Maureen Morrin

The Impact of Ambient Scent on Evaluation, Attention, and Memory for Familiar and Unfamiliar Brands

Abstract Subjects were exposed to familiar and unfamiliar brand names in either a pleasantly scented or unscented environment. A computer recorded how much time they took to evaluate each brand. After a distracter task, their memory for the brand names was tested with recall and recognition measures. The results indicate that the presence of a pleasant ambient scent improved brand evaluations, especially for unfamiliar brands. Neither mood nor arousal appeared to mediate this process. The pleasant ambient scent also improved recall for unfamiliar, but not familiar, brand names. Analysis indicated that this process was mediated by attention, that is, the amount of time spent evaluating brand names. Recognition was not affected significantly by scent. Implications, limitations, and areas for future research are discussed.

Person-Place Congruency The Interactive Effects of Shopper Style and Atmospherics on Consumer Expenditures

A person-place congruency framework is proposed that predicts more affectively charged atmospherics, such as background music, will positively affect impulsive shoppers, whereas atmospherics that tend to facilitate more cognitive consumer processing, such as ambient scent, will positively affect contemplative shoppers. Expectations are supported in a large-scale field study (N = 774).

Product Scent and Memory

Scent research has focused primarily on the effects of ambient scent on consumer evaluations. We focus instead on the effects of product scent on consumer memories. For instance, if a pencil or a facial tissue is imbued with scent (vs. not), recall for the brands other attributes increases significantly-with the effects lasting as much as 2 weeks after exposure. We also find that product scent is more effective than ambient scent at enhancing memory for product information. We suggest that this may be because, with product (ambient) scent, scent-related associations are focused on a single object (are diffused across multiple objects) in the environment. In support, we find that the memory effects are driven by the number of product/scent-related associations stored in long-term memory. The results suggest that, although ambient scent has received the bulk of attention from researchers and managers in recent years, greater focus on product scent is warranted. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Determinants of Trademark Dilution

A hierarchical Bayes associative network model for brand information is developed and tested to measure the extent of harm from trademark dilution. In the proposed model, category activation thresholds are modeled in terms of brand/category familiarity, activation flows are modeled in terms of relative category knowledge, and consumer confusion and its correlates are used to capture the asymmetric effects of dilution on retrieval probabilities for first and second users.

Training Novice Investors to Become More Expert: The Role of Information Accessing Strategy

Considerable research has examined how securities information, once accessed, is cognitively processed to arrive at buy, sell or hold decisions. In contrast, this paper examines whether training novice investors to simply apply the information accessing strategies used by better-performing security analysts, prior to actual cognitive processing of the information, would improve their performance. We obtain performance differences by comparing trained subjects who used the recommended strategies with untrained subjects. Notably, these differences emerged even during a significant market downturn during the simulation. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Does Age Attenuate the Impact of Pleasant Ambient Scent on Consumer Response

A large-scale field survey (n = 592) was conducted in a suburban shopping mall to assess the impact of pleasant ambient scent on consumer spending as a function of shopper age. A citrus scent was systematically emitted into the shopping mall (or not) over several weeks, and as shoppers were about to exit the mall, they were intercepted to complete a survey. In the survey, respondents reported the amount of expenditures in the mall that day as well as their perceptions of the mall and demographic characteristics, such as age. The results indicate that shoppers spent significantly more in the mall with the presence of the pleasant ambient scent, but this result was true only among younger shoppers. Theoretical and practical implications of the reduced impact of ambient scent on older persons are discussed.

Plan Format and Participation in 401(k) Plans: The Moderating Role of Investor Knowledge

There is continuing concern that many people are not saving enough for retirement. The authors conduct three studies to determine whether simple alterations to the format of 401(k) plans can increase plan participation rates, especially among people with low levels of financial knowledge. In Study 1, offering a larger number of funds for investment reduces plan participation among low-knowledge investors, unless the plan also offers a target retirement date (i.e., life-cycle fund) option. In Study 2, the authors find those with low knowledge are more likely to participate if the funds offered for investment are grouped by asset class rather than listed alphabetically. In Study 3, the authors find that participation increases when fund descriptions include star ratings (but not fund style boxes). They also find that star ratings increase decision satisfaction among low-knowledge investors because of a reduction in perceived task difficulty. Limitations, implications, and further research are discussed.

Understanding Voter Vengeance

This article proposes that, in electoral contexts, decision makers may experience a desire for vengeance or a desire to “get even” with an entity, such as a political candidate, in response to a perceived wrongdoing. This article draws on research from the domains of psychology and sociology to develop a theoretical framework for examining factors that may influence the extent to which voters exact revenge on political candidates with their voting behavior. The results of 3 experiments are reported in which voters are shown to exact revenge on a candidate who has won an earlier round of elections by defeating a favored candidate. This process is mediated by damage to self-identity and is strengthened by perceived share of blame attributed to the perpetrator candidate. This research shows how vengeful voters are delighted when a perpetrator candidate later performs poorly while in office. This research also shows how making salient a shared affiliation with the perpetrator candidate (such as race or university major) can attenuate vengeful voting behavior. The research builds on a growing body of work that explores negative and potentially counterproductive emotions in choice contexts.

Comparing Journal of Consumer Psychology and Journal of Consumer Research

The Journal of Consumer Psychology ( JCP ) was created in 1992 partly in response to what was interpreted by some as a shift in the methodological focus of the Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ). JCR began to increase its accommodation of postmodern approaches, compared to more positivistic approaches. JCPs mission was thus perceived by some to be more methodologically homogeneous, with a greater focus on traditional experimental psychology in the domain of consumer behavior. Is JCR really more methodologically diverse than JCP ? In what other ways are the two journals similar or different? This article attempts to answer these questions with an in-depth analysis of the articles published in both journals from 1992 to 1998. The articles are reviewed in terms of overall output, authorship, content, research design, and data analysis. Conclusions and implications are included.

Fund assortments, gender, and retirement plan participation

Purpose – This paper seeks to promote an understanding of gender effects on retirement plan participation as a function of fund assortment size.Design/methodology/approach – A decision simulation was conducted among 349 US adults whose task was to invest in a hypothetical 401(k) retirement plan. The number of mutual funds offered for investment was varied and the effects on the incidence and extent of participation observed.Findings – The results indicate that larger fund assortments tend to reduce participation among women, but increase it among men.Research limitations/implications – Replication in other contexts and with other data sets would be worthwhile.Practical implications – To enhance retirement plan adoption/participation, financial service firms may want to tailor such plans according to gender (and other consumer characteristics) according to the present set of findings.Originality/value – First time authors are aware that the interaction between gender and assortment size is examined.