Packaging always plays a "silent" salesperson role in the sales process of products, especially environmental friendly products, the customer's first impression of product packaging often determines the evaluations of the extent of the greenness of the products.  Based on theories of processing fluency, this research argues that environmental friendly products' packaging characteristics (color, material and with/without environmental claim) will influence consumer's green purchase in­tention.  This research presents three studies that supported the hypotheses and explore how environmental friendly products' packaging characteristics influence consumer's purchase intention, including the mediating role of perceived green value and the moderating role of consumer's environmental cognition.  The experimental results show that changing the packaging charac­teristics of environmental friendly products can make consumers perceive higher green value, improving their green purchase intention.  Specifically, green color is better than red color, fiber material is better than plastic, and with green claims is bet­ter than without green claims.  Meanwhile, the consumer's environmental cognition also plays a significant moderating role.  When the consumer's environmental cognition is high, the impact of these packaging characteristics will be more obvious, but when the consumer's environmental cognition is low, the impact will be relatively weak or even vanish.  The research conclu­sions provides managerial instructions for package strategy of environmental friendly products in green marketing practice.

This research examines the effect of red in the consumption environment on consumer preference for brand image and its underlying mechanism.  Previous studies have shown that red decreases purchase intention.  However, through one preliminary experiment and four experiments, the authors find that red increases consumer preference for competent brands ( but not warm brands) , and competitive spirit plays a mediating role in this effect.  More specifically, red (vs. other colors) activates the concept of dominance, bringing about a desire for dominant status and hence a stronger competitive spirit.  Individuals with a stronger competitive spirit are more eager to express their competence rather than sincerity.  Therefore, they prefer competent brands over brands with sincerity.  This effect will be weakened when consumers make purchases for others ( vs. for themselves) .  Our findings contribute to the relevant literature on brand image preferences, color and competitive spirit, and provide important practical instructions on color selection and design in marketing communication.

Prior research has shown that top managers' marketing background significantly affects firm performance.  Meanwhile ,firm performance is also impacted by external stakeholders such as equity investors.  In this way, will the marketing background of investment firm's top management teams ( TMTs) influence the performance of the start-ups being invested?  Based on a data set covering the information of investment firms and the start-ups being invested in China, this research explores the effect of investment firm’s TMTs’ marketing background on start-ups performance.  We find that the percentage of top managers with marketing background in investment firm's TMTs has a positive effect on the investment returns of the start-ups.  Furthermore, this effect is moderated by the industry and development stage of the start-ups.  Specifically, investment firm's TMTs' marketing background has a more pronounced positive effect on the start-ups in emerging industries than those in established industries.  The positive influence of investment firm's TMTs' marketing background is more prominent on start-ups in the A round, compared with start-ups after the B round.  Overall, this research not only broadens the relevant literature on marketing executives and entrepreneural management, but also provides instructions for investment firms, start-ups, and policymakers.

It is essential for enterprises to adjust brand positioning according to the changes of target customers for sustainable development. The growth of instrumental internet products (internet Apps) presents obvious stages.  From providing free tools (to generate more traffic) to becoming a platfbnn, the connotation of instrumental internet products has changed explicitly. Exploring the growth stages and positioning of internet applications in different stages could help us understand the evolution characteristics of internet App brand positioning and provide inspirations for such enterprises to actively adjust brand positioning for sustainable growth. In addition, this paper explores how internet App brands ( bom and developed in the social media context) apply communication strategies to establish brand positioning, which provides a useful reference for enterprises to improve the efficiency of applying social media.  This research was based on the analysis of brand management practice of Youdao dictionary in 2007-2020.  Finally, this study have the following findings: (1) the internet App brand positioning should actively evolve with different stages of enterprise development.  Specifically, the initial period, the developing period and the extension period are suitable for adopting functional positioning, symbolic positioning and emotional positioning respectively and aiming at core customers, peripheral customers and extensive customers respectively to estahlish a brand image in line with the objectives of the brand stage to realize the development path of "tool-content/community-platform" ；  (2) enterprises should set up appropriate communication goals according to different stages of brand positioning, select and match communication tools with the guidance of communication objectives in the social media context, and evaluate communication effects based on communication objectives.  These findings contribute to the adjustment of brand positioning to achieve long-term development and the improvement of social media communication efficiency for the internet Apps.

