Consumer reactions to self-expressive brand display

Brand names and other brand elements are often displayed on one’s body or clothes for the purpose of personal value expression. Despite the frequency of such brand displays in the marketplace, we know little about how consumers respond to seeing brands in this fashion. A recent view of consumer brand identification—the concept of brand engagement in self-concept (BESC)—provides a unique perspective from which to explore how consumers react when see-ing brands displayed by others. Across three experiments, we demonstrate a consistent pattern of findings indicating that consumers’ reactions to others ostentatiously displaying brands as means of value expression are strongest for those with high BESC levels and with a high value focus during brand exposure. The research highlights important variations in consumers’ responses to self-expressive brand stimuli associated with others; implications for branding practice and re-search are provided.Brand engagement; self-concept; advertising; brand management

ALL TUNA IS NOT CREATED EQUAL: THE EXISTENCE OF QUANTITY SURCHARGES DUE TO PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION.

Quantity surcharges exist when unit prices are higher for larger packages. We hypothesize that various sizes of goods are differentiated products, and this explains some surcharges. Estimating a random-coefficients logit demand model, we examine own and cross elasticities to determine the level of differentiation between products with different size packages.Marketing,

DNA repair biomarkers XPF and phospho-MAPKAP kinase 2 correlate with clinical outcome in advanced head and neck cancer.

BackgroundInduction chemotherapy is a common therapeutic option for patients with locoregionally-advanced head and neck cancer (HNC), but it remains unclear which patients will benefit. In this study, we searched for biomarkers predicting the response of patients with locoregionally-advanced HNC to induction chemotherapy by evaluating the expression pattern of DNA repair proteins.MethodsExpression of a panel of DNA-repair proteins in formalin-fixed paraffin embedded specimens from a cohort of 37 HNC patients undergoing platinum-based induction chemotherapy prior to definitive chemoradiation were analyzed using quantitative immunohistochemistry.ResultsWe found that XPF (an ERCC1 binding partner) and phospho-MAPKAP Kinase 2 (pMK2) are novel biomarkers for HNSCC patients undergoing platinum-based induction chemotherapy. Low XPF expression in HNSCC patients is associated with better response to induction chemoradiotherapy, while high XPF expression correlates with a worse response (p = 0.02). Furthermore, low pMK2 expression was found to correlate significantly with overall survival after induction plus chemoradiation therapy (p = 0.01), suggesting that pMK2 may relate to chemoradiation therapy.ConclusionsWe identified XPF and pMK2 as novel DNA-repair biomarkers for locoregionally-advanced HNC patients undergoing platinum-based induction chemotherapy prior to definitive chemoradiation. Our study provides insights for the use of DNA repair biomarkers in personalized diagnostics strategies. Further validation in a larger cohort is indicated

When Does the Past Repeat Itself? The Interplay of Behavior Prediction and Personal Norms

Does asking people about their future behavior increase or decrease the likelihood that they will repeat their past behavior? In two laboratory and two field experiments, we find that behavior prediction strengthens behavior repetition, making people more likely to do what they normally do, when personal norms regarding engaging in a behavior are weak or not easily accessible. However, when personal norms are strong or made accessible at the time of the prediction request, behavior prediction weakens behavior repetition and increases the likelihood that people do what they think they should do-even if it's not what they normally would do. These findings provide new tools for influencing behavior repetition, reconcile some seemingly contradictory past findings, and contribute to the debate regarding the relative importance of habits and intentions in guiding behavior. T he repetition of unhealthy behaviors (such as overeating) and the lack of repetition of healthy behaviors (such as exercising) are leading contributors to preventable deaths in developed countrie

Differential Effects of Aging on Fore– and Hindpaw Maps of Rat Somatosensory Cortex

Getting older is associated with a decline of cognitive and sensorimotor abilities, but it remains elusive whether age-related changes are due to accumulating degenerational processes, rendering them largely irreversible, or whether they reflect plastic, adaptational and presumably compensatory changes. Using aged rats as a model we studied how aging affects neural processing in somatosensory cortex. By multi-unit recordings in the fore- and hindpaw cortical maps we compared the effects of aging on receptive field size and response latencies. While in aged animals response latencies of neurons of both cortical representations were lengthened by approximately the same amount, only RFs of hindpaw neurons showed severe expansion with only little changes of forepaw RFs. To obtain insight into parallel changes of walking behavior, we recorded footprints in young and old animals which revealed a general age-related impairment of walking. In addition we found evidence for a limb-specific deterioration of the hindlimbs that was not observed in the forelimbs. Our results show that age-related changes of somatosensory cortical neurons display a complex pattern of regional specificity and parameter-dependence indicating that aging acts rather selectively on cortical processing of sensory information. The fact that RFs of the fore- and hindpaws do not co-vary in aged animals argues against degenerational processes on a global scale. We therefore conclude that age-related alterations are composed of plastic-adaptive alterations in response to modified use and degenerational changes developing with age. As a consequence, age-related changes need not be irreversible but can be subject to amelioration through training and stimulation

Price Endings, Left‐Digit Effects, and Choice

Past research has found that changes in price endings can result in “left‐digit effects” whereby the magnitude of an item’s price relative to the price of a reference product is influenced by the leftmost digits of both prices. We extend this work by investigating the impact of changes in price endings and associated leftmost price digits on choice. Findings indicate that assigning different combinations of price endings to two products (e.g., $2.00 and$2.99 vs. $1.99 and$3.00 vs. $2.00 and$3.00) can shift choice share toward the lower‐ or higher‐priced alternative. We also find that changes between just‐below (e.g., $29.99 and$39.99) and round (e.g., $30.00 and$40.00) pricing affect choice, with just‐below pricing shifting share toward lower‐priced alternatives. The latter effects are found to be moderated by price level and shopping goals. A three‐path mediation model reveals the processes underlying the influence of price endings on choice.

Examining the Effectiveness of Nutrition Information in a Simulated Shopping Environment

We conduct an experiment with grocery store shoppers using an onsite survey to examine the effectiveness of nutrition labels provided on grocery store shelves. We measure effectiveness of the nutrition labels in terms of how well the labels attract attention and if they affect shopper behavior. Based on our sample, we find that shelf label nutrition information not only attracts shopper attention but affects shopper behavior as well. Further, we find the effect is moderated by a shopper’s propensity to use nutrition information. Our results suggest providing nutrition information via grocery store shelf labels may be a useful medium to convey nutrition information to shoppers. Additionally, increasing interest in nutrition information and the ability to use the information can have important implications

Consumer engagement, stress, and conservation of resources theory:A review, conceptual development, and future research agenda

While scholarly acumen of consumer engagement, defined as a consumer's resource investment in his/her brand interactions, is burgeoning, its theoretical interface with consumer stress remains tenuous, exposing an important literature-based gap. Specifically, consumers' engagement with brands, or brand-related elements (e.g., online brand communities, frontline staff, service robots, social media pages, etc.), may either induce, or ensue from, individuals' consumption-related stress (e.g., through perceived resource depletion, brand-related performance anxiety, choice overload, pandemics, climate change, supply shortages, etc.). Addressing this gap, we develop a conservation of resources theory-informed framework of the consumer engagement/stress interface that identifies consumer engagement as either (i) a consumer stressor (e.g., by placing demands on consumers, including in self-service or coproduction tasks), or (ii) a stress-reducing coping mechanism (e.g., by facilitating the development of brand-related learning, skills, or resilience). We, then, introduce the articles contained in this section, which are also linked to the proposed framework. We conclude by outlining avenues for further research in the integrative area of consumer engagement/stress.</p