Tobias Schaefers

Managing a Sponsored Brand: The Importance of Sponsorship Portfolio Congruence

The congruence or fit between a sponsored brand and sponsoring firm is a central tenet of sponsorship research. The influence of such congruence on the sponsored brand however, has received scant attention. This question is important because the strength of a sponsored organisation’s brand equity is the basis for many sponsorship alliances. The two experiments undertaken in this paper empirically evaluate the dynamic effect sponsor portfolio congruence has on perceptions of the sponsored organisation’s brand equity. The results of Study 1 indicate sponsor incongruence is particularly detrimental to the brand equity of the sponsored organisation at the title sponsor level. Study 2 shows this adverse effect can be attenuated by increasing the number of congruent sponsors at the presenting level. The second study also provides support for nationality as a salient congruence dimension in an international sporting context. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Contagious Effects of Customer Misbehavior in Access-Based Services

Customer misbehavior in service settings is problematic for two reasons: (1) because of the direct damage it causes and (2) because of additional negative effects that arise from the contagion of such misbehavior. The authors extend existing theory of customer misbehavior by studying its contagious effect. The investigation focuses on access-based services, defined as transactions in which multiple consumers successively gain temporal, short-term access to a good, while legal ownership remains with the service provider (e.g., car sharing and fashion rentals). Due to the nature of these services, they are especially prone to indirect customer misbehavior, which is directed at the accessed product and occurs in the absence of others. Two online experiments provide the first empirical evidence for a contagiousness of misbehavior and reveal that this effect is driven by customers’ perceptions of the social norms among the customer group. Moreover, they indicate that greater strength of the accessed product’s brand as well as lower anonymity of the accessed product’s owner attenuate contagion. A field experiment shows that an increase in the communal identification among access-based service customers reverses the contagious effect, with customers more likely to remove signs of previous users’ misbehavior. The results suggest that access-based service providers should address customer misbehavior by (a) investing in the products they offer access to, (b) establishing more personal relationships with customers, and, foremost, (c) increasing communal identification among customers.

Service Recovery via Social Media: The Social Influence Effects of Virtual Presence

Social media channels are increasingly used by consumers to post complaints to companies. In contrast to traditional channels, the complaint and a firm’s recovery efforts are visible to passive observers who are virtually present. Additionally, these unaffected users may become involved by supporting a complainant with negative comments or by supporting the firm with positive comments, leading to interactive virtual presence (VP). We reveal that such VP affects how a complainant reacts to successful and unsuccessful service recovery. Based on social influence theory (SIT), we investigate the influence of a mere VP as well as interactive VP of positive and negative valence on the complainant’s satisfaction and purchase intentions and analyze the role of expertise of those who are virtually present. The results indicate that SIT is applicable to virtual environments but that restrictions apply. Specifically, mere VP enhances the effects of recovery success, but—in contrast to SIT—not the negative results of unsuccessful recovery, and interactive VP leads to attitude polarization. Moreover, high-expertise individuals who engage in positive (negative) interactions after unsuccessful (successful) recovery are deleterious. When experts disconfirm successful recovery, they have higher credibility and reduce confidence in the firm. However, in contrast to SIT, experts trying to mitigate unsuccessful recovery are perceived as less credible, which also reduces confidence. Overall, if service recovery via social media is successful, firms will benefit from VP. However, caution is advised when using expert users who may interfere with service recovery processes.

Standing out from the crowd: niche product choice as a form of conspicuous consumption

Purpose – This paper aims to define the niche market concept and to investigate the extent to which purchasing niche products represents a form of conspicuous consumption. Consumers increasingly seek products that differ from the mainstream, and companies regard niche markets as a promising opportunity beyond saturated mass markets. Design/methodology/approach – Based on survey data that combines self-report scales and actual purchase decisions, the effects of different dimensions of conspicuous consumption on niche product choice are investigated using binary logistic regression. Findings – Choosing niche products over mass market products is mainly influenced by differentiation tendencies. Moreover, consumers use niche products to strengthen their role as opinion leaders. Choice of mass market products, on the other hand, is influenced by assimilation tendencies. In contrast to common assumptions, status-seeking consumers are more likely to choose a mass market alternative over niche products. Research ...

The Impact of Price Promotion Types on Sales and Brand Perception of Premium Products

Price promotion represents one of the instruments most frequently used by marketing and sales managers to increase sales. As even for premium brands an increasing use of price promotions can be observed, questions regarding the duality of sales and brand impacts of price promotion activities gain in relevance. A broad variety of studies have investigated sales promotions in general and price promotions in particular. While the general positive sales effects of price promotions have been thoroughly investigated, the negative effects for the brand may be underestimated. Understanding such effects, however, is vital for companies that rely on strong brands, especially manufacturers of premium products. Despite the different arguments about the positive and negative effects of price promotion, current knowledge is based on different objects of research and separated studies, focusing either on sales impact or on brand perception. Furthermore, previous research has often considered price promotion in general or concentrated on one or two specific types. Our study contributes to the existing literature by proposing a framework to distinguish four different price promotion types and by consistently investigating sales as well as brand perception impacts of these specific activities.

