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- Aagerup, Ulf, 1969-
(author)
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Accessible luxury fashion brand building via fat discrimination
- 2018
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In: Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. - Bingley : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1361-2026 .- 1758-7433. ; 22:1, s. 2-16
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: To investigate if accessible luxury fashion brands discriminate overweight and obese consumers.Design/methodology/approach: The physical sizes of garments are surveyed in-store and compared to the body sizes of the population. A gap analysis is carried out in order to determine whether the supply of clothes match the demand of each market segment.Findings: The surveyed accessible luxury garments come in very small sizes compared to the individuals that make up the population.Research limitations/implications: The survey is limited to London while the corresponding population is British. It is therefore possible that the mismatch between assortments and the population is in part attributable to geographic and demographic factors. The study’s results are however so strikingly clear that even if some of the effect were due to extraneous variables, it would be hard to disregard the poor match between overweight and obese women and the clothes offered to them.Practical implications: For symbolic/expressive brands that are conspicuously consumed, that narrowly target distinct and homogenous groups of people in industries where elitist practices are acceptable, companies can build brands via customer rejection.Social implications: The results highlight ongoing discrimination of overweight and obese fashion consumers.Originality/value: The study is the first to provide quantitative evidence for brand building via customer rejection, and it delineates under which conditions this may occur. This extends the theory of typical user imagery.
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- Aagerup, Ulf, 1969, et al.
(author)
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Green consumer behavior: Being good or seeming good?
- 2016
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In: Journal of Product & Brand Management. - Bingley : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1061-0421. ; 25:3, s. 274-284
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose This paper aims to expand the emerging field of symbolic green consumer behavior (GCB) by investigating the impact of anticipated conspicuousness of the consumption situation on consumers’ choice of organic products. In addition, the paper also explores whether self-monitoring ability and attention to social comparison information (ATSCI) influence GCB in situations of anticipated high conspicuousness. Design/methodology/approach Two experiments test the study’s hypotheses. Findings The results of both experiments show that the anticipation of conspicuousness has a significant effect on GCB. Moreover, in Experiment 2, this effect is moderated by consumers’ level of ATSCI but not by their self-monitoring ability. Research limitations/implications Because ATSCI significantly interacts with green consumption because of the anticipation of a conspicuous setting, although self-monitoring ability does not, we conclude that social identification is an important determinant of green consumption. Practical implications Marketers who focus on building green brands could consider designing conspicuous consumption situations to increase GCB. Social implications Policymakers could enact change by making the environmental unfriendliness of non-eco-friendly products visible to the public and thus increase the potential for GCB. Originality/value The results validate the emerging understanding that green products are consumed for self-enhancement, but also expand the literature by highlighting that a key motivating factor of GCB is the desire to fit in.
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- Aagerup, Ulf, 1969-
(author)
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Intermediate Luxury Fashion : Brand Building via Fat Discrimination
- 2016
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In: 11th Global Brand Conference. - Saltaire, UK : Greenleaf Publishing. ; , s. 23-28
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate if intermediate luxury fashion brands discriminate overweight and obese consumers.Design/methodology/approach: 1,454 intermediate luxury garments were tallied and measured in-store in London. The physical sizes of the garments were matched to the body sizes of the population, and a gap analysis was carried out in order to determine whether the supply of clothes match the relative importance of each market segment.Findings: While previous research shows that mass-market fashion companies do not discriminate overweight and obese consumers, intermediate luxury garments come in very small sizes compared to the individuals that make up the population.Research limitations/implications: The findings show that purveyors of intermediate luxury fashion limit assortments of garments so they avoid fat typical user imagery.Practical implications: Companies that market products that are sensitive to the typical user imagery can optimize their brands by limiting undesirable customer types access to their brands, provided that 1) they have the financial strength to reject customers whose image would be detrimental to the brand, 2) the companies are active in an industry in which people would tolerate customer rejection, and 3) they sell a product that actually can be denied undesirable customers.Social implications: The study shows that fat consumers are relegated to mass-market fashion but are excluded from intermediate luxury fashion. This constitutes a social inequality.Originality/value: The result of this study provides quantitative evidence that companies control assortments to exclude undesirable typical user imagery. It also delineates under which conditions they do it. This adds to the theory of user imagery.
