Jonas Colliander

Consumer-perceived signals of ‘creative’ versus ‘efficient’ advertising: Investigating the roles of expense and effort

The paper investigates the effects that consumer-perceived sender expense and effort might have on brand perceptions. More specifically, it extends the marketing signal literature to advertising by including both sender expense and effort, and by including both positive and negative effects. A quantitative analysis of 4,000 consumers’ perceptions of creativity award winning, effectiveness award winning and non-award winning advertisements finds that advertisements with higher-than-average perceived expense and effort have positive impacts on brand attitudes, brand interest and word-of-mouth (WOM), while advertisements with lower-than-average perceived expense have corresponding negative impacts.

The blog and the bountiful: Exploring the effects of disguised product placement on blogs that are revealed by a third party

This article investigates the effects of a revelation to blog readers that the blog has been sponsored by a company in exchange for favorable reviews of their products. We compare the responses of two groups of blog readers. One group was exposed to a revelation in a tabloid newspaper that the blogger has been sponsored without admitting it. The other group was not exposed to such a revelation. We find that the attitude toward the blog and the credibility of the blog will suffer after the revelation. The attitude toward the sponsoring brand and the purchase intention, however, will not suffer as a result of the revelation. We find that the effects on the blog can be partially explained by parasocial interaction, whereas the effects on the brand can be partially explained by correspondence bias. On the basis of our findings, we provide implications for both bloggers and brand managers.

Twitter for two: investigating the effects of dialogue with customers in social media

This article highlights – and compares – the effects of communicating with customers in social media with either one-way communication or dialogue. In an experiment, the authors let randomly selected consumers follow real company Twitters using one of the two strategies for 1 week and then compared their impressions of the companies compared to control groups. They found that while dialogue enhanced brand attitudes and purchase intentions, one-way communication did not. This effect can be explained, in part, by the increased perceived expense and perceived caring signaled by using dialogue. Implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.

'Snap happy' brands: Increasing publicity effectiveness through a snapshot aesthetic when marketing a brand on instagram

Abstract This study examines the effects of a company publishing photos of their products using either (a) snapshot aesthetics, where pictures portray average situations and appear as if though they could have been taken by the average consumer, or (b) traditional studio aesthetics in image based social media. In an experiment where respondents followed an Instagram account of a fashion brand using one of the two aesthetic styles over a period of one week, we demonstrate that in social media, photos with a snapshot aesthetic produce higher brand attitudes and intentions to recommend others to follow the Instagram account. These effects where mediated by higher liking of the images and an increase in source credibility when publishing photos with a snapshot aesthetic.

Multi-level loyalty program rewards and their effects on top-tier customers and second-tier customers

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to examine how members at different levels in a multi-level loyalty program react when they are allowed the opportunity to compare the rewards they receive with the rewards received by other members. The authors believe this is crucial, as previous research often ignores the social setting in which exchanges concerning loyalty rewards take place. The authors believe such interactions in social settings are likely to induce justice perceptions, which in turn will affect customer satisfaction and repatronizing intentions. Design/methodology/approach The research question was addressed through a between-subjects experiment in an airline setting. Findings The results show that belonging to the top-tier level of a multi-level loyalty program seems to boost perceived justice. Participants assigned to this level in the experiment perceived the program as more just than did participants assigned to the lower level. Importantly though, members assigned the second-tier who compared themselves to the top-tier did not perceive to program as more unjust than did second-tier members comparing themselves to other second-tier members. The levels of customer satisfaction and repatronizing intentions followed the same pattern. In social settings, multi-level loyalty programs thus seem to be able to increase justice perceptions, customer satisfaction and repatronizing intentions of top-tier members, while at the same time avoiding the potential drawback of alienating second-tier members. Originality/value The study bridges the gap between research on perceived justice, loyalty programs and the effects of social settings on consumer interactions. In doing so, it brings valuable insights to both researchers and practitioners.

