Pankaj Aggarwal

The Effects of Brand Relationship Norms on Consumer Attitudes and Behavior

The key premise underlying this work is that when consumers form relationships with brands they use norms of interpersonal relationships as a guide in their brand assessments. Two relationship types are examined: exchange relationships in which benefits are given to others to get something back and communal relationships in which benefits are given to show concern for other’s needs. The conceptual model proposes that an adherence to or a violation of these relationship norms influences the appraisal of the specific marketing action and also the overall brand evaluations. Results of three experiments provide converging evidence in support of the theory.

Is That Car Smiling at Me? Schema Congruity as a Basis for Evaluating Anthropomorphized Products

The present research proposes schema congruity as a theoretical basis for examining the effectiveness and consequences of product anthropomorphism. Results of two studies suggest that the ability of consumers to anthropomorphize a product and their consequent evaluation of that product depend on the extent to which that product is endowed with characteristics congruent with the proposed human schema. Furthermore, consumers’ perception of the product as human mediates the influence of feature type on product evaluation. Results of a third study, however, show that the affective tag attached to the specific human schema moderates the evaluation but not the successful anthropomorphizing of the product.

When Brands Seem Human, Do Humans Act Like Brands? Automatic Behavioral Priming Effects of Brand Anthropomorphism

This research examines automatic behavioral effects of priming brands that are anthropomorphized. It posits that anthropomorphized brands trigger peoples goals for a successful social interaction, resulting in behavior that is assimilative or contrastive to the brands image. Three studies show that consumers are more likely to assimilate behavior associated with anthropomorphized partner brands that they like, consistent with the goal of drawing in the liked coproducer, and servant brands that they dislike, consistent with the goal of pushing the disliked would-be helper away by signaling self-sufficiency. Results also show a contrastive behavior when primed with disliked partner brands and liked servant brands. These effects are observed in contexts unrelated to the brand prime. For example, priming Kelloggs, a liked partner brand associated with healthfulness, led to greater willingness to take the stairs than the elevator in a purportedly unrelated study. No effects were observed of priming brands that were not anthropomorphized.

Role of Relationship Norms in Processing Brand Information

In the present research, we propose relationship norms as a moderator of the specific information-processing strategy adopted by consumers when evaluating a brand. Two types of relationships are examined: communal relationships, in which concern for a partners need is paramount, and exchange relationships, in which a matched benefit is expected back from the partner. Across three studies, we test the hypothesis that norms of a communal relationship lead to brand attributes being evaluated at a higher level of abstraction relative to those of an exchange relationship. Dependent variables ranging from product evaluations, memory measures, and feature listings provide converging evidence to support the overall hypothesis. (c) 2005 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Greasing the Palm: Can Collectivism Promote Bribery?

Why are there national differences in the propensity to bribe? To investigate this question, we conducted a correlational study with cross-national data and a laboratory experiment. We found a significant effect of the degree of collectivism versus individualism present in a national culture on the propensity to offer bribes to international business partners. Furthermore, the effect was mediated by individuals’ sense of responsibility for their actions. Together, these results suggest that collectivism promotes bribery through lower perceived responsibility for one’s actions.

The Moderating Effect of Relationship Norm Salience on Consumers' Loss Aversion

People are said to be loss averse when their pain of losing something exceeds their joy of gaining it. This research proposes and tests a new moderator of loss aversion: the type of relationship norms salient at the time the loss or the gain is experienced. We suggest that mere salience of the norms of a communal relationship (based on concern for the partner) relative to those of an exchange relationship (based on quid pro quo) leads to a greater degree of loss aversion. A typical endowment effect study supports our overall thesis and shows that differences across relationship norms are stronger in selling prices (willingness to accept) than in buying prices (willingness to pay).

