The notion of conspicuous consumption (Veblen 1899) suggests that consumers spend lavishly on goods to that symbolize status and visibly communicate wealth and status to others. Analysis of multiple product categories, however, indicates an inverted-U relationship between price and the presence...

Does "familiarity breed contempt" or is "to know you is to love you"? In this research, we explore the role of familiarity in music choice. We show that although consumers say they would prefer to listen to unfamiliar music, in actuality familiarity with music positively predicts preference for...

The value and importance of creativity has been well established in the business world. The effective fostering of creativity, however, remains a somewhat elusive goal for most organizations. Using the context of product design, we examine three factors that are likely to have an important...

Virtually every broadcast ad uses the voice of an announcer but, due to lack of guidance from the marketing literature, managers must rely on gut feel when choosing a voice. Drawing on research from psycholinguistics we identify three important voice characteristics, syllable speed, interphrase...

This article examines perceptions of low-income consumers receiving government assistance and the choices they make, showing that this group is viewed differently than those with more resources, even when making identical choices. A series of five experiments reveal that ethical purchases...

Consumers desire products that provide meaningful experiences. Therefore, a marketer's success often depends on familiarizing consumers with the unique experience a product offers. Marketers recognize the value in communicating about a product experience through analogy, but little research has...

Recent research notes a disconnect between what marketers deem new and innovative versus what consumers actually perceive. Many factors may contribute to this; however, the factor that has significant potential to first attract a consumer to a new product, visual aesthetic design, is...