eBusiness Research Center Working Paper 1-2002
A Good Website Can Convey The Wrong Brand Image! A Preliminary Report (January 2002)
Jennifer E. Chang Timothy W. Simpson Arvind Rangaswamy Jayesh R. Tekchandaney January 2002
eBusiness Research Center 401 Business Administration Building University Park, PA 16802 Phone: 814.861.7575 Fax: 814.863.0413 Web: www.ebrc.psu.edu
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eBusiness Research Center 2002
A Good Website Can Convey The Wrong Brand Image! A Preliminary Report (January 2002) Jennifer E. Chang1 Timothy W. Simpson Arvind Rangaswamy Jayesh R. Tekchandaney Penn State University Introduction Consider the following two web pages from two popular websites, one from IBM and the other from Apple:
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Which one conveys an "aggressive" versus a "charismatic" image? Which one is considered more "professional"? more "fun"? more "honest"? easier to navigate? Which one has greater impact on changing a consumer’s perception of the brand? In this white paper we summarize results from a preliminary study to answer such questions and understand the importance of building a good online customer experience by an often overlooked, yet effective, means: the design characteristics of the website.
Websites are becoming increasingly popular vehicles for people to gather information, browse, or purchase products. In the offline world, firms have used various marketing strategies (e.g., advertising, public relations, etc.) to build their brand equity among consumers. In today’s marketplace, a compelling online presence can enhance not only traditional marketing communications but also a consumer’s brand experience. Interactions between consumers and firms in the online environment can make consumers feel integrated with, or a part of, the company as well as the brand. A well designed website represents a rich online playground that facilitates exploration by consumers without the presence of salespeople or spokespersons. In some sense, the website can substitute for salespeople, and as a result, is often perceived by consumers as having a "personality" much like a real-life salesperson or even a friend.
In our study, we focus on websites from computer companies that enable consumers to customize a product online. Unlike other modes of purchase, the process of customization engages a consumer in both the short-range goals of transactional activities, and in the relationship-building process of experiential consumption. We examine how website design elements relate to personality characteristics that users attribute to the brand and the company during product customization. We account for design elements that are both functional (e.g., number of drop-down boxes, check boxes) and symbolic (e.g., background colors, font, visual aids). Our results offer several intriguing insights about how design characteristics influence a consumer's brand experience.
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Please address all correspondences to Professor Jennifer Chang, 701 BAB, The Smeal College of Business Administration, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, (814) 865-0577,
[email protected].
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The New Consumer Brand Experience The New Atmospherics Consumers used to spend hours browsing through stores like Best Buy, Circuit City and WalMart when shopping for products like computers. Now, many of those consumers spend those hours on the Internet, visiting company-specific websites like IBM.com and Apple.com. When consumers visit websites, they do not just focus on purchasing a product, but also spend time browsing, learning about a product, playing with it, and exploring the product offering within these brand-centric environments.
With each click of the mouse, consumers have the
opportunity to truly experience brands in a whole new way.
Such interactions offer the
opportunity for firms to build one-on-one relationships between consumers and the brand (Omanson, et al., 2002). Rather than watch marketers communicate to them at arm’s length through in-store advertising and the like, consumers can, of their own choice, immerse themselves at the website to experience the world of the brand.
In the 1970’s, Philip Kotler (1973/74) coined the term "atmospherics" to suggest that the store atmosphere may be more important in selling a product than the product itself. In today’s online environments, the importance of "atmospherics" shifts to website design, which helps consumers to self-navigate through the world of the company and the brand. The types of menus, radio boxes, layout, and logos all contribute to online atmospherics and consumer brand experience. In short, what the consumer experiences at a website can profoundly influence one's desire to purchase a particular product. Moreover, much as a patron would absorb the experiences of a museum or amusement park, an online visitor engages in what Holbrook and Hirschman (1982) term "experiential consumption". Translated to the online environment, the intangible feelings and emotions of experiencing the website itself coincide with, and may even dominate, the tangible product purchase. This can also impact a consumer’s loyalty to a particular website (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000).