With the rapid development of live streaming industry, live streaming firms try to increase performance by forming users’ payment habits through social network.  This paper collected the live streaming data of nearly 30, 000 users in an online music community.  Based on social presence theory, we tested the impact of the number of strong ties on user's gift-giving decision in user-generated live streaming.  Besides, we studied the moderating effect of audience scale, network centrality of tippers and levels of tipped broadcasters.  When a user engaged in a live streaming, the results show that, ( 1) the number of strong ties has a positive effect on tipping to friends； (2) the increase of the size of live streaming weakens the above effect； (3) when the user has a relatively higher social centrality, the main effect becomes lower； (4) The main effect is more pronounced when the levels of tipped broadcasters become higher.  Overall, this research has significant implications for firms' strategies to facilitate live streaming and achieve competitive advantages.

With the advent of the era of "digital economy" , enterprises are more and more willing to invest in advertising in order to further attract consumers' attentions and enhance market share.  How to stimulate consumers' positive purchase  intentions through advertising design? —this is particularly important for brands.  Therefore, based on the construal level theory and from the perspective of information processing fluency, this study explores the influence of the interaction between advertising scene presentation and product type on consumers' purchase intention.  The results show that, for utilitarian products, when they are presented with close shot advertising, it is easier for consumers to generate purchase intention than panorama shot advertising ； for hedonic products, when they are presented with panorama shot advertising, it is easier for consumers to generate purchase intention than close shot advertising.  In addition, the way of advertising appeal has a significant moderating effect. The specific performance is as follows: compared with the prototype appeal, the exemplary appeal used in the close shot advertising of utilitarian products can make consumers' purchase intentions more positive ； compared with the exemplary appeal, the prototype appeal used in the panorama shot advertising of hedonic products can make consumers' purchase intentions more positive.  This study broadens the application of construal level theory in the field of marketing, and the research conclusions have strong practical guiding values for brand designers to creatively design advertising and make advertising strategies.

The matching of writing direction and product facing direction in advertising can affect the persuasive effect of advertising  and consumers' attentions. Based on knowledge activation theory and matching theory, three eye-tracking experiments with 280 participants were conducted to investigate the effects of text writing direction and product facing direction on advertising effect.  In experiment 1, we found an interaction between the writing direction and the product facing direction.  The persuasion and attention effects were better when the vertical writing direction matched the left-facing product or the horizontal writing direction matched the right-facing product.  Experiments 2 and experiment 3 found that brand or product positioning further interacted with the matching effect above.  Traditional brand or product ads perfbnn better when texts are written vertically with the product facing left, while modem brand or product ads perform better when the texts are written horizontally with the product facing right.  Three experiments confirmed the mediating role of sense - correctness.  The triple interaction between text writing direction, product facing direction, and brand or product positioning provides guidances for the theoretical system of advertising effect and enterprise practices.

Based on the realistic background of the increasing floating population, this study takes the agricultural regional public brand as an example to explore whether and how the regional cultural distinctiveness perceived by sojourners affect the brand of the residence negatively, and what is the possible mechanism to reduce this negative impact.  The experimental data from Zhijiang and Chongqing show that when participants perceive a great regional cultural distinctiveness, their self-brand connection with the agricultural regional public brand in the residence will be reduced, comparing with those who perceive little regional cultural distinctiveness.  This effect is achieved through group identity. The greater the distinctiveness of regional culture perceived by the sojourners, the lower their senses of group identity to the local people will be, and the weaker their self-brand connection with the brand of the residence will be.  However, the social acceptance of the sojourners can adjust the influence of regional cultural distinctiveness on sojourners’ self-brand connection of agricultural regional public brand.  Under the circumstance that social acceptance exists, the negative effect of regional cultural distinctiveness on self-brand connection with the agricultural regional public brand is weakened.

Brand identity is one of the most important visual symbol of a brand. As an eye-catching visual element, color is an important content of brand identity design, which can stimulate the psychological response of consumers and affect their  cognitions.  From the perspective of the effect of color stimulation of brand logo on consumers’ price perception, this paper discusses the mechanism of brand logo with high saturation and color matching of contrasting colors to induce consumers' sense of cheapness.  By applying virtual brand logos in the field of catering, hotel, sporting goods, etc, we conducted a series of five experiments to study the effects of color collocation of hues and saturation and their interactions, and the cultural values of collectivism/ individualism of social groups.  The results show that, compared with similar colors and low saturation, contrasting colors and high saturation can induce people to regard the brand as cheap brand. When the two factors interact, the order of people's price perception from low to high is high saturation with contrasting colors, high saturation with similar colors, low saturation with contrasting colors and low saturation with similar colors.  The cheapness effect of color mentioned above is only found in domestic consumeis with high collectivism tendency, and there is no obvious regular conclusion in consumers in countries with high individualism tendency represented by the United States.

