Valentyna Melnyk

The Double-Edged Sword of Foreign Brand Names for Companies from Emerging Countries

Foreign branding—or using brand names that evoke foreign associations through, for example, spelling a brand name in a foreign language—is a popular means in both developed and emerging countries of suggesting a specific country of origin (COO) in the hope that it will evoke certain product qualities. As a result, consumers increasingly encounter products with brand names that imply a COO that differs from the actual COO (where the product is manufactured). In four experiments, the authors find support for the hypothesis that incongruence between the actual COO and implied COO decreases purchase likelihood asymmetrically. Incongruence backfires in hedonic categories but has hardly any effect in utilitarian categories. Furthermore, incongruence decreases purchase likelihood more if the actual COO is an emerging rather than developed country. The authors address the psychological process underlying the asymmetric effect of incongruence by showing that consumers apply different information-processing strategies to hedonic versus utilitarian products. These results have important implications for (foreign) branding decisions.

The effects of introducing and terminating loyalty programs

Purpose – The goal of this paper is to empirically investigate the effects of an loyalty program (LP) introduction and termination, accounting for simultaneous effects of LP designs, cross-customer effects and competition effects. Despite firms across the globe spend billions of dollars on LPs, it is not clear: whether these programs enhance customer loyalty, what happens if a program is terminated and which LP design elements enhance effectiveness of LPs. Design/methodology/approach – The authors empirically investigate to what extent the effects of introducing and terminating a LP depend on: its monetary and non-monetary design elements, customer characteristics and competition. The empirical evidence is based on a bivariate hierarchical linear model, using a large-scale dataset involving 9,783 consumers rating 24 different LPs across eight industries. Findings – While the characteristics of LP are more important in influencing customer behavior when they join the LP, the competitive environment and the...

Analysing the motivations of Japanese international sports-fan tourists

ABSTRACT Research question: The number of sports fans travelling internationally to attend sporting events as spectators is increasing every year. Understanding their behaviour is important for sports marketers, including sports organisations, travel companies and government tourist organisations. Numerous studies have examined motivations either from the perspective of sports fans or from that of tourists, but there has so far been little research on sports tourism. The aim of the current study is to develop two scales, one for sports fans and another for tourists, with initial motivation factors derived from previously published scales for both groups. The study also considers the activity and motivations of Japanese sports tourists as an increasingly important sub-segment of the international sports tourism market. Research methods: Data were collected from Japanese general tourists (N = 3773). Of those surveyed, 9% (N = 338) had watched sports in foreign countries. Motivation scales were developed using factor analysis and independent t-tests. Results and findings: A Tourist Motivation Scale (Escape, Nature, Shopping and Gourmet Dining) and a Sports Fan Motivation Scale (Socialisation, Achievement, Relaxation in Sports and Enjoy High Level of Games) were developed. Then, the mean scores were compared by gender, active sports participation, and for two major spectator sports: professional soccer in Europe (England Premier League, Spanish Liga BBVA, Italian Seria A, and so on) and Major League Baseball in USA. Implications: The research presents practical implications for stakeholders in the market for international sports tourists. In particular, marketers should consider different strategies when targeting male and female sports tourists, and consider segmentation of sports tourists between purely spectators and those that participate in sports. The latter are motivated by greater detail in information about the sports they watch.

Pink or blue? The impact of gender cues on brand perceptions

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, how and why gender cues influence brand perception and subsequent purchasing behaviour. Design/methodology/approach Across four experimental studies conducted online with either a convenience sample (Studies 1a and 1b) or a representative sample of consumers (Studies 2 and 3), the authors empirically investigate whether gender cues impact brand perception along dimensions of warmth and competence and how other warmth and competence cues in a consumer environment moderate the effect of gender cues on consumer brand perceptions. Findings Gender cues (e.g. gender-typed colours and shapes) activate gender-stereotypical knowledge of warmth and competence, which spills over to the brand. This effect depends on the presence of other competence cues in a consumer’s environment. In contrast to conventional practice, in the presence of a high competence cue (e.g. reputable brands), feminine gender cues enhance purchase likelihood (via activation of warmth perceptions), whereas masculine cues actually decrease purchase likelihood. In contrast, in the presence of a low competence cue (e.g. new companies), masculine gender cues enhance purchase likelihood (via activation of competence perceptions), whereas feminine cues lower purchase likelihood. Research limitations/implications The authors used an experimental approach to explicitly test for causality and isolate the effect of gender cues in a controlled setting. Future research should further address the implication of gender cues using actual sales data. Practical implications Reputable companies often explicitly use cues to highlight their competence. The results of this research suggest that managers may want to reconsider this approach. That is, marketers of brands with established high competence should consider integrating more feminine cues to highlight their warmth, such as feminine shapes (e.g. circles and ovals) or feminine colours (e.g. a shade of pink) in their packaging and marketing communication. In contrast, companies that have not established their competence or not-for-profit organisations would be better off integrating masculine cues. Originality/value This is the first research to empirically investigate the effect of gender cues on brand perception and subsequent purchase behaviour. Not only does this research show that gender cues can alter brand perception along the warmth and competence perception but also the authors address the call to identify conditions under which warmth versus competence cues enhance brand perception and purchase likelihood (Aaker et al., 2010). In particular, this research demonstrates how multiple warmth and competence cues interact with each other.

Predicting behaviour: comparing the performance of factual versus attitudinal approaches

Abstract Despite years of refinement and improvement to questionnaire design, the need remains to identify effective, but ‘user-friendly’ questioning procedures to predict behaviour, without compromising predictive performance. Questionnaires developed to predict behaviour typically use an attitudinal approach. However, those types of questionnaires are associated with increased respondent fatigue, decreased question comprehension, opposition to question tone and demand effects. An alternative approach involves use of factual questions. This study compares ease of application in the field as well as predictive performance of the two approaches to questionnaire design in the context of predicting willingness to donate blood. Results indicate that factual questions are quicker and easier to apply in the field than attitudinal questions, while predictive performance of the approaches is equivalent.