Branding Research

T O P I C 5

1. RESEARCH IDEA AND PROPOSAL

• Title
• Summary
• Problem statement
• Theoretical framework / conceptual model: Arguments
• Predictions: Hypotheses
• Methodology:
– Sample, Design, Procedure,
– Analytical method
• Result description
• Conclusion and Discussion:
– Overall conclusion, Managerial implementations, theoretical contribution, limitations,
Further research

1.1 Title would reflect…

• Domain of your research
• Main idea of your research
• Your main findings
Example: "What We Do Not Know About Satisfaction Formation: Expectations are Irrelevant if
Performance is High"
Þ Try to find some catchy title that would reflect the content on your research.

1.2 Problem statement 1.3 Theoretical framework

Here you should convince readers that your
research is interesting and needed!
• Practical (managerial) relevance:
– Description of a problem in
details
– Importance for marketers/
consumers/ society
• Explicit statement of your problem
and goal of your research
Here you build your arguments for each
hypothesis and explain them
• Describe theories/ models/ previous
findings relevant for your research and
related them to your expectation
• Describe effect of what (which variables) on
what (which variables) you expect and why.
• After reading this section it should be clear
WHY you have those expectations

1.4 Literature &. References

• Use scientific journals, not books
• Try to use top-journals in the field:
– Journal of Consumer Research (JCR),
– Journal of Consumer Psychology (JCP),
– Journal of Marketing,
– Journal of Marketing Research (JMR),
– International Journal of Research in
Marketing (IJRM),
– Psychology and Marketing
– Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
(JPSP),
– Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
(PSPB)
2. EXPERIMENTS

2.1 Why do experiments?

• Understand consumer behavior
– describe behavior
– predict behavior
• Determine the causes of behavior
– understand situational factors
– understand the role of dispositional characteristics
• Understand why consumers behave in certain ways
• Understand why consumers sometimes behave differently in the same situations
• Understand why we sometimes behave the same in different situations

2.2 Experiments is branding 2.3 Descriptive vs Casual Research

• Behavior is not only what people do
and their acts, but also their thoughts,
emotions, physiological reactions,
etc...
• Experimental research is very useful to
study consumer behavior
– We can carefully isolate
factors that affect behavior,
while keeping other factors
constant
– Studies various influences on
behavior
– Situational influences
(external/contextual
differences)
– Chronic influences (individual (Fotos con ejemplos en las diapositivas)
differences)
– Interactions between
situational and chronic
influences

2.4 Beware of Correlation

• Intuitive thinking: people often interpret correlational relation as causal relationship
– But: sometimes correlation is result of confounding variables
• Correlation = non-directional
– We do not know which variable influences the other
– How can we know which variable influences which?

Causal relations
• Intuition and everyday thinking tends to lead to wrong predictions
• Knowing about research methods will help you as a manager to make better predictions and
therefore better strategical decisions
• Experiments help you to know the magnitude of the effect.
3 CRITERIA TO DISCOVER CAUSE AND EFFECT RELATIONSHIP
1. Relationship between X and Y
Theory
2. Time order: The cause must precede the effect
First X, than Y
3. Elimination of other possible causal factors
Marketing effects are caused by multiple variables

Description and Prediction

• Description begins with careful observation
• Prediction based on observation of regularity of phenomena
– Two events are systematically related to one another, it becomes possible to make
prediction
– Illusory correlations?
Variables
• What are you variables?
– Independent variables (effect OF WHAT): factors that cause the effect and manipulated.
Those variables in whose effects the researcher is interested and (e.g., mood, task given)
– Dependent variables (effect ON WHAT): response variables, those factors you measure
(e.g., attitudes, intentions, responses)
• Types of variables:
– Categorical/ nominal: represent whole units. E.g., sex, nationality, presence (yes/no),
choice (yes/no).
– Continuous: those you can range as lower-higher: age, income, favorability of attitudes,
number of items chosen
Experimental research
n Designed to discover the effect of an independent variable (IV) on a dependent variable (DV)
via controlled conditions
n Manipulate independent variable (often: nonmetric)
n Measure effects on dependent variable (often: metric)

3. EXPECTATIONS & HYPOTHESES

3.1 Hypothesis
• A hypothesis should be…
– as specific as possible
– Indicate a clear tendency between the variables
– Capable of being refuted or confirmed
HYPOTHESIS 1:
Here you formulate your predictions abput differences, effects, causes, outcomes…
• Hypotheses should be very specific and directional:
Bad examples: “There is an effect of…. “, “X influences Y”
Good example: “The higher is the X, the higher is Y”, “X increases Y”
• For effect between groups (categorical variables):
E.g.: “Consumers in good (vs. bad) mood have more favorable attitudes towards drinking
coffee”
• For effects on continuous variables:
E.g.: “The higher the mood of consumer the more favorable attitudes they have towards
drinking coffee”
HYPOTHESIS 2
Always make is clear what you compare to what!
Bad example: “Consumers in good mood have more favorable attitudes towards drinking coffee”
???
??? “Than consumers in bad mood” or “than towards drinking tea”?
Good example: “Consumers in good (vs. bad) mood have more favorable attitudes towards
drinking coffee”

