December 14, 2005 Source: University of Toronto:
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051214-1916.asp Researchers examine the role of relationship norms in consumer behaviour Getting intimate with shopping: consumers think about brands in a social context
Dec 14/05
by Jenny Hall (about) (email) Asking Santa for a new iPod this winter? New research from the University of Toronto suggests that consumers unknowingly apply the same norms that govern human relationships when considering information about brands. "Consumers think about brands as if they were people, as if these brands have intent and interact with them in a social context," says Professor Pankaj Aggarwal, lead author of a study in the December issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. Aggarwal and Professor Sharmistha Law of the Division of Management at the University of Toronto at Scarborough argue that when consumers form one of two types of relationships with brands – exchange or communal – they may focus on different types of brand information. Communal relationships are those we have with family members or close friends, people whose needs are important to us. Conversely, we tend to have exchange relationships with businesses and with people at work, and generally expect to get something back from these interactions. Aggarwal and Law found that the type of relationship people had with a brand affected how they learned and remembered information about it. Those who formed communal relationships with a brand had broad holistic impressions and did not remember the specific details of the brand and its features. Those in exchange relationships, however, were focused on specific "nitty-gritty" attributes and, when tested, could better recall concrete details. Marketers, Aggarwal says, need to know that consumers have certain expectations depending on the type of relationship they have formed with the brands in question. Marketing a Volkswagen to one person, for example, by highlighting its gas mileage or engine size may not be as relevant as emphasizing its comfort, style and maneuverability to another buyer – since that would be consistent with the norms that govern the communal relationship that person may have with the brand. So while your iPod isn’t a member of your family, you may now have an excuse for acting as if it were. Contact: Professor Pankaj Aggarwal, Division of Management, University of Toronto at Scarborough, 416-988-5614; e-mail:paggarwal@rotman.utoronto.ca Professor Sharmistha Law, Division of Management, University of Toronto at Scarborough; e-mail: law@rotman.utoronto.ca Sonnet L’Abbé, Public Affairs, 416-978-2988; e-mail: sonnet.labbe@utoronto.ca
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