Context effects in diverse-category brand environments: The influence of target product positioning and consumers' processing mind-set

We investigate the apparent rarity of contrast effects in diverse-category contextual and target product settings. Three studies show that the direction of context effects depends on (a) whether target product positioning is abstract or concrete, (b) consumers’ adoption of an item-specific, similarity-focused relational or dissimilarityfocused relational processing mind-set, and (c) the magnitude of resources allocated to processing. We find that contrast effects emerge when an ambiguous target product is positioned concretely, not abstractly, and consumers employ relational, not item-specific, processing. A framework clarifies how and when each of the aforementioned factors shapes context effects, often in ways never before seen. Whether in supermarkets teeming with assorted foods and home products, during commercial breaks filled with pools of ads, or in stadiums plastered with the signage of numerous sponsors, consumers frequently evaluate target products in contexts inhabited by goods from many different product categories. Not only do these categories typically differ from each other, but they also often differ from that of the target product. To exemplify, consider a trip to an upscale store where you might browse branded products from diverse categories, say, a Sony TV, Godiva candy, a Rolex watch, Aveda shampoo, and so on. Suppose that you then encountered a promotional appeal for an unknown vacation resort. Would your evaluation of the ambiguous target resort differ if the earlier-examined multicategory products *Kyeongheui Kim is assistant professor of marketing, at the Departmen

Teaching Approaches and Student Involvement in Learning to Write

This study examined the relationship between teaching approaches and the learning involvement of students from Korea in US college level classes by examining what these students did to complete writing assignments required for classes and what approaches professors adopted to assist students with English writing. It also examined how and why their involvement changed from active to less involvement to withdrawal or passive involvement to active involvement. In other words, this study examined how much professors’ teaching approaches influenced students’ attitudes towards English writing. Korean students who grew up in a culture where the whole society regards teachers highly expected more from their professors and were more dependent on professors. It appears that study participants’ English language proficiency also played a role in their dependency on their professors. There was a gap between these students’ expectations for professors and some of their professors’ teaching approaches. Also, there was some professors’ bias perceived by study participants, whether intentional or not, against non-native English speaking students and minority students, which disappointed and frustrated study participants and influenced these students’ degrees of involvement in learning

Effects of Temporal and Social Distance on Consumer Evaluations

This article investigates how two dimensions of psychological distance (i.e., temporal distance and social distance) jointly affect consumers' evaluations of products. Drawing on the properties of psychological distance and diminishing sensitivity to the increase in distance, we show an interaction effect of the two distance dimensions on product evaluations in two experiments. Specifically, when both dimensions are proximal, consumer evaluations are more influenced by the value associated with low-level construals than when either or both dimensions are distal, where consumer evaluations are more influenced by the value associated with high-level construals. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Context Effects in Diverse-Category Brand Environments: The Influence of Target Product Positioning and Consumers' Processing Mind-Set

We investigate the apparent rarity of contrast effects in diverse-category contextual and target product settings. Three studies show that the direction of context effects depends on (a) whether target product positioning is abstract or concrete, (b) consumers' adoption of an item-specific, similarity-focused relational or dissimilarity-focused relational processing mind-set, and (c) the magnitude of resources allocated to processing. We find that contrast effects emerge when an ambiguous target product is positioned concretely, not abstractly, and consumers employ relational, not item-specific, processing. A framework clarifies how and when each of the aforementioned factors shapes context effects, often in ways never before seen. (c) 2007 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..