Image and personality: two complementary tools to position and differentiate retailers

The objective of this research is to study retailers' positioning and the way they are different from each other through the concepts of image and personality. To illustrate this point, eight retailers in three sectors (grocery, clothing and sport articles) that are leading retailers in France in their respective sectors are considered. The tools studied, image, and personality, are, thus, applicable to generalists (in the grocery sector) and specialists (in the clothing and sport articles sectors), as well as to retailers providing utilitarian products (in the grocery sector) and retailers providing symbolic products (in the clothing sector). This research highlights the stronger differentiating power of the concept of personality compared to the concept of image. It also indicates that these tools are complementary. While the concept of image focuses on functional attributes of retailers, the concept of personality concentrates on their symbolic characteristics

Conséquences non transactionnelles du comportement de butinage : modèle théorique et test empirique

Disponible en ligne sur le site de l'éditeur : http://ram.sagepub.com/content/20/1/21.full.pdfThe main goal of this research is to study some non-transactional consequences of browsing such as subjective knowledge, opinion leadership, and word-of-mouth. Our results from a field study in a retail store validate the hypothesized linkages between browsing and subjective expertise, opinion leadership, and word-of-mouth. Furthermore, our findings point out the relationships between subjective expertise and opinion leadership as well as between opinion leadership and word-of-mouth. Finally, our results highlight that consumer's enduring involvement may be considered as an antecedent of his/her browsing behaviour as well as his/her level of subjective expertise, opinion leadership, and word-of-mouth.L'objectif principal de cette recherche est d'étudier certaines conséquences non transactionnelles du butinage, telles que l'expertise subjective, le leadership d'opinion et le bouche-à-oreille. Les résultats d'une étude de terrain réalisée au sein d'un magasin valident les liens supposés entre butinage et expertise subjective, leadership d'opinion et bouche-à-oreille. Par ailleurs, nos résultats soulignent les relations existantes entre expertise subjective et leadership d'opinion ainsi qu'entre leadership d'opinion et bouche-à-oreille. Finalement, ceux-ci mettent en évidence que l'implication durable d'un consommateur peut être considérée comme un antécédent de son comportement de butinage ainsi que de ses niveaux d'expertise subjective, de leadership d'opinion et d'activité de bouche-à-oreille

珍貴老樹非破壞性根系調查之研究以后里澤民老樟樹為例

International audienceThe objective of this research is to appreciate, from the consumers’ point of view, if a retailer can develop the image of a responsible retailer while mastering its price image. Consequently, an experiment was conducted in a store laboratory to study consumers’ perceptions and behaviors in twostores of the same retailer, different in terms of price image (low prices versus average prices) but sharing the same commitments and actions to corporate social responsibility (common to all retailer’s stores), notably those relative to their offers of responsible labeled products (organic and ecological) of the store brand. The results indicate that this double strategy seems integrated and accepted by consumers. These, however, remain skeptical about the retailer’s CSR commitments and actions.L’objectif de cette recherche est d’apprécier, du point de vue des consommateurs, si une enseigne peut développer une image d’enseigne responsable tout en maîtrisant son image-prix. En conséquence, une expérimentation a été réalisée en magasin laboratoire afin d’étudier les perceptions et comportements des consommateurs dans deux contextes de magasins d’une même enseigne, différents en termes d’image-prix (prix bas versus prix moyens), mais partageant les mêmes engagements et actions en matière de RSE (communs à l’ensemble des magasins de l’enseigne), notamment ceux relatifs à leurs offres de produits responsables labellisés (biologiques et écologiques) de la marque propre de cette enseigne. Les résultats indiquent que cette double démarche semble intégrée et acceptée par les consommateurs. Ceux-ci restent toutefois sceptiques, dans les deux contextes étudiés, quant à la réalité des engagements et actions RSE de l’enseigne

Consumer perceptions and purchase behavior toward imperfect fruits and vegetables in an immersive virtual reality grocery store

This study investigates the effects of fruits and vegetables (FaVs) abnormality on consumer perceptions and purchasing behavior. For the purposes of the study, a virtual grocery store was created with a fresh FaVs section, where 142 participants became immersed using an Oculus Rift DK2 Head-Mounted Display (HMD) software. Participants were presented either “normal”, “slightly” misshapen, “moderately” misshapen or “severely” misshapen” FaVs. The study findings indicate that shoppers tend to purchase a similar number of FaVs whatever their level of deformity. However, perceptions of the appearance and quality of the FaVs depend on the degree of abnormality. “Moderately” misshapen FaVs are perceived as significantly better than those that are “heavily” misshapen but also “slightly” misshapen (except for the appearance of fruits)

Effects of physical, non-immersive virtual, and immersive virtual store environments on consumers’ perceptions and purchase behavior

