Paul M. Connell

How Childhood Advertising Exposure Can Create Biased Product Evaluations That Persist into Adulthood

Previous research has found that children incrementally learn how to cope with advertising as they age. The current research investigates whether these developmental constraints in advertising knowledge at time of exposure have enduring consequences. Results from four experimental studies show that childhood exposure to advertisements can lead to resilient biased product evaluations that persist into adulthood. Study 1 demonstrates that positive affect toward ad-related stimuli encountered in childhood mediates the relationship between childhood advertising exposure and biased evaluations for products associated with childhood (but not adulthood) advertising. Study 2 demonstrates stronger biases when participants are exposed to childhood advertising cues relative to childhood consumption cues. Studies 3 and 4 show that even when ability and motivation to correct bias are high, lingering positive affect toward childhood ad-related stimuli is a motivational deterrent to correct biased product evaluations. Study 4 also shows that biased product evaluations can transfer to line extensions.

Navigating the Central Tensions in Research on At-Risk Consumers: Challenges and Opportunities

A perennial problem in social marketing and public policy is the plight of at-risk consumers. The authors define at-risk consumers as marketplace participants who, because of historical or personal circumstances or disabilities, may be harmed by marketers’ practices or may be unable or unwilling to take full advantage of marketplace opportunities. This definition refers to either objective reality or perceptions. Early research focused on consumers who were at risk because they were poor, ethnic or racial minorities, immigrants, women, or elderly. Todays researchers also study consumers who are at risk because they are from religious minorities, disabled, illiterate, homeless, indigent, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The authors identify four tensions affecting research on and policy and marketing applications for at-risk populations: the value of focusing on (1) vulnerabilities versus strengths, (2) radical versus marginal change, (3) targeting versus nontargeting, and (4) encouraging knowledgeable versus naive consumers. They conclude with a discussion of the significance of including at-risk consumers as full marketplace participants and identify future research directions.

Activating health goals reduces (increases) hedonic evaluation of food brands for people who harbor highly positive (negative) affect toward them.

Associations of pleasure and fun with junk foods have the potential to create considerable challenges for efforts to improve diets. The aim of this research was to determine whether activating health goals had the potential to exploit mixed motivations (i.e., health and pleasure) that people have related to food, and subsequently strip junk foods of the expected pleasure derived from them. In study 1, 98 participants evaluated a soft drink brand after being primed (not primed) for health. In study 2, 93 participants evaluated a presweetened breakfast cereal brand after being primed (not primed) for health. In both studies, participants who harbored highly positive feelings for the food brands devalued their hedonic judgments of them when they were primed for health. However, in an unexpected result, participants in both studies who harbored highly negative feelings for the food brands revalued their hedonic judgments of them (i.e., increased the favorability) when they were primed for health. Thus, increasing health salience is only effective in decreasing expected pleasure derived from junk foods for people who harbor positive affect toward junk food brands, and is likely counterproductive for people who harbor negative affect toward junk food brands.

Dissociation from beloved unhealthy brands decreases preference for and consumption of vegetables

Many people form strong bonds with brands, including those for unhealthy foods. Thus, prompting people to dissociate from beloved but unhealthy food brands is an intuitively appealing means to shift consumption away from unhealthy options and toward healthy options. Contrary to this position, we demonstrate that dissociating from unhealthy but beloved brands diminishes peoples interest in consuming vegetables because the dissociation depletes self-regulatory resources. Across three experimental studies, we manipulate dissociation from two beloved brands both implicitly (studies 1-2) and explicitly (study 3) and observe effects on both preference for vegetables (studies 2-3) and actual vegetable consumption (study 1). In study 1, participants consumed fewer vegetables following dissociation from (vs. association with) a beloved candy brand. Study 2 demonstrates that the effect of depletion on preference for vegetables is more pronounced for those who strongly identify with the brand, as these individuals are most depleted by the dissociation attempt. Finally, study 3 illustrates that the difficulty experienced when trying to dissociate from beloved brands drives the observed effects on vegetable preference and consumption for those who strongly (vs. weakly) identify with the brand.

Relationships are complicated on construct validity when consumer-brand relationships are systems

We have investigated the dynamics of how consumer make relationship with brand (non-human entities) that is consumer brand relationships. This relationship is like the same relationship between two people in the society. Meta-analytic literature review has been conducted to explore different aspect of this relationship dynamics. The investigation reveals that brands work as a relationship partners with consumers. Relationship dimensions, which are considered as ground of relationship types, constructed by authors differs resulting different types consumer brand relationships. However, various authors measure relationship quality based on the same ground relationship strength and feelings using different theories. This research has implications for both academicians and practitioners as they can comprehensively conceptualize the consumer brand relationship, its nature, type and dimensions explored by researchers and their present state.

Helping lower income parents reduce the risk of food waste resulting from children's aversion to healthier food options: Comment on Daniel (2016).

We reflect on Daniels (2016) finding that a challenge to improving the diets of lower income children is parental worry over food waste that results from childrens rejection of healthier food options such as vegetables. This finding has important implications because previous research has indicated novel foods that have a bitter or sour flavor profile (as is the case with many vegetables) must be introduced to children several times before these foods are accepted. We suggest research-based techniques that parents could utilize to reduce the risk of costly food waste, and discuss obstacles that could impede well-intended parents from reaching their goals of improving their childrens diets.

Preteens’ Ascribed Motivations to Smoke (Not Smoke)

Opponents of additional controls on tobacco marketing designed to protect children assert they are unnecessary because tobacco marketing is not salient to children. However, these children are at an important time in their lives, as they are on the cusp on entering their teen years, where risk and reward centers of the brain are out of balance and engaging in risky behaviors is commonplace (Cauffman et al, in press; Steinberg et al 2008). We find that preteens have sophisticated knowledge of promotion-related motivations to smoke and prevention-related motivations to not smoke and clearly recognize benefits of smoking (e.g., obtaining social approval from one’s peers, attracting members of the opposite sex, relaxation, stress reduction) despite reporting overwhelmingly negative attitudes toward smoking. These positive associations could potentially lead to impressions that are difficult to counter with anti-smoking messages, and perhaps lead to tobacco use initiation just a few years later.