3.2 Types of Independent Variable

1. Presence vs.absence
2. Amount of variable
3. Type of a variable

PRESENCE VS ABSENCE example

• Idea
– one group receives the treatment condition and the other group does not
– the two groups are then compared to see if the group that received the treatment differs
(on the DV) from the group that did not
– aim is to test whether a variable has an effect
• Example
– medicine vs. placebo
– watching an aggressive movie versus watching nothing

• Does thinking of money affects interpersonal behavior?

• Thinking of money can make people self-sufficient
• Being in a self-sufficient state would mean being hesitant to allow others to involve the self in
their activities

AMOUNT OF A VARIABLE
• Idea
– administer different amounts of the variable to each of several groups
– aim is not only to tell if a variable has an effect but also to examine what influence
varying amounts of the IV have
• Example
– cognitive load (high vs. low)
– price of a product ($5 vs. $7 vs. $9)
• Combination of amount of a variable and presence versus absence is possible
• Do people overreact to free products?
• Choice between Hershey kisses, Lindt truffles, or nothing
• Two conditions:
– cost condition: Hershey = 1¢; Lindt = 15¢
– free condition: Hershey = 0¢; Lindt = 14¢
TYPE OF A VARIABLE
• Idea
– vary the type of variable under investigation
– aim is to tell if different types of a variable cause variation on the DV
• Example
– type of consumer (measured or manipulated):
• Holistic vs. analytical thinkers
• independent vs. interdependent consumers
• promotion vs. prevention oriented consumers
– mood
• negative vs. positive
Example. Flying Under the Radar (2008)
• Experiment:
– IV manipulation: Participants could eat from either a large or small package of chips
– DV measure: how many chips they ate
• Results: Participants who could eat from a large package actually ate less chips than those
who could eat from a small package
• When tempting products came in large package formats, people deliberated most before
consumption, and consumed the least. Hence, small temptations can remain undetected
(“flying under the radar”) and large package formats may reduce consumption due to self-
control conflict

A good control condition is important!

• A control condition is often regarded as a condition in which a treatment should not occur
(absence of treatment) or in which participants are experiencing something neutral
• However, often, “something” should happen in the control condition to make sure that this
condition controls for possible confounds associated with the treatment condition
– e.g., effort and time associated with the treatment

The Goal Gradient Hypothesis

• Biology: animals expend more effort as they approach a reward ® “… [R]ats in a maze …
run faster as they are near the beginning of the food box than at the beginning of the path.”
(Hull, 1934)
• Marketing: Participants in a real reward program (‘buy ten coffee, get one free’) purchase
coffee more frequently the closer they are to earning their coffee.”

4. INDEPENDENT VARIABLES
4.1 Ways to manipulate Independent Variables
• Instructional manipulation
• Event manipulation
– environmental manipulations
– stimulus manipulations
– social manipulations
• Individual difference “manipulation”
4.2 Instructional manipulation
• Variation in the IV is caused by differences in instructions provided by the experimenter
• Example of mood induction
– writing a report of a negative or positive personal event
• Important to be careful with manipulations
– you have to make sure that everyone interprets the instructions in the same way
– instructions should be clear and unambiguous

4.3 Event manipulation

• Changes in the physical environment/context

• Environmental
– exposing participants to a mirror (Duval & Wicklund, 1992)
• manipulation of self-awareness
– presence of business objects in the room (Kay, Wheeler, Bargh, & Ross, 2004, in
OBHDP)
 • activation of a competitive orientation
– clean versus littered environment (Cialdini, Reno, & Kallgren, 1990, in JPSP)
• Stimulus
– effects of types of music on arousal
– products touching each other
• food products next to “disgusting” products (Morales & Fitzsimons, 2007,
JMR)
• Social
– presence versus absence of people
– number of people around
– behavior of other people
• are we influenced by others’ shopping behavior?

