How Brand Consumption Rituals Enhance Product Evaluation? Zhimin Zhou, Ling Zheng, Jiaqi Lyu Department of Marketing College of Management Shenzhen University, China Porto, Portugal, 05/19/2017

Backgrounds Kit Kat Chocolate “Kit Kat Music: Have a Break” Guinness Beer Good things comes those who wait

Review Rituals in the marketing area— a type of expressive, symbolic activity constructed of multiple behaviors that occur in a fixed, episodic sequence, and tend to be repeated over time. ” (Rook, 1985) Ritual behaviors, compared to a no-ritual condition, made chocolate more flavorful, valuable, and deserving of behavioral savoring (Vohs et al., 2013).

Question How do brand consumption rituals enhance product evaluation? In other words, Can the symbolic meaning perception of brand consumption rituals enhance product evaluation?

Hypothesis 1 The symbolic meaning is one of the important characteristics in ritual behavior (Rook, 1985). Ritual’s meanings are conveyed through the use of symbolic artifacts (Tetreault & Kleine, 1990). Meaning helps people produce positive brand associations, which enhance product evaluation. H1: The perception of symbolic meaning in brand consumption rituals will enhance product evaluation.

Experiment 1 Purpose Design Experiment 1 aims to test the effect of brand consumption rituals’ symbolic meaning on product evaluation. Design All participants (47 adult students, Female = 30, Mage = 25.39, SD = 3.75) are divided into two groups: experiment group (aware of symbolic meaning, 26 students), and control group (unaware of symbolic meaning, 21 students).

Experiment 1 Ritual We launch a virtual biscuit brand named “A”. Before tasting the biscuit, all participants in two groups were required to perform a sequential gestures: (1) To break 1/3 of the biscuit and tasted the first 1/3 part. (2) Then break the other 1/3 of the biscuit and tasted it. (3) Finally, finish tasting the last 1/3 biscuit.

Experiment 1 Manipulation Symbolic meaning A relevant text indicating three breaks represent three 1/3 days explains the meaning of the ritual they just did. All participants read the text in 1 minute. Product preference In order to eliminate the effect of previous preference on biscuit. We set a pre-test to ask all participants: “How much do you like biscuits?” (7-point Likert Scale; “1” means very dislike, and “7” means very like)

Findings (1) The result of ANOVA revealed that product preference has no significant effect on symbolic meaning (F(6,40) =.565, p>0.05) (2) Compared to those in the no-symbolic meaning condition, participants in the symbolic meaning condition reported higher product evaluation (M=4.76, SD=1.56 vs. M=3.63,SD=1.24, t(47)=2.78, p<0.01)

Hypothesis 2 The symbolic product meaning can predict product emotions (Rompay, Vries, & Hout, 2011). The symbolic importance of private ritual actions have adopted the same perspective as those on the symbolic importance of goods (Gainer, 1995). Furthermore, the emotional investment will attributes to the engagement (O’Brien, Tom, 2010). Clear goal will attributes flow experience (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). Between flow experience and engagement is a close correspondence . H2: Engagement mediates the effect of brand consumption ritual’s symbolic meaning on product evaluation. H3: Compared to the symbolic meaning associated, the symbolic meaning told has bigger effect on product evaluation.

Experiment 2 Purpose Design (1) On the basis of study 1, we want to find out the effect of different degree symbolic meaning on product evaluation. (2) Aim to find out the mediation effect of engagement. (3) Want to know whether clear symbolic meaning and associative symbolic meaning have different effect on product evaluation. Design All participants (73 college students, Male=29, Mage=20.9, SD=1.05) are divided into two groups: experiment group (symbolic meaning told, 35 students) and control group (symbolic meaning associated, 38 students)

Experiment 2 Ritual We launch a virtual coffee brand named “B”. Before drinking the coffee, all participants in two groups were required to perform a sequential gestures: (1)Stirring the coffee clockwise in four circles. (2) Take a deep breaths and smell the coffee. (3)Then stirring the coffee anticlockwise in four circles. (4)Finally, taste the coffee.

Experiment 2 Manipulation Symbolic meaning: told or associated We provided the experiment group with a relevant text about four seasons to explain the ritual and asked them to read the text in 1 minute. In the control group, we provided nothing but required participants to think about the symbolic meaning in 1 minute. Degree of symbolic meaning We use the scale to measure symbolic meaning (5 items, Likert 7 point scale; “1” is very disagree, “7”is very agree). According the score we divided the sample into three parts (high/middle/low): Low symbolic meaning (24 students, M=3.01, SD=1.36), middle symbolic meaning (24 students, M=3.73, SD=1.20), and high symbolic meaning(25 students, M=4.96, SD=1.27)

Findings (1) An ANOVA revealed that symbolic meaning told and meaning associated have no different effect on product evaluation. (F(1,71)=.073, p>0.05) (2) We divided the symbolic meaning into three parts: Low symbolic meaning (25 students, M=2.93, SD=1.39), middle symbolic meaning (23 students, M=3.84, SD=1.08), and high symbolic meaning (25 students, M=4.96, SD=1.26). ANOVA revealed that different degree of symbolic meaning has different positive effect on product evaluation (F(2.72)=14.55, p<0.01). Multiple comparisons’ result shows in table 1. (3) PROCESS also revealed that after controlling for engagement, the effect of condition on product evaluation decreased from β=.64, p=0.0001 to β=.46, p=0.003, (95% bias-corrected CI=[0.16,0.77]), thereby indicating partial mediation.

Conclusion The perception of symbolic meaning in brand consumption rituals will enhance product evaluation. Engagement mediates the effect of brand consumption ritual’s symbolic meaning on product evaluation. Compared to the symbolic meaning associated, the symbolic meaning told has similar effect on product evaluation.