The application of virtual reality in human activities has been rapidly growing during the last decade. Shopping for food is an important part of people’s daily lives. As overnight delivery services of fresh produce, such as Amazon Fresh, are in their development stage, more studies on virtual stores for perishable products are needed, as the quality of fruits and vegetables (FaVs) cannot be easily assessed by consumers when virtual stores are used. This research examines the impact of a physical store, a non-immersive virtual store, and an immersive virtual store environment on consumers’ perceptions and purchase behavior toward FaVs. Experimental betweensubjects design (i.e., three groups), combined with a questionnaire survey (after-only design), was used to address the study objectives. The research found that consumers’ perceptions of FaVs in both non-immersive and immersive virtual stores (VS) are similar to those in a physical store. By contrast, consumers buy more FaVs in both non-immersive and immersive VS compared to a physical store. The findings also indicate that consumers tend to rely more on extrinsic cues (i.e., FaVs’ prices) in the immersive VS when evaluating FaVs on offer and less on intrinsic cues (e.g., FaVs’ appearance) they use in the physical store. The results have important implications for practitioners and researchers with regard to the usefulness of virtual reality for better understanding of consumer behavior

Influence of Being Embodied in an Obese Virtual Body on Shopping Behavior and Products Perception in VR

Research in Virtual Reality (VR) showed that embodiment can influence participants' perceptions and behavior when embodied in a different yet plausible virtual body. In this paper, we study the changes an obese virtual body has on products perception (e.g., taste, etc.) and purchase behavior (e.g., number purchased) in an immersive virtual retail store. Participants (of a normal BMI on average) were embodied in a normal (N) or an obese (OB) virtual body and were asked to buy and evaluate food products in the immersive virtual store. Based on stereotypes that are classically associated with obese people, we expected that the group embodied in obese avatars would show a more unhealthy diet, (i.e., buy more food products and also buy more products with high energy intake, or saturated fat) and would rate unhealthy food as being tastier and healthier than participants embodied in “normal weight” avatars. Our participants also rated the perception of their virtual body: the OB group perceived their virtual body as significantly heavier and older. They also rated their sense of embodiment and presence within the immersive virtual store. These measures did not show any significant difference between groups. Finally, we asked them to rate different food products in terms of tastiness, healthiness, sustainability and price. The only difference we noticed is that participants embodied in an obese avatar (OB group) rated the coke as being significantly tastier and the apple as being significantly healthier. Nevertheless, while we hypothesized that participants embodied in a virtual body with obesity would show differences in their shopping patterns (e.g., more “unhealthy” products bought) there were no significant differences between the groups. Stereotype activation failed for our participants embodied in obese avatars, who did not exhibit a shopping behavior following the (negative) stereotypes related to obese people. conversely, while the opposite hypothesis (participants embodied in obese avatars would buy significantly more healthy products in order to “transform” their virtual bodies) could have been made, it was not the case either. We discuss these results and propose hypotheses as to why the behavior of the manipulated group differed from the one we expected. Indeed, unlike previous research, our participants were embodied in virtual avatars which differed greatly from their real bodies. Obese avatars should not only modify users' visual characteristics such as hair or skin color, etc. We hypothesize that an obese virtual body may require some other non-visual stimulus, e.g., the sensation of the extra weight or the change in body size. This main difference could then explain why we did not notice any important modification on participants' behavior and perceptions of food products. We also hypothesize that the absence of stereotype activation and thus of statistical difference between our N and OB groups might be due to higher-level cognitive processes involved while purchasing food products. Indeed our participants might have rejected their virtual bodies when performing the shopping task, while the embodiment and presence ratings did not show significant differences, and purchased products based on their real (non-obese) bodies. This could mean that stereotype activation is more complex that previously thought

For a better understanding of browsing behaviour

In this paper we focus on browsing behaviour in retail stores. Browsing may be considered as a leisure activity in itself, whose motives are mainly recreational, performed without the intent to buy. We emphasize the main determinants of browsing and focus on the consequences of this behaviour. We consider two different kinds of consequences: short-term consequences (relating to a particular consumption experience in a retail store) and long-term consequences (involving cumulative consumption experiences with a retail outlet). We also stress the influence of other consumers (i.e., friends or relatives) on short-term consequences of browsing

Browsing: a contribution to the explanation of non-buying behavior

Bloch and Richins (1983, p.389) define browsing as "the examination of a store's merchandise for recreational or informational purposes without the intent to buy". However, these two authors stress that recreational motives are the most important in browsing behavior. The aim of this thesis is to propose a model describing browsing behavior pinpointing the explanatory factors at the origin of this activity as well as its consequences (enduring consequences and consequences at the point of sale)

Le butinage: une contribution à l'explication du comportement de non-achat

Bloch et Richins (1983, p. 389) définissent le butinage ("browsing") comme "l'examen des produits en magasin, dans un but récréationnel ou informationnel, sans intention d'achat". Ces deux auteurs soulignent cependant que les motivations récréationnelles sont prépondérantes dans cette activité. Le but de cette recherche doctorale est de proposer un modèle décrivant le comportement de butinage et mettant au jour les facteurs à l'origine de cette activité ainsi que ses conséquences

Le butinage : proposition d'une échelle de mesure

Cet article présente la mise au point, suivant le paradigme de Churchill (1979), d'une échelle de mesure du butinage. Après avoir présenté le concept de butinage, nous exposons les différentes étapes du paradigme de Churchill appliqué à celui-ci. Au terme d'une étude qualitative menée auprès de 17 consommateurs et de 4 collectes de données conduites auprès de 530 consommateurs, nous proposons une échelle de mesure fiable et valide du butinage, outil unidimensionnel matérialisé par 7 propositions