Consumer response to service brand physical elements: Using a semantic priming task to explore implicit understanding of service brand meaning

Imène Belboula and Claire-Lise Ackermann ()
Additional contact information
Imène Belboula: Université Lounici Ali - Blida 2
Claire-Lise Ackermann: ESC [Rennes] - ESC Rennes School of Business

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Consumers' responses to design features involve both conscious and non-conscious information processing. The current research therefore argues that a combination of explicit and implicit measures should be used to assess consumer understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements. However, most methods traditionally used to evaluate design meaning are explicit methods, based on conscious cognitive processes. The current research addresses this gap by documenting how understanding of service brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements can be tapped by an implicit measure. More specifically, it aims to investigate the extent to which a greater ability to decode meaning conveyed by design features results in differences in implicit understanding of service brand meaning. This research uses a Semantic Priming Task to assess associative strength between brand meaning and a service brand's physical elements. Results (N = 157) show that command of the design language, captured by design acumen and involvement in the product category, results in greater ability to implicitly understand brand meaning conveyed by a service brand's physical elements, and moderates the implicit-explicit relationship. Results suggest that combining implicit and explicit measures may help practitioners in charge of creating brand's physical elements, especially when associations between design types and brand impressions are not constant across product categories.

Keywords: service brand physical elements; Logo design; Semantic transformation; Semantic priming task (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-07
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://rennes-sb.hal.science/hal-03329978
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of retailing and consumer services, 2021, 61, pp.102019. ⟨10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.102019⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://rennes-sb.hal.science/hal-03329978/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03329978

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.102019

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().