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.

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.

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.

Promoting the inheritance of the traditional skills of time-honored brands, and realizing the development goal of "the inheritance is not a mere imitation of the ancient styles, and the innovation is not leaving behind the tradition” , is not only to promote brand building, but also an important measure to promote Chinese traditional culture. Brand authenticity management provides theoretical support for the time-honored brands to realize the inheritance and innovation of "originality". Based on the case study of Suzhou Daoxiangcun, this paper constructs a theoretical model for the inheritance and innovation of time-honored brands based on brand authenticity management. The research results show that：(1) the original authenticity management of the brand has realized the inheritance of the time-honored brands and ensured the "originality" of the time-honored brands；(2) the constructive authenticity management of the brand has promoted the brand innovation based on the "originality" of time-honored brands and realized the sustained growth of brands；(3) based on the satisfaction of customers' functional needs, experience needs and emotional needs, it has promoted the inheritance and innovation of the time-honored brand's products, marketing and culture respectively. Multi-level customer demand is an important driving factor for the authenticity management of time-honored brands.

Based on the perspective of anticipated happiness, three studies were conducted to confirm the influence of individual's orientation to happiness ( OTH) on purchase type preference, and also verify the mediating role of long-term utility concern. Study 1 found that compared with hedonic OTH, eudemonic OTH can lead consumers to pay more attention to the long utility of products and future self, in turn to enhance the preferences of material products. In addition, purchase preference is manifested not only in the financial cost input to the product ( study 1A) , but also in the time cost input to the product (study IB). This effect is robust even after controlling the purchase objectives ( study 2). However, when experiential products also provide long-term utilities, the effect of OTH on purchase type preference will be weakened ( study 3).

In the era of Mobile Internet, more and more companies provide precise recommendation services based on the locations of consumers.  However, existing studies have not paid enough attention to how place attachment affects consumers' perceptions and acceptances of recommended services.  Applying the communication accommodation theory, from the perspective of consumer's psychological perceptions, our study explores consumer's (with different degrees of place attachment) psychological perceptions and acceptance mechanism of group-based recommendation and individual -based recommendation.  The results show that, the higher the degree of consumer's place attachment is, the better the effect of individual-based recommendation is, and the perceived self-enhancement plays a mediating role in this process.  When the degree of consumer's place attachment is lower, the effect of group-based recommendation is better, and perceived social connection plays a mediating role.

Using anthropomorphic characters ( such as anime characters and virtual idols) as spokespersons is a common strategy in the advertising industry. Still, few scholars pay attention to the impact of consumers' anthropomorphic perceptions on the persuasiveness of spokespersons. Previous researches divided anthropomorphic perceptions into two types: systematic and heuristic. Systematic anthropomorphism is to treat anthropomorphic objects as an individual entity that can generate social interactions , while heuristic anthropomorphism is an implicit effect. Based on these two types of anthropomorphism, this study takes different types of spokespersons ( anthropomorphized/real people) as the stimuli to verify the impact of consumer anthropomorphic tendency on the persuasiveness of different spokespersons. Experimental data show that under the moderation effect of individual anthropomorphic tendencies, consumers' perceptions of the parasocial interaction and positive emotions of the spokespersons have a simultaneous impact on the spokespersons’ persuasiveness. Participants with low anthropomorphic tendencies have significantly higher perceptions of parasocial interactions with real people than anthropomorphized spokespersons ； participants with high anthropomorphic tendencies have significantly higher positive emotions for anthropomorphized spokespersons than humans. The research results complement the existing anthropomorphism marketing research and could help companies choose appropriate anthropomorphic strategies for consumer preferences.

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.

The rapid development of technology brings opportunities and challenges for marketing management, while, the current research hasn't studied marketing technology ( MarTech) systematically. Thus, it is important to clarify the relationship between marketing and technology, the phases of MarTech evolution, the types of MarTech applications, and the levels of MarTech innovation. In this study, we proposed that MarTech has been developed into five phases. We also built a framework of technology used in marketing. Besides, this study also analysed the NSFC research projects from 1986 to 2021, and summarized the current research. Finally, this paper indicated the future research directions of MarTech and marketing.

