Globus: A Department Store Changes Its Face

A visitor returning to the flagship department store of the Swiss chain GLOBUS in central Zurich after a long absence is headed for a surprise. The visiting shopper is about to encounter on entry a completely different landscape — bright and flashy, with a large avenue stretching from the front entrance (on Bahnhofstrasse) to the… Read More

Marketing-Driven Financial Valuation of Brands

Assessments of the monetary value of brands has long interested and motivated the management of firms, and their investors. From a business perspective, the financial value is a preferred measure of brand equity or return-on-investment in brands. But a brand is a marketing-driven and consumer-based entity, and hence one cannot detach the financial value of… Read More

Rebuilding Customer Loyalty in Hospitality

The coronavirus pandemic, with its changing virus variants arriving in multiple waves, caused havoc and serious disturbances in tourism, including travel, hospitality, and myriad of touristic activities. In some periods the pandemic waves caused almost a complete halt of travel, while in other periods there was partial resumption of tourist travelling and vacations. As hospitality… Read More

A Combined Impact of Sight and Touch on Product Choice

There is ample research and articles on the roles and effects of each of the five human senses (vision, auditory-hearing, olfactory-smell, taste and touch) on perception and higher-level cognition, emotions, decision making etc. But the senses very often do not operate in isolation from each other — two or more senses can be activated together… Read More

Laundry Detergent Pods Are Not Like Candies

Rounded shapes and playful colours, design features that are pleasant to the eye, can increase the appeal of a product to consumers. Visual design can thus be recruited to the benefit of product marketing. But what if the appearance of the product is misleading and might convey the wrong invitation to some consumers? For instance,… Read More

Mapping Semantic and Visual Brand Associates

Brand associates are often conceived in verbal terms, as concrete descriptions and more abstract concepts; they may be captured by single words or longer phrases that express thoughts and emotions. But brands may be linked with visual images (pictures, drawings, photos) that capture the same brand ideas, sometimes even more efficiently than verbal expressions. The… Read More

Pondering About the Post Corona Pandemic Era

While we are still deep in the coronavirus pandemic, people wonder how life will look and feel like in the aftermath. There have been major changes in behaviour of businesses and consumers since the beginning of 2020, largely compelled by concerns of people about their health and measures imposed to curb the COVID-19 disease. But… Read More

An Applied Adaptation of Visual Metaphor Elicitation

There are themes, experiences and concepts that words cannot capture and express as instinctively and vividly as visual images. Verbal probing, alternately, may not be enough to invoke respectively what goes in the minds of consumers (e.g., thoughts and feelings, beliefs and associations). However, the combination of visual images, especially photographs, with the words of… Read More

A New Opportunity Arises for Pop-Up Stores

Temporary stores pop-up in recent years more frequently in different retail locations such as central shopping districts (e.g., on high-streets or inside urban quarters) and in malls; as you might expect, they are called Pop-Up Stores. These stores or shops may operate for as short as a few days to as long as two or… Read More