Margaret C. Campbell

Goal Seeker and Persuasion Sentry: How Consumer Targets Respond to Interpersonal Marketing Persuasion

This article investigates how consumers respond to influence attempts by interpersonal marketing agents such as salespeople and service personnel. We conceptualize the consumer target as a goal-directed individual who attempts to manage a marketing interaction. Three qualitative data sets reveal 15 response strategies reflecting targets who are both goal seekers (i.e., attempting to utilize the agent to achieve own goals) and persuasion sentries (i.e., guarding against unwanted marketing persuasion). The target-agent relationship and the targets experience with persuasion emerge as factors that affect strategy use. An experimental study supports the proposition that the target-agent relationship interacts with persuasion experience to affect strategy usage.

Says Who?! How the Source of Price Information and Affect Influence Perceived Price (Un)fairness

Three experiments show that the source of price change information—whether human or nonhuman—moderates the effect of price change on perceptions of price fairness. Both inferences of the marketers motive and stimulus-induced affect mediate the effects of the source and price change. Opportunity and motivation to process also affect the relative influence of inferred motive and affect. This research demonstrates antecedent roles of both price source and affect.

Stigmatizing Materialism: On Stereotypes and Impressions of Materialistic and Experiential Pursuits

Five studies examined the stigmatization of materialism. Participants expressed negative stereotypes of materialistic people, considering them to be more selfish and self-centered than experiential people (Study 1). Participants also viewed materialistic pursuits as more extrinsically motivated than experiential pursuits (Study 2). These stereotypes led respondents from varied demographic backgrounds to form less favorable impressions of individuals who were associated with prototypically materialistic versus experiential purchases, a result that was statistically mediated by impressions that materialistic purchases were more extrinsically motivated (Study 3). These differential impressions are primarily attributable to the denigration of materialistic people rather than the admiration of experiential people (Study 4). The stigmatization of materialism led participants to like less and enjoy interacting less with their conversation partners when discussing materialistic rather than experiential purchases (Study 5). The authors discuss these findings’ implications for self-perception, accurate social perception, and well-being.

PRICING STRATEGY & PRACTICE“Why did you do that?” The important role of inferred motive in perceptions of price fairness

There is research evidence that suggests that perceptions of price unfairness give rise to consumer resistance to prices and result in decreased profit to the firm. However, it is as yet unclear what factors influence perceptions of unfairness. Answers the question, “What is fair?” by proposing that consumers sometimes infer a firm’s motive for a price and that the inferred motive influences perceived price fairness. A study provides evidence that consumers use contextual information to infer a firm’s motive. When consumers infer a negative motive, the price is perceived to be unfair and when consumers do not infer a negative motive, the same price is perceived to be fair. Suggests that marketers should: provide reasons for prices; consider consumers’ likely inferences of motive and either avoid taking actions that are likely to give rise to inferences of negative motive or manage the motive inferred; and consider the inferences that consumers may make for other marketing actions in addition to price.

Seeing Is Eating: How and When Activation of a Negative Stereotype Increases Stereotype-Conducive Behavior

This research investigates the effect of activation of a negative stereotype on behaviors that are perceived to increase the chance of becoming a member of the stereotyped group. Activation of a negative stereotype (the overweight stereotype) is shown to lead to stereotype-consistent goal commitment (low health goal commitment), which partially explains increases in stereotype-conducive behavior (eating indulgent foods). Two theoretically relevant moderators are proposed and supported. Increased accessibility of the countervailing health goal and increased accessibility of the link between the behavior and membership in the stereotyped group both limit the effect of stereotype activation on stereotype-conducive behavior. Five experiments support the facilitative effect of stereotype activation on stereotype-conducive behavior, the role of goal commitment, and both moderators.

What Makes Things Cool? How Autonomy Influences Perceived Coolness

Despite assertions that coolness sells products, little is known about what leads consumers to perceive brands as cool. This research uses an experimental approach to examine the empirical relationship between consumers’ inferences of autonomy and perceived coolness. Six studies find that behaviors expressing autonomy increase perceived coolness, but only when the autonomy seems appropriate. Autonomy seems appropriate, and hence increases perceptions of coolness, when a behavior diverges from a norm considered unnecessary or illegitimate, when the autonomy is bounded (i.e., deviations are small or occasional rather than large or perpetual), and when the consumer views social norms as being overly repressive. A final experiment further supports the connection between autonomy and coolness and illustrates that coolness is distinct from liking by showing that whether a consumer has a goal to express autonomy moderates preference for cool brands.

A Risk of Meaning Transfer: Are Negative Associations More Likely to Transfer ThanPositive Associations?

Celebrity endorsement is a common influence tactic used by marketers. By linking their brands with cultural entities such as celebrity endorsers, marketers attempt to acquire positive meanings and personality traits associated with the entity. Entities, however, often have both positive and negative associations. For example, a celebrity can be both smart and arrogant, or sexy and ditsy. We highlight a risk of meaning transfer: negative associations are more likely to transfer to a brand than positive associations. Three studies show that brands are more likely to acquire the negative than the positive personality traits associated with a celebrity endorser and that negative associations transfer even under conditions that inhibit the transfer of positive associations.

The Progress Bias in Goal Pursuit: When One Step Forward Seems Larger than One Step Back

Consumers often pursue goals (e.g., losing weight) where the chance of attaining the goal increases with some behaviors (e.g., exercise) but decreases with others (e.g., eating). Although goal monitoring is known to be a critical step in self-control for successful goal pursuit, little research investigates whether consumers accurately monitor goal progress. Seven experiments demonstrate that consumers tend to show a progress bias in goal monitoring, perceiving that goal-consistent behaviors (e.g., saving

Consumers' Use of Persuasion Knowledge: The Effects of Accessibility and Cognitive Capacity on Perceptions of an Influence Agent

45) help progress more than goal-inconsistent behaviors of the equivalent size (e.g., spending

PERCEPTIONS OF PRICE UNFAIRNESS : ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES

45) hurt it. Expectations of goal attainment moderate the progress bias; reducing the expectation that the goal will be reached reduces the tendency to perceive goal-consistent behaviors to have a larger impact on goal progress than equivalent goal-inconsistent behaviors. A study on exercise and eating shows that although the progress bias can increase initial goal persistence, it can also lead to premature goal release due to poor calibration of overall progress.