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- Aagerup, Ulf, 1969-
(author)
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It’s Not What You Sell : It’s Whom You Sell it To: How the Customer’s Character Shapes Brands and What Companies Do About it
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this dissertation I investigate the effects of user and usage imagery on brands and how businesses employ user imagery to build brands. Over four articles I present results that suggest that user imagery affects brand personality and that companies under certain conditions adapt their behavior to optimize this effect. Although both mass market fashion and nightclubs are susceptible to the influence of user imagery, out of the two only nightclubs actively reject customers to improve its effect on brand perception. I relate these practices to the practical and financial feasibility of rejecting customers, the character of nightclubs’ brands, and to their inability to differentiate their brands through any other brand personality influencer besides user imagery. In this dissertation, I also discuss the ethical ramifications of user imagery optimization through customer rejection. In one study, the role of conspicuous usage imagery on socially desirable consumer behavior is investigated. It is concluded that conspicuousness increases consumers' propensity to choose environmentally friendly products, and that this tendency is especially pronounced for individuals that are high in attention to social comparison information. The conclusion is that consumers use green products to self-enhance for the purpose of fitting in with the group rather than to stand out from it.
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- Aagerup, Ulf, 1969-
(author)
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Obese models’ effect on fashion brand attractiveness
- 2018
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In: Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. - Bingley : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1361-2026 .- 1758-7433. ; 22:4, s. 557-570
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: To investigate the effect of obese models vs. normal weight models on fashion brands’ attractiveness.Design/methodology/approach: An experiment was carried out in which 1,225 university students in Sweden and Brazil rated the attractiveness of a fashion brand worn by a normal weight model and an obese model.Findings: The overall effect of obese models’ effect on fashion brand attractiveness was insignificant. Further, neither culture, nor the consumer’s own weight had a significant effect. There was, however, a significant effect of the participant’s own gender; women rate fashion brands worn by obese models significantly higher on attractiveness than they did fashion brands worn by normal weight models. Men displayed the inverse response.Research limitations/implications: The effect of the model’s ethnicity was beyond the scope of the experiment, and the brand attractiveness scale captured only one aspect of brand character, leaving other potential brand effects for future studies.Practical implications: Companies can use obese models with no overall brand attractiveness penalty across markets and for marketing to women of all sizes. Given men’s negative reactions, such models might however be unsuitable for the male-to-female gift market.Social implications: The results support the use of obese models, which can lead to greater representation of larger women in the media, and consequently, reduced fat stigma.Originality/value: The study validates the theory of user imagery, and it extends the theory by examining how different target consumers react to user imagery traits and thus provides evidence for gender bias towards obese models.
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- Aagerup, Ulf, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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The persuasive effects of emotional green packaging claims
- 2019
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In: British Food Journal. - Bingley : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 0007-070X .- 1758-4108. ; 121:12, s. 3233-3246
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of rational green packaging claims vs emotional green packaging claims on consumers' purchase propensity for organic coffee.Design/methodology/approach - Three within-subjects experiment were carried out (N=87, N=245, N=60). The experimental design encompasses packaging with rational green claims, emotional green claims, as well as a neutral (control) claim. Measured variables are introduced to assess participants' environmental commitment and information processing ability. A manipulated between-subjects variable is introduced to test how distraction interacts with preference for the claims.Findings - Overall, consumers prefer products with green claims over those with neutral (control) claims, and products with emotional green claims to those with rational green claims. The studies also reveal that this effect is moderated by participants' environmental commitment, information processing ability and by distraction. The findings were statistically significant (p<0.05).Research limitations/implications - As a lab experiment, the study provides limited generalizability and external validity. Practical implications - For most organic FMCG products, it is advisable to employ emotional packaging claims.Social implications - The presented findings provide marketers with tools to influence consumer behavior toward sustainable choices.Originality/value - The paper validates previous contributions on the effects of product claim types, and extends them by introducing comprehensive empirical data on all the Elaboration Likelihood Model's criteria for rational decision-making; motivation, opportunity and ability.
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