[Air-L] CALL FOR PAPERS: 27th Annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference
Guido Lang
guido.lang at iwi.unibe.ch
Wed Aug 29 11:53:59 PDT 2007
Please note the following Call for Papers of the 27th Annual
Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference, which will be held
May 1-2, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The theme of the
conference is Virtual Social Identity and Consumer Behavior.
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CALL FOR PAPERS
27th Annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference
Virtual Social Identity and Consumer Behavior
The 27th annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference will
be held May 1-2, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The conference
is sponsored by the Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP)
The theme of the conference is Virtual Social Identity and Consumer
Behavior. We encourage participation from a broad range of academic
researchers and practitioners in such fields as marketing and
consumer psychology, computer science, sociology, economics, and
communications.
The creation and expression of identity (or of multiple identities)
in immersive environments is rapidly transforming consumer behavior –
even though at this point in time many mainstream consumers have not
even heard of this phenomenon! The largest social networking, Second
Life, currently has over 6 million registered users worldwide, while
the gaming-oriented site World of Warcraft has close to 9 million users.
Consumers enter CME’s in digital form, as avatars. A user can design
his or her avatar by choosing facial features, body types, clothing
styles – and even nonhuman forms. These digital representations are
socializing with one another in real time, taking virtual university
courses, participating in corporate training programs, sharing
reactions to new products, and of course shopping.
To date more than 40 RL (real life) companies including GM, Dell,
Sony, IBM and Wells Fargo are staking their claim to online real
estate in computer-mediated environments (CME’s) such as Second Life,
There.com and Entropia Universe. In April 2007 alone, residents of
the online “world” Second Life spent approximately $10 million (in
real money) on virtual land, products and services. Corporate
America’s transition to the virtual world is an attempt to reach and
entice the growing flood of consumers occupying these virtual worlds.
Clearly this expanding space will be pivotal in fueling new consumer
trends over the next decade. In addition, the parallel growth in
spending on advergaming continues to transfigure the online C2C
world. Forecasts suggest that sales of branded messages embedded in
videogames will reach $733 million by 2010. Eventually, these CME
forums may rival traditional, marketer-sponsored E-commerce sites in
terms of their influence on consumer decision-making and product
adoption.
Despite this huge potential, we know very little about the best way
to talk to consumers in these online environments. How will well-
established research findings from the offline world transfer to
CMEs? For example, can we be sure that our received wisdom regarding
the impact of source credibility upon persuasion will readily apply
to a situation where a “source” espousing adoption of a new product
takes the form of an animated supermodel with exaggerated
“attributes” or a bright green demon with fearsome horns?
These new online platforms generate many fascinating research
questions for the advertising and consumer psychology community. Here
are some:
Avatars, the Self, and Attitude Change
• What does the consumer’s choice of his or her own avatar tell us
about self-concept and role identity – especially since visitors
often create multiple avatars to “experiment” with different identities?
• How important is it for visitors to be able to customize the
avatars they encounter in advertising so that they control the image
that speaks to them about its products?
• How effective are avatars as sources of marketing communications?
• What physical dimensions influence the consumer decision-making
process when shoppers encounter avatars that represent RL
organizations? Should a company’s “spokes-avatar” be modeled after a
real person (perhaps the viewer herself)? A celebrity? A fantasy figure?
• How will the explosion in consumer-generated marketing
communications now being posted in CMEs (including YouTube, Second
Life and elsewhere) influence the process of attitude change and
strategic communications decisions?
• How does the phenomenon of “presence” (the term communications
researchers use to refer to the level of immersion in a virtual
social environment) relate to flow states and high involvement
situations documented in consumer research?
Virtual Influence and Decision Making
• What are the implications for information diffusion as consumers
increasingly turn to CMEs for information about new products or to
read other consumers’ reviews of these products?
• Can consumer researchers construct and populate virtual
laboratories that will allow them to simulate RL decision-making
contexts and better understand how heuristics, contextual cues,
information displays and other variables will impact consumer
behavior both offline and online?
• Can avatars’ conversations with one another, either in pairs or in
groups, be a valuable starting point for buzz-building and word-of-
mouth marketing campaigns?
• How will the growth in CME participation affect social interaction
patterns such as dating?
• To what extent do consumers in CMEs participate in risk-taking
behavior, and what implications does this have for RL?
• What are the implications for adolescent socialization, or for the
ability of children to distinguish reality-based cues from fantasy?
• What are the ethical implications of the increasingly common
practice of misrepresentation whereby companies pay individuals to
promote their products on websites while masquerading as “ordinary”
surfers?
Virtual Culture and Economies
• What is the potential of online prediction markets (like The
Hollywood Stock Exchange) to improve researchers’ and practitioners’
ability to forecast consumer trends?
• How will norms regarding social etiquette, cheating, and gift-
giving transfer to CMEs?
• What are the implications for cross-cultural consumer behavior as
CME residents increasingly are able to interact with fellow avatars
(and companies) from around the world?
• How will the integration of avatars on other internet platforms
influence consumer behavior on e-commerce websites?
Submissions
Submissions may be in one of two categories: 1) complete papers or 2)
abstracts. Preference for acceptance will be given to papers that
provide extensive integration of existing work and/or provide details
of a relevant program of research that takes a psychological
perspective. Authors of the best papers will be invited to prepare a
manuscript for a book to be published by the Society for Consumer
Psychology. Complete papers that will be published in the book must
be submitted in camera-ready format within 30 days of presentation at
the conference. Publication of full papers based upon submitted
abstracts is contingent upon satisfactory review of the full paper.
Submissions must be received by December 15, 2007. Papers should be
sent to Natalie Wood (nwood at sju.edu) electronically as an attached
Word file. All papers will be blind-reviewed, so please submit your
manuscript with authors’ names and contact information on a separate
cover page. Please limit the manuscript to 30 pages double-spaced
(excluding Exhibits) with 1” margins.
Hotel Information
The conference will be held at the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia
(www.loewshotels.com). Conveniently located in the heart of downtown
Philadelphia, the Loews Hotel is steps away from the historic
district (Liberty Bell, National Constitution Center), shopping,
restaurants and sports arenas. To make reservations, contact the
Loews Philadelphia and identify yourself as an attendee of the
Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference to receive the
conference hotel rate of $189 per night. Reservations must be made by
April 1st, 2008 to receive the conference rate.
For more information about The Society for Consumer Psychology or the
Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference, please see our
website at http://www.consumerpsych.org or contact one of the
conference chairs:
Michael R. Solomon, Ph.D.
Department of Marketing
Haub School of Business
Saint Joseph’s University
5600 City Avenue
Philadelphia PA 19131
Tel: 610-660-3411
Fax: 610-660-3239
msolom01 at sju.edu
Natalie T. Wood, Ph.D.
Department of Marketing
Haub School of Business
Saint Joseph’s University
5600 City Avenue
Philadelphia PA 19131
Tel: 610-660-3452
Fax: 610-660-3239
nwood at sju.edu
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