This research highlights how less accessible individual products and associations that are part o... more This research highlights how less accessible individual products and associations that are part of a brand category can influence consumers' brand-related judgments. Altering the brand category context in which a brand extension is introduced can increase the salience of these less accessible products and associations. In situations where this information is diagnostic, individuals base their extension judgments on a different set of dimensions than they would if the extension had been presented in the context of just the brand name. The data collected provided evidence that these brand context changes affected the temporary representations used to judge a new extension.
We examine the role of social support in a service business and its effects on clients' will... more We examine the role of social support in a service business and its effects on clients' willingness to recommend the service. This study utilized interviews (n − 28) and surveys (n − 92) with clients of a non-profit introductory service assisting singles in finding a lifelong partner. We examined clients' beliefs about marriage, children, singlehood, and service utilization; the practical, social support, and psychosocial benefits in service utilization; and the relationship of these benefits to clients' willingness to recommend the service. Results show that clients received social support and psychosocial benefits in these brief encounters. Clients' assessment of this assistance was significantly related to their willingness to recommend the service. The findings point to the importance of the quality of interpersonal contact in service encounters and extend earlier work on the provision of social support in business transactions.
This manuscript compares traditional (AKA quantitative), and Consumer Culture Theory (AKA qualita... more This manuscript compares traditional (AKA quantitative), and Consumer Culture Theory (AKA qualitative), approaches to lifestyle segmentation. We find five key differences: (1) While traditional segmentation aims for brevity, CCT adds more detail; (2) Traditional approaches focus on common brand meanings, whereas CCT examines how meanings differ for different consumers; (3) Traditional favors quantitative methods, while CCT favors qualitative research; (4) While traditional group labels tend to remain obscure, like PRISM's "belongers", CCT favors familiar lifestyle groups; (5) Traditional lifestyle segmentation favors the descriptive, whereas CCT emphasizes theory development. Managerial implications are discussed.
This article uses the life and work of Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) to discuss certain aspects ... more This article uses the life and work of Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) to discuss certain aspects of what it means to be a 'felicitator', i.e. a person who brings happiness to others. The focus is particularly on his promotion of creativity and social inclusion, and his critique of materialism.
This paper adds another layer of interpretation to the data of Beverland, Farrelly, and Lim (2007... more This paper adds another layer of interpretation to the data of Beverland, Farrelly, and Lim (2007). First, I explore the link between Beverland et al. (2007) and the thought of Martin Buber (1923). Then I argue that some respondents see their dogs through the metaphor of human friendship and others through the metaphor of human parenting. I share Beverland et al.'s ethical views that in the highest forms of relationships, people attempt to see the other as they really are. But note an ironynamely, that many of the respondents most committed to individual relationships with their pets anthropomorphize their dogs in ways that work against this kind of honest relationship.
Critical studies in mass communication, Sep 1, 1991
... Aaron C. Ahuvia is in the Department of Marketing, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Nor... more ... Aaron C. Ahuvia is in the Department of Marketing, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. ... The second aspect of this strategy is to target a narrowly defined "Mr. or Ms. Right" (a "niche" strategy), rather than trying to appeal to as broad a population of ...
Purpose À This paper argues for the following sensitizing proposition. At its core, much of consu... more Purpose À This paper argues for the following sensitizing proposition. At its core, much of consumer behavior that involves brand meanings is an attempt to influence, or symbolically mark, interpersonal relationships. Methodology/approach À This paper presents a conceptual argument based on a literature review. Findings À First, I argue that our pervasive concern with other people is a basic genetic component of human beings, and discuss some possible evolutionary pressures that may have led to this result. Then I discuss how this pervasive concern influences consumer behavior related to brand meanings. This discussion is structured around two aspects of social relationships: interpersonal closeness and social status. Relationship closeness is discussed with regard to brand communities, gifts, special possessions and brand love, and the often hidden ways that social
... 144 The Journal of Advertising For each of these three interpretive positions, two interrelat... more ... 144 The Journal of Advertising For each of these three interpretive positions, two interrelated issues are discussed here. One is the types of claims a social critic can make about an ad. The types of socially critical claims that can be made differ considerably among the three ...