New Human Interactions Consider online product customization.
The navigation and interactions that occur during
product customization immerse the consumer intimately into the brand environment. The consumer becomes part of the "production process." Consumers are no longer just end-users;
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they are co-producers (or, "prosumers," as some industry observers call them) and they are in the driver’s seat. During these interactions, consumers decide what components of the product should be combined together to meet their specific needs. Consumers also decide which buttons to click, which web pages to visit, and generally, how to navigate through a website.
Consumers’ brand experiences are strongly shaped by their online interactions. In the absence of actual spokespersons and salespeople – as one might find in an advertisement or store – consumers naturally look for human-like interactions on the web to serve as surrogates for human interactions. In fact, Nass, Moon and colleagues have found that people humanize computers during people-to-computer interactions (e.g., Nass and Moon, 2000; Nass, et al., 1999). It is also well established that brands have distinct personalities (Aaker, 1997). In our research, we have observed that people humanize the online environment to facilitate their interactions. Even when online help literally permits interactions with a real human being, a website’s design characteristics contribute to the personality that consumers associate with a website and the brand.
As in any interpersonal relationship, consumers have their own competing short-term and longterm needs. On the one hand, consumers are opportunistic and seek efficiency during product customization and purchase. On the other hand, consumers may also enjoy just browsing in the brand environment and experiencing the brand, which could lead to a long-term relationship with the brand.
As shown in the offline world, consumers, directly or indirectly, value their
relationships with brands (Fournier, 1998).
Providing the venue for a great consumer experience and enhancing the consumer-brand relationship can make a big difference to the company’s (and the brand’s) image. At the same time, even one bad experience can create a breach in the relationship, and the consumer may abandon the site permanently. Even worse, when one customer has a bad experience on a website, they are likely to tell another 10 people about it.2 On the other hand, a great consumer
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Source: Forrester Research, Inc. The Forrester Report: Why Websites Fail, September 1998, p. 10.
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experience can result in strong word-of-mouth, build customer confidence, and increase long term revenues (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000).
An Exploratory Study of Online Product Customization
Study Description To understand how websites influence brand image, we interviewed and observed online user interactions with the websites of four computer-manufacturing companies: Apple, Dell, Gateway, and IBM. Our aim was to uncover how web design elements influence brand image and brand personalities. All websites in our study are well known and have attractively designed web pages varying in layout, background colors, font, and the like. Our 16 participants (8 Engineering graduate students, 8 Marketing undergraduate students), varied in age, gender, academic standing, major field of study, and Internet usage as summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Participant Profile Age Range Gender Internet Usage (Total) Internet Usage (Avg.)
20-25 years 10 male, 6 female 5-42 hours/week 22 hrs/week
We asked each participant to visit the websites of two specified computer companies and customize a desktop computer for a hypothetical purchase. We allowed the participants to choose their own navigation paths and page views while accomplishing this task.
Each
participant spent about 30 minutes browsing through a website and was videotaped during the process for later analysis. We devised an open-ended "thought protocol" task to get participants to think aloud about design elements during the course of their website interactions. Questions in the protocol included, "What do you immediately notice on this page?," "What stands out?," "What does it make you think of?," "What characteristics do you (not) like?".
We randomized the pairs of companies that each participant evaluated and also randomized the order of their web visits (for each pair). This ensured that each website was visited by eight different participants.
Specifically, four participants, two each from the Engineering and
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Marketing backgrounds viewed each pair of the following: IBM/Dell, Gateway/Apple, Gateway/Dell, and IBM/Apple. visiting each site.
We also spoke with the participants after they completed
The interviews and post-discussions were videotaped to capture the
participants’ verbal and nonverbal reactions, emotions, and opinions for subsequent analysis. We catalogued their responses by both qualitative and quantitative means. Of prime importance was a list of functional and symbolic elements and reactions regarding each. Table 2 lists the functional and symbolic elements that emerged from data collection.
