Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the role that visual measures of attention to product and information and price display signage have on purchase intention. The authors assessed the effect of visual attention to the product, information or price sign on purchase intention, as measured by likelihood to buy. Design/methodology/approach-The authors used eye-tracking technology to collect data from Australian and US garden centre customers, who viewed eight plant displays in which the signs had been altered to show either price or supplemental information (16 images total). The authors compared the role of visual attention to price and information sign, and the role of visual attention to the product when either sign was present on likelihood to buy. Findings-Overall, providing product information on a sign without price elicited higher likelihood to buy than providing a sign with price. The authors found a positive relationship between visual attention to price on the display sign and likelihood to buy, but an inverse relationship between visual attention to information and likelihood to buy. Research limitations/implications-An understanding of the attention-capturing power of merchandise display elements, especially signs, has practical significance. The findings will assist retailers in creating more effective and efficient display signage content, for example, featuring the product information more prominently than the price. The study was conducted on a minimally packaged product, live plants, which may reduce the ability to generalize findings to other product types. Practical implications-The findings will assist retailers in creating more effective and efficient display signage content. The study used only one product category (plants) which may reduce the ability to generalize findings to other product types. Originality/value-The study is one of the first to use eye-tracking in a macro-level, holistic investigation of the attention-capturing value of display signage information and its relationship to likelihood to buy. Researchers, for the first time, now have the ability to empirically test the degree to which attention and decision-making are linked.

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Purpose-Responding to calls for a greater understanding of consumer socialization in young people, this paper aims to investigate daughters' perceptions of shopping with their mothers. It seeks to provide insights into the significance of the retail shopping experience for young women. Design/methodology/approach-This exploratory study is based on 30 online and three face-to-face interviews with young women aged between 20 and 22. The authors asked the young women who they shopped with and why and to recount some of their best and worst shopping experiences. The interviews were coded and analysed to reveal several recurring themes. This paper reports only on data relating to shopping with their mothers. Findings-The four major themes that emerged from the interviews with the young women were: gaining independence; trust in mother; the bank of mum; quality time with mum. Research limitations/implications-The sample is limited to young women in a Midwest university in the USA. Attitudes to consumption and shopping and the mother daughter relationship are culturally derived and may differ in other contexts. Practical implications-Women are critical to the retail industry and make the bulk of buying decisions for the family. Daughters represent the next generation of this major market force. Marketers and retailers must be cognizant of the power of this relationship. Originality/value-This paper is the first to report on the daughter-mother shopping experience, with daughters' perceptions of this experience and the outcomes of the consumer socialisation that occur.

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how customers with different relational bonds respond to the same service failure. In particular, the framework to service failure and recovery devised by Fournier and Mick is applied.Design/methodology/approachTo uncover rich emotional and cognitive responses to service failure, in‐depth interviews with eight former and current patrons of an Australian opera were used.FindingsThree types of relationship were identified: satisfaction‐as‐love (SaL), satisfaction‐as‐trust (SaT) and satisfaction‐as‐control (SaC). Each responded to the same failure in different ways. SaL customers had emotional bonds with the product category and thus reaffiremed their loyalty following the failure. SaT customers saw the service failure and inadequate recovery as a breach of the brand's implied promise and thus excited the relationship. SaC customers took charge of the situation, using their status to improve their situation and then defended the brand.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate the importance of customizing service recovery strategies, in this case to those customers with the strongest emotional bonds to the brand, not the product class.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to examine how relational customers respond to service failure and identify how different customer‐brand relationships result in different post‐failure reactions and expectations of service recovery.