Rossiter (Marketing Lett 23: 905-916, 2012) provides a critique of the brand love measure from Ba... more Rossiter (Marketing Lett 23: 905-916, 2012) provides a critique of the brand love measure from Batra et al. (J Marketing 76: 1-16, 2012) and offers a new measure of brand love to be used in its stead. In this reply, we argue that our measure is more consistent with the best available understanding on love and brand love. We also note several serious problems in the underlying definition of love used by Rossiter and problems in the way his definition is operationalized in his measure. Keywords Brand love. Love. C-OAR-SE method. Construct validity. Content validity. Prototypes 1 Introduction Rossiter (2012) provides a critique of the conceptualization and measurement of brand love by Batra et al. (2012) (BAB hereafter) and Carroll and Ahuvia (2006). Rossiter (2012) rejects past definitions of love and brand love, as well as "the now-standard
Survey research is employed to test hypotheses involving brand love, a new marketing construct th... more Survey research is employed to test hypotheses involving brand love, a new marketing construct that assesses satisfied consumers' passionate emotional attachment to particular brands. Findings suggest that satisfied consumers' love is greater for brands in product categories perceived as more hedonic (as compared with utilitarian) and for brands that offer more in terms of symbolic benefits. Brand love, in turn, is linked to higher levels of brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Findings also suggest that satisfied consumers tend to be less loyal to brands in more hedonic product categories and to engage in more positive word-of-mouth about self-expressive brands. Keywords Satisfaction. Delight. Love. Loyalty. Word-of-mouth. Consumer-brand relationships Satisfaction, the core of the marketing concept, has been the key objective of marketing strategy for more than 50 years. Of late, however, there have been attempts to move beyond satisfaction in explaining differences in strategic consumer behavior (e.g.
When winter came and there was little to eat, they were still content. They found a cave and told... more When winter came and there was little to eat, they were still content. They found a cave and told each other love stories and sang and played the harp in turl1. They loved each other as their hearts prompted. How did they love? Their love was a •part of the cave, and the cave was round and high and broad. As their bodies weakened, for there was, little food, their loves soared, filling the expanse of the cave, exploring the depths of their hearts. In the roundness of the cave, they came to know the tender curves of love's inner circles. Tristan and Iseult (as retold by Diane Wolkstein] Tristan and Iseult illustrate a motif that haunts our love mythology: love flourishing where,riches have fled. As hunger weakens the body, the radiant light of love fills the lovers' hearts Ias well as, we are led to presume, their stomachs). Not only is love blind to status and wealth, it ultimately transforms poverty into abundance, hunger into satiation, lack into surplus. Reversal of identity is the theme par excellence of love, ugliness transformed into startling beauty, poor shepherds into kings, frogs into princes. But this alchemy of love is primarily social, for it expresses the hope that lowly conditions can be transmuted into noble ones and thatlove can unite people otherwise separated by barriers of class, nationality, and birth. Parallel to this classless mythology, the courtly and gallant ideal that was to shape Western romantic consciousness has promoted the very forms of expression of the literate and propertied classes: poetry,' music, songs are the consecrated and seemingly "natural" expressions of Although these literate ideals have less currency today, the cultural within which love is expressed are those of various factions of the. dominant classes. As Herbert Lantz suggests, historians tend "to view romantic love as handed down from the affluent classes to the poor.'" He gives three reasons for the origin of love among the literate elites. First, these classes were more likely to be influenced by the liberalizing effects of "macro" economic and political events. Given their relatively Although these two respondents used different linguistic, cultural, and economic capitals, they both referred to a common cultural SCrIpt of ro. mance: the "nice" dinner at home, the candlelight, the beautiful musicall essential elements of romantic rituals. Other examples show a similar pattern. Asked what he would do to have a romantic evening, a male university professor replied, "I'd say I had a pretty romantic evening one night recently. Is that reasonable to What would you do if you~anted to 'have a' romantic moment with your partner? It would be at home. If I had)11y ultimate place. A very nice long dinner. Discussing things at candlelight. I am very .rtracted by candlelight: And very beautiful music. ' What kind of music? Beautiful classical music. Bach, Monteverdi. (Male orc~estraconductor, interview 33) What I would do is like, ah-okay, the first thing I would do is probably have a nice romantic dinner at my apartment, candleltght and soft mUSIC arid stuff like that, plus-that's what I have~one. That's rom~ntic t~me. Very soft music and just be into each other with not a lot of dIstractIOn and things like that. .
