Choosing the Right Cause: The Moderating Role of Meta-Cognitions in Cause-Related Marketing Effectiveness

In recent years, consumers’ expectations in terms of corporate obligations have changed, such that the ethical and philanthropic dimensions of Carroll’s (1979) corporate social responsibility (CSR) pyramid have evolved from desired to presupposed responsibilities. Beyond the consequentially increasing prevalence of CSR activities, considerable attention has been given to cause-related marketing (CRM) in marketing research and practice (Bigne Alcaniz, Chumpitaz Caceres, and Curras Perez, 2010). CRM is defined as a “process of formulating and implementing marketing activities that are characterized by an offer from the firm to contribute a specified amount to a designated cause when customers…

Understanding the Fundamental Mechanisms of Origin-Based Brand Value Creation: An Empirical Analysis

This paper presents the results of an empirical study on the fundamental process of customer-based brand value creation based on brand origin associations. It extends existing knowledge by analyzing multiple paths of effect and incorporating the moderating role of COB-COM-congruency. The results offer valuable implications for marketing research and practice.

Dazing Diversity: Investigating the Determinants and Consequences of Decision Paralysis

This article makes new contributions to the assessment of negative effects on consumer choice behavior due to high product variety by (1) developing a holistic framework to identify the determinants and, for the first time, consequences of decision paralysis; (2) introducing a novel construct, namely, tendencies toward paralysis, that refers to the extent of decision makers’ preference (a) to maintain the status quo, (b) to omit, and/or (c) to delay choice, as well as providing an appropriate measurement model incorporating these three dimensions of decision paralysis that previously have been analyzed only separately; and (3) analyzing potential moderating effects of decision makers’ predi…

Konzeption und Durchführung von Experimenten

Empirische Sozialforschung hat das Ziel, Kausalzusammenhange zu erkennen, damit Erklarungen fur beobachtbare Phanomene zu finden und folglich uber die blose Sammlung und Ordnung von Daten hinauszugehen. Das Experiment wird diesbezuglich als das favorisierte Design bei jeglicher Form der Analyse von kausalen Zusammenhangen angesehen: „Experiments are the best method for finding out whether one thing really causes another.“

Corporate social performance as antecedent of consumer's brand perception

The purpose of this article is to develop a model that closely examines the consequences of social and environmental corporate action. This is suggested by an increasing need for accomplishing an integrative view on business activities and social aims – the so-called corporate social responsibility – especially in the current environmentally turbulent time and a rising socially conscious consumer population. But doing business is often associated with brand- or corporate misconduct as well. Hence, corporate social responsibility forms the positive component of corporate social performance (CSP), consequently a favorable brand- or company behavior. Corresponding, corporate social irresponsib…

The suffering company: Consumer compassion towards companies exposed to negative events

Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud: An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Neutralization Techniques Within the Context of Moral Intensity

This study addresses a research gap in the literature of ethical decision-making which deals with the mediating role of central neutralization techniques between incidents of different severity and resulting consumer attitudes toward the company. It is widely accepted that irresponsible company actions effect consumer actions and attitudes toward the company in an unfavorable way. Yet, reality proves that this is only partly true, revealing moderate negative consequences for companies in scandalous situations. Consumers do not completely transfer their proethical attitude in actual purchase behavior, which leads to an attitude-behavior gap. We aim at explaining the psychological concepts ly…

The Effect of Perceived Corporate Competencies on Onsumer Based Brand Equity: A Comparison between Domestic and Foreign Markets

In this paper, the authors develop a model to explain the cross-cultural influence of perceived corporate competencies on attitude formation towards the brand’s product categories and its impact on consumer based brand equity. Results indicate that some competencies have a transnational effect in several product categories, whereas several corporate competencies are identified to influence perception of product categories depending on the market.

Creating Passionate Love Through Rational Value: A Moderated Mediation Analysis Considering Identification and Relationship Duration

This study contributes to insights of the effectiveness of identification on passionate love. But more differentiated in comparison to previous research we show direct effects of the two dimensions of identification, self-reflection and self-enhancement as important influence factors of passionate love. According to Steinberg’s (Psychol Rev 93(2):119–135, 1986) Triangular Theory of Love, love is not only triggered by emotional aspects that are beyond reason. So utilitarian attributes that are more down-to-earth and realistic namely quality value, price value, and uniqueness can be relevant drivers of love. But more important, is their influence constant during the course of a relationship? …

The role of actual, ideal, and ought self-congruence in the consumption of hedonic versus utilitarian brands

Grundlagen sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschung

Im Mittelpunkt der empirischen Marketingforschung steht die Erlangung von Erkenntnisfortschritten in Bezug auf die Wahrnehmung und das Verhalten von Marktteilnehmern. Bezuglich der Generierung von Erkenntnisfortschritten sind unterschiedliche Grundpositionen relevant, die sich im Laufe der Zeit in der Wissenschaftstheorie herauskristallisiert haben. Die prominentesten sind der durch den Wiener Kreis begrundete logische Empirismus sowie der kritische Rationalismus von Popper.

