Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Marketing

This chapter illustrates the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in marketing and will help managers develop a deeper understanding of its potential to revolutionize the service experience. We summarize the use of AI and robots in practice and show that the adoption of AI predominantly occurs at the task level rather than the job level, implying that AI takes over some tasks that are part of a job and not the entire job. Based on these insights, we discuss opportunities and drawbacks of AI and robots and reflect on whether service robots will complement or substitute human employees. Moreover, we explain why many consumers are still reluctant to engage with these new technologies and which conditions should be met in order to benefit from using service robots

The warm glow of recycling can make us more wasteful

Laudable initiatives designed to limit the environmental damage associated with consumption, such as the recycling of plastic packaging into clothing or unused bread into beer, have become increasingly popular. In three experiments, we show how such initiatives can potentially increase waste rather than preventing it. Specifically, we show that when presented with such options people may come to psychologically frame their waste creation as a contribution to the collective good that makes them feel good about themselves (i.e. eliciting a warm-glow effect). We argue that such potential ‘wasteful contribution’ effects need to be considered in assessing the true sustainability benefits of certain recycling initiatives

Are you being served? Managing waist and waste via serving size, unit size, and self-serving

Food serving sizes are on the rise and this increase is one factor contributing to both obesity and food waste. Hence, reducing serving size is a potentially effective strategy for lessening overconsumption and food waste— but it carries the risk that consumers may perceive the smaller serving size as too small, lowering satisfaction. This research examines the role of serving size, unit size, and self-serving on the amount of food served, consumed, and wasted, with the main objective of reducing both overconsumption and food waste while maintaining consumer satisfaction. Across four experiments, we demonstrate that consumers who are served food in smaller units consume less but waste more, while consumers who serve themselves food in smaller units consume less and waste less. When self-serving food in smaller units, consumers benefit from pause moments providing decision-making opportunities that draw attention to the serving decision, as reflected in longer serving times and greater overestimation of the served amount of food. Consequently, consumers presented with smaller unit sizes serve themselves less food—resulting in decreased consumption and waste, without lessening consumer satisfaction. These findings offer a wide range of win–win implications that are of relevance to consumers as well as to managers of restaurants, food services, and health professionals

Sustainability Claims and Perceived Product Quality:The Moderating Role of Brand CSR

In this research, we focus on the presumed negative effect of a sustainability claim on product quality. We propose that a brands' corporate social responsibility (CSR) can reduce this negative effect. We conduct an experiment to test our hypotheses for a newly introduced detergent brand with an ecolabel vs. without one for high and low brand CSR levels. The experiment was conducted among 304 participants. Our results show that the ecolabel of the detergent can indeed trigger quality concerns. These quality concerns are reduced for brands high in CSR. This suggests that a brand's sustained commitment to sustainability is important in overcoming negative effects of sustainability claims on product quality