This research investigates thedevelopmental processes by which consumers become more or less mate... more This research investigates thedevelopmental processes by which consumers become more or less materialistic. It begins with a review of lnglehart's work in this area, andthen applies his theories to explain conceptions of materialism developed by Richins and Belk. Inglehart predicts that thesubjective experience ofeconomic deprivation andinsecurity during one'sformativeyears leads toadult materialism. Early subjecti ve experiences ofdeprivation andinsecurity strongly predict materialism as conceptualized by Belk, but are not related to materialism as conceptualized by Richins. Inglehart also allows forthesocial intluence of family andpeersto shape materialistic orientations. Findings indicate that theformative social influence offamily andpeers predicts both Belk'sandRichins's materialism. Thisdifference between Belk'sand Richins's materialism is explained on thegrounds that Belk'smaterialism retlects personality whereas Richins's reflects personal values.
Batra et al. (Journal of Marketing 76, 1-16, 2012) created a new conceptualization of brand love ... more Batra et al. (Journal of Marketing 76, 1-16, 2012) created a new conceptualization of brand love but did not develop a pragmatically useful measure for studies where questionnaire length is a constraint. The current research develops a more parsimonious brand love scale, with three nested versions of 26, 13, and 6 items, respectively. This research also validates the scales, and in so doing conducts several important validity tests not considered by Batra et al. The 26-item scale is able to predict consumer loyalty, word of mouth, and resistance to negative information, with an R 2 of .90, after correcting for measurement error. Keywords Brand love. Brand management. Brand loyalty. Brand trust. Brand attachment 1 Introduction Brand love is an intrinsically interesting topic for theory-focused research, and research on this subject goes back many years (
In everyday conversation, people frequently talk about ‘loving’ products, brands, and consumption... more In everyday conversation, people frequently talk about ‘loving’ products, brands, and consumption activities such as skiing or eating out at restaurants. Previous studies have found that talk about love is more than a colorful figure of speech (Ahuvia, 1993). There is mounting evidence that consumers use mental schemas and processes such as love not only in interpersonal contexts (“I love you”) but also in consumption contexts (“I love my car”) (Aaker, 1997; Ahuvia, 2005; Batra et al., 2012; Fournier, 1998). Brand love is a legitimate form of love alongside romantic love, parental love, friendship love, unrequited love, and other types of love. Henceforth, we will use the term ‘brand love’ in a very general way, to refer to the love of brands (including nonprofit brands), products and services, product categories (e.g., cell phones, fashion), as well as specific products (i.e., a particular consumer’s cell phone).
This research highlights how less accessible individual products and associations that are part o... more This research highlights how less accessible individual products and associations that are part of a brand category can influence consumers' brand-related judgments. Altering the brand category context in which a brand extension is introduced can increase the salience of these less accessible products and associations. In situations where this information is diagnostic, individuals base their extension judgments on a different set of dimensions than they would if the extension had been presented in the context of just the brand name. The data collected provided evidence that these brand context changes affected the temporary representations used to judge a new extension.
We examine the role of social support in a service business and its effects on clients' will... more We examine the role of social support in a service business and its effects on clients' willingness to recommend the service. This study utilized interviews (n − 28) and surveys (n − 92) with clients of a non-profit introductory service assisting singles in finding a lifelong partner. We examined clients' beliefs about marriage, children, singlehood, and service utilization; the practical, social support, and psychosocial benefits in service utilization; and the relationship of these benefits to clients' willingness to recommend the service. Results show that clients received social support and psychosocial benefits in these brief encounters. Clients' assessment of this assistance was significantly related to their willingness to recommend the service. The findings point to the importance of the quality of interpersonal contact in service encounters and extend earlier work on the provision of social support in business transactions.
This manuscript compares traditional (AKA quantitative), and Consumer Culture Theory (AKA qualita... more This manuscript compares traditional (AKA quantitative), and Consumer Culture Theory (AKA qualitative), approaches to lifestyle segmentation. We find five key differences: (1) While traditional segmentation aims for brevity, CCT adds more detail; (2) Traditional approaches focus on common brand meanings, whereas CCT examines how meanings differ for different consumers; (3) Traditional favors quantitative methods, while CCT favors qualitative research; (4) While traditional group labels tend to remain obscure, like PRISM's "belongers", CCT favors familiar lifestyle groups; (5) Traditional lifestyle segmentation favors the descriptive, whereas CCT emphasizes theory development. Managerial implications are discussed.
This article uses the life and work of Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) to discuss certain aspects ... more This article uses the life and work of Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) to discuss certain aspects of what it means to be a 'felicitator', i.e. a person who brings happiness to others. The focus is particularly on his promotion of creativity and social inclusion, and his critique of materialism.