Brand-related user-generated content can reduce purchase uncertainty and influence consumers’ brand attitude and purchase decisions.  Numerous studies have analyzed the content characteristics of brand-related user-generated content, yet the content's appeals have not been fully discussed.  Based on the brand-related user - generated content data of skincare products from Xiaohongshu App, this study explores the impact of brand-related user-generated contenfs functional appeal on consumers’ social media engagement.  In addition, we use Heuristic - Systematic Model to understand the bias effect between the physical attractiveness of the profile picture and the functional appeal.  The study finds that the functional appeal of brand- related user-generated content has a significant positive impact on consumers' social media engagement.  The more functional contents the brand-related user-generated content contains, the higher the consumers’ social media engagements will be. The users' physical attractiveness of the profile picture plays a positive moderating role.  The more attractive the profile picture is, the stronger the impact of brand-related user-generated contenfs functional appeal on consumers' social media engagement will be.

Busyness has been an identity signal. This paper examined how the subjective perceptions of busyness impact consumers' face-related product consumption.  According to the data from the 2010 National Household Appliance Product Consumption Questionnaire, this paper has found that consumer’ perception of busyness could increase their face product preference. From the perspective of social identity theory, this paper found that the perception of busyness can improve consumers' social identity motivation, and then promote busy consumers to choose face-related products to support their“busy as success" identity image.  In addition, this paper has found that consumes’perceived economic mobility moderats our main effect: compared with consumers with low economic mobility, the impact of perception of busyness on face product preference for consumers with high economic mobility would be strengthened.

There are multiple reasons why multinational brands are in legitimacy distress when they are introduced into their host countries, markets.  The brands from developing countries encounter difficulties of tearing various “negative labels” off, thus leading to multinational brands under enormous legitimacy pressure.  This article analyzes the cases of the internatioanlization process of Gionee and Wiko based on organizational identity theory.  It explores how the brands build a new and beneficial identity through brand identity forming when they expand overseas for the first time.  Consequently, they can overcome the disadvantages of their original identities and gain brand legitimacy.  Researches in this article show that, during the brand's internatioanlization process, it can build a new brand identity that fits the host country market better through making optimization and adjustment to its identity label and means.  Furthermore, transnational brands need to know how to adjust their brand identity label layer and means layer selectively according to the criterion whether their home country has a comparative institutional advantage and an international model of brand.  Meanwhile, the article also concludes the content involved in constructing the brand identity's label and means, and concludes that these should be spreaded by applying relative identity communication strategies, thus helping enterprises transmit the new identity clearly to gain legitimacy.

In real life, advertisements with emotional appeals are quite common. By expressing positive and warm emotions in advertisements, companies attract consumers' attentions and improve their love for advertisements to stimulate their willingness to purchase. Previous research has shown that advertisements with positive emotional appeals ( VS. advertisements with negative emotional appeals) can stimulate consumer's higher willingness to purchase.  However, unlike the past advertisements with positive emotional appeals, Sang Tea, UCC Coffee and some other brands, choose to spread negative emotions in advertisements, such as"negative energy in everyday life".  These kind of "negative marketing approach" has become a new form of marketing. Therefore, it is necessary for the academia to explore why advertisements with negative emotional appeals can enhance consumers’ willingness to buy products and when consumers prefer advertisements with negative emotional appeals.  Based on the trend of the Sang-marketing, this study defined "Sang" as the high level of actual-ideal self-discrepancy, and classified advertisements of "Sang" as advertisements with negative emotional appeals.  On the basis of former scholars' research results, this study further explored how actual-ideal self-discrepancy and emotional appeals affect the consumers' advertisement attitude and purchase intentions. Based on the self -discrepancy theory, three experiments were carried out.  Experiment 1 found that when perceived high ( VS. low) level of actual-ideal self-discrepancy, consumers held better attitude towards negative (VS. positive) emotional advertisements, and were more willing to buy products with negative (VS. positive) emotional advertising appeals.  Experiment 2 examined the mediating role of empathy. Perceiving the consistent emotional appeals from the advertisements, consumers turned to increase their willingness to purchase.  Experiment 3 further investigated the boundary conditions of this effect. Only when consumers' motivations of self-verification were activated, would they prefer negative emotional appeals in advertisements after experiencing actual-ideal self- discrepancy.  The results provide a reasonable explanation and theoretical support for the question why Sang-marketing is capable of inducing positive results. They also demonstrate that buying goods is able to create mental value for consumers under the influence of advertisement’s emotional appeals.

