Connors et al. (2021): They’re Just Not That into You: How to Leverage Existing Consumer–Brand Relationships Through Social Psychological Distance

17 important questions on Connors et al. (2021): They’re Just Not That into You: How to Leverage Existing Consumer–Brand Relationships Through Social Psychological Distance

What is examined in the paper by Connors et al. (2021)?

The authors examine how marketers can more effectively manage existing brand relationships by focusing on the psychological distance between consumers and brands in order to match close (distant) brands with concrete (abstract) language in marketing communications.

What is the advantage of creating a beneficial mindset-congruency effect?

This leads to more favorable evaluations and behavior, even for brands that are relatively distant to consumers.

In this study, the first empirical evidence is offered for......(3 aspects)?

  • That social psychological distance is common to many major CBR constructs
  • That matching distance and construal level in marketing communications results in superior consumer evaluations and behaviors
  • That these effects are moderated by variables with strong implications for how marketers can respond more effectively to consumers’ existing brand relationships
  • Higher grades + faster learning
  • Never study anything twice
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Discover Study Smart

How can the concepts self-brand connection, self-brand overlap, self-brand distance, self-connection and self-concept connection be defined?

They reflect “the extent to which the brand overlaps with or is included in the self; that is, the extent to which the brand is me and I am the brand”

How can psychological distance be defined?

Psychological distance refers to the “subjective experience that something is close or far away from the self, here, and now”. It reflects the subjective feeling of how far, in abstract psychological space, a target (e.g., object, event) is perceived to be from the self.

What does the Construal Level Theory suggest?

  • On the one hand, the greater an object’s psychological distance from a person, the greater the likelihood that it will be conceptualized at a higher level of abstraction
  • On the other hand, objects that are psychologically close are represented by more concrete, low-level construals

Matching the psychological distance of an object with an appropriate level of construal or concreteness of brand information results in.....?

....mindset-congruency effects that have been shown to lead to information being perceived as more persuasive and more likely to be accurately stored and retained in memory

What are the 3 effects of high-level abstract language versus low-level concrete language?

  • Improves conservation behavior
  • Increases effectiveness of charitable appeals and health messaging
  • Explains consumer evaluations of brand extensions

How can the concept of processing fluency be defined?

It is referring to the ease with which a person is able to process information and assess meaning.

What is examined in Study 1?

Study 1 examines the brand relationship mindset-congruency
effect using a construal manipulation embedded within a brand
communication.

How can search attributes and experience attributes be defined?

  • Search attributes: Those qualities of a brand that the consumer can determine by inspection prior to purchase and can be effectively discovered without the consumer interacting with the brand or product
  • Experience attributes: Those product attributes that cannot be determined prior to inspection, as they typically require purchase to understand

What was examined in Study 2?

Study 2 examines differences in consumer donations as a joint function of the construal level of brand communications and the psychological distance of the target brand.
  • Study 2 employs a more realistic application of construal level by embedding a construal-based manipulation in an advertisement for a charitable cause

What was examined in Study 3?

Study 3 was designed to address key brand-level moderators to
provide greater insight into the practical application of our
mindset congruency effect.
  • First, we examine search versus experience brands to examine how our congruency effect is impacted by differences in the availability and diagnosticity of brand information.
  • Second, we examine how strongly held brand stereotypes (e.g., warmth, competence) can inhibit the processing of new brand information.

According to the Stereotype Content Model of interpersonal interaction, consumer typically maintain two fundamental perceptions or beliefs about brands. Which two are those?

  • Brand warmth, which captures the extent to which a brand is perceived as having positive intentions
  • Brand competence, indicating whether the brand is perceived to have the ability to carry out these intentions

What was examined in Study 4?

Study 4 was conducted to increase the robustness and ecological validity of our findings through a field study examining direct purchase behavior
  • It adopts a purely concreteness-based manipulation of construal level in order to improve the practical application of our effect
  • We build on our exploration of boundary conditions by examining a brand-level moderator, category usage rate, that affects consumers’ motivation to process brand information.

What are the main conclusions of the paper by Connors et al. (2021)?

  • Marketing communications are more successful if they employ high-level, abstract language.
  • Self–brand distance is a thread weaving through many major CBR measures, including brand attachment, brand love, self– brand connection, brand commitment, brand identification.
  • Level of psychological distance associated with a brand relationship can trigger a favorable congruency effect when matched with the appropriate level of construal or concreteness of a marketing message, resulting in enhanced processing fluency, more favorable brand evaluations, higher donations, and more spending

According to the Stereotype Content Model of interpersonal interaction, consumer typically maintain two fundamental perceptions or beliefs about brands. Which two are those?

  • Brand warmth, which captures the extent to which a brand is perceived as having positive intentions
  • Brand competence, indicating whether the brand is perceived to have the ability to carry out these intentions

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

  • A unique study and practice tool
  • Never study anything twice again
  • Get the grades you hope for
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.
Trustpilot Logo