This paper adds another layer of interpretation to the data of Beverland, Farrelly, and Lim (2007... more This paper adds another layer of interpretation to the data of Beverland, Farrelly, and Lim (2007). First, I explore the link between Beverland et al. (2007) and the thought of Martin Buber (1923). Then I argue that some respondents see their dogs through the metaphor of human friendship and others through the metaphor of human parenting. I share Beverland et al.'s ethical views that in the highest forms of relationships, people attempt to see the other as they really are. But note an ironynamely, that many of the respondents most committed to individual relationships with their pets anthropomorphize their dogs in ways that work against this kind of honest relationship.
Critical studies in mass communication, Sep 1, 1991
... Aaron C. Ahuvia is in the Department of Marketing, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Nor... more ... Aaron C. Ahuvia is in the Department of Marketing, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. ... The second aspect of this strategy is to target a narrowly defined "Mr. or Ms. Right" (a "niche" strategy), rather than trying to appeal to as broad a population of ...
Purpose À This paper argues for the following sensitizing proposition. At its core, much of consu... more Purpose À This paper argues for the following sensitizing proposition. At its core, much of consumer behavior that involves brand meanings is an attempt to influence, or symbolically mark, interpersonal relationships. Methodology/approach À This paper presents a conceptual argument based on a literature review. Findings À First, I argue that our pervasive concern with other people is a basic genetic component of human beings, and discuss some possible evolutionary pressures that may have led to this result. Then I discuss how this pervasive concern influences consumer behavior related to brand meanings. This discussion is structured around two aspects of social relationships: interpersonal closeness and social status. Relationship closeness is discussed with regard to brand communities, gifts, special possessions and brand love, and the often hidden ways that social
... 144 The Journal of Advertising For each of these three interpretive positions, two interrelat... more ... 144 The Journal of Advertising For each of these three interpretive positions, two interrelated issues are discussed here. One is the types of claims a social critic can make about an ad. The types of socially critical claims that can be made differ considerably among the three ...
Rossiter (Marketing Lett 23: 905-916, 2012) provides a critique of the brand love measure from Ba... more Rossiter (Marketing Lett 23: 905-916, 2012) provides a critique of the brand love measure from Batra et al. (J Marketing 76: 1-16, 2012) and offers a new measure of brand love to be used in its stead. In this reply, we argue that our measure is more consistent with the best available understanding on love and brand love. We also note several serious problems in the underlying definition of love used by Rossiter and problems in the way his definition is operationalized in his measure. Keywords Brand love. Love. C-OAR-SE method. Construct validity. Content validity. Prototypes 1 Introduction Rossiter (2012) provides a critique of the conceptualization and measurement of brand love by Batra et al. (2012) (BAB hereafter) and Carroll and Ahuvia (2006). Rossiter (2012) rejects past definitions of love and brand love, as well as "the now-standard
Survey research is employed to test hypotheses involving brand love, a new marketing construct th... more Survey research is employed to test hypotheses involving brand love, a new marketing construct that assesses satisfied consumers' passionate emotional attachment to particular brands. Findings suggest that satisfied consumers' love is greater for brands in product categories perceived as more hedonic (as compared with utilitarian) and for brands that offer more in terms of symbolic benefits. Brand love, in turn, is linked to higher levels of brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. Findings also suggest that satisfied consumers tend to be less loyal to brands in more hedonic product categories and to engage in more positive word-of-mouth about self-expressive brands. Keywords Satisfaction. Delight. Love. Loyalty. Word-of-mouth. Consumer-brand relationships Satisfaction, the core of the marketing concept, has been the key objective of marketing strategy for more than 50 years. Of late, however, there have been attempts to move beyond satisfaction in explaining differences in strategic consumer behavior (e.g.
