Influence of consumers’ brand expectations on apparel brands’ US-based sourcing strategy

Purpose This study aims to understand how consumers evaluate Made in USA messages that are congruent/incongruent to consumers’ prior expectations about the brand’s US-based sourcing initiatives. Design/methodology/approach Two separate studies were conducted. Online experiment was designed implementing both message and treatment variance to increase internal and external validity of the study. Data collected from two distinct samples were analyzed using MANOVA and ANOVA. Findings Findings from Study 1 indicated that consumers’ perceived message credibility, attitude toward message and attitude toward brand were highest for congruent messages, followed by when incongruity was resolved and lowest when incongruity was not resolved. Further, consumers’ brand attitudes before and after message exposure were different, with change being most positive for incongruity resolution, followed by congruity, whereas negative for incongruity non-resolution. Findings from Study 2 indicated that consumers’ general attitude toward brands’ US-based sourcing strategies influenced their brand attitude, as well as moderated the relation between schema congruity/incongruity resolution/incongruity non-resolution and brand attitude. Originality/value The findings are helpful for brand managers and sourcing personnel to better invest their resources in US-based sourcing strategies. In addition, the findings of the study contribute and extend theory by identifying a boundary condition.

All Is Right with the World

Business-to-Consumer e-commerce vendors view consumer trust as an important determinant of purchasing intent. Based on the cognitive dissonance and schema-congruity theories, this paper examines the impact of schema-congruity between the website design elements of color and typography with the product context in impacting trust. Websites perceived as compatible with subconsciously internalized belief systems and hence deemed schema-congruent by consumers are expected to engender higher levels of trust. A controlled experimental study involving 128 participants spanning eight different schema-congruency conditions was conducted. Results indicated that completely schema-congruent websites engendered higher levels of trust. Partially schema-congruent and schema-incongruent websites registered significantly lower levels of trust due to cognitive dissonance arising out of their incompatibility with consumer belief systems. The judicious selection of color and typography perceived as schema-congruent with the product context can serve to enhance consumer trust in e-commerce websites.

Macho Nachos

The present studies examine how culturally held stereotypes about gender (that women eat more healthfully than men) implicitly influence food preferences. In Study 1, priming masculinity led both male and female participants to prefer unhealthy foods, while priming femininity led both male and female participants to prefer healthy foods. Study 2 extended these effects to gendered food packaging. When the packaging and healthiness of the food were gender schema congruent (i.e., feminine packaging for a healthy food, masculine packaging for an unhealthy food) both male and female participants rated the product as more attractive, said that they would be more likely to purchase it, and even rated it as tasting better compared to when the product was stereotype incongruent. In Study 3, packaging that explicitly appealed to gender stereotypes (“The muffin for real men”) reversed the schema congruity effect, but only among participants who scored high in psychological reactance.