The researches on the impact of decision in self-control conflicts on consumers’ well-being has inconsistent conclusions and unclear mechanisms.  One of the important reasons is that these researches ignored the interaction between consumers' personal characteristics and self-control conflict, lacked systematic analysis of lay rationalism, self-control conflicts, and consumers' well-being.  Across 4 studies, we propose that the effect of decision in self-control conflicts ( self-control versus self-indulgence) on consumers' well-being depends on individual differences in lay rationalism.  This paper found consistent evidence that compared with consumers with low (high) -level lay rationalism, consumers with high (low) -level lay rationalism will have higher positive emotions, satisfaction, and self - development after self - control ( self - indulgence ). Moreover, positive emotions and satisfaction play a different mediating role in the interactive effect between decision in selfcontrol conflicts and lay rationalism on consumers’ well-being.  In addition, when consumers indulge themselves in the condition of injunctive norms, consumers will have lower positive emotions and self - development.  These findings enrich the research contents of self-control conflicts, lay rationalism and consumers' well being, and also provide practical implications for consumers to realize themselves, and provide some enlightenments for enterprises in product recommendation and service recovery.

This paper analyzed the impact of two gamified distribution methods of coupons ( namely games of chance and games of skill) on consumers' intentions and behaviors of coupon redemption.  A cognitive -emotional dual-path theoretical model is proposed to account for the underlying mechanisms. Across two field experiments and one online experiment, we found that compared with directly-delivered coupons, coupons delivered through chance-based or skill-based games are more likely to be redeemed. These effects are mediated by perceived scarcity of the coupon and perceived enjoyment of the coupon delivery process. In addition, the impact of chance - based games on perceived enjoyment is mediated by perceived luck, whereas that of skill-based games is mediated by perceived effort.  Our research contributes to the literature on coupon promotion and gamification design, and provides important guidances for the design of coupon promotions.

Focusing on getting the best deal with speculative intention under the brand crisis, this paper studies the social anomie caused by economic rationality.  Taking the Guoxiaoyun event happened on Tmall platform as example, this paper adopts the research method of grounded theory.  Through sorting out and analyzing 413 posts and 9195 comments on more than 5 websites, and applying the theory of social norms, we conclude that the social anomie caused by people's rational behavior in pursuit of economic benefits, mainly embodied in internal control and external control.  The study finds that the internal control anomie mainly includes anomies of human morality and business ethics; external control anomie mainly includes industry anomies of rules and legal system.  When economic rational behavior breaks through social norms, people's thinking begins to shift from the perspective of norms to the perspective of laws, people believe that the macroscopic causal laws will restrict and limit them to a certain extent.  The conclusion of this study can not only supplement the relative theories of brand crisis and its governance, but also provide comprehensive and systematic guidances for the macro management of getting the best deal with speculative intention in the context of brand crisis.

Researches have shown that encouraging consumers to touch a product can prompt consumers to generate a positive attitude towards the product.  However, consumers’ haptic input when examining a product during product demonstration is often restricted by retailers, salespersons and front-line employees in many offline retail settings.  To date, we know little a- bout whether the usage of haptic -restriction strategies can induce negative marketing consequences. This research conducts four studies, including a field experiment and three lab experiments, to document a novel variety-seeking effect of haptic restrictions.   Previously restricting (versus not restricting) consumers from touching a product induces consumers to conduct variety seeking and options shifting in a subsequent and different situation (Experiments 1-2).  Moreover, this effect is driven by perceived  threats to personal freedom in general (Experiment 3) and is mitigated when consumers' need to elevate the extent of personal freedom is low ( Experiment 4).  This research contributes to the literature of product touch and variety seeking, offering specific implications for offline retailing.