When winter came and there was little to eat, they were still content. They found a cave and told... more When winter came and there was little to eat, they were still content. They found a cave and told each other love stories and sang and played the harp in turl1. They loved each other as their hearts prompted. How did they love? Their love was a •part of the cave, and the cave was round and high and broad. As their bodies weakened, for there was, little food, their loves soared, filling the expanse of the cave, exploring the depths of their hearts. In the roundness of the cave, they came to know the tender curves of love's inner circles. Tristan and Iseult (as retold by Diane Wolkstein] Tristan and Iseult illustrate a motif that haunts our love mythology: love flourishing where,riches have fled. As hunger weakens the body, the radiant light of love fills the lovers' hearts Ias well as, we are led to presume, their stomachs). Not only is love blind to status and wealth, it ultimately transforms poverty into abundance, hunger into satiation, lack into surplus. Reversal of identity is the theme par excellence of love, ugliness transformed into startling beauty, poor shepherds into kings, frogs into princes. But this alchemy of love is primarily social, for it expresses the hope that lowly conditions can be transmuted into noble ones and thatlove can unite people otherwise separated by barriers of class, nationality, and birth. Parallel to this classless mythology, the courtly and gallant ideal that was to shape Western romantic consciousness has promoted the very forms of expression of the literate and propertied classes: poetry,' music, songs are the consecrated and seemingly "natural" expressions of Although these literate ideals have less currency today, the cultural within which love is expressed are those of various factions of the. dominant classes. As Herbert Lantz suggests, historians tend "to view romantic love as handed down from the affluent classes to the poor.'" He gives three reasons for the origin of love among the literate elites. First, these classes were more likely to be influenced by the liberalizing effects of "macro" economic and political events. Given their relatively Although these two respondents used different linguistic, cultural, and economic capitals, they both referred to a common cultural SCrIpt of ro. mance: the "nice" dinner at home, the candlelight, the beautiful musicall essential elements of romantic rituals. Other examples show a similar pattern. Asked what he would do to have a romantic evening, a male university professor replied, "I'd say I had a pretty romantic evening one night recently. Is that reasonable to What would you do if you~anted to 'have a' romantic moment with your partner? It would be at home. If I had)11y ultimate place. A very nice long dinner. Discussing things at candlelight. I am very .rtracted by candlelight: And very beautiful music. ' What kind of music? Beautiful classical music. Bach, Monteverdi. (Male orc~estraconductor, interview 33) What I would do is like, ah-okay, the first thing I would do is probably have a nice romantic dinner at my apartment, candleltght and soft mUSIC arid stuff like that, plus-that's what I have~one. That's rom~ntic t~me. Very soft music and just be into each other with not a lot of dIstractIOn and things like that. .
This research investigates thedevelopmental processes by which consumers become more or less mate... more This research investigates thedevelopmental processes by which consumers become more or less materialistic. It begins with a review of lnglehart's work in this area, andthen applies his theories to explain conceptions of materialism developed by Richins and Belk. Inglehart predicts that thesubjective experience ofeconomic deprivation andinsecurity during one'sformativeyears leads toadult materialism. Early subjecti ve experiences ofdeprivation andinsecurity strongly predict materialism as conceptualized by Belk, but are not related to materialism as conceptualized by Richins. Inglehart also allows forthesocial intluence of family andpeersto shape materialistic orientations. Findings indicate that theformative social influence offamily andpeers predicts both Belk'sandRichins's materialism. Thisdifference between Belk'sand Richins's materialism is explained on thegrounds that Belk'smaterialism retlects personality whereas Richins's reflects personal values.
Batra et al. (Journal of Marketing 76, 1-16, 2012) created a new conceptualization of brand love ... more Batra et al. (Journal of Marketing 76, 1-16, 2012) created a new conceptualization of brand love but did not develop a pragmatically useful measure for studies where questionnaire length is a constraint. The current research develops a more parsimonious brand love scale, with three nested versions of 26, 13, and 6 items, respectively. This research also validates the scales, and in so doing conducts several important validity tests not considered by Batra et al. The 26-item scale is able to predict consumer loyalty, word of mouth, and resistance to negative information, with an R 2 of .90, after correcting for measurement error. Keywords Brand love. Brand management. Brand loyalty. Brand trust. Brand attachment 1 Introduction Brand love is an intrinsically interesting topic for theory-focused research, and research on this subject goes back many years (
In everyday conversation, people frequently talk about ‘loving’ products, brands, and consumption... more In everyday conversation, people frequently talk about ‘loving’ products, brands, and consumption activities such as skiing or eating out at restaurants. Previous studies have found that talk about love is more than a colorful figure of speech (Ahuvia, 1993). There is mounting evidence that consumers use mental schemas and processes such as love not only in interpersonal contexts (“I love you”) but also in consumption contexts (“I love my car”) (Aaker, 1997; Ahuvia, 2005; Batra et al., 2012; Fournier, 1998). Brand love is a legitimate form of love alongside romantic love, parental love, friendship love, unrequited love, and other types of love. Henceforth, we will use the term ‘brand love’ in a very general way, to refer to the love of brands (including nonprofit brands), products and services, product categories (e.g., cell phones, fashion), as well as specific products (i.e., a particular consumer’s cell phone).
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