[Air-L] CALL FOR PAPERS: 27th Annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference

[Guido Lang]

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.

Our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this message.

cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp  
+ cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp +  
cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp + cfp  
+ cfp + cfp + cfp +

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