Robert L. Underwood

Packaging communication: attentional effects of product imagery

This article provides a theoretical framework for understanding the communicative effects of product imagery on attention to the brand, specifically, the attentional effects of incorporating a picture or illustration of the product on the packaging of the product. Empirical results from a virtual reality simulation show that package pictures increase shoppers’ attention to the brand. However this effect is contingent, occurring only for low familiarity brands (private‐label brands) within product categories that offer a relatively high level of experiential benefits. These results suggest that package pictures may be especially useful for private label brands and/or lesser tier national brands whose strategic objectives are to improve consumers’ perceptions of the brand and enter the consideration set.

Building Service Brands via Social Identity: Lessons from the Sports Marketplace

This article forwards a framework illustrating the role of social identification in the construction of brand equity for services marketers. Services markets are proposed to exist along an identification continuum based upon levels of consumer commitment and emotional involvement. We illustrate the impact of social identification by focusing on one service industry, the sports marketplace, an industry typified by exceedingly high levels of identification between consumer and market offering. The authors examine four characteristics of the services environment (group experience, history/tradition, physical facility, rituals) that marketers can leverage to enhance consumers’ identification with a service and, ultimately, increase brand equity.

The Communicative Power of Product Packaging: Creating Brand Identity via Lived and Mediated Experience

Building on existing frameworks (customer-based brand equity, consumer-brand relationships, product symbolism/self concept), this paper forwards packaging as a product-related attribute critical to the creation and communication of brand identity. Packaging is posited to influence brand and self-identity via a dual resource base (mediated and lived experience); a conceptual positioning variant from the traditional single symbolic resource base (mediated experience) provided by advertising. This conceptual distinction is examined and data from an exploratory qualitative study are provided to illustrate the powerful role of packaging in communicating brand meaning and strengthening the consumer-brand relationship, especially for low involvement consumer nondurable products.

Packaging as Brand Communication: Effects of Product Pictures on Consumer Responses to the Package and Brand

This paper examines the impact of product imagery (on packages) on consumers’ beliefs about the brand and their evaluations of both the brand and package. An empirical study using food products demonstrates that packages displaying a picture of the product can communicate information about the brand, and thus change brand beliefs. In addition, consumers who placed the most importance on these beliefs also had a better evaluation of the brand itself when its package included a product picture. This research thus provides evidence that consumers use packaging, an extrinsic cue, to infer intrinsic product attributes. In addition, consumers reported a more positive attitude toward the package itself when it included a product picture.

Using “Point of Decision” Messages to Intervene on College Students' Eating Behaviors

Purpose. Examine the impact of “point of decision” messages on fruit selection in a single dining hall setting. Setting. Competitive undergraduate liberal arts college in the southeastern United States. Intervention. “Point of decision” messages were compiled into a 35-slide multimedia PowerPoint presentation. Messages were displayed on a computer screen at a “point of decision” between the cookie and fruit stations during lunch for a total of 9 days. Measures. Baseline cookie and fruit consumption was measured 9 days prebaseline and 9 days postbaseline. A random sample of students completed surveys 1 week after the intervention. Analysis. t-tests were used to examine differences between prelevels of fruit consumption and levels measured simultaneously during “point of decision” messages. Descriptive statistics were used to examine perceptions of survey items 1 week postintervention. Results. A significant mean difference in daily fruit consumption was found following the slide presentation (df-8, t = − 2.800; p = .023). Average daily fruit consumption at baseline was 408 (SD = 73.43). Postbaseline average daily fruit consumption significantly increased (533; SD = 102). No significant prebaseline and postbaseline cookie differences were found (p = .226). Approximately 71% of women and 68% of men noticed the “point of decision” messages. Nineteen percent of women and 10% of males reported modifying their food selection as a result of viewing the messages. Conclusion. The “point of decision” messaging significantly influenced fruit selection in a single dining hall setting. (Am J Health Promot 2011;25[5]:298-300.)

The Moderating Effects of Belief Strength, Involvement, and Self-Monitoring on the Role of Anticipatory Self-Evaluation in Consumer Purchase Motivation

Belief strength, involvement, and self monitoring are examined as potential moderators of the relationship between consumers’ anticipatory self-evaluations and purchase motivation. The moderating effects of belief strength and involvement were supported, suggesting that management efforts to enhance involvement and strengthen beliefs associated with positive anticipatory self-evaluation conditions should result in enhanced motivation to purchase.