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

Exploring Message Framing Outcomes When Systematic, Heuristic, or Both Types of Processing Occur

Mixed findings have emerged in message framing studies, even when such studies employ the same general type of framing, such as goal framing. This article attempts to show that by ex-tending the heuristic–systematic model-based explanation of message framing effects to incor-porate conditions that may prompt both systematic and heuristic processing, this theory may accommodate some of the aberrant findings. The research reported shows that by varying a message issue’s risky implications and its personal relevance, 2 factors that potentially influ-ence the type of processing people employ, systematic, heuristic, or concurrently both types of processing were evoked and influenced people’s judgments, causing alternative patterns of message framing effects to occur. The results offer insight into how each of these types of pro-cessing can affect message framing outcomes, and they imply that certain seemingly aberrant findings in the literature can be reconciled with this extended theory. There is growing agreement that different mechanisms ac-count for alternative types of message framing effects, such as those produced by risky choice, attribute, and goal framing (for a discussion of these distinctions, see Levin, Schneider, &amp

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..

The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing That People Use

This article demonstrates that variations in ceiling height can prime concepts that, in turn, affect how consumers process information. We theorized that when reasonably salient, a high versus low ceiling can prime the concepts of freedom versus confinement, respectively. These concepts, in turn, can prompt consumers' use of predominately relational versus item-specific processing. Three studies found support for this theorizing. On a variety of measures, ceiling height-induced relational or item-specific processing was indicated by people's reliance on integrated and abstract versus discrete and concrete ideation. Hence, this research sheds light on when and how ceiling height can affect consumers' responses. (c) 2007 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Context Effects from Bodily Sensations: Examining Bodily Sensations Induced by Flooring and the Moderating Role of Product Viewing Distance

When consumers shop, the flooring underfoot can prompt bodily sensations—a sense of comfort from soft carpeting or fatigue from hard tile flooring. Like moods, such bodily sensations may foster context effects on the products shoppers observe. However, whereas moods prompt only assimilation effects, we demonstrate that consumers ’ bodily sensations can produce either assimilation, contrast, or no context effects. Further, consumers ’ viewing distance from a product can determine the direction of such effects. Evidence attests that these effects are (a) prompted by bodily sensations, not conceptual knowledge, (b) rather limited in scope, and (c) reversible in direction under certain circumstances. Shopping can be an active and often fatiguing exercise. Shoppers frequently walk more than a mile during shopping expeditions, traversing parking lots, walkways, and mall atriums. When venturing inside stores, they often approach and assess merchandise, sometimes viewing it from afar to gauge its overall appearance but at other times hovering close to goods to explore their details. Moreover, as shoppers engage in such activities, they often are exposed to any number of elements that can stimulate physical bodily sensations. These include not only sensory stimuli in the broader retail environment (e.g., odors, temperature) but also tactile properties of the very flooring on which they stand. Such flooring can range from hard, leg-fatiguing surfaces like tile to plush, comfort-inducing carpeting (Cham an

Emotional Persuasion: When the Valence versus the Resource Demands of Emotions Influence Consumers' Attitudes

Can properties of emotions other than valence influence consumers' responses to emotional ads? We show that consumers' processing motivation moderates whether their attitudes are based on the valence of or the resource demands imposed by the emotion featured in an ad. When motivation is low, consumers respond more favorably to positively versus negatively valenced emotional ads. However, when motivation is high, attitudes are more favorable when the magnitude of allocated resources matches that required to process the ad. Three studies identify three distinct properties of emotions (univalence, purity, and self-consciousness) that can influence the resource demands of an ad. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..

Exploring the Cognitive Mechanism that Underlies Regulatory Focus Effects

Much research has explained regulatory focus effects via the alternative psychological states (eagerness vs. vigilance) people experience when they adopt different regulatory foci. This article identifies for the first time the cognitive mechanism that underlies regulatory focus effects. We propose that promotion-focus individuals engage in relational elaboration, which entails identifying commonalities or abstract relationships among disparate items. In contrast, prevention-focus individuals engage in item-specific elaboration, which involves focusing on specific attributes of each item independent of others. Results support our theorizing by demonstrating that promotion-focus (prevention-focus) individuals exhibit enhanced performance on tasks that require relational (item-specific) elaboration. (c) 2007 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..