Brand logo is an important part of brand assets. This study took the color saturation in brand logo as the research object and studied its influence on brand personality perception. Based on the arousal theory, this study examins the different effects of high and low color saturation on consumers' brand personality perception through six sets of experiments. In these experiments , we find that no matter for cool colors ( e. g. blue or green) or warm colors ( e. g. red or orange) in a brand logo ,possessing high color saturation can make consumers perceive the excitement of the brand, while possessing low color saturation can make consumers perceive the peacefulness of the brand. Through study 2, we also find that the influence of brand logo's color saturation on brand personality perception is mediated by arousal. In the high arousal state brought by high color saturation, consumers feel excited and stimulated, thus could perceive the exciting brand personality. In the low arousal state brought by the low color saturation, consumers feel calm and relaxed, thus could perceive the peaceful brand personality. In addition, through study 3, we find that when the color expectation in the individual attribution process is manipulated, the influence of color saturation on the perception of brand personality will disappear.

Existing literature have paid little attention to how boundaries affect people's food information processing process and shape people's food consumption preferences.  This paper investigates the effect of boundaries of food information on perceived healthiness, and examines the serial mediating role of the sense of confinement and psychological reactance, as well as the boundary conditions of this effect through 5 experiments.  The results show that: ( 1) boundaries of food infbnnation could reduce people's perceived healthiness (Experiment la, lb and lc) and purchase intentions (Experiment 2) ； (2) a sequential mediating effect demonstrates that food information boundaries could increase people's sense of confinement, which triggers people's psychological reactance and lower people's perceived healthiness (Experiment 4 and 5) ； (3) food safety risk perception moderates the effect of the boundaries of food information on perceived healthiness ( Experiment 3) .  Our research contributes to the literature of boundaries and food consumption, and provides important implications for the packaging design of the food enterprises.

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.

In the research of online reviews, few scholars pay attention to the order bias of online reviews.  Based on previous studies on the effects of the first consumer review on the producfs home page, this article explores the influence of negative reviews on the first page on product sales.  Based on the analysis of 1161 negative reviews on the home pages of 387 Taobao products ,this article finds that the number of the negative reviews' additional reviews on the first page and the negative reviews rate have significant negative impacts on product sales.  The additional review depth and the seller reply depth of the negative  reviews on the first page have positive moderating effects on the relationship between the number of the negative reviews' additional reviews on the first page and product sales.  The additional review depth and the seller reply depth of the negative reviews on the first page have negative moderating effects on the relationship between the negative reviews rate and product sales.  On the one hand, this finding proves the existence of the important influence of the negative reviews' contents on the first page on consumers' purchase decisions.  On the other hand, it expands the research realm of the order bias and the first impression bias of online reviews, providing researchers with a new research direction.

With the development of social media, influencers and virtual influencers have become one of the most important channels for customers to learn about brands and products, and have a profound impact on consumers' brand attitudes, purchase intentions, etc. However, how to choose the right influencers, especially influencers with suitable facial features, has become the primary challenge for marketing practitioners. However, we have limited understanding of the impact of influencers' faces, especially virtual influencers' faces on customers' decisions to follow influencers. Therefore, we applied the hierarchical linear multinomial logit model to quantitatively analyze the relationship between influencers' facial features and customers' decisions to follow influencers, and study whether the effects of facial features of real and virtual influenceis are different. The results show that ： (1) models based on facial features can accurately explain and predict consumers' preferences for influencers' faces; (2) when faces of virtual influencers are indistinguishable from faces of real ones, there aren't any systematic differences between the effects of facial features on the consumers' preferences. Theoretically, the paper fills the research gap on the relationship between facial features and consumers' following behaviors in influencer marketing, especially in virtual influencer marketing ； practically, our findings can help guide influencer marketing practices, especially the selection and design of faces of influencers.