Conspicuous political brand interactions on social network sites

Acquiring “Likes” for a political party or candidate’s Facebook pages is important for political marketers. For consumers, these “Likes” are conspicuous, making their political affiliation visible to their network. This paper aims to examine the roles of the undesired social-self and visibility (conspicuous vs inconspicuous) in predicting consumers’ intention to “Like” political brands. The authors extend knowledge on the undesired social-self and transference of theory from general marketing to a political domain and provide practical advice for political marketers engaging social network sites.,The authors gather data from two surveys run with Facebook using electorates in the run up to the UK 2015 and US 2016 elections (n = 1,205) on their intention to “Like” political brands under different visibility conditions.,Data support the theorized relationship of the undesired social-self with social anxiety intention to “Like” when “Liking” is conspicuous. However, data also indicate that all users – irrespective of proximity to the undesired social-self – prefer to “Like” inconspicuously.,The research is limited by the generalizability of the specific context and the use of self-report measures.,Political marketers should reconsider promoting conspicuous consumption for that which is more inconspicuous.,The authors provide the first examination of the undesired social-self in driving behaviour under different visibility conditions. Furthermore, the authors challenge the extension of existing knowledge of the self-concept within political marketing, based on the “norm” for consumers’ to avoid disclosing political views publically.

The allure of the bottle as a package: an assessment of perceived effort in a packaging context

This paper aims to assess the impact of perceived effort related to packaging on overall product evaluations. Perceived effort, defined as the consumer’s perceptions of how much manufacturer effort that lies behind an offer, is assumed to contribute to evaluations by signaling unobservable characteristics of an offer.,Three between-subjects experiments were conducted with soft drink bottles, which were subject to variation in perceived effort.,The results show that perceived effort was positively associated with overall evaluations. The results also show that the impact of perceived effort was mediated by product quality perceptions, which indicates that effort signals quality.,Perceived effort has to date not been examined in the packaging literature. The present findings thus imply that models of packaging characteristics and their impact on consumers would benefit from including the effort aspect.

Vacation Posts on Facebook: A Model for Incidental Vicarious Travel Consumption:

Vicarious consumption of travel is ubiquitous. However little is known about the psychological processes this initiates or the potential for resultant behaviors beyond direct steps toward patronage. We address this gap through developing and testing the incidental vicarious travel consumption model (IVTCM), which draws from well-established knowledge of the self-concept and compensatory consumption. In the context of vicariously consuming idyllic vacation posts on Facebook, the model identifies the following: individuals’ travel-related self-discrepancies may become active, leading to feelings of dejection, initiating five possible compensatory consumption behaviors (Direct, Symbolic, Dissociation, Escapism, Fluid). A sequential mixed-method design (total n=860) provides support for the IVTCM. The primary contributions of the paper are as follows: first the IVTCM can be used to understand different forms of vicarious travel consumption. Second, specific understanding on the impact of idyllic vacation posts is contributed, furthering knowledge on the role of social media within tourism.

Watching Others Receive Unearned Superior Treatment: Examining the Effects on Tourists Who Receive Less Than Their Peers

Different treatment of different customers has traditionally been seen as a typical characteristic of tourism services. This research investigates unearned superior treatment in the tourism industry as taking place in a social setting where customers are able to compare the service they receive to that of other customers. Moreover, we take the disadvantaged customers’ point of view and investigate the reactions of customers who receive comparably less than others in such situations. Our results indicate that those customers who receive less than others perceive the service exchanges as more unjust and therefore report lower levels of customer satisfaction and repatronizing intentions as well as higher levels of intentions to talk to others about their experiences. We further investigate whether decisions made by a single versus a group of employees affect the justice perceptions of the encounter. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

Bridging Theory and Practice in an Applied Retail Track

In this article, we present an educational approach that bridges theory and practice: an applied retail track. The track has been co-created by faculty and 10 partnering retail companies and runs in parallel with traditional courses during a 3-year bachelor’s degree program in retail management. The underlying pedagogical concept is to move retail education from simple dissemination of knowledge toward the production of learning by way of experiential, situated, and skill-based learning. Overall, we believe that this learning approach has helped to create a win-win-win situation for students, retailers, and faculty. Students gain unique insights from retail practice to complement their topically oriented course-based learning, thus enhancing their attractiveness to employers after graduation. Retailers gain in-depth knowledge about the competencies of young prospective employees, and faculty and retailers jointly benefit from exchanging ideas about contemporary challenges in retailing. This article describes the program’s main features and successes and offers recommendations for others seeking to implement all or some of its components.