Sandor Czellar

Consumer attitude toward brand extensions: an integrative model and research propositions

The paper proposes an integrative model of the antecedents and consequences of brand extension attitude based on the dominant cognitive paradigm. The four key processes of the model are (1) the perception of fit, (2) the formation of primary attitudes toward the extension, (3) the link between extension attitude and marketplace behaviour and (4) the reciprocal effect of brand extension attitude on parent brand/extension category attitude. Moderator and control variables of these processes are identified and classified into three groups: (1) consumer characteristics, (2) marketer-controlled factors and (3) external factors. This integrative model leads to the identification of missing links and variables in past research, resulting in a propositional inventory for future studies. The paper ends with a reflection on the long-term perspectives of scientific inquiry on brand extensions.

Engineering Hedonic Attributes to Generate Perceptions of Luxury: Consumer Perception of an Everyday Sound

For the last twenty years, the perception of hedonic attributes has been a problematic matter in consumer research. We argue that the perception of a hedonic product attribute should not be considered as an irreducible holistic experience, but rather as a complex set of sensory experiences, the components of which are identifiable and quantifiable. We provide evidence for this position by proposing a reliable method linking the features of product-related sound stimuli to consumer perception of hedonic attributes. To our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind offering a detailed investigation of consumer perception of everyday sounds (as opposed to music). We discuss managerial and consumer-level implications of the findings and provide an agenda for future research.

Consumer Well-Being: Effects of Subgoal Failures and Goal Importance

Although there is increased awareness of issues surrounding consumer well-being, consumers often lack the personal commitment to improve their quality of life. This article builds on the concept of a goal hierarchy to propose that small acts may have unintended, large consequences on various domains of consumer well-being. A decrease in commitment to well-being goals (e.g., sustaining the natural environment) may stem from peoples failure to achieve everyday subgoals (e.g., failing to recycle a newspaper). Four experiments in three contexts (i.e., consumer overspending, environmentally friendly behaviors, and charitable donations) show that when people perceive the endgoal as unimportant, even a single behavioral failure may reduce commitment to a well-being endgoal and weaken future intentions to perform behaviors that improve their quality of life. In addition, goal importance moderates the adverse relationship between subgoal performance and endgoal commitment. The authors present consumer-specific and marketer-controlled drivers of goal importance (i.e., goal visualization, self-relevance of goals, and aversive consequences of subgoal failure) and discuss actionable insights for practitioners.

The Moderating Role of Self‐Monitoring on the Interpersonal Aspects of Attitude Ambivalence

Extant research has found a relation between holding conflicting attitudes with a familiar person (interpersonal discrepancy) and subjective attitude ambivalence. In 2 studies, we investigated the role of interpersonal discrepancy in the experience of attitude ambivalence as a function of self-monitoring and level of liking of the other person. Building on balance theory, we proposed and found that high (vs. low) self-monitors feel most comfortable when they are in agreement with liked (vs. disliked) others. In Study 1, 80 university students revealed that when the significant other is a parent, high self-monitors feel more subjective ambivalence when there is more interpersonal discrepancy. In Study 2, 37 university students reported their feelings of subjective ambivalence when considering the interpersonal discrepancy between liked (vs. disliked) familiar people. Again, it was high self-monitors who were most susceptible to increased feelings of subjective ambivalence, particularly for discrepancies between their own attitude and the attitude of liked others. Taken together, our 2 studies broaden our understanding of the interpersonal foundations of subjective ambivalence by suggesting that they may depend on personality differences and the nature of the social relationship.

Engaging with Brands: The Influence of Dispositional and Situational Brand Engagement on Customer Advocacy

Branding research has explored the processes underlying consumers’ engagement with brands, with research exploring both dispositional and situational forms of engagement. Despite this work, scholars have yet to examine the relationship between dispositional and situational approaches to brand engagement. In the current chapter, we report the results of an empirical study testing the influence of dispositional brand engagement on customer advocacy (i.e., positive word-of-mouth and “Liking” on Facebook), as mediated through situational engagement with a specific brand.