Rajeev Batra

Measuring the Hedonic and Utilitarian Sources of Consumer Attitudes

It has been suggested theoretically that consumer attitudes have distinct hedonic and utilitarian components, and that product categories differ in the extent to which their overall attitudes are derived from these two components. This paper reports three studies that validate measurement scales for these constructs and, using them, show that these two attitude dimensions do seem to exist; are based on different types of product attributes; and are differentially salient across different consumer products and behaviors, in theoretically-consistent ways.

Assessing the Role of Emotions as Mediators of Consumer Responses to Advertising

This article pursues the emerging interest in emotional aspects of consumer behavior, advocates a broadened view of consumption-related emotions, and focuses on the role of emotions in mediating the effects of advertising. Specifically, it proposes an approach that examines the manner in which intervening emotional reactions mediate the relationship between advertising content and attitudes toward the ad or brand. An illustrative application of this approach demonstrates its usefulness in assessing the role of emotions as mediators of consumer responses to advertising.

Affective Responses Mediating Acceptance of Advertising

This article argues that affective responses (ARs) should supplement the cognitive responses more often studied in communication research. ARs are not evaluative responses to an advertisement, but represent the moods and feelings evoked by the ad. The literature on ARs is reviewed, and a typology for such responses is presented. Three ARs are studied empirically; they appear to be antecedents of the attitude towards the ad ( A ad ) and to have a weak but significant impact on brand attitudes.

Effects of Brand Local and Nonlocal Origin on Consumer Attitudes in Developing Countries

This study tested whether, among consumers in developing countries, brands perceived as having a nonlocal country of origin, especially from the West, are attitudinally preferred to brands seen as local, for reasons not only of perceived quality but also of social status. We found that this perceived brand nonlocalness effect was greater for consumers who have a greater admiration for lifestyles in economically developed countries, which is consistent with findings from the cultural anthropology literature. The effect was also found to be stronger for consumers who were high in susceptibility to normative influence and for product categories high in social signaling value. This effect was also moderated by product category familiarity, but not by consumer ethnocentrism. The results, thus, suggest that in developing countries, a brands country of origin not only serves as a “quality halo” or summary of product quality (cf. Han, 1989), but also possesses a dimension of nonlocalness that, among some consumers and for some product categories, contributes to attitudinal liking for status-enhancing reasons.

Consumer-level factors moderating the success of private label brands

Abstract We examine how different determinants of perceived risk help explain variations in purchasing preferences for national brands versus private label (store) brands (PLBs), across twelve different product categories. Such intercategory differences are the most important source of variation in PLB share across markets, retailers and categories (Dhar and Hoch, 1997) , but little prior consumer-level research has thus far tried to explain these crucial variations. Supporting theory-based expectations, we find that PLB purchases in a category increase when consumers perceive reduced consequences of making a mistake in brand choice in that category, and when that category has more “search” than “experience” characteristics. Theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed, especially the important role played by “experience” attributes in leading consumers to favor national brands over PLBs.

The role of mood in advertising effectiveness.

This study demonstrates the facilitating effect of positive mood on brand attitudes for readers of print advertising and explores contingencies and cognitive processes underlying that effect. Mood appears to affect the amount of total cognitive elaboration, bias the evaluation of argument quality, and peripherally affect brand attitudes. An experiment using print ads reveals that positive moods create less elaboration, which results in more heuristic processing and reduces the extent to which message evaluation--itself favorably influenced by positive moods--mediates brand attitudes. The effect is greater when the reader has a low need for cognition and when the ad contains weak message arguments. Copyright 1990 by the University of Chicago.

Consumer Responses to Advertising: The Effects of Ad Content, Emotions, and Attitude toward the Ad on Viewing Time

This study develops and tests a hierarchical model of advertising effects on viewing time. The ads studied represent a sample of commercials aired during prime-time broadcasts, and the effects are analyzed across the ads rather than across people. Primary emphasis is placed on the attempt to explain a simulated behavioral measure of attention to television commercials--that of channel switching (zapping) and fast-forwarding through ads on prerecorded programs (zipping). In addition, the study demonstrates a chain of effects from the content of television ads, through emotional reactions and attitude toward the ad, to actual viewing behaviors. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.

Situational Effects of Advertising Repetition: The Moderating Influence of Motivation, Ability, and Opportunity to Respond

It is argued theoretically that the attitudinal gain from advertising repetition should continue to increase rather than level off when consumers fail to generate cognitive responses to message arguments in earlier exposures. An experiment shows that repetition continues to increase brand attitudes and purchase intentions in conditions where support and counter argument production is expected to be low, but that these attitudinal gains level off under conditions in which a high level of such production is expected.

The effect of consumer price consciousness on private label purchase

Abstract Several reasons have been advanced to explain the remarkable success and growth of private label brands (PLBs) in Western Europe and North America. One important factor that has not been adequately highlighted is the role of consumer price consciousness and consequent consumer resistance to the prices of national brands. We develop a framework for understanding consumer price consciousness, why it varies across product categories, and how it may result in PLB purchase, and calibrate the model on category-level field data. Our findings establish that perceived category risk and perceived price unfairness of national brands in that category are significant antecedents of consumer price consciousness, and that variations in such price consciousness across categories is a significant reason why consumers buy PLBs more in some categories than in others. Additionally, we show that perceived price–quality association has a significant effect on private label purchase in risky categories.

When Corporate Image Affects Product Evaluations: The Moderating Role of Perceived Risk

In two experiments, the authors show that corporate image associations with innovation and trustworthiness (but not social responsibility) influence product evaluations more when consumers perceive high (versus low) risk in the product purchase. Their findings extend previous research by identifying perceived risk as a moderator of the effects of corporate image on product evaluations. The authors discuss implications for the conditions governing the “flow-through” of corporate image to individual product evaluations.