simple fact of escaping the daily routine.

Virtual Sales Agents: The Reasons of Failure

In spite of a very optimistic academic and professional literature, virtual embodied agents on commercial Web sites do not seem to keep all their promises. The update in December, 2009, of a benchmark led by OrangeLab in 2007 on 36 embodied agents present on French Web sites, reveals that more than 60 % of them had disappeared. This research deals with understanding the disappearance of virtual sales agents through a review of 53 articles, a benchmark of 80 agents on French commercial websites and analyses of experts’ depth-interviews. Additionally, this research identifies a series of common errors in the design of virtual agent that conduct to the agent’s failure, and gives important counter-arguments concerning popular ideas related to virtual agents.