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE MANIPULATION

• Not really a manipulation, rather a measure of a variable on which individuals may differ
• Differences in traits, personality types, internal states
– examples: Need for Cognition, Self-Monitoring, Self-Esteem, Anxiety, Impulsive
Shopping, etc.
• Treat the individual difference variable as a continuous variable in your analysis

5. DEPENDENT VARIABLES (DV)

How many DV measures?
• Depends on your problem statement and hypotheses
• Depends on which construct you want to measure
– sometimes only one DV is sufficient
• e.g., product choice, product preference
– sometimes multiple DVs are necessary
• e.g., attitude, number of positive features recalled and confidence
– sometimes DV is a scale/consists of multiple items
• multiple items are used to measure the same construct
• e.g. buying intention, product satisfaction, ad evaluation

5.1 Types of scales

• Nominal – Use: distance between objects, zero
– Use: identity (identical or distinct) point is arbitrary
– Examples: marital status, gender, – Examples: temperature, brand
occupation attitude, satisfaction
– Analysis: frequency, mode (=highest – Analysis: frequency, mode, median,
frequency) mean, standard deviation
• Ordinal • Ratio
– Use: rank order (higher or lower) – Use: absolute distances (meaningful
– Examples: brand preferences, letter zero)
grades – Examples: units sold, weight, length
– Analysis: frequency, mode, median price
(=middle point) – Analysis: all
• Interval

5.2 Variables
 – Independent variables (effect OF WHAT): factors that cause the effect and
manipulated. Those variables in whose effects the researcher is interested and (e.g.,
mood, task given)
– Dependent variables (effect ON WHAT): response variables, those factors you
measure (e.g., attitudes, intentions, responses)
• Types of variables:
– Categorical/ nominal: represent whole units. E.g., sex, nationality, presence (yes/no),
choice (yes/no).
– Continuous: those you can range as lower-higher: age, income, favorability of
attitudes, number of items chosen

6. DESIGN AND SURVEY

6.1 Design
• How many (a) factors and (b) levels within each factor you want to compare?
– Factors are your independent variables
– Levels are groups within each factor. For example:
• 2 level factors: Mood (bad vs. good), Sex (males vs. females)
• 3 level factors: Task given: (easy vs. moderate vs. difficult)
• Use of subjects:
– Between-subjects design: each participant takes part only in one condition (e.g.,
either with labels or without labels condition)
– Within-subject design: each participant takes part in more than one condition
• Design examples:
2 (Mood: bad vs. good) ´ 3 (Task: easy vs. moderate vs. difficult) between subject design
• Number of conditions: 2 ´ 3 = 6
1. Bad mood with easy task
2. Bad mood with moderate task
3. Bad mood with difficult task
4. Good mood with easy task
5. Good mood with moderate task
6. Good mood with difficult task
• At least 20 participants per condition

6.2 Survey
• Start with welcome message.
• Thank your participants to participation.
• Explain what they have to do
“Thank you for helping us by taking part in this questionnaire. This is a marketing study about
consumer preferences and your answers will be very helpful in order to develop a further study. We
value your opinion very much, and we would appreciate your honest answers to the following
questions. Your responses are anonymous and strictly confidential.
Please take a look at the following Advertisement and read the text carefully, then answer the
questions on the following pages”

• Make your survey easy to answer

• Use anchors for the answers
• Be aware of the direction of your items!!!
• Some items may be reversed (you will have to reverse its coding in the data)
• Use your key dependent variables closer to the beginning (after your manipulation)
 • Use demographic variables at the end
• Try to make some open space for your participants for their comments.
• Don’t force categorization of naturally continuous variables.
• Thank your participants for their participation.
“This is the end of the survey. Thank you again!”.

6.3 Discussion
Here you discuss your result on more general level (not technical, no statistics!) and interpret them
• Reflect on your problem statement and research questions (what your results mean)
• How your results can be implemented (managerial and theoretical contribution)
• If your results are different from what you expected discuss what could be the reasons.
• Discuss your limitation and suggestions for future research.

7. NEUROMARKETING
• Neuromarketing is the application of neuroscientific methods to analyze and understand
human behavior in relation to markets and marketing exchanges.
“Neuromarketing is the key to unlocking the subconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires that drive
the purchasing decisions we make each and every day of our lives.”
Martin Lindstrom, author Buyology

• Neuromarketing can be applied to:

• Build brand personality
(e.g., design of logo, packaging, prices)
• Examine (and improve) current brand personality
• Aim: Activates brand the desired brain areas? What emotions does it trigger?

7.1 Advantages of NM for building Brand Personality

• Measures the unconsciousness
• Many emotions/feelings are difficult to describe in words but are visible in the brain
• No socially desirable responses
• Data are often more accurate and reliable, providing better imput for management decisions
than traditional methods of market research
• Smaller samples (»10% of required sample of traditional methods)
• Response of brain is more universal than written or spoken reactions (less dependent
on social-cultural background of respondend)
• Universal language of the brain makes neuromarketing techniques a suitable method to
build/examine brand personality of global brands

7.2 Disadvantages of NM for building Brand Personality

• Relatively expensive (required knowledge and equipment)
• Dataprocessing and analysis is time-consuming
• Public debate on whether neuromarketing is ethical
• More research on relationship with actual behavior

(examples)