Table 2. Functional and Symbolic Elements Studied Functional Elements • • • • • • •
Symbolic Elements •
Number of clicks to get to the customization page Number of drop down menus Number of radio boxes Number of check boxes Price update based on user customized options Saving user choices for future reference Presence of pop up windows
• • • • • • •
Web page layout for display of products, product attributes and services Background colors Font size and style Company logo and tagline Visual images (e.g., person smiling, familiarity) Location of navigation menu Visible online support/help Information density
The Importance of Web Personality: An Example Sitting in front of the computer, Peter navigates through IBM.com. He clicks on the left hand menu and other buttons to reach the customization page. As he begins to customize his own desktop computer, he notices a set of disclaimers in very small text. As he scrolls up and down the screen examining the disclaimer, he notes:
"This is scary. You always hear about the read between lines, which would definitely make me read this for hidden costs. The font size is not good for reading. This makes me feel that they are trying to hide something." (Peter, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Male, Age 20) Minutes later, when he customizes and selects his computer, which is the same as that displayed on the page, he is switches to a new screen. The new screen, with an empty white background, contains only an error message in large letters stating:
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No Such System Available Taken aback, Peter comments:
"I am confused. Slightly Upset. It seems like they are screaming at me for going to this page. This text is aggressive, bigger than text on all other pages…They are trying to reinforce that they are IBM, a strong brand, and that you can trust them. But, it’s not reinforcing that to me. I go to configure and that was upsetting. I wouldn’t like to be on here much longer than that. They should make everything without any error because that is what I expect from them. They should be very professional." (Peter, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Male, Age 20) This example indicates how font size, one of many web design elements, can influence and shape the customer’s perceptions of the brand. Seemingly common practices, like utilizing small text for disclaimers or large plain text for errors, can translate into devious interpersonal characteristics like hiding and cheating. The empty white background behind "No Such System Available" contributes to the feeling of aggression ("screaming") and mistrust.
In short,
respondents tend to second-guess the company and its intentions via such personality characteristics.
Thus, as we focus on the influence of web design elements on the consumer experience of the brand, we look to answer questions, such as the following: •
When and in what ways does the size of the font matter to the consumer?
•
What do color combinations convey to the consumer?
•
What does lack of company logo on a web page imply?
•
Why do most websites have a menu on the left side of the page?
•
How do drop down menus contribute to feelings of customization?
Web Site Comparisons and Changes in Brand Perception After the users browsed through the websites, we asked them to rate the websites with respect to the choice and the design of web elements. We then ranked the websites based on these ratings, 7
as shown in Table 3. The table illustrates the salience of the design characteristics and brand image on the website, rather than an evaluative judgment of whether people like the image or not. The websites are ranked from I-IV on each attribute (I=highest, IV=lowest).
Table 3. Web Site Rankings based on Web Elements
Color Font Visual Aids Navigation Online Support
I
II
Apple Apple Apple Apple
Dell
III
IV
Gateway, IBM Dell, Gateway, IBM Gateway Dell, IBM Gateway Dell IBM Apple, Dell, Gateway IBM
Out of the 32 web visits studied, in 9 visits (28%) the participants’ perception of the company changed after visiting the site (see Table 4). For 7 out of the 16 participants (44%), their perceptions of at least one of the sites changed as a direct consequence of visiting that website.
Table 4. Change in Participants’ Perception of Brand after Viewing the Websites Brand Perception
IBM
Dell
Gateway
Apple
From Like to Dislike Same From Dislike to Like
1 6 1
1 6 1
1 6 1
0 5 3
The results summarized in Table 4 can be explained, in part, by the observations made in Table 3. The positive perception of Apple can be partially attributed to its highest ratings on each of the web elements. This data offers some initial evidence that the web design elements may influence consumers’ perceptions of the brand. Our qualitative analyses and recommendations below provide a more complete picture.
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Insights and Recommendations
Based on the observational data and analyses, we offer the following insights and general guidelines regarding what companies can do to improve their brand image with their websites.
Recognize that consumers can create personal, emotional bonds with websites through their online brand experiences. As illustrated earlier in the example of font size, our study reveals that websites do mimic personality characteristics that people use as cues for brand preference and product quality.
