The quality of political information

The article conceptualizes the quality of political information and shows how the concept can be used for empirical research. I distinguish three aspects of quality (intelligibility, relevance, validity) and use them to judge the constituent foundations of political information, that is component claims (statements of alleged facts) and connection claims (argumentative statements created by causally linking two component claims). The resulting conceptual map thus entails six manifestations of information quality (component claimintelligibility, connection claim intelligibility, component claimrelevance, connection claim relevance, component claim validity, and connection claim validity). I explain how the conceptual map can be used to make sense of the eclectic variety of existing research, and how it can advance new empirical research, as a guide for determining variation in information quality, as a conceptual template for the analysis of different types of political messages and their common quality deficiencies, and as a generator of new research questions and theoretical expectations

The effect of musical fit on consumers’ memory

This study investigated the impact of musical ‘fit’ on memory for items. Participants were asked to recall 20 items they had seen while listening to either rock music or classical music. Some of the 20 items were associated with either the rebellious stereotype of rock music or the affluent stereotype of classical music. More ‘rock items’ than ‘classical items’ were recalled when rock music was played, although a similar number of ‘classical items’ and ‘rock items’ were recalled when classical music was played. When rock music was played, participants recalled ‘rock items’ earlier than ‘classical items’ and the reverse was found when classical music was played. This suggests that musical ‘fit’ operates by raising the salience of items

Mental Representations of Weekdays

Keeping social appointments involves keeping track of what day it is. In practice, mismatches between apparent day and actual day are common. For example, a person might think the current day is Wednesday when in fact it is Thursday. Here we show that such mismatches are highly systematic, and can be traced to specific properties of their mental representations. In Study 1, mismatches between apparent day and actual day occurred more frequently on midweek days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) than on other days, and were mainly due to intrusions from immediately neighboring days. In Study 2, reaction times to report the current day were fastest on Monday and Friday, and slowest midweek. In Study 3, participants generated fewer semantic associations for "Tuesday", "Wednesday" and "Thursday" than for other weekday names. Similarly, Google searches found fewer occurrences of midweek days in webpages and books. Analysis of affective norms revealed that participants' associations were strongly negative for Monday, strongly positive for Friday, and graded over the intervening days. Midweek days are confusable because their mental representations are sparse and similar. Mondays and Fridays are less confusable because their mental representations are rich and distinctive, forming two extremes along a continuum of change

Wine and music (III): so what if music influences the taste of the wine?

A growing body of evidence, both anecdotal and scientifically rigorous, now points to the fact that what people taste when evaluating a wine, not to mention how much they enjoy the experience, can be influenced by the specifics of any music that happens to be playing at the same time. The question that we wish to address here is ‘So what?’ Why should anyone care that music (or, for that matter, specially composed soundscapes) exert(s) a crossmodal influence over the wine-tasting experience? ‘Why not just drink great wine and forget about the music?’ a sceptic might ask. Here, we outline a number of the uses that such research findings have been put to in the marketplace, in experiential events, in artistic performances, and in terms of furthering our theoretical understanding of those factors that influence the tasting experience. We also highlight how the latest in technology (think sensory apps and hyperdirectional loudspeakers, not to mention digitally augmented glassware) augurs well for those wanting to deliver the most stimulating, the most memorable, and certainly the most multisensory of tasting experiences in the years to come. Demonstrations of sound’s influence on wine perception will most likely be applicable to a variety of other drinks and foods too. Ultimately, the argument is forwarded that there are many reasons, both theoretical and applied, as to why we should all care about the fact that what we listen to can change the sensory-discriminative, the descriptive, and the hedonic attributes of what we taste

Wine and music (II): can you taste the music? Modulating the experience of wine through music and sound

A growing body of scientific evidence now shows that what people taste when evaluating a wine, and how much they enjoy the experience, can be influenced by the music that happens to be playing at the same time. It has long been known that what we hear can influence the hedonic aspects of tasting. However, what the latest research now shows is that by playing the “right” music one can also impact specific sensory-discriminative aspects of tasting as well. Music has been shown to influence the perceived acidity, sweetness, fruitiness, astringency, and length of wine. We argue against an account of such results in terms of synaesthesia, or “oenesthesia,” as some have chosen to call it. Instead, we suggest that attention, directed via the crossmodal correspondences that exist between sound and taste (in the popular meaning of the term, i.e., flavor), can modify (perhaps enhance, or certainly highlight when attended, or suppress when unattended) certain elements in the complex tasting experience that is drinking wine. We also highlight the likely role played by any change in the mood or emotional state of the person listening to the music on taste/aroma perception as well. Finally, we highlight how the crossmodal masking of sweetness perception may come into effect if the music happens to be too loud (a form of crossmodal sensory masking). Taken together, the evidence reviewed here supports the claim that, strange though it may seem, what we hear (specifically in terms of music) really can change our perception of the taste of wine, not to mention how much we enjoy the experience. Several plausible mechanisms that may underlie such crossmodal effects are outlined

Service brand relationship matrix: Brand strategy for services

Brand architecture is a set of interlinked building blocks reflecting the levels of branding, from higher level corporate brands to lower level product sub-brands, and the linkages amongst them (Uncles et al., 1995). For example, not only is the powerful linkage between Nestle and its sub-brand KitKat synergistic but also the association of each benefits the image of the other. Little research has been done to understand branding decisions at the sub-brand level in services sector. The branding of sub-brands in services has been implicitly assumed to be either identical to the branding of sub-brands for physical goods, or simply not at all relevant to services marketing. We address two issues in this paper. We have made an attempt to (a) conceptualize sub-brands within the context of brand architecture strategies; (b) use Aaker and Joachimsthaler's 'brand relationship spectrum' (2000a) to develop a 'service brand relationship matrix' (SBRM) to understand brand architectures in services

Marketing strategies for services: is brand architecture a viable way forward?

Importance of branding as a strategic thrust is well understood by services marketing practitioners. Yet, in developing brand architectures, some researchers have suggested that the company is the only meaningful brand for service products, whereas others have argued for the development of strong sub-brands at the product level. The main objective of this study is to assess whether services in general have the capacity to develop successful brand architectures. Using a sample of 14 representative service companies, brand associations were elicited through a free association technique. These associations were categorised under a taxonomy with five brand meaning components and were hypothesised to have a competing impact on the overall attitudes towards the service product. The results of this research support the idea of brand architecture strategies and that services have equity at the sub-brand level in cases where the sub-brand has been built up meaningfully

Product line sub-branding versus company as the brand in services

Some researchers argue that the "company is the brand" for services, emphasising the pre-eminence of corporate brand image, while others advocate developing strong sub-brands for specific service offerings. This paper presents the arguments for the "company as the brand" notion for services, and addresses these arguments in favour of suggesting that sub-brand development is desirable for many services. Firstly, cases from both industry and the literature are provided to support the sub-branding possibilities for services. Secondly it is argued that the characteristics of services - intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, perishability (IHIP) - all lend themselves to sub level branding in services. Finally, proponents of the "company as the brand" notion posit that consumer confusion and copycat strategies limit sub-brand development in services, but the present paper argues that this issue is not unique to services