Hierarchy Shapes Consumer Perceptions of Responsibility for and Reactions to Company Communication Regarding Ethical Scandals that Harm Consumers*

Nathaniel Hartmannn, Mauricio Palmeira, and Samuel Sekar

We examine consumer reactions to the blaming of higher-level (e.g., upper managers) vs. lower-level (e.g., sales associates) employees for an ethical scandal. Using a multi-methods approach involving interviews and three experiments, we find support for a series of insights: (1) consumers are biased toward attributing greater responsibility for an ethical scandal to higher-level vs. lower-level employees; (2) consumers hold more favorable attitudes regarding the company when the CEO places the blame on the higher- (vs. lower-) level employees; (3) consumers, even when parties are considered equally responsible, react more positively to a company that blames higher-level employees; (4) the effect of blaming higher-level employees is only observed among those more dispositioned to reject hierarchical differences (i.e., individuals low on power distance beliefs); and (5) that consumers are mostly concerned about lower-level employees not being blamed, rather than upper managers being blamed.

* Under Second Round, Revising for Resubmission to the Journal of Business Research.

Centrality of Sensory Attributes in Brand Extension Evaluations*

Samuel Sekar, Sajeev Varki, and Yasmeen Elsentiel

The study examines brand extensions based on a brand’s (primary) sensory attributes instead of typical brand extensions based on functional and symbolic attributes. In addition, the study also investigates how brand equity and brands’ primary sensory attributes interact when consumers evaluate the brand extensions. We propose hypotheses regarding the role of touch- and smell-related attributes on extension evaluations, as well as the relative importance of sensory attributes and brand equity. We test these hypotheses through in-person and online experiments. Seven pre-tests were done to develop stimulus materials and two experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. A brand may be associated with multiple sensory attributes, yet its dominant sensory attribute (central attribute) determines which extension categories it can successfully extend into. In our experiments, Dove is associated with both touch and smell, though predominantly with touch. Hence, Dove is able to extend into categories such as hair conditioner, lip balm, face cream where its central attribute of touch is relevant. However, it performs relatively poorly compared to Irish Spring (known for smell) when it extends into categories such as cologne, air freshener, scented candles where Irish Springs’s central attribute of smell is relevant. Thus, Irish Spring, a lower equity brand, is able to do better in the smell-related extensions relative to Dove, a high equity brand.

*Under Second Review at the Journal of Consumer Marketing. 

The Incidental Effect of Changes in Nutritional Labelling Regulations on Consumers’ Preference for Healthy Options – An Attention-Based Explanation* 

Samuel Sekar, Anand Kumar, and Mark Bender

In 2016, FDA mandated printing calorie information in a larger font and adding sugar contents on all packaged food nutrition labels. Nutrition labels are the primary source of nutrition information at the store. We propose that when consumers evaluate a food product with the new label, they will over-attend to calorie information that stands out and overlook sugar information that does not stand out. Mainly, the visual attention to other information decreases if they are less involved, such as while buying a snack bar. They do not search for information elaborately and therefore do not process information deeply. We examine the combined effect of nutrition label type (old vs. new) and the type of consumer involvement (high vs. low vs. control) on the type of snack choice (healthy vs. unhealthy) through an online study. The snack bars differed only in their nutrition compositions. The snack bar with 160 calories and 0 grams of sugar is more healthy (i.e., nutritious) than the bar with 110 calories and four grams of sugar. Participants selected one of the two snack bars. Under low involvement, a higher proportion of participants chose an unhealthy snack bar with the new nutrition label than those who saw the same bar with the old one.

* Winner Association of Consumer Research (ACR) - AMA Transformative Consumer Research Grants Award (2022)

* Winner Association of Consumer Research (ACR) Small Research Grants Award (2021)

* Noteworthy Applicant, Bassi Scholarship (Summer 2020)

Spillover Effects in Product Customization

Samuel Sekar and Sajeev Varki

Product customization is increasingly being offered as consumers interact with businesses online. When consumers customize a product, they often choose from among multiple, interrelated categories. Thus, the choices made in a prior category could influence choices in later categories (spillover effect). Currently, marketers attempt to nudge consumers to choose more expensive/profitable options by preselecting these options (explicit reference). I explore whether implicit references can be employed to generate a spillover effect. Implicit references are generated by arranging the options within a category in either descending or ascending price order, with descending price order favoring the selection of higher-priced options and ascending price orders conversely favoring the selection of lower-priced options. In particular, I investigate whether presenting options prices in the first category in descending order increased spending in the subsequent categories (positive spillover). However, I find that the price-quality association in the first category influences the type of spillover. When the price-quality association is not strong in the first category, there is a negative spillover in the remaining categories, possibly because of increased price sensitivity. When the price-quality association is strong in the first category, there is an attenuation of the negative spillover in the remaining categories. It appears that the loss aversion for quality overcomes the increased price sensitivity found earlier.