In online product customization, consumers are simultaneously opportunistic (short term, efficient, goal oriented) as well as engaged in relationship building (long term, browsing, process oriented). In our study, some consumers focused specifically on finishing the task, while others enjoyed immersing themselves in the process. For the former consumers, a good online experience is one that helps them to accomplish their goals quickly and easily. Marketers need to find a way to make the brand image salient without evidently hindering the customer’s progress on customization and purchase. The following comment from one participant when he first viewed the Dell Homepage shows the importance of having the site navigation options displayed in such a way as to minimize the navigation and search times, thus contributing to a positive consumer experience:
"This looks great. I can feel that I can shop online at this site, it comes to me naturally. I see everything in one shot; I don’t have to scroll down at all. All I have to do is just click to get whatever information I want, there is also an option of selecting the country. This is how the home page of a website should be, it should be a map to the entire website." (Graduate Student, Engineering, Male, Age 22) Good website design calls for a careful balance between facilitating quick transactions and encouraging browsing and relationship building.
Minimize the downside potential of functional design characteristics; maximize the upside potential of symbolic design characteristics. Following the previous point, the functional
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design elements should help people make quick purchases, and people expect websites to be designed efficiently for this purpose. At the same time, the symbolic elements at a website enable relationship building, but many websites seem not to pay as much attention to this aspect. Symbolic elements should be used strategically (as detailed below) but also with caution. For example, Apple, which employs many salient symbolic design elements, does so at the expense of seriousness. According to one respondent:
"Seems that they are trying to offer a fun image. The website does not have anything to say about their business philosophy." (Cathy, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 20) We also examined the functional elements for each website and note the number of options they provided to the user. Table 5 provides a summary of the choices available to the user for customization.
Table 5. Number of Options for Functional Elements on the Website
Drop Down Menus Radio Buttons Check Boxes
IBM
Dell
Gateway
Apple
17 4 8
23 7 68
12 4 59
14 0 3
The number of functional elements on the website serves as a partial estimate of the degree of customization on the web page. Most participants felt that each website offers plenty of options for customization; however, difficulties with functional design elements resulted in a sharp downside.
The first example illustrates a consumer’s inability to locate the
customization page after several clicks, while the second depicts a respondent unable to customize a computer configuration:
"It’s been 4-5 clicks and I haven’t yet made it to the customization page. Seems to be a company strategy to show me more of their products." (James, Graduate Student, Engineering, Male, Age 22) "Why do they have the ‘customize’ option if I cannot customize anything? That can be aggravating to the customer who wants to customize. Right now, I shall
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probably type www.dell.com and customize it there." (Peter, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Male, Age 20) In these two cases, the inability to customize a product is interpreted as an opportunistic "company strategy" which causes significant disappointment and aggravation to the brand experience. As a result, the user experience spirals downward and may result in switching behaviors. This was particularly true for participants with a strong computer background (i.e., experts in the purchase situation), who were typically focused more on task efficiency and customizing with the best options and influenced less by symbolic elements like font size and color. A good online experience for them meant that they were able to complete their task quickly and easily. Website aesthetics and the symbolic elements are still important, but less so relative to participants who know less about the product category.
Traditional notions of store "atmospherics" are the analog to the digital "experiential" environment. As discussed previously, Kotler’s classic notion that the store atmosphere may be more important in selling a product than the product itself, translates to the web environment in which design and self-navigation market the product.
Distinguish between the "personality" needs involved in browsing/information gathering vs. purchase vs. help. During browsing and information gathering, users pay attention to tone, friendliness (charisma?) and being upfront, while the purchase stage requires trust and appreciation rather than aggression, and the help stage requires one-on-one reassurance, empathy and caring.
Left side information density is key. Put important information on the left side of the page. Many participants tend to naturally look left first. The following statements reflect this tendency:
"The top left is a strategic position. I generally start looking at a page from the left hand side." (James, Graduate Student, Engineering, Male, Age 22) "There are no menus on the left side of the page. I generally look there for information." (Steve, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Male, Age 21)
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All websites studied, excluding Apple, contain navigation menus or indices on the left side of the web page. While the menu needn’t necessarily be on the left side, other important information or symbolic elements could instead be usefully employed there.
