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Does a short brand story on the package affect consumers’ brand responses
- 2016
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Proceedings (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The persuasiveness of stories and their influence on consumers have been acknowledged within the fields of advertising, tourism, and services. Despite these findings, stories have not caught the attention that they deserve in the product and brand literature. Nothing indicates that stories would have less of an effect when applied to brands. It is especially intriguing that stories—of various kinds—have become ubiquitous on product packaging in practice. Yet there are no studies on the effect of such stories on the consumer’s response to the brand. Can it be taken for given that consumers will react more positively to a package when some of the brand information is presented in story form? Packages have limited space and are filled with information required by law, which is not the case for advertisements. Thus, findings from advertising cannot be directly applied to packing. Currently, there is scant empirical research that directly investigates the impact of short brand stories on consumer responses, and such research is particularly lacking on packaging, where stories are ubiquitously used in practice.This study uses a between-subjects experiment to test hypotheses pertaining to the impact of a short brand story communicated on a packaging on consumers’ brand responses. The chapter shows that a company originated short brand story, which is added to the marketing communication of an existing, fast-moving consumer brand packaging produces a higher level of on brand attitude, perceived value, and behavioral intentions as opposed to when no story is present.
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| 3. |
- Liljander, Veronica, et al.
(författare)
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Customer Relationship Levels-From Spurious to True Relationships
- 2001
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Relationship marketing (RM) is usually posited as the opposite of transactional marketing, which is marketing at arms-length without any interaction between producers and individual buyers. Its opposite RM has been seen as the revival of old customs, when buyers and producers were known to each other, and close buyer-seller relations were common practice (Grönroos 1990; Sheth and Parvatiyar 2000). Long-term relationships are believed to be beneficial to both the firm and its customers because it increases the companys productivity and profits (Reicheld 1996) while providing customers with individualised service, customised goods and other relationship benefits that follow from gaining more knowledgeable about customers needs (Berry 1995; Gwinner, Gremler and Bitner 1998). Doubts have been raised regarding its applicability for all types of consumer products (Crosby and Stephens 1987; Grönroos 1990), and its desirability by all customers (Berry 1995; Grönroos 2000; Fournier et al. 1998), but it is believed to be specifically well suited for services marketing because of the direct interaction between customers and service providers (Berry 1995; Grönroos 2000). Companies may also need to implement both transaction and RM strategies for different customer segments (Berry 1995).RM strategies can vary considerably between services industries and companies, and little is known about which relationship levels lead to positive customer responses and enhance company profitability. Sheaves and Barnes (1996, p 216) note that Many companies have embraced this [RM] concept and have set out to establish customer relationships. Yet, there appears to be little consensus on what it actually means to have a relationship with a customer or how the concept should be implemented. Companies implement it on different levels and separate strategies may be used within the same firm for different customer segments, such as key accounts (Cannon and Narayandas 2000). Berry and Parasuraman (1991) divided RM into three levels, depending on the bonds which are created between the firm and its customers. The lowest level, which is based on financial bonds, offers little competitive advantage to the firm. Parvatyiar and Sheth (2000) also note that RM has been interpreted both narrowly as the implementation of loyalty programs and data base marketing, and more broadly as including information sharing and joint development of goods and services that are in the customers best interest. However, customers of different services desire different forms of relationships (Sheaves and Barnes 1996). For instance, highly involved customers of services with credence properties (Sheth and Parvatiyar 1995; Sharma and Patterson 1999) may be especially inclined to form close long-term relationships with one service provider. Hence, RM has to be looked upon as a continuum, with various possible implementations. It is essential to identify different types of customer relationships and investigate their effect on company profitability, customer satisfaction and commitment. By taking a customer perspective, we propose that customer relationships can be described along a continuum ranging from spurious to true relationships, depending on the customers level of satisfaction, trust and commitment. Trust and commitment are central in business relationships (Morgan and Hunt 1994), but they are also crucial for understanding customer service relationships (Garbarino and Johnson 1999; Sharma and Patterson 1999; Singh and Sirdeshmukh 2000; Tax et al 1998). Relationships foster trust (Gwinner et al. 1998; Sheth and Parvatiyar 2000), but also cannot develop without a build up of trust between the parties (Berry 1995, Sheaves and Barnes 1996). Trus is especially important for services that are characterised by high performance ambiguity, significant consequentiality and high interdependence between the parties, such as medical service and car repair (Singh and Sirdeshmukh 2000). The intangibility and heterogeneousness of services, combined with a spread of consumer distrust in companies, positions trust as perhaps the single most powerful relationship marketing tool available to the company (Berry 1995, p. 242). This sentiment is echoed by Hart and Johnson (1999), who advocate the absence of trust defects as the most important factor in explaining customer commitment to service companies. Trust in services is built by continuously experiencing high process and outcome quality (Sharma and Patterson 1999), as well as by frequent and open, two-way communication between the parties (Berry 1995; Sharma and Patterson 1999). The importance of communication for relationship strength has been stressed in industrial buyer-seller relationships (Morgan and Hunt 1994) while it has been largely ignored as a value-adding component in RM (Crosby and Stephens 1987). In this paper we look at RM from the customers point of view. The purpose of the paper is to show that customer relationships may exist at different levels, ranging from spurious to true relationships. We do this with a literature review that emphasises trust and commitment. Empirical research is needed to identify relationship levels for different services and customer groups and to evaluate the success of RM strategies. However, the present paper is limited to a preliminary theoretical framework for conducting future research. First, a distinction is made between two extreme relationship levels, spurious and true relationships. Next, customer commitment and trust will be discussed in some detail, while service satisfaction and communication effectiveness will be given less attention. Last, relationship levels will be related to levels of trust and commitment.