Fallstudie zur Anwendung der Konzeption, Durchführung und Auswertung von Experimenten

Um die Anwendung der in Kapitel 2 und Kapitel 3 vorgestellten Vorgehensweise als Gesamtprozess nachvollziehen zu konnen, soll im Folgenden jeder Schritt exemplarisch anhand eines tatsachlich durchgefuhrten Experiments und eines bereits vorhandenen Datensatzes erlautert werden. Der Datensatz wurde im Rahmen einer Studie des Lehrstuhls fur Marketing I der Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz erhoben und ist im Downloadcenter der Homepage des Lehrstuhls verfugbar. Jeder Auswertungsschritt kann somit einzeln nachvollzogen und die Ergebnisse der Auswertung verglichen werden. Die Auswertung erfolgt wie in Kapitel 4 erlautert mit Hilfe der Software SPSS 20. Die Studie widmet sich Markenerweiterung…

Cherish your loved ones – the role of the feeling of care and security in advertising

Advertising practice makes use of emotional cues and addresses consumers' rising desire for social connection. Research has investigated emotions within advertising, but mainly focused on negative or positive emotions. Traditional academic approaches to the analysis of persuasion according to the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) tend to emphasize central processing and thus rational advertising cues. Moreover, the role of motivation within the ELM is underspecified. We introduce the Zurich Model of Social Motivation to the regulation of social distance and investigate the specific feeling of care and security. This feeling may serve as motivational component and emerge as persuasion instr…

Guerilla-Marketing-Aktionen

Um bei der steigenden Informationsflut aufzufallen, mussen Werbebotschaften heutzutage aktivierend verpackt werden. Ein steigender Werbedruck durch klassische Kommunikationsinstrumente reicht dabei meist nicht mehr. Die innovative Marketingform Guerilla-Marketing setzt auf Aktionen, die gezielte Aufmerksamkeit durch Neuartigkeit und Anderssein hervorrufen und zeigt groses Potenzial im Kampf um die Aufmerksamkeit der werbeubersattigten Konsumenten. Trotz der unverkennbaren Potenziale wurde das Phanomen wissenschaftlich bislang unzureichend behandelt. Entsprechend besteht das zentrale Anliegen dieses Beitrages in der Identifikation derjenigen Gestaltungsfaktoren, von denen der Erfolg einer Gu…

Credibility as a Key to Sustainable Advertising Success

This paper addresses the operational part of sustainable marketing, especially advertising with sustainability. This form of advertising has to consider particularly the aspect of credibility since the social-ecological value of a product is often not evident for the consumer. Therefore, credibility represents an essential competitive advantage for companies who offer sustainable products. The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants which are decisive for the credibility attribution of sustainable advertisement in order to achieve an improved comprehension of the latent construct and a more credible design of this type of advertisement. In addition, the actual influence of cre…

Brand love in progress – the interdependence of brand love antecedents in consideration of relationship duration

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the dynamic nature of consumer–brand relationships and, in particular, the passionate dimension of brand love. It explores the relevance of the two dimensions of the identification construct (inner and social self) for the creation of passionate love for a brand. More precisely, it attends to the possible mediating character of identification between the perceived utilitarian or hedonic value and passionate brand love. These effects are analysed in consideration of the moderating effect of relationship duration taking a further-reaching perspective and contributing to the understanding of the transformation of the brand love construct within a long-…

When brands get branded

Recent perspectives on branding have claimed that consumers establish relationships with brands (Fournier, 1998). According to this view, one has also to consider that — similar to human relationships — transgressions may occur in such a relationship. Brand misconduct describes a brand's behaviour that consumers do not agree with, e.g. Coca-Cola's introduction of the so-called New Coke in the eighties. After an introduction and definition different forms of misconduct are distinguished. The possible consequences, how the company can react to brand misconduct and, ultimately, the implications for branding theory development are examined.

Aber bitte mit Gefühl — Der Einfluss von Emotionen auf die Preisfairness

Ausgangspunkt der interdisziplinaren Preisfairnessforschung ist, dass Kunden ein Angebot nicht nur rational-okonomisch bewerten, sondern zusatzlich beurteilen, wie fair dieses ist. Der Fokus dieses Beitrags liegt in der Analyse emotionaler Aspekte fur die Bildung des Fairnessurteils bei Preisen. Auf Basis der Equity-Theorie wird die Relevanz von Emotionen fur das Fairnessurteil nach Preiserhohungen gepruft. Dabei bestatigen sich die vermuteten positiven Wirkungszusammenhange. Die Ergebnisse dienen der Ableitung von Handlungsempfehlungen fur die Unternehmenspraxis und die Forschung.

