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ISSN : 1229-8778
Although there have been many previous studies related to brand alliances, research on alliances with human brands and product brands is lacking. Therefore, it is necessary to study the factors influencing the success of the alliance between the human brand and the product brand. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of alliance fit between two brands on consumer attitude toward the co-brand in strategic alliance between human brand and product brand. Another purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of self-congruity toward human brand and product brand on consumer attitude toward co-brand. Lastly, we examined interaction effect of alliance fit and self-congruity. We used regression, simple slope analysis, and spotlight analysis to test hypotheses. The results showed that the alliance fit between human brand and product brand did not significantly affect the consumers’ attitude toward co-brand. However, the self-congruity toward the human brand and the self-congruity toward the product brand have a positive effect on the consumers’ attitude toward the co-brand. Also, the results showed that the three-way interaction effect (alliance fit x self-congruity of the human brand x self-congruity of the product brand) was significant. In the case of high fit of alliance, the higher the self-congruity of the human brand regardless of the self-congruity of the product brand, the more positive the co-brand attitude is. However, in the case of low fit of alliance, the higher the self-congruity of the product brand, the more positive the co-brand attitude was. And the self-congruity of the human brand affects consumers’ attitude toward co-brand only when the self-congruity of the product brand is low. Based on these results, this paper pointed out the theoretical and practical implications of human brand and product brand.
This study empirically investigated into the multidimensional structure of habitual buying behavior by reestablishing the concept of the behavior based on the essential characteristics of habit and approaching the matter in terms of embedded cognition. Also, this study focused on identifying the differential influence of consumer responses based on the types of habitual purchase, and verified the moderating effect of personal characteristics. The results of the research can be summarized as follows. First, the exploration of various types of habitual buying behavior embracing consumer's consumption habit for specific product showed that habitual buying behavior can be divided into four types: value-oriented habitual purchase, pure habitual purchase, spurious habitual purchase, and quasi-habitual purchase according to the contextual dependence and behavior value. Second, an experiment was conducted to verify the differential influence of consumer responses based on the types of habitual purchase, and verified the moderating effect of price sensitivity and uncertainty avoidance. As a result, value-oriented and pure habitual purchase consumers showed higher continuous use intention compared with spurious and quasi-habitual purchase consumers. On the contrary, value-oriented and pure habitual purchase consumers showed lower switching purchase intention compared with spurious and quasi-habitual purchase consumers. Finally, upon verifying the moderating effect, it was found that the moderating effect of price sensitivity depending on types of habitual buying behavior is significant, and the moderating effect of uncertainty avoidance is partially significant. Based on these results, the study provided valuable theoretical and managerial implications and directions for future research.
Prior research has shown that consumers express their identity through products or brands, so they make a purchase of identity-consistent products. In the context of gift consumption, however, an individual often chooses a product (gift) which is opposite to one’s identity to please a gift recipient. It leads the individual to suffer psychological discomfort, such as identity threat. This is because people are motivated to act consistently with their own identity. According to self-construal theory, there are two types of self-construals, independent and interdependent. Individuals with an independent self-construal view oneself as stable and distinct from others, whereas those with an interdependent self-construal view oneself as flexible and connected to others. These differences in self-construals affect individual’s ways of thinking and behavior. That is people who hold the independent view of the self put high value on internal attributes and express themselves in a consistent manner, while those who hold the interdependent view of the self emphasize harmonious relationship with others rather than one’s own characteristics. The current study investigates the effects of self-construal on gift-giving consumption based on self-construal theory, identity-based motivation model, and cognitive dissonance theory. The results indicate that independent self participants (vs. interdependent self participants) choose the identity-consistent gift more, but interdependent self participants (vs. independent self participants) chooses the identity-inconsistent gift more. Also, independent self participants show more positive attitudes toward a gift option which is identity-consistent than interdependent self participants. For a gift option which is identity-inconsistent, interdependent self participants are more positive than independent self participants. This study develop a better understanding of consumer behavior by exploring the relationship between self-construal, identity threat, and gift consumption.
The purpose of this study was to validate the advertising effect of brand webtoon based on the fact that brand webtoon had recently been recognized as an important means of content production for advertising and marketing. Therefore, this study was intended to validate the advertising effect based on product type in brand webtoon, along with the effect arising from story completeness and character fictitiousness which would characterize the webtoon. For that, an experiment was performed on 8 groups by using the 2×2×2 factorial design. We measured the rate of attention to products to determine the advertising effect and measured brand name recall and recognition response to determine memory response. Meanwhile, we measured the product attitude to determine attitude response and measured purchase intention to determine behavioral response. The results of this study were as follows: First, difference in attention rate, memory response, product attitude, and purchase intention increased when the degree of webtoon story completeness was higher, compared to when story completeness was low, regarding the difference depending on story completeness. Second, difference in attention rate, memory response, and purchase intention increased when the level of fictitiousness of character in webtoon was higher, compared to when the level of fictitiousness of character was low, regarding the difference depending on fictitiousness of character. Third, hedonic products showed greater difference, depending on product type, in attention rate, memory response, and product attitude, compared to practical products. Finally, the interaction effect of story completeness, character fictitiousness, and product type was partially supported and manifested the effect. In other words, it would be important to use the characters that can enhance the story quality of webtoon and arose sympathy of audience in order to ensure greater impact of advertising which taps into webtoon contents. Advertisements would be more impactful when hedonic products are exposed to brand webtoon. This study presented the potential of webtoon advertisement impact in the era of multi-media and validated the webtoon advertisement impact on the advertising stimulus characteristics and consumer characteristics in connection with the factors affecting the brand webtoon, presenting the implications for development of new advertising contents and advertisement production standard suited for the era of digital media.
