Marina Carnevale

Effects of pronoun brand name perspective and positioning on brand attitude

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative effectiveness of the second-person pronoun perspective within a brand name (as in “You”Tube) and the first-person pronoun perspective (as in “i”Phone). Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on prior research on self-concept, general pronoun usage and the fit between branding tactics and positioning, it is predicted that “you” will garner more favorable consumer responses when the brand is positioned on social benefits, while “I” will garner more favorable responses when the brand is positioned on personal benefits. These predictions are tested in two experiments with US consumers. Findings – When the brand in the experiment was positioned for its social benefits, “you” elicited more favorable brand attitudes than “I”, while the opposite was true when the brand was positioned for its personal benefits. This effect tends to be stronger among those with higher self-esteem. Practical implications – Managers can make more informed pronoun brand...

Customer Value Creation in Multichannel Systems: The Interactive Effect of Integration Quality and Multichannel Complexity:

Abstract This research examines factors that influence consumer perceptions of value created by a multichannel system of service delivery. The literature suggests that multichannel integration quality allows firms to benefit from the effect of synergy and complementarity between channels. We investigate the perceived value of multichannel service delivery in the context of retail banking services, where such multichannel systems are omnipresent. We propose and test a model in which multichannel integration quality is an important value driver, such that higher multichannel integration quality leads to greater value perceptions of not only the multichannel system, but also the overall value of the bank as perceived by the customer. Importantly, the complexity of the multichannel system of service delivery, as perceived by customers, moderates the direct effect of channel integration quality on perceived value of the multichannel system, so that in highly complex multichannel systems, channel integration quality will have a stronger effect on the perceived value to customer. Our findings also shed light on the specific factors that contribute to consumer value perceptions of multichannel retail banking services, which has important implications to managers and researchers.

Customer Value Creation for Risky Products: The Role of Brand Trust and Trusting Beliefs

Abstract Consumers often perceive products and services as risky. As a result, they might perceive the same products as less valuable. While past research has investigated numerous ways of reducing the negative effect of perceived product risk on customers’ perceived value, surprisingly, the role of brand trust has not been taken into account. This article aims to fill this gap by investigating how consumers’ trust in a brand, as well as their trusting beliefs about the brand’s competence, benevolence and integrity, may moderate the relationship between consumers’ perceived product risk and consumers’ perceived value. By means of two empirical studies based on a panel of smartphone users, the authors propose and demonstrate that the trust customers have for a brand can mitigate the negative effect of perceived product risk on perceived value of products with the same brand name. Importantly, findings also show that the various beliefs underlying trust have differential downstream effects. More specifically, while benevolence and integrity beliefs about a brand mitigate the negative effect of perceived product risk on customers’ perceived value, competence beliefs were found irrelevant to the effect of risk on value. These findings inform and guide marketing practitioners’ efforts to cultivate specific, rather than generic, trusting beliefs to ultimately create and maximize value for their customers who otherwise view these products as risky.