Endorser age and stereotypes: Consequences on brand age

Abstract This paper links findings from research on different age types to branding literature, and adds insight into how to rejuvenate a brand through the use of endorsers in advertisements. The article addresses the yet under-represented value of demographic characteristics of endorsers in affecting brand perception, and introduces the importance of the existence and strength of individual mental images of typical brand users in the process of such association transfers. Based on theoretical perspectives from personality transfer, (social) categorization, imagery, and advertising literature, the study proposes and tests several conditions for which age association transfer from endorser t…

Die Bedeutung von Emotionen für die wahrgenommene Fairness bei Preiserhöhungen

Die wahrgenommene Fairness von Preisen hat sich als zentrales Konstrukt der Marketingforschung zur Analyse der Wirkung von Preiserhohungen etabliert. Ausgangspunkt der interdisziplinaren Preisfairnessforschung ist, dass Kunden ein Angebot nicht nur rational-okonomisch bewerten, sondern zusatzlich eine emotionale Komponente bei der Bewertung der Fairness eines Preises relevant ist. Dieser Beitrag bezieht sich daher auf die Analyse emotionaler Aspekte fur die Bildung des Fairnessurteils bei Preiserhohungen, wahrend bisherige Studien, mit wenigen Ausnahmen, auf die Untersuchung kognitiver Grosen abstellen. Die auf Basis der Equity-Theorie postulierte Relevanz von Emotionen fur das Fairnessurte…

Brand extensions in the platform countries of Asia – Effects of fit, order of market entry and involvement

More and more Western companies understand that Asian markets offer great opportunities to export goods and services. In addition many investment approaches made to Asian markets take place by entering such markets via so-called platform countries (for example Hong Kong and Singapore), as they serve as a bridge to the Asian market and offer an interesting learning base, with consumers cultural behavior being essentially Asian but with strong Westernized influences. As brand extension research has proved to be of major importance for international companies, we examine the effects of fit, order of market entry and involvement on brand extension evaluations in these platform countries. Althou…

Challenging Challenge: The Ambivalent Impact of Challenge on Intrinsic Motivation Effectiveness in Digital Co-Creation

While most literature on co-creation shows a consistently positive impact of challenge on motivational processes, the authors of this study examine situational ambiguous effects. Consequently, the exalted status of challenge in practice and research is called into question. This research combines psychological needs inferred from Self-Determination Theory with challenge derived from Flow Theory to explore direct and interactive effects on motivation and participation in digital co-creation. As an example of concrete consumer innovation the authors applied the concept of Threadless in order to test propositions for co-creation settings. Threadless is a real online platform that calls up for …

Zur Relevanz von Experimenten in der Marketingforschung

Experimente dienen der Untersuchung vielfaltiger fur das Marketing interessante Phanomene. So kommen z.B. in der Marketingpraxis besonders dann Experimente zur Anwendung, wenn die Unterschiede verschiedener Gestaltungsmoglichkeiten von neuen Produkten, Verpackungen oder Werbeanzeigen untersucht werden sollen. Fur den Absatz des Unternehmens und letztendlich fur den Gewinn kann es von groser Bedeutung sein, die richtige Entscheidung in Bezug auf kleinste Details in Produkt-, Verpackungs- oder Werbegestaltung zu treffen. Die Zielgruppe darf dann bereits vor der Markteinfuhrung eines Produkts testen und bewerten, inwieweit sich dieses von denen der Konkurrenz oder dem gegenwartig am Markt ange…

Auswertung von Experimenten mittels Varianzanalyse

Die Auswahl der Analysemethoden fur experimentell gewonnene Daten erfolgt nach dem Untersuchungszweck und den Charakteristika der zur Verfugung stehenden Daten. Bei Experimenten mit Between-Subject-Design kommt in der Regel die uni- oder multivariate mehrfaktorielle Varianzanalyse ((M)ANOVA) zur Anwendung. Sie lasst sich bei einer Vielzahl von Versuchsanordnungen einsetzen, um zu uberprufen, ob sich unterschiedliche Werte einer oder mehrerer abhangiger Variablen auf die Wirkung einer oder mehrerer unabhangiger Variablen zuruckfuhren lassen. Eine Serie univariater Varianzanalysen ignoriert eine moglicherweise vorhandene Korrelation zwischen den abhangigen Variablen, fuhrt jedoch fur den unte…