Research Interests
Working Papers
Research in Progress
|
Selected Abstracts
The Liberating Engagement Theory of Consumer Fun
From Dissertation in Progress: "The Consumer Psychology of Fun" - Winner of ACR/Sheth Dissertation Proposal Award 2017
From amusement parks to casinos, and from cruises to video games, large sectors of the economy revolve around the marketing of consumer fun. Given the importance of consumer fun across many industries, it is surprising that very little research, thus far, has been devoted to understanding the consumer psychology of fun. In particular, what is the consumer experience of fun, and what are its main psychological drivers in marketplace settings? The purpose of this article is to develop a psychological theory of consumer fun that will help inform how fun experiences can be engineered by businesses and consumers themselves. We use a multimethod approach that combines qualitative in-depth interviews and narrative analyses with digital ethnography, text mining analyses, controlled experiments, and structural equation modeling. Through this unique combination of methodologies, our emerging theory identifies two primary pillars of consumer fun: (1) hedonic engagement and (2) a sense of liberation. Each of these two pillars in turn rests onto two sub-pillars: (1a) novelty and (1b) connectedness, and (2a) spontaneity and (2b) boundedness. Briefly, our research shows that fun is an experience of liberating engagement, which is a temporary release from obligations and other constraints (e.g., work, parenting duties) that can be achieved through an engaging consumption activity. In addition, ethnographic analyses of consumer selfies show that, compared to other positive emotions such as happiness, pride, or relaxation, fun is much more likely to be experienced in commercial settings, thus substantiating the business relevance of fun as a marketing construct. More broadly, our studies reveal that fun leads to increased consumer well-being, independently from the meaningful, eudaimonic path toward consumer happiness.
From Dissertation in Progress: "The Consumer Psychology of Fun" - Winner of ACR/Sheth Dissertation Proposal Award 2017
From amusement parks to casinos, and from cruises to video games, large sectors of the economy revolve around the marketing of consumer fun. Given the importance of consumer fun across many industries, it is surprising that very little research, thus far, has been devoted to understanding the consumer psychology of fun. In particular, what is the consumer experience of fun, and what are its main psychological drivers in marketplace settings? The purpose of this article is to develop a psychological theory of consumer fun that will help inform how fun experiences can be engineered by businesses and consumers themselves. We use a multimethod approach that combines qualitative in-depth interviews and narrative analyses with digital ethnography, text mining analyses, controlled experiments, and structural equation modeling. Through this unique combination of methodologies, our emerging theory identifies two primary pillars of consumer fun: (1) hedonic engagement and (2) a sense of liberation. Each of these two pillars in turn rests onto two sub-pillars: (1a) novelty and (1b) connectedness, and (2a) spontaneity and (2b) boundedness. Briefly, our research shows that fun is an experience of liberating engagement, which is a temporary release from obligations and other constraints (e.g., work, parenting duties) that can be achieved through an engaging consumption activity. In addition, ethnographic analyses of consumer selfies show that, compared to other positive emotions such as happiness, pride, or relaxation, fun is much more likely to be experienced in commercial settings, thus substantiating the business relevance of fun as a marketing construct. More broadly, our studies reveal that fun leads to increased consumer well-being, independently from the meaningful, eudaimonic path toward consumer happiness.
The Makeup of Brand Character: A Field Data Analysis of Consumer Responses to 7,000 Brands over 20 Years
A longstanding preoccupation for marketers and academics alike has been the study of how consumers perceive brands, and how those perceptions relate to brand preferences over time. We leverage 1997–2016 proprietary survey data from Young and Rubicam (“BAV”) with 6,998 unique brands and 30 industry sectors collected from a quarterly panel of approximately 17,000 US respondents to present three key findings: (1) We uncover six dimensions of brand character--trustworthiness, classiness, fun, innovativeness, caring, and daring energy, a contemporary update to Aaker’s five brand personality dimensions (1997). Importantly, the brand character framework is robust over time and generalizable across multiple industries. (2) We show differential effects of brand character dimensions on consumer’s stated preferences across industry sectors over time. We find that trustworthiness is the strongest positive driver of preference regardless of industry, while the relationships between brand preference and other brand character dimensions vary by industry. (3) We provide empirical evidence for the peak hypothesis, which holds that consumers generally prefer brands with a distinct “peak” in one or two brand character dimensions.
A longstanding preoccupation for marketers and academics alike has been the study of how consumers perceive brands, and how those perceptions relate to brand preferences over time. We leverage 1997–2016 proprietary survey data from Young and Rubicam (“BAV”) with 6,998 unique brands and 30 industry sectors collected from a quarterly panel of approximately 17,000 US respondents to present three key findings: (1) We uncover six dimensions of brand character--trustworthiness, classiness, fun, innovativeness, caring, and daring energy, a contemporary update to Aaker’s five brand personality dimensions (1997). Importantly, the brand character framework is robust over time and generalizable across multiple industries. (2) We show differential effects of brand character dimensions on consumer’s stated preferences across industry sectors over time. We find that trustworthiness is the strongest positive driver of preference regardless of industry, while the relationships between brand preference and other brand character dimensions vary by industry. (3) We provide empirical evidence for the peak hypothesis, which holds that consumers generally prefer brands with a distinct “peak” in one or two brand character dimensions.