This research examined how a reference to an unrelated product in the choice context affects consumers' likelihood of donating to charity. The results of this study showed participants are more likely to give when the donation appeal references a hedonic product than when a utilitarian product is referenced or when no comparison is provided. this phenomenon occurs because referencing a hedonic product during a charitable appeal induced anticipated guilt associated with the choice to donate. Also, the effect of donation message included reference product was different according to participant’s self-regulatory resource. participants in no-depletion condition, they showed higher donation intention when the donation appeal references a hedonic product than when a utilitarian product is referenced or when no comparison is provided. whereas those in depletion condition, there was no difference in donation intention depend on the type of the donation message. This result was further observed in subjects with low moral identity, Specifically, subjects with high moral identity higher donation intentions when a hedonic product is referenced regardless of self-regulation resources but subjects with low moral identities were different in donation intentions depend on the extent of self-regulation resources. Study 2, we examined the difference of donation intention according to the mode of thinking of consumers by focusing on donation message referencing a hedonic product. As a result, we observed that the donation intention increased when we manipulated the subjects by emotional thoughts, while the donation intention decreased when we manipulated the subjects by calculative thoughts. also confirmed that this effect was mediated by the anticipated guilt. Finally, this study is meaningful because it suggests a way to naturally increase guilt feelings through short but effective donation messages and to increase consumers' donation behavior.
From time to time, we find that some restaurants sell food products as well as ingredients of them. For example, a cafe selling tomato juice also sells tomatoes. This research investigates whether the sales of ingredients(e.g., tomatoes) affects consumers evaluation of final food products(e.g., tomato juice). Using a print advertising of a mango salad, Study 1 showed that the perceived quality of ingredients used for the mango salad increases when the store also sells ingredients(i.e., mangos) compared with when the store does not. We suggested illusory causation as a psychological mechanism. That is, when consumers are exposed to the message that ingredients is available for purchase, they make an erroneous inference that the ingredients being sold as stand-alone products would be used for a final product. Furthermore, relying on the price-quality association, they believe that the ingredient for sale has good quality worth the money. Consequently, the final product believed to be made of the good ingredient is evaluated more positively. To examine our contention, Study 2 employed two conditions: one is the ingredient(i.e., mangos)-selling condition and the other is the same but with an extra message that the mangos for sale are different from the mangos in the salad. This manipulation prevents consumers from connecting the ingredients for sale with the final product and thus removes the basis on which consumers evaluate the final product positively. As expected, the perceived quality of ingredients used for the mango salad decreases in the latter condition. Aiming to enhance the generalizability of our research, Study 3 used a print ad of a strawberry juice and obtained the same results with Study 1 & 2. Furthermore, the sales of ingredients(i.e, strawberries) also increases the purchase intention of a final product(i.e., strawberry juice). In addition, Study 3 removed the alternative account that ingredient sales increases the perceived variety of selling items and thus the store is perceived as having greater expertise, which in turn leads to the positive evaluation of the final product sold in the store.
This study examined the effects of corporate CEO’s misbehavior on the corporate reputation and consumer attitude using the self-construal type as a moderating variable. In the era that corporate social responsibility is heavily valued and emphasized globally among businesses, corporate CEO’s unethical behavior and scandals hve been frequently on the national news in Korea. Their misconduct includes such as sexual harrassment, verbal violence, unfair and violent behavior, improper order, delayed salary payment or unacceptable forms of salary payment. The two CEO’s misbehavior we used for this study are CEO’s verbal violence, and CEO’s decision to give products as salary. The dependent variables are corporate reputation and attitude toward company. The results disclosed that after the newspaper articles about the misconduct was read, respondents’ perception about all variables were significantly lowered. Respondents of interdependent self-construal type responded more negatively in their assessment of corporate reputation and company attitude. Pertaining to corporate reputation, CEO’s decision to give products as salary was more negatively perceived than CEO’s verbal violence. As for attitude toward company, the result was identical as that of the corporate reputation but not statistically significant. No interaction effects between unethical types and self-construal forms were detected. Practical and theoretical implications were discussed in the concluding chapter.
A key research issue to this study is to pursue a quantitative integration and review of the construct of ‘interactivity,’ which has been conceived as the most crucial concept in digital and online communication areas for past decades. The research focus is on examining the influence of interactivity on cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses in various communication contexts by using a meta-analysis method. The results demonstrates that interactivity significantly affects consumers’ responses to advertisements in terms of cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral effects. Specifically, it is found that the impact of interactivity is manifest when the dependent variables are attitudinal and behavioral, whereas the effect on cognitive variables such as recall is modest. Further, in line with previous studies, underlying dimensions and different types of interactivity are found to be generate varying levels of consumer responses.
The present research investigates the effects of time perspective on advertising persuasion. Previous research has suggested that time perspective(i.e., past-positive, past-negative, present-fatalistic, present-hedonistic, future) predicts our attitude, thinking, and behavior. By applying the ZTPI(Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory), this research investigates the interplay of time perspective and advertising message framing in determining advertising persuasion. The results show that participants with past-positive or future time perspective exhibit more positive attitude toward a promotion-focused(vs. prevention-focused) advertising message. In contrast, participants with past-negative or present-fatalistic time perspective show more favorable evaluations toward a prevention-focused(vs. promotion-focused) advertising messages. Participants with present-hedonistic exhibits no significant differences between promotion-focused and prevention-focused messages. The findings reveal that time perspective, in conjunction with regulatory focus, has a significant impact on advertising message effectiveness.