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This research paper aims to illustrate that the new product communication effects of mental simulation (process-vs. outcome-focused) might depend on product attributes (typicality and benefits). Communication effects include ad attitudes and product attitudes in this study.

One 2 (mental simulation: process-focused vs. outcome-focused) x 2 (attribute typicality: high vs. low) x 2 (attribute benefits: hedonic vs. utilitarian) between-subjects experiment design was conducted. SPSS was used to do data analysis.

This article reveals that high (low) typicality of new attributes causes a process-focused (outcome-focused) simulation to lead to better consumer attitudes (i.e. ad attitude and product attitude). In addition, for a new hedonic attribute, a low typical attribute induces better consumer attitudes. Furthermore, there are interaction among mental simulation, product attribute typicality and benefits. These findings have important implications for academic developments and marketing management.

Compared with previous studies, this study is unique in several ways. First, enterprises often develop new products by introducing new product attributes (i.e. new features). Product attribute typicality is an interesting issue for new product design and communication. This research illustrates that the marketing communication effects of attribute typicality depends on attribute benefits and mental simulation. Second, the current research finds the new product attribute benefit (i.e. hedonic/utilitarian) play an important role and moderates the effects of mental simulation on consumer attitudes.

The purpose of this paper is to test the applicability of product typicality in explaining the product‐specificity of country of origin (COO) effects.

To help select stimuli used in the study, two dimensions of product typicality regarding COO images were created. A total of 416 participants from a business school in Taiwan participated in this experiment and rated their perceived COO images and attitudes towards specific products from select countries.

The results indicate that product typicality can help explain the discrepancies between COO images across products from a country, and across COOs of a product. Typical products received more favourable consumer attitudes and stronger COO images than atypical ones. This study also manipulated two other factors, product type and product category level. While product type had no significant impact on the effects of typicality, tests on product category level revealed enhanced effects for subordinate product categories.

The study provides a stepping stone towards the development of a general theory of COO. By testing the effects of a category‐based concept, typicality, in the context of the COO image, this study formally testifies the applicability of categorisation theories on COO effects, which may provide informative sources for the future development of COO studies. Based on the rationale of typicality, this study also tests the possible moderation effects of product types and category levels.

This research aims to explore the impact of an overlooked variable, brand typicality, on brand evaluation and the categorization of counterfeits and imitations.

The research design is a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 mixed design with the first three variables as between-subjects variables and the last as a within-subjects variable on a convenience sample of 287 respondents split into eight experimental conditions. Data are analyzed using Linear Mixed Models.

Results show that brand typicality and brand name and product appearance manipulations impact brand evaluation and categorization. Regarding brand evaluation, under high typicality conditions, any manipulation of brand name and/or product appearance, from identical to different, results in a less favorable evaluation, whereas under low typicality conditions, only brand name manipulation negatively impacts brand evaluation. Concerning categorization, under high typicality conditions, any change in brand name and/or product appearance results in the item’s categorization as an imitation or a counterfeit, whereas under low typicality conditions, the item may be categorized as either genuine or as imitation or counterfeit.

This research demonstrates the impact of brand typicality on both the evaluation and categorization of changes in brand name and product appearance. It also suggests that brands and product classes are not equal vis-à-vis counterfeiting and imitation. High typicality brand seems less vulnerable to counterfeiting and imitation. Findings are discussed regarding brand vulnerability to imitation and counterfeiting, the importance of considering competitive context, brand management and brand strategy.

When consumers fulfill consumption goals they make decisions on first, from which product category to buy, and second, which brand to purchase within the product category. In this article, the relative effects of product‐level typicality and brand‐level typicality on goal‐driven consumer choice are examined. Which level of typicality is more diagnostic of choice? Empirical results show that consumers are, in goal‐derived usage contexts, more likely to choose a less typical and less favored brand from a typical product category than a typical and more favored brand from a less typical product category. Consequently, brands that consumers perceive as inferior may be chosen over superior brands because of the link between product categories and usage contexts. Our results indicate that it may be fruitful for marketers to associate brands and product categories with usage contexts, and that they need to consider brand competitors from other product categories.

There are numerous design principles that can guide strategic decisions and determine good product design. One principle that has received considerable attention in the literature is the MAYA principle, which suggests that consumers seek a balance of typicality and novelty in products. The purpose of this paper is to test the MAYA principle specific to various categories of apparel. By drawing from the MAYA principle as a two-factor theory, the effects of specific aesthetic properties (i.e. typicality and novelty) of apparel products on consumer response were examined.

An experimental design in three phases was implemented.

Results revealed that typicality is the primary predictor of aesthetic preference relative to pants and jackets, while both typicality and novelty are significant predictors of aesthetic preference relative to shirts, suggesting that the MAYA principle better explains aesthetic preference relative to shirts.

Understanding consumers’ reactions to product design provides potential value for academics as well as practitioners.

Consideration of both aesthetic properties is needed when implementing the MAYA principle in apparel design.

Although studies have examined the MAYA principle relative to consumer products, few have examined how the principle operates relative to apparel products. The definition of a design principle, such as the MAYA principle, assumes that the logic proposed should apply to all types of products. Yet, this empirical study reveals that this is not the case when applied across different apparel categories.

The purpose of this study is to seek to investigate whether and how country of origin (COO) cues – category-country image (CCI) and typicality – and importers’ domain-specific innovativeness (DSI) influence importers’ propensity to the trial new value and premium products. Moreover, it aims to understand whether and how the relationship between the COO effect and industrial purchase intentions is moderated by importers’ propensity to innovate (DSI).