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| 5. |
- Lipkin, Michaela, et al.
(författare)
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Preferential treatment in the service encounter
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of Service Management. - : Emerald. - 1757-5818. ; 25, s. 512-530
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine reactions when customers in service encounters receive preferential treatment (i.e. something extra in relation to other customers). The examination is conducted in a social context that allows the customer to compare what he or she receives with what other customers receive. The main effect variables are perceived justice and customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approach - An experimental method is employed to examine the effects of providing customers with preferential treatment. The study involves four treatment groups with various combinations of receiving or not receiving preferential treatment.Findings - Customers perceived preferential treatment as relatively unjust. This was true for customers who received the preferential treatment and for those who did not. However, customer satisfaction among those receiving preferential treatment was enhanced, thus signaling that preferential treatment affects perceived justice and satisfaction differently. In addition, different contexts for receiving preferential treatment (i.e. receiving it alone or sharing it with another customer) produced different levels of customer satisfaction.Originality/value - The extant research on preferential treatment has failed to acknowledge that this treatment often occurs in the presence of several customers, which is likely to evoke perceptions of justice. At the same time, extant research on perceived justice in service situations has mainly focussed on service failures as antecedents of justice perceptions. This study attempts to extend theory on both preferential treatment and perceived justice in service-encounter settings.
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- Slåtten, Terje
(författare)
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Emotions in service encounters from the perspectives of employees and customers
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to deepening and extending our understanding and knowledge of emotions in service encounters by studying it from the two most central human actors in service encounter: (i) the service firm’s employees and (ii) the customer of this firm. This dissertation consist of five separate papers that conceptualize and empirically investigate how different appraisals by employees and customers generate positive and negative emotions, and how types of emotions in service encounters are linked to patterns of behavioural responses. The methods used for gathering data involved interviews and questionnaire studies of various service firms. This dissertation has sought to offer two main contributions. First, this thesis presents an extended understanding of employees’ emotions in service encounter and their effect on employees’ perceptions of service quality. One of the chief findings is that work-related conditions such as employees’ perception of their working role and managerial practices are related to both positive and negative emotions in service encounters. Moreover, the findings indicate that there exists a spill-over effect between employees’ experiences of emotions and employees’ perceptions of the delivery of service quality in service encounters. Secondly, this thesis also contributes to furthering our understanding of the customer’s appraisal of service quality with respect to customers’ positive emotions in service encounters as well as to deepening our understanding of negative emotions when customers experience a negative service encounter. Specifically, it was found that both human and non-human service-quality factors are able to trigger customer’s positive emotions in service encounters. Positive emotions were strongly related to behavioural responses such as customer loyalty. When a customer experiences negative emotions in service encounters as a result of negative experience, the findings point to three sources of these negative emotions: (i) ‘self’ (the customer’s own fault), (ii) ‘other’ (the fault of the company), and (iii) ‘situational’ (the fault is beyond the customer’s and company’s control). Another finding is that customers’ negative emotions in service encounters tend diminish but only to some extent, even after the service firm has set into motion a process of service recovery. In summary, this thesis contributes to our understanding of emotions in service encounters and contributes to the ongoing debate and discussion in service research about the role of emotions in this context.
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| 7. |
- Solja, Eeva, et al.
(författare)
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Short brand stories on packaging: An examination of consumer responses
- 2018
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Ingår i: Psychology and Marketing. - : Wiley: 24 months. - 0742-6046. ; 35:4, s. 294-306
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The persuasiveness of stories and their influence on consumers have been acknowledged in marketing, particularly within the advertising field. In marketing practice, brand stories are increasingly also appearing on product packages. However, packages differ from ads in significant ways as communication channels; for example, the space for messages on a package is limited by the size of the package. This study reports findings from two experiments comparing consumer responses to fast-moving consumer good (FMCG) packages with and without short brand stories. The findings show that even a short brand story included on FMCG packaging has a positive impact on consumers’ affective, attitudinal, product value, and behavioral intention responses to the brand. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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| 9. |
- Söderlund, Magnus, et al.
(författare)
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Young consumers' responses to suspected covert and overt blog marketing
- 2015
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Ingår i: Internet Research. - : Emerald. - 1066-2243. ; 25:4, s. 610-632
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the responses of young consumers to suspected covert and overt product-brand recommendations in a blog.Design/methodology/approach - Experimental design was applied to investigate the effect of covert and overt marketing on young consumers' perceptions of blogger credibility and their behavioural intentions.Findings - Overt marketing had a negative effect on behavioural intentions, such as future interest in the blogger, intention to engage in word-of-mouth, and purchase intention. Covert marketing did not affect the intended behaviour. Neither covert nor overt marketing influenced the blogger's credibility.Research limitations/implications - The study was delimited to a small sample; one blog, one type of product recommendation, and a well-known brand. Young, well-educated consumers with experience in reading blogs may be able to filter the brand recommendations and focus on the content of the blog.Practical implications - This study has implications for bloggers, companies, and policy makers. Although overt marketing is the most open and the recommended form of blog marketing, the study showed that overt marketing has negative effects. Therefore, bloggers need to carefully consider how they present a sponsorship.Originality/value - The study makes three important contributions. First, it answers the call for research on consumer reactions to covert (deceptive) and overt marketing tactics. Second, it contributes to blog marketing research by studying a case of suspected covert marketing where consumers do not know whether the blog is sponsored or not. Third, the study contributes to knowledge around young consumers, demonstrating that covert and overt tactics do not affect blogger credibility.
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