Lauren I. Labrecque

Making Choices While Smelling, Tasting, and Listening: The Role of Sensory (Dis)Similarity When Sequentially Sampling Products

Marketers are increasingly allowing consumers to sample sensory-rich experiential products before making purchase decisions. The results of seven experimental studies (two conducted in field settings, three conducted in a laboratory, and two conducted online) demonstrate that the order in which consumers sample products and the level of (dis)similarity between the sensory cues of the products influence choices. In the absence of any moderators, when sampling a sequence of sensory-rich experiential products (e.g., fragrances, chocolates, flavored beverages, music) with similar sensory cues (e.g., smell, taste, color, sound), consumers prefer the first product in the sequence. However, when sampling a sequence of products with dissimilar sensory cues, consumers prefer the last product. These findings (1) contribute to a better understanding of the role of sequential sensory cues on consumer choice formation, (2) have implications for effects related to sensory habituation and sensory trace fading, and (3) help resolve apparent inconsistencies in prior research on order effects in the context of choices for sequentially sampled experiential products.

A Multicultural Service Sensitivity Exercise for Marketing Students

Services marketing and retailing courses place service quality at the heart of the curriculum, painting service providers as defenders of their customers’ welfare and thwarters of service failures by ushering in recovery solutions. Yet academic literature and the popular press provide evidence that in some cases, service providers act as discriminatory agents toward their own customers. Likewise, other customers in the servicescape can negatively influence a customer’s service quality experience. This article attempts to address shortcomings in services marketing textbooks and classroom discussions by providing educators with a multicultural service sensitivity exercise that they can employ in undergraduate, graduate, and executive MBA courses. The article offers educators an easy-to-implement, active learning exercise that shows students how many consumers fail to obtain quality service in the marketplace. The goal of the exercise is to help students develop an appreciation for diversity and understand how to manage a service setting so that all customers receive optimal service quality.

Authenticity in Online Communications: Examining Antecedents and Consequences

Authenticity has been discussed as an important characteristic of successful online communications (Galpin et al. 2010), yet little is known about its antecedents and consequences. This research examines the mediating role of authenticity in the relationship between two message characteristics, responsiveness and transparency, and the three dimensions of trust: competency, integrity, and benevolence.

A FRAMEWORK FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBLE RETAILING (SRR) BUSINESS PRACTICES

The role of retailers in the practice of social responsible initiatives has been overlooked in the literature. This paper develops a framework for analysis of Social Responsible Retailing (SRR) by focusing on retailing business practices across the supply chain to the end consumer and among the internal and external stakeholders of the retail landscape. The framework is presented as a starting point to develop the concept of SRR and focuses on the potential role retailers can play in developing and coordinating social responsible business practices.

Graves, gifts, and the bereaved consumer: a restorative perspective of gift exchange

ABSTRACT When a gifting relationship is disrupted by death, why might a living consumer continue to invest in it? Consumer spending on deceased loved ones does not end with the funeral. Given the embodying power of a physical gravesite, this article examines the practice of gift giving to the deceased in the context of American cemeteries. We employ a longitudinal approach, in which 180 cemetery gravesites were photographed. The photographic data are coupled with a netnography of grief and bereavement communities. Findings support a restorative perspective of gift exchange. Bereaved consumers utilize restorative giving as a mechanism to cope with loss and maintain relationships with deceased loved ones. We outline five categories of gifts given to the deceased and present a framework of restorative giving practices. Implications are discussed in terms of identity development, symbolic communication, and reciprocity in gift giving, as deceased consumers continue to be recipients of tangible goods.

The Evolution of Consumer Empowerment in the Social Media ERA: A Critical Review

This paper provides a framework for examining the intersection of consumer behavior and social media to set the agenda for future research. Through the lens of consumer empowerment, we offer an understanding of value creation through participation in social media. Using this framework, a review of the literature reveals three broad themes of particular interest for future research: the power/disempowerment paradox, the impact of social media on consumer behavior, and the consumer’s ability to create, co-create or destroy value.

Oops, i did it Again: What Students Need to know about Managing Information in a Social Media World

This paper reviews research from the special session on Privacy Research and Educational Issues at the 2010 Direct/Interactive Marketing Research Summit by providing summaries of the three presentations and offering related classroom activities. These presentations focused on aspects of information exchange in an online environment and illustrated the motivations and complexities individuals face in regards to online information disclosure choices. The classroom exercises developed from this research allow students to consider the management of their own information in an attempt to learn valuable lessons concerning the importance of awareness, management and persistency as they transition from students to advertising professionals.

Does a Hologram Give an Encore? Authenticity in Mixed Reality: An Abstract

While the promise of holograms to create a replicable consumer experience excites some consumers, others express skepticism about the potential enjoyment of watching dead celebrities, fictional characters, and so forth, in a materially “real” environment (Giesler, 2004). Virtual and augmented realities have acted as consumer gateways to consumer-hologram interactions (Jin, 2009; Suh & Lee, 2005; Yaoyuneyong et al., 2015); however, little is known about the state of these interactions. Although Milgram (1992) proposed a Reality-Virtuality continuum spanning from Real Environments to Augmented Reality to Augmented Virtuality to Virtual Environments, marketing scholarship has only recently approached application of these new technologies (Javornik, 2016; Scholz & Smith, 2016).

Does Linguistic Style in Social Media Communications Impact Consumer Engagement? An Abstract

The rise of social media has boosted marketers’ interest in using these platforms to build relationships with customers and as potential tools for spreading word of mouth. While research has examined topics related to consumer-brand relationships on social media (de Vries et al. 2012; Labrecque 2014), the sustained use of social media platforms and their evolving nature merit additional inquiry (Kumar 2015). We extend the literature by investigating how the linguistic style of brands’ social media messages impacts consumer engagement. We look beyond the message content and investigate how the linguistic style of the message affects a consumer’s decision to interact with the brand, taking into account not only what is being said but also how it is communicated.

We Clapped for the Hologram: Authenticity in Experiential Consumption

For experiential marketers or for service providers, holographic technology implies labor cost-savings, standardizing customer interaction, and potential revenue opportunities through simultaneous experiential replication. The novelty of holograms has encouraged businesses to rapidly adopt their use, however, little is known about consumers’ reactions to and interactions with virtually-replicated experiential consumption. In this paper, we propose and test a model of how holographic experiences can still lead consumers to have positive, seemingly-authentic consumption experiences, even though the mode of presentation is inauthentic. The results of an experiment demonstrate few significant differences between control, live performance, and holographic performance groups with respect to various outcomes of experiential consumption. Further, we find no significant differences between groups on consumers’ likelihood to watch again, likelihood to recommend the performance, and willingness-to-pay. These findings suggest that, although holographic technology is currently costly, the ability to replicate experiential consumption could be cost efficient in the long-run. We conclude with insights for extending research on holographic experiential consumption.