Search results
1 – 5 of 5Haseeb Shabbir, Michael R. Hyman and Alena Kostyk
This special issue explores how marketing thought and practice have contributed to systemic racism but could alleviate racially insensitive and biased practices. An introductory…
Abstract
Purpose
This special issue explores how marketing thought and practice have contributed to systemic racism but could alleviate racially insensitive and biased practices. An introductory historical overview briefly discusses coloniality, capitalism, eugenics, modernism, transhumanism, neo-liberalism, and liquid racism. Then, the special issue articles on colonial-based commodity racism, racial beauty imagery, implicit racial bias, linguistic racism and racial imagery in ads are introduced.
Design/methodology/approach
The historical introduction is grounded in a review of relevant literature.
Findings
Anti-racism efforts must tackle the intersection between neo-liberalism and racial injustice, the “raceless state” myth should be re-addressed, and cultural pedagogy’s role in normalizing racism should be investigated.
Practical implications
To stop perpetuating raced markets, educators should mainstream anti-racism and marketing. Commodity racism provides a historical and contemporary window into university-taught marketing skills.
Social implications
Anti-racism efforts must recognize neo-liberalism’s pervasive role in normalizing raced markets and reject conventional wisdom about a raceless cultural pedagogy, especially with the emergence of platform economies.
Originality/value
Little previous research has tackled the history of commodity racism, white privilege, white ideology, and instituting teaching practices sensitive to minority group experiences.
Details
Keywords
Alena Kostyk and Bruce A. Huhmann
Two studies investigate how different structural properties of images – symmetry (vertical and horizontal) and image contrast – affect social media marketing outcomes of consumer…
Abstract
Purpose
Two studies investigate how different structural properties of images – symmetry (vertical and horizontal) and image contrast – affect social media marketing outcomes of consumer liking and engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
In Study 1’s experiment, 361 participants responded to social media marketing images that varied in vertical or horizontal symmetry and level of image contrast. Study 2 analyzes field data on 610 Instagram posts.
Findings
Study 1 demonstrates that vertical or horizontal symmetry and high image contrast increase consumer liking of social media marketing images, and that processing fluency and aesthetic response mediate these relationships. Study 2 reveals that symmetry and high image contrast improve consumer engagement on social media (number of “likes” and comments).
Research limitations/implications
These studies extend theory regarding processing fluency’s and aesthetic response’s roles in consumer outcomes within social media marketing. Image posts’ structural properties affect processing fluency and aesthetic response without altering brand information or advertising content.
Practical implications
Because consumer liking of marketing communications (e.g. social media posts) predicts persuasion and sales, results should help marketers design more effective posts and achieve brand-building and behavioral objectives. Based on the results, marketers are urged to consider the processing fluency and aesthetic response associated with any image developed for social media marketing.
Originality/value
Addressing the lack of empirical investigations in the existing literature, the reported studies demonstrate that effects of symmetry and image contrast in generating liking are driven by processing fluency and aesthetic response. Additionally, these studies establish novel effects of images’ structural properties on consumer engagement with brand-based social media marketing communications.
Details
Keywords
Alena Kostyk, James M. Leonhardt and Mihai Niculescu
Online customer ratings are ubiquitous in e-commerce. However, in presenting these ratings to consumers, e-commerce websites utilize different formats. The purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Online customer ratings are ubiquitous in e-commerce. However, in presenting these ratings to consumers, e-commerce websites utilize different formats. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of customer ratings formats on consumer trust and processing fluency.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the latest behavioral research, two empirical experimental studies test whether the format of online customer ratings affects consumer trust and processing fluency.
Findings
The studies offer converging evidence that a simpler ratings format (i.e. mean format) elicits higher processing fluency and, in turn, higher consumer trust than does a more complex ratings format (i.e. distribution format).
Research limitations/implications
Future research could include additional factors that might influence the ease of online ratings processing for consumers. Investigation of possible moderators, such as need for cognition, numeracy and consumer involvement, may also be of value.
Practical implications
These findings have timely practical implications for the design and presentation of customer ratings to enhance e-commerce outcomes.
Originality/value
This paper extends the effects of processing fluency on consumer trust to the increasingly important context of e-commerce. In doing so, it highlights important interactions between the evolving information environment and consumer judgment. The key takeaway for managers is that simpler online customer ratings formats help to enhance consumer trust.
Details
Keywords
Kirsten Cowan and Alena Kostyk
Do luxury consumers negatively evaluate digital interactions (website and social media) by international luxury brands? The topic has received much debate. The authors argue that…
Abstract
Purpose
Do luxury consumers negatively evaluate digital interactions (website and social media) by international luxury brands? The topic has received much debate. The authors argue that luxury brand personality (modern vs. traditional), which encompasses a more stable form of brand identity in global markets, affects evaluations of digital interactions. They further investigate the role of self-brand connection in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Three experiments on Prolific use a European sample and manipulate a single factor between subjects (modernity: less vs. more; traditionality: less vs. more) of French luxury brands and measure evaluations as the dependent variable. Two studies assesses self-brand connection (continuous) as a moderator (studies 2a, 2b). Study 2b rules out some alternative explanations, with culture (independent vs. collectivist) as an independent variable. A fourth study, using a North American sample on CloudResearch, assesses the effect of personality manipulation (more modernity vs. more traditionality) on consumer evaluations of an Italian brand, and assesses ubiquity perceptions as a mediator.
Findings
Consumers evaluate digital interactions of international luxury brands less favorably when luxury brand personality exhibits more (vs. less) modernity or less (vs. more) traditionality. Perceptions of ubiquity mediate these relationships. When self-brand connection is high, this effect is attenuated.
Originality/value
The research sheds light on the debate on whether luxury brands should create digital interactions in international markets, given that these global brands operate in multiple channels. Findings show that luxury brands can develop strategies based on aspects of their brand identity, a less malleable feature of brand identity within global markets. Additionally, the research contributes to the conversation about a global luxury market. In short, the findings offer evidence in favor of brand identity (personality) influencing the digital channel strategy a brand should undertake in international markets, first, followed by consumer needs.
Details