International importers completed a quantitative online survey. Factor analysis was used to summarize the latent constructs into orthogonal scores. General linear modeling was applied to the scores to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that importers’ propensity to trial value products is directly influenced by CCI and importers’ DSI. For premium products, typicality has a positive effect on their propensity to trial. Also, CCI and DSI have positive effects on the trial of value products, and the effect is more pronounced than for premium products. Importers’ DSI positively moderates CCI in premium product trials, while it negatively moderates typicality in value products.

This research provides important managerial implications for practitioners seeking to increase foreign sales, strengthening importers’ product perceived value through COO cues. Exporters should distinguish between value and premium products and, in the selection of international channel partners, they must be attentive to importers’ personal characteristics, such as their propensity to innovate. Exporters selling value products should communicate CCI more clearly and, when targeting innovative importers, opt for atypical products instead of traditional ones. For premium products, which require more complex decisions, exporters should especially underscore product typicality and, with innovative importers, emphasize positive CCI.

By focusing on the two critical issues of product selection and price levels, this study’s original contribution is to emphasize that, for the same product category, in industrial purchasing decisions of value versus premium products, the COO effect can be different. It also highlights the importance of investigating the COO effect by concentrating on industrial buyers’ personal characteristics, here the DSI of importers, as moderating variables.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the inconsistency of explicit and implicit domestic country bias (DCB) across different types of products and in the context of two countries.

Two studies in two countries are conducted to examine the inconsistencies in implicit and explicit DCB. The first study collected data through mall intercept survey method in Taiwan and identified 189 valid respondents. The second study applied a mixed (within and between subjects) factorial experiment in China using 200 subjects.

Results show that explicit and implicit attitudes are moderately related to each other. The results also confirm that ethnic product typicality can explain inconsistencies in both explicit and implicit DCB. For ethnically typical products, DCB is more pronounced in consumers’ explicit attitudes than in consumers’ implicit attitudes. On the contrary, for ethnically atypical goods, DCB makes itself present in both explicit and implicit attitudes.

The results shed new light on DCB and confirm that the bias could divaricate between explicit and implicit attitudes in the case of ethnically typical products.

The purpose of this paper is to theorize country-of-origin (COO) to be important to retail buyers in making purchase decisions. However, this question has not been addressed in the literature and leaves a critical gap in determining how COO ultimately affects consumer purchase options.

Retail buyer behavior is empirically tested with both premium and value brands from Italy. A sample retail buyers was taken from a LexisNexis database and provided 205 completed surveys. Construct scales were taken from existing literature and tested using composite reliability. SEM was used to analyze the data.

Results showed that retail buyers are affected by COO; that low involvement purchases are not differentially affected compared to high involvement; product typicality enhances likelihood of purchase and this typicality is more important for high involvement goods.

Retail buyers are affected by COO and will make product choices for their stores accordingly. Companies should be aware of this and take it into consideration to strengthen their acceptance by retail buyers. Trade organizations within countries may consider advertising approaches to distinguish themselves and stimulate positive COO among retail buyers.

This is the first time that retail buyer behavior has been studied with regard to COO effects using consumer models. Results showed that use of these models is more appropriate than only using industrial buying models. Retail buyers are found to indeed be affected by COO, which in turn influence buying choices for consumers and offerings from retailers.

A recent stream of research has focused on typicality associations – those that bring origins and products together. Most of the research has focused on typical products but atypical products have received very little attention, even though they are more and more present on the market. As it has yet to be reviewed, the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic product cues and product evaluations is examined in this paper for typical and atypical origin products.

Wine was used as the stimulus, and consumer evaluations of typical and atypical wines were reviewed. Consumers were segmented based on their knowledge of the product category. French respondents (n = 370) participated in an online questionnaire regarding the product cues they found most important, depending on if the wine was from the New World or the Old World.

The results show that extrinsic cues are just as important as intrinsic cues in the evaluation of origin products, contrary to what prior research suggests. Furthermore, consumer knowledge moderates the evaluations of origin products; the results empirically confirms the theoretical country of origin – elaboration likelihood model (CoO-ELM) proposed by Bloemer et al. (2009) for atypical origin products, but show typical products are evaluated differently.

This is the first study that empirically tests the CoO-ELM and includes the added dimension of typicality. The results allow for a better understanding of consumer perceptions of origin products and their cues.

This paper aims to explore whether consumers' cognitive reactions to a branded product remain stable over time. In many created concepts, entity attributes are such that cognitive reactions to them change in a predictable manner by attraction to elements of novelty and typicality in the genre. By analysing products from a luxury vehicle brand, under the framework of a theoretical model of changing “affective content”, this paper seeks to explore whether brands behave similarly.

The study draws on research previously published into the changing nature of art, poetry, architecture and other artistic genres. Text from motoring press articles written contemporarily to the production of products of the brand, over the past 80 years, are analysed for constructs of affective content and the overall values expressed.

The results provide evidence that the attributes of some branded products produce cognitive conditions that cycle in a manner that is predictable, with change points corresponding to new product introductions.

Through understanding cognitive reactions to the branded product that may be discreetly deconstructable and anticipated, advantageous product attribute development can progress with some certainty. Further, new product launches can be timed to coincide with receptive consumer conditions supported by appropriate attribute emphasis.

This paper applies a theory, which has been proven to exist in a number of artistic genres, to the brand for the first time. Its contribution is twofold; firstly, to expand developing knowledge into the cognitive processing of the branded product; and secondly, to introduce an informative process to product and brand development activities.