In 2020, “Humblebragging” was popular on social networks and was selected as one of the top ten buzzwords.  However, the existing literature offers little implications of whether humblebragging is an effective brand marketing strategy.  Based on the perspective of the motives of self-presentation (the desire to be liked and respected) , this paper intends to examine the effect of humblebragging advertisement on consumers’ brand attitudes through three sets of experiments.  The results suggest that, there is an interaction effect between the type of product and the type of advertising rhetoric.  That is, when the functional product applies humblebragging advertisement, or the symbolic product applies normal advertisement, consumers' brand attitudes are more positive.  We further reveal that this interaction effect on consumers' brand attitudes is serially mediated by their sincerity perception, feeling of envy, bragging perception and feeling of disgust.  Further implications for designing advertisements are alse discussed.

Empowered by new technologies such as artificial intelligence, service robots are increasing rapidly in diverse consumption markets. In fact, the interaction between service robots and consumers is a process of social exchange on the basis of trust. Anthropomorphism is one of the common strategies to increase consumers’ trust and acceptance in diverse service contexts ,but it may trigger some negative effects. This is because consumers have different expectations and needs for the anthropomorphism of service robots in different consumption contexts. Anthropomorphism can be divided into two types: anthropomorphism with human nature traits and with unique human traits, which provides a new idea for satisfying consumers’ diversified trust needs for service robots under different consumption situations. Based on three experiments, we find that under subjective service tasks, consumers will enhance their service satisfaction if the service robot is imbued with human nature traits ( vs. unique human traits) when it’s anthropomorphized externally, and this effect is mediated by emotional trust; however, under objective service tasks, consumers will enhance their service satisfaction if the service robot is imbued with unique human traits (vs. human nature traits) when it's anthropomorphized externally, and this effect is mediated by cognitive trust. The results provide specific guidance for the design of service robots and mainly enrich the literature on service robots and anthropomorphic marketing.

Image and text complements each other in print advertising, which can effectively improve the advertising effect, especially for the charity public service advertisements.  Based on the construal level theory, this study explores the impact of the matching of the depth of field presentation and advertising information framework of the charity public service advertisements on individuals.  The study found that when individuals are presented with advertisements with shallow depth of field, they have a longer psychological distance and a higher construal level.  The advertising effect of shallow depth of field matching the promotion framework is better； when individuals watch advertisements with deep depth-of-field, their psychological distance is shorter and their construal level is lower.  The advertising effect of deep depth of field matching the defense framework is better.   Individual's expected value of charity plays a mediating role in the matching effect, and the individuals5 degree of career involvement plays a moderating role.  The purpose of this study is to develop better publicity for charitable public service advertisements, to guide the public to pay attention to and participate in charitable public undertakings, and to provide opinions and suggestions for the publicity of charitable public service advertisements.

In order to win the favor of local consumers, more and more global brands begin to use local cultural elements in product design or marketing process. When such global brands make mistakes, will consumers ( due to their love for these brands) think the brands are excusable, or will consumers blame the brands and think they are worse? From the perspective of brand mistakes, this study explores the influence of culture mixing on consumers’willingness to forgive, and deeply analyzes its mediating mechanism and possible boundary conditions. Through two experimental studies, it is found that consumers are more likely to forgive cultural mixed global brands than non-cultural mixed global brands, because the application of local cultural elements will narrow the psychological distance between global brands and consumers, and thus trigger their in-group brand preference. However, this effect only exists when the global brand makes competence mistakes. However, when the brand makes moral mistakes, because consumers have higher moral requirements for those who are psychologically close, therefore, compared with non-cultural mixed global brands, consumers are more difficult to forgive cultural mixed brands. This study is the first to explore the impact of culture mixing on consumers, willingness to forgive from the perspective of brand mistakes, which provides a new perspective and direction for culture mixing research, thus further enriching and expanding existing studies on culture mixing. At the same time, this study also provides important guidances and suggestions for corporate’s cultural mixing design and brand crisis management.