Entering the Performance-Based Contracting Business: An Exploration of Sales-Related Challenges: An Abstract

Market conditions for industrial manufacturers have become increasingly challenging due to increasing competition and saturated markets (Kowalkowski et al., 2015). However, the service business still holds an opportunity to differentiate from competitors (von Garrel et al., 2009). One opportunity is offering equipment-based services, such as performance-based contracts (PBC). Performance-based contracting is a concept in which the supplier is paid based on the realized outcome for the customer, such as in Rolls-Royce’s business model “Power-by-the-hour” (Neely, 2008; Ng et al., 2013). Although this business model is not new, research on this field is still rare (Essig, 2016; Selviaridis & Wynstra, 2015). However, traditional product-based firms who intend to enter the service business need to make several fundamental adjustments in their organization, among others, in their sales approach (Kindstrom et al., 2015). Thus, our study explores which sales-related challenges occur, if a company enters the PBC business.

To Be Continued…The Effects of Interrupted Preview Endings on Purchase Decisions in “Freemium” Business Models: An Abstract

For a variety of product categories, such as online news, music downloads, or video games, consumers can use previews or trial versions to examine the offer before making a purchase decision. Previous research shows that the characteristics of a preview (e.g., usefulness or quantity of the provided content) have a strong impact on consumers’ buying decisions (e.g., Cheng and Tang 2010; Haruvy and Prasad 2001).

Selling to Homer or to Lisa? Conceptualizing Customer Competence in Complex Projects: An Abstract

Across many industries, increasing levels of specialization lead to a growing demand for solutions to individual customer problems. Many of these solutions—such as special machinery, software, or knowledge-intensive business services—are sold and delivered within processes that are commonly referred to as complex projects (Jaakkola and Hakanen 2013; Davies 2004; Moller 2006; Stremersch et al. 2001). In order to be able to successfully sell and deliver complex projects, suppliers depend on input from their customers, especially an adequate articulation of demand and the competence to cocreate value during project delivery. However, existing studies reveal that business customers frequently lack the competence to sufficiently articulate their needs (Aarikka-Stenroos and Jaakkola 2012; Santos and Spring 2015; Tuli et al. 2007). Low customer competence and the resulting ill-defined needs present a challenge for sales managers in project business for three reasons. First, they increase the difficulty for salespersons to offer what the customer actually needs leading to higher effort necessary for making a proposal and at the same time reducing the likelihood of closing a sale. Second, low customer competence is likely to reduce the quality of the definition input a customer can provide, which increases the effort on the side of the salesperson and other functions involved in project execution for successfully delivering a project. Third, a project that is carried out based on ill-defined needs is likely to result in dissatisfaction of the customer, which may require reworking by the supplier, cause lower repurchase likelihood, or lead to costly conflicts. Overall, it is thus important for suppliers intending to successfully sell complex projects to assess and to deal with customer competence.

Less Risk, More Fun? The Role of Ownership Risk Perception for Access-Based Service Value Perception and Usage

Services that give customers access to goods, such as car sharing, bike sharing, or rental platforms for fashion items or tools, have been receiving an increasing attention as an alternative to ownership (e.g., Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012; Botsman and Rogers 2010; Gansky 2010; Moeller and Wittkowski 2010). As Lovelock and Gummesson (2004, p. 34) note, such “marketing transactions that do not involve a transfer of ownership are distinctively different from those that do.” This is mainly due to customers neither acquiring full property rights to the accessed product nor the risks and responsibilities attached to ownership (Moeller and Wittkowski 2010; Wirtz and Ehret 2009), but rather engaging in “a temporary and circumstantial consumption context” (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012, p. 882). However, the connection between the “burdens of ownership (Berry and Maricle 1973) – i.e., risks and responsibilities that come with owning a good – and the evaluation as well as the usage of access-based services has not been sufficiently investigated. Based on risk perception theory (Mitchell 1999), we hypothesize the effects of different risk dimensions (financial, performance, social) on the utilitarian and hedonic value of an access-based service as well as its actual usage. Using a unique dataset that links survey and actual usage data of car sharing users, we test seven corresponding hypotheses. The results reveal that the value and the usage of an access-based service are influenced by consumers’ risk perception of ownership. While the utilitarian value of an access-based service is positively influenced by financial and performance risk, the hedonic value is driven by performance and social risk; access-based service usage is positively influenced by financial and social risk as well as the service’s utilitarian value. On a theoretical level our study contributes to the growing research on access-based consumption by advancing the understanding of consumers’ decision processes and usage patterns. Moreover, several managerial implications can be derived from our research results. For instance, companies should highlight the social risk of ownership and highlight the temporary and experiential nature of their access-based services.

Construal Level Effects in Sponsorship Announcements

Corporate financial contributions fund many events and organizations, such as art exhibits, concerts, and sports teams. Often corporations make such contributions in exchange for the right to affiliate with the sponsored event or organization. Sponsorship is thus regarded as a marketing communication instrument. Besides communicating via sponsorship, sponsors and sponsored entities also communicate about a sponsorship. Such “sponsorship-linked marketing” is especially common when announcing the initiation of a sponsorship. In this context, one challenge is how best to communicate the relationship created via corporate sponsorships. However, research on the influence of sponsorship announcements has uncovered mixed results and suffers from two shortcomings. First, previous studies have only considered the announcement of sponsorships at a generic level, while ignoring the potential for variation in how a sponsorship is publicly announced (i.e., the composition of announcements). Second, scholars have emphasized investors’ reaction to announcements while overlooking any potential effects on consumers, who are a more likely target for sponsorship communication. In the present study, we therefore investigate how different types of sponsorship announcements influence consumers’ perceptions of the sponsoring firm. Specifically, based on Construal Level Theory (CLT), we conducted the first of a series of experiments to investigate how the concreteness of the information contained in an announcement influences consumers’ responses to the sponsorship.