Reminiscent of offline store
Colors Reflect Personality: • Kid oriented • Fun company
Left menu missing
If you have a well-known brand, enhance "trust" through the logo. A company logo helps establish the website brand identity. Following the previous point, displaying the logo on the top left of every page engenders trust, reassurance, and confidence while on a website. For example, the well-placed IBM and Dell logos engender such feelings when people visit those sites. Regarding IBM:
"I would like to see the company logo on all pages. It reminds me that I am on the IBM website". (Jamie, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 19) "The logo reminds me of the IBM brand. It sells." (Biks, Graduate Student, Engineering, Male, Age 22) On the other hand, consumers are troubled by "floating" logos that appear in the middle of white space and seem to lack purpose:
"I don’t know why they have the Salt Lake 2000 floating in the middle of no where". (Cathy, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 20)
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Floating logo raises concern
Consequently, logos should seem solid, unmovable and literally permanent to reassure the consumer of a stable, long-term relationship.
The colors chosen reflect distinct brand "personality" characteristics. For example, the blue and white colors used on the IBM website create an impression that IBM is a professional company, while the use of fluorescent green and pink colors on the Apple website give a very different, young impression:
"This company (IBM) seems to be professional. I would associate the blue and white colors with professionals. The black computer that they have displayed adds to the professional look." (Jamie, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 19) "I don’t like the bubble gum colors on their (Apple) website…It seems to be a kid- oriented company." (Peter, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Male, Age 20)
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"If I had a kid I would not want them to use an Apple. I would prefer them to use Gateway because eventually they will have to learn to use it. I’ve never heard of any business that uses Apple. This is more for people who don’t know much about computers." (Cathy, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 20) The standard practice of using colors consistent with offline promotions is also important, as it gives consumers confidence in the brand:
"I can associate blue and white with IBM. The colors give me confidence while buying." (Steve, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Male, Age 21)
Logo: Creates confidence, enhances trust, and establishes identity
Color: Blue reminds users of IBM, reflects distinct brand personality characteristics
Upfront Price Display: • Suggests honesty • Influences decision to progress on the Website Personality: • Professional company • Blue, white, gray colors • Black computer • Tabulated, neat presentation
The font size conveys "tone". As discussed earlier, under potentially negative circumstances (e.g., errors or disclaimers), users interpret large font size as aggressive, whereas fine print creates suspicion in the user’s mind about the company’s motives. By contrast, on Apple’s website, the use of larger font sizes as a way of helping through the customization process (e.g., "Step 4: Do you need anything else?") signals warmth, caring and an element of charisma. Bold text can also be viewed as helpful and supportive rather than aggressive when highlighting particular options:
"The bold, highlighted text is eye catching. It makes me more interested to stay on the page. I am a fast clicker and generally do not read all the options." (Quinn, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 20)
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Font size influences tone
Large font: • Signals aggression • Hard selling approach Small font: • Causes suspicion about company motives
Pop-up windows signal "aggression". Users sense an invasion of privacy when windows pop up on their own, without user-control.
Participants leave with the impression that the
company is resorting to aggressive sales tactics:
"It feels like they are invading your privacy. The company seems to be in an aggressive mood to sell." (Peter, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Male, Age 20)
Online support signals caring. Display of the company phone number on each web page suggests that the company supports, and is willing to help and act as a partner with, its customers:
"I like the online sales help option and the ‘Chat Now’ option. It’s not just help, but help "right now". I feel I am not alone." (Quinn, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 20)
The image of a smiling face conveys a personal, one-to-one relationship. People tend to develop relationships with the human images that they view on web pages. On Dell's homepage, for instance, the picture of a person looking straight at the user contribute to feelings of friendliness.