Helping Fellow Beings Anthropomorphized Social Causes and the Role of Anticipatory Guilt

People are often reluctant to comply with social causes because doing so may involve personal sacrifices of time, money, and effort for benefits that are shared by other members of society. In an effort to increase compliance, government agencies and public institutions sometimes employ financial tools to promote social causes. However, employing financial tools to induce prosocial behavior is expensive and often ineffective. We propose that anthropomorphizing a social cause is a practical and inexpensive tool for increasing compliance with it. Across three prosocial contexts, we found that individuals exposed to a message from an anthropomorphized social cause, compared with individuals exposed to a message relating to a nonanthropomorphized social cause, were more willing to comply with the message. This effect was mediated by feelings of anticipatory guilt experienced when they considered the likely consequences of not complying with the cause. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Seeing the Big Picture: The Effect of Height on the Level of Construal

Drawing on research on grounded cognition and metaphorical representation, the authors propose and confirm in five studies that physical height, or even the mere concept of height, can affect the perceptual and conceptual levels of mental construal. As such, consumers who perceive themselves to be physically “high” or elevated are more likely to adopt a global perceptual processing and higher level of conceptual construal, whereas those who perceive themselves to be physically “low” are more likely to adopt a local perceptual processing and lower level of conceptual construal. This difference in construal level also affects product choices that involve trade-offs between long-term benefits and short-term effort. The authors address alternative accounts such as vertical distance, visual distance, and perceived power. By highlighting the novel relationship between height and construal level, these findings contribute to research on grounded cognition and construal-level theory while also providing practical suggestions to marketing managers across a variety of domains.

Linear versus Step-Function Decision Making: The Moderating Role of Relationship Norms on Consumer Responses to Brand Transgressions

Abstract Purpose This research uses the distinction between communal relationships (based on mutual care and concern) and exchange relationships (based on the principle of quid pro quo) to propose a framework that predicts differences in the shape of consumer response function to increasing levels of brand transgressions. Methodology/approach The paper proposes a conceptual model based on insights from prior research on brand relationships. Findings The premise being proposed in this paper is that exchange-oriented consumers, being focused on the balance of inputs and outcomes, base their evaluations on an objective assessment of the final outcome, such that their response function will be relatively proportional to increasing levels of brand transgression. On the other hand, communally oriented consumers are concerned with whether or not the relationship partner cares for them, such that up to a point brand transgressions are overlooked while beyond a threshold there is a sudden negative shift in brand evaluations. These consumers thus exhibit a step-function response to brand transgressions. Research limitations This paper proposes a conceptual framework and leaves it to future researchers to test it empirically. Practical implications Managers now have a toolkit to better manage instances of product and service failure. Social implications Findings from this model can be applied to better manage interpersonal relationships too. Originality/value of the paper This paper proposes a model that shows how and why consumers might differ in their response to brand transgressions. Further, this is a dynamic model in that it traces the response function of the consumers at increasing levels of transgressions.

The Science of Extraordinary Beliefs: An Introduction to This Issue

onsumers’ judgments, choices, and actions depend on their likes, values, and beliefs—plus the decision rules that put them together and the cultural forces that shape them. The present issue focuses on beliefs— consumers’ understanding of what things are and how they work—and showcases the ways in which these beliefs may be extraordinary, as standing outside established rules of science. Hence, the research in this issue takes on familiar areas of investigation involving “ordinary” judgments such as assessments of cause and effect or the determination of kind or category. However, this work stands apart from those vast literatures on causal reasoning and concept formation by considering judgments that go beyond mundane conclusions about what caused what and what something is, beliefs that are “extra” in some sense. Our characterization of these beliefs as “extraordinary” centers therefore on the content of these beliefs, not on whether or not they are commonplace or infrequent—they may in fact arise frequently—and not on the psychological processes that produce them—they may indeed tap well-worn processes. The beliefs are “extra” in that they hold as true something that seemingly cannot be. We expose beliefs that are, frankly, amiss in that they suggest causal connections involvingmagic, superstition, fate, and luck, or because they suggest a peculiar dual categorization in which things actually are people, at least a little bit. Some of the essays in this issue demonstrate specific instantiation of these beliefs and advance how they come to be or how they operate. These essays capture present efforts to understand a particular phenomenon of consequence for consumers. Four additional essays are from “thought leaders”whomwe invited to capture the state of the field’s thinking around particular subareas of extraordinary beliefs. From the outset, we had envisioned organizing the essays in this issue around the obvious paradigms they are situated