This doctoral research defines and explores the first memorable encounter between a consumer and a brand. The present research relies on two theoretical roots: multidisciplinary research works about the first encounter, as well as research from the consumer-brand relationship paradigm. Then,...

‘Executional greenwashing’ refers to the use of nature-evoking elements in advertisements to artificially enhance a brand’s ecological image. Based on classic models of persuasion, a first experiment reveals that evoking nature does mislead consumers, especially if they have low knowledge...

Understanding how consumers discover, adopt and develop relationships with brands is of increasing interest in consumer research. A relationship being a series of interactions, key interactions between consumers and brands, especially the first one, because they can generate biases, cast their...

This paper aims at understanding whether firms should engage in CSR communications towards consumers, or let independent third parties do so. A generalisable sample of 275 adults participated in an experiment, manipulating third-parties credible information (positive information, negative, or...

Many retailers communicate about their societal engagements to improve their image. Yet, overwhelmed by these more or less well-founded societal claims, consumers get troubles to identify truly responsible retailers, making societal communication probably less efficient. Based upon the...

Previous research works on corporate social responsibility (CSR) generally acknowledge that consumers develop more favourable perceptions of responsible firms. Yet next to nothing has been written on the effects of the firm's societal communication and its characteristics on brand equity. In...

This research shows that to reach their prime goal of building an efficient assortment, retailers need, beside increasing the outlet’s cost‐efficiency, to evaluate shoppers’ assortment perceptions so that what the store actually offers can be tailored to meet customers’ needs and...