Steve Hoeffler

Building Brand Equity Through Corporate Societal Marketing

Marketers have shown increasing interest in the use of corporate societal marketing (CSM) programs. In this article, the authors describe six means by which CSM programs can build brand equity: (1) building brand awareness, (2) enhancing brand image, (3) establishing brand credibility, (4) evoking brand feelings, (5) creating a sense of brand community, and (6) eliciting brand engagement. The authors also address three key questions revolving around how CSM programs have their effects, which cause the firm should choose, and how CSM programs should be branded. The authors offer a series of research propositions throughout and conclude by outlining a set of potential future research directions.

Measuring Preferences for Really New Products

The goal of this research is to improve preference measurement for really new products. An initial assumption validated in the first study is that consumers have greater uncertainty when estimating the usefulness of really new products than they have with incremental new products. Consumers cope with this uncertainty by using certain inferential techniques that are not well captured by standard preference measurement techniques, such as conjoint. This research examines techniques for incorporating both mental simulation and analogies into an existing preference measurement technique and shows that some methods enhance and other methods hinder predictive accuracy.

Mental Simulation and Preference Consistency Over Time: The Role of Process-Versus Outcome-Focused Thoughts

Research on choice over time has found that people tend to focus on concrete aspects of near-future events and abstract aspects of distant-future events. Furthermore, a focus on concrete aspects heightens the feasibility-related components, whereas a focus on abstract aspects heightens the desirability-related components, which can lead to preference inconsistency over time. In this research, the authors integrate research on choice over time with mental simulation. They propose and show that counter to peoples natural tendencies, outcome simulation for near-future events and process simulation for distant-future events lead to preference consistency over time. The results also suggest that outcome timing moderates the effectiveness of process versus outcome simulation.

The Role of Imagination-Focused Visualization on New Product Evaluation

In this research, the authors examine the impact of imagination-focused visualization on the evaluation of really new products (RNPs)—that is, products that provide novel benefits but involve high learning costs. They compare imagination-focused visualization with memory-focused visualization and demonstrate that an imaginative focus leads to higher evaluations of an RNP but has no effect on the evaluation of incrementally new products, which involve continuous innovations that are easier to understand. They find that the underlying mechanism for this effect is imaginations impact on the perceived value of new benefits rather than on the learning costs. Furthermore, they show that the advantage of an imaginative focus is not simply due to the increased focus on product benefits, because imagination still leads to higher product evaluation than memory-focused visualization, even if participants in both conditions are asked to think about product benefits exclusively. Finally, an explicit focus on learning costs while using an imaginative approach draws attention away from product benefits and attenuates the advantage of imagination on product evaluation.

Understanding Stakeholder Responses to Corporate Citizenship Initiatives: Managerial Guidelines and Research Directions

Firms are increasingly devoting attention to corporate citizenship initiatives. Despite the great interest in these initiatives, there is little academic research on their potential effects to guide managerial decisions. This article draws on theories from the consumer behavior literature to identify how socially oriented programs can foster both consumer and employee engagement, while also improving the welfare of society at-large and the financial fortunes of companies. In doing so, the authors advance a research agenda and offer prescriptive managerial advice.

Preference Exploration and Learning: The Role of Intensiveness and Extensiveness of Experience

In this article, the authors partition the construct of experience into intensiveness (i.e., amount) and extensiveness (i.e., breadth) and examine the impact of the two specific types of experience on preference learning. In the first three studies, the authors’ theory that experience can be partitioned into intensiveness (i.e., amount) and extensiveness (i.e., breadth) of experience and that extensiveness has a greater impact on preference learning is supported in environments where prior experience is measured. Further, in study 4 they demonstrate that extensiveness or breadth of experience exerts a larger influence on preference learning in an experiment where each unique type of experience is manipulated as well as measured.

Visualization and New Product Evaluation: The Role of Memory- and Imagination-Focused Visualization

In this research, the authors examine the impact of imagination-focused visualization on the evaluation of really new products (RNPs). They compare imagination-focused visualization with memory-focused visualization and demonstrate that focusing on the imaginative aspects of an RNP leads to higher evaluations. Furthermore, they examine the role of perceived ease or difficulty of visualization on the efficacy of imagination-focused visualization. The authors demonstrate that making the imaginative visualization more difficult or easier directly affects the evaluation of the RNP. Finally, the authors show that the effects of the type of visualization strategy and the difficulty of the visualization task have a limited impact on a more incremental product.

Mental simulation and category knowledge affect really new product evaluation through transportation

We propose that when consumers encounter really new products (RNPs), defined as products that allow consumers to do something they have never been able to do before and whose benefits are often ambiguous at first, they spontaneously generate mental simulations in an attempt to assess the value of these products. When these self-generated simulations are in the form of sufficiently engrossing and vivid narratives, they can evoke transportation, a phenomenological experience of being “lost” in a story. We also assert that consumers with extensive experience in a related product category are most likely to produce vivid and absorbing simulations that lead to narrative transportation. When consumers are transported within their simulations, it ultimately enhances their overall evaluations of the RNP. Thus, we find that those with more product category knowledge evaluate RNPs more favorably than those with less knowledge, due to the extent to which they are transported by their thoughts.

Mental Simulation and Consumer Evaluations of Really New Products (RNPs): The Role of Product Type

Kinect, developed by Microsoft, introduces a revolutionary new way to play video games with no controller required. Such groundbreaking innovations are often defined as really new products (RNPs). Despite the benefits offered by such new products, failure rates remain high. It has been suggested that high failure rates are due to consumers’ underestimation of the value of the new benefits (Gourville 2006). Mental simulation is a useful cognitive tool to help consumers understand the benefits of RNPs (Hoeffler, 2003). The objective of this study is to identify a boundary condition to the effectiveness of mental simulations (i.e. product type - utilitarian vs. hedonic vs. hybrid). We draw on the literature on mental simulation (Taylor and Schneider, 1989) and on research on the information processing of hedonic vs. utilitarian benefits (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982) to show that the effectiveness of mental simulation in enhancing responses depends on product type whereby mental simulation only enhances evaluations and intent to use the product when the product is utilitarian.