The avatar in marketing: Synthesis, integrative framework and perspectives

Garnier, Marion; Poncin, Ingrid

doi:10.1177/2051570713478335

Cited by 26 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 135 publications

(172 reference statements)

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“…The former is acted upon, and the latter acts on them. This raises the question of what is the status of servicescape in a virtual environment, especially when customer-controlled virtual agents called avatars are embedded in it, but their actions are directed by people in the physical world (Garnier and Poncin, 2013;Saren et al, 2013). Our view is that the categorical status of the virtual servicescape is operand resource, as in a bricks and mortar world.…”

Section: New Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

All that is solid melts into air: the servicescape in digital service space

Ballantyne

Nilsson

2017

JSM

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Purpose The emergence of new social media is shifting the market place for business towards virtual market space. In the light of the emerging digital space for new forms of marketing, the traditional servicescape concept is critically examined. This paper aims to show why servicescape concepts and attitudes need to be adapted for digital media. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors explain how the traditional servicescape concept adds meaning to a service provider’s value-proposition by modifying customer expectations and customer experience. Second, recognising that the environment for service is no longer bound to a physical place, the authors discuss the implications of the epistemic shift involved. Findings The authors’ examination shows that digital service space challenges traditional concepts about what constitutes a customer experience and derived value. The authors conceptually “zoom out” into a virtual service eco-system and show with exemplar examples why the servicescape in digital space is more socially embedded and necessarily more fluid in its time-space design. In the more advanced sites, interactions between various artificial bodies (avatars) are co-created by controlling off-line participant-actors; yet, these participant-actors remain strangers to each other at an off-line level. This is entirely a new and radical development of old times. Research limitations/implications The research findings are based on scholarly research of the relevant literature, from practitioner reports, and evidence emerging from the examination of many digital web-sites. It has not been the authors’ intention to objectively represent current servicescape functionalities but more to indicate the major directions of change with exemplar examples. The future cannot be predicted, but their interpretive conclusions suggest major challenges in service marketing and management logic ahead. New forms of digital servicescape are still being created as technology and service imagination enables, so further research interest in virtual atmospherics can be expected. Practical implications Social media platforms are enabling organisations to learn more about their customers and also to engage them more. In these changing times, bricks and mortar stores would be well advised to review their servicescape presence to allow and encourage engagement with the more involved consumers. And, by integrating their digital space into their physical place, bricks and mortar stores might take on more relationship oriented process-like characteristics, both in the digital space and in their physical places, with developments on one platform leading to possible service innovations on the other. Social implications The digital era is changing consumer behaviour. Service managers need to take into account that many customers are already equally as engaged with digital-space social networks as they once were with bricks and mortar stores. The more time consumers as participant-actors spend in social networks, the decision on what and where to buy is decided by interactions with friends and other influencers. Originality/value New forms of digital servicescape are being created as technology and service imagination enables. Further scholarly research interest in virtual atmospherics can be expected, impacting on the authors’ sense of place, and self-identity.

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Section: New Theoretical Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

All that is solid melts into air: the servicescape in digital service space

Ballantyne

Nilsson

2017

JSM

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“…Work on the two most successful types of smart products, virtual interactive agents and domestic robots (e.g. Ben Mimoun et al, 2012;Garnier and Poncin, 2013;Mennecke and Peters, 2013;Rauh, 2006, 2008;Poncin and Ben Mimoun, 2011), offers some answers to this question, and we present them below.…”

Section: The Impact Of Anthropomorphism In Facial Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research in the field of interactive virtual agents and the anthropomorphization of Internet sites shows that including anthropomorphic elements increases the perceived usefulness of an Internet site (Garnier and Poncin, 2013;Hassanein and Head, 2007;Nan et al, 2006;Viot and Bressolles, 2012). Furthermore, for Epley et al (2007), anthropomorphism in companion robots can encourage increased usefulness perceptions, improve user performance, and thus improve perceived usefulness.…”

Section: Anatomical Anthropomorphism and Acceptance Of Intelligent Obmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Must smart objects look human? Study of the impact of anthropomorphism on the acceptance of companion robots

Goudey

Bonnin

2016

Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition)

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Smart products will play a central role in consumer living in years to come. Close to humans because of their "intelligence," should they also look like humans? The aim of this research is to test the impact of anatomical anthropomorphism on the acceptance of an autonomous product, the companion robot, measured by its perceived usefulness, ease of use, and use intentions. Our results show that, unlike previous marketing research on traditional product anthropomorphism, the human appearance of a companion robot does not increase its acceptance by consumers. However, we show that a partially anthropomorphic appearance improves acceptance by people with practical experience of similar technology (the smartphone), while it reduces acceptance by other people. Our results also emphasize the difficulty of extending research on the impact of anthropomorphism on consumers. They also highlight the need to integrate appearance in acceptance models, and they show how experience with products similar to the new one influences the impact of appearance. Finally, we show the role of the categorization process in the impact of appearance.

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“…Key to the popularity of hyperreality is the advancement of technology that now enables users to be represented in virtual worlds via their avatars. Avatars have emerged as one of the key elements of users’ immersion experience in SVWs ( Bessière, Seay, & Kiesler, 2007 ; Garnier & Poncin, 2013 ; Van Looy, Courtois, De Vocht, & De Marez, 2012 ). Individuals use their avatars to introduce their body to the virtual world and make their engagements more veridical ( Vicdan & Ulusoy, 2008 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of social virtual world in increasing psychological resilience during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic

Paul

Mohanty

Sengupta

2022

Computers in Human Behavior

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The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has not only impacted the physical health of individuals but the fear and anxiety of contracting the disease has also contributed to psychological distress among people. The current research identifies a novel coping strategy to strengthen individuals' psychological resilience against the pandemic. Study 1 (N = 210) and Study 2 (N = 93) showed significant beneficial effect of representing oneself via avatar in social virtual world (SVW) on the psychological resilience towards contracting COVID-19. Study 2 also showed that this effect is explained by the disembodied (i.e., out-of-body) experience one encounters in the SVW by digitally representing oneself via an avatar), which enables SVW users to project themselves onto a character in a parallel world that is immune to the COVID-19 virus, thus alleviating the anxiety of contracting the virus themselves in the real world. Additionally, it ruled out alternate explanations like escapism and enjoyment. The findings extend the Proteus effect (i.e., individuals behaviorally conform with their avatar's visual/physical appearance) to a more innate feature of the avatar–its imperviousness from the human body's limitations. The results have important implications for health policy makers along with making a strong case for marketing computer-simulated games like SVWs as virtual therapy tools.

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The avatar in marketing: Synthesis, integrative framework and perspectives

Cited by 26 publications

References 135 publications

All that is solid melts into air: the servicescape in digital service space

All that is solid melts into air: the servicescape in digital service space

Must smart objects look human? Study of the impact of anthropomorphism on the acceptance of companion robots

The role of social virtual world in increasing psychological resilience during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic

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