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"It (Dell Home Page) looks friendly because there is a guy looking at you…. Dell seems to say that we have computers for everyone, for someone like you, as opposed to IBM which seems to be business oriented." (Jamie, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 19) Similarly, the Gateway tagline "You've got a friend in the business" itself serves the purpose of conveying a friendly attitude in the absence of an image. Also, images of familiar objects at the website help tie the web experience to the users' personal experiences.
Bullet point comparisons and price updates signal no-nonsense, upfront personality. Users generally want the prices displayed early and upfront in their browsing process. In some cases, their progress onto other pages of the website depends solely on whether the displayed price is within their budget. At the same time, price updates can signal empathy and understanding:
"The Auto Price update (while customizing) feature makes me feel that the company cares more about its customers than other companies." (Jamie, Undergraduate Student, Marketing, Female, Age 19) "The company does not display the price upfront for the hi-tech products. Looks professional." (Krish, Graduate Student, Engineering, Male, Age 24) The latter example illustrates that not displaying the price can add to feelings of professionalism and perhaps exclusivity with a higher-end product. Here, empathy and understanding are less important than prestige.
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Online Support: • Company is approachable • Willing to help, caring
Human Images: • Helps in building relationship • Smiling face conveys a friendly gesture
Tagline: • Indicates friendly approach
Familiar Pictures: • Personalize the user experience
Customization options. The number of options provided at a website indicates the amount of product variety available to customers. Users’ ability to build a computer to meet their requirements contributed significantly to their brand experience. For users who had specific requirements, this could be termed as ‘the most important’ factor that would influence their purchase at the website, outweighing all other web-design attributes.
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Conclusions Building a great consumer brand experience is the key to online success. The experiences people have on a website generalize to the company itself and its products. A good website is not good enough unless it can harness and harvest a brand image through the consumer experience. An important factor that contributes to online success is the choice and design of the symbolic and functional web elements that we have discussed. Ideally, the services offered, the style of graphics, the tone, and the page layout should be designed to support the brand experience. Thus to have a truly good website, marketers must take into account how these elements contribute to brand image.
In our study, we observe that users have a natural tendency to view design elements as they would personality characteristics. Interactions with the company websites cause users to assign human attributes – e.g., being professional, casual, friendly and serious – to the website and thus the company. In the long term, consumers are likely to build relationships with websites as they do with other people. We find strong evidence that marketers must minimize the downside potential of functional elements while maximizing the personality embedded in symbolic elements. We implicitly note that various symbolic web elements impact feelings of trust and genuineness versus deception and dishonesty. Concerning functional elements, lack of product variety or the inability to customize can contribute significantly to feelings of aggression and a bad user experience. Results show a reversal in the consumer brand perception after a brief online web browsing and customization experience.
We are currently performing additional studies in other industries (e.g., automotive, retail, cell phones) to further refine our understanding of how website design elements influence brand image. We are also exploring how individual differences impact interpretations of web design and website personality.
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References Aaker, Jennifer L. (1997), "Dimensions of Brand Personality," Journal of Marketing Research, 34 (August), 347-356. Fournier, Susan (1998), "Consumers and their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (March), 343-373. Holbrook, Morris B. and Elizabeth C. Hirschman (1982), "The Experiential Aspects of Consumption: Consumer Fantasies, Feelings, and Fun, Journal of Consumer Research, 9 (Sept.), 132-140. Kotler, Philip (1973/74), "Atmospherics as a Marketing Tool," Journal of Retailing, 49 (Winter), 48-64. Nass, Clifford and Youngme Moon (2000), "Machines and Mindlessness: Social Responses to Computers," Journal of Social Issues, 56 (Spring), 81-103. Nass, Clifford, Youngme Moon and Paul Carney (1999), "Are People Polite to Computers? Responses to Computer-Based Interviewing," Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29 (May), 1093-1110. Omanson, Richard C., June A. Cline, and Christie L. Nordhielm (2002), "Effects of Visual Consistency on Site Identity and Product Attitude," working paper. Reichheld, Frederick F. and Phil Schefter, (2000), "E-Loyalty: Your Secret Weapon on the Web," Harvard Business Review, Vol. 78, No. 4 (July-August), pp. 105-113.
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