Although several causal studies investigate the relationships between customer equity (CE) and firm performance, there has been some debate about whether their positive relationship is valid over long time horizons and across firm/industry environments. In this paper, we investigate the dynamic effect of CE on firm performance. Using individual-level purchase data for an online retailer, we find a weak relationship between CE and firm profitability, which is not consistent with previous assumptions and beliefs. Additional analysis to resolve this gap shows that in the early stage when a firm’s growth rate is relatively high the firm is required to manage many newly enrolled customers. This means that newly acquired customer equity (NCE) has a larger effect than retained customer equity (RCE) on firm profitability in the early stage. In contrast, in the mature stage when a firm’s growth rate is stable and low the firm should retain its customers. This means that RCE has a larger effect than NCE on firm profitability in the mature stage. Thus, marketing managers need to leverage the drivers of acquisition and retention to continue to grow overall CE and firm performance.

Market potential for a line of retail trade within a geographic market has been defined as the difference between (i) actual sales of the line of trade in the geographic market and (ii) potential sales based on the marketing environment, current retailers’ marketing efforts, and competition from related lines of trade and nearby geographic markets (Ingene and Takahashi 2012). In this current research we examine the rate of change of retail market potential in Japan over a sixteen year span (1991-2007).We theoretically address, and empirically estimate, key factors that affect the rate of change of retail sales per household in four major lines of retail trade: frequently purchased consumables (food and drink), less frequently bought non-durables (apparel, shoes and dry goods), and infrequently acquired durable goods that range from moderately costly (furniture) to truly expensive (autos). Information on these lines is drawn from the Japanese Retail Trade Censuses of 1991 and 2007 at the Industrial Classification (IC) level. We examine Dry Goods, Apparel and Accessory stores (largely clothing, shoe, linen and accessories (IC 56; Share of retail trade in 2007: 8%)); Food and Beverage stores (primarily grocery, liquor, and specialty food stores (IC 57; Share of retail trade: 30%)); Furniture, Household Utensils, and Appliances (IC 59; Share of retail trade: 9%); and Motor Vehicles and Bicycle stores (IC 58; Share of retail trade: 12%). Note that because our measure is sales, autos dominate in the IC 58 category. These four lines of trade collectively comprise about 60% (1991: 62%, 2007: 58%) of all retail sales. We previously explored determinants of the absolute value of retail sales per household in these lines of retail trade (Ingene and Takahashi 2013). However, this research deals with the rate of change of retail sales per household. Thus, we explain differences in change of retail market potential among 528 Japanese cities, in all 47 prefectures, that are home to over 75% of Japan’s people. According to our previous study (Ingene and Takahashi 2013), retail sales are determined by three fundamental factors: the Market Environment (which is beyond the control of retail managers), Intertype Competition (which is influenced, but not controlled, by managers in the line of trade), and the Marketing Mix in each line of trade (which is set by managers). The essence of our argument is that the Market Environment determines a base level of rate of change in sales per household. Intertype Competition takes sales away from the focal lines of trade. Finally, the Marketing Mix in each line of trade augments sales (a) by appealing to customers and (b) by countering the negative impact of Intertype Competition.Turning to our empirical model (Figure 1), we include seven variables in the Market Environment that are measured by their rate of change between 1991 and 2007: per capita income, home size in square meters (a proxy for household wealth), population growth, daytime population relative to residential population, auto ownership per capita (a proxy for mobility), distance to the prefecture’s capital city (a proxy for out-shopping), and newspapers per capita. We expect each of these independent variables to increase our dependent variable: retail sales per household.For the Marketing Mix we measure three variables in terms of their rate of change in the same time period: average square meters of selling space per store (a proxy for assortment), employees per square meter of selling space (a proxy for service), and number of stores per 1000 people (a proxy for locational convenience); each of them should increase retail sales per household in its line of trade, but not in other lines (e.g., the marketing mix for Food stores should only affect food sales per household).For Intertype Competition we use General Merchandise Stores (largely department stores and supercenters (IC55; Share of retail trade in 2007: 12%)) that, in Japan, directly compete with Clothing, Furniture and Food stores. We focus on the same three variables (assortment, service, and access); they are expected to be inversely related to the rate of change in sales per household in the lines with which they compete. There is no intertype competition in our Motor Vehicle regressions. In the first stage of our analysis we use the change of the Market Environment to explain the variation in the rate of change in retail sales per household and four lines of trade (i.e., four regressions). The Market Environment generates adjusted R2’s of 2% (Clothing) to 25% (Autos).In our second-stage analysis our dependent variable is the residuals from the first-stage regressions. Here we include the Marketing Mix and Intertype Competition variables as explanatory; they account for 2% (Autos) to 43% (Clothing) of the variation in the first-stage residuals. Taking the two stages together, we are able to explain26% (Autos) to 54% (Food) of the variation in retail sales per capita across the four lines of trade. We make four contributions with our empirical research. First, we investigate data from two censuses that span a sixteen year period; few previous studies have examined changes in retail structure over time (e.g., Hall, et al. 1961). Second, we demonstrate the time-variant stability of the Marketing Mix variables. Third, we show the importance of intertype competition – although in our data it appears that only the Food and Beverage category experiences significant intertype competition. Fourth, we examine retailing in Japan; the world’s third largest economy has rarely been the focus of retail trade studies.

Despite the rapid growth and potential for technology-based services from a technology and productivity perspective, the biggest challenges that managers often face are gaining customer acceptance and increasing usage of these new innovative services. In the B2C field, studies of self‐service technology show that the perceived risk is an important factor influencing the usage of service technology. Whereas research has explored different risk types that emerge in consumer settings such as functional and psychological risk, research on risk perception in B2B setting still lacks a detailed examination of the different facets risk can take on in technology-based service adoption. Some studies indicate that there might be different views and perceptions of the risk involved in technology-based services between customers and providers. Our study addresses this gap and aims to develop a holistic understanding of the types of risk customers perceive when using a technology-based service. We investigate what types of risk are emergent in technology-based service encounters and whether customers and providers perceive these risks differently. We conducted 49 qualitative interviews with providers and customers in two industries in four countries. Our study emphasizes the importance of functional and financial risks as expected in a B2B context, but also sheds light on the fact that business customers have personal and psychological fears that hinder them from using technology-based services. Most importantly, we show that gaps in the perception and evaluation of risk exist between customers and providers: customers doubt the functionality of technology-based services; they emphasize privacy risk as a main hindrance and worry about their own role in a service, whereas only few providers are aware of the customers’ fears.

The objective of this paper is to explain how the organizational learning concept is used to promote group work, information sharing and an open and transparent communication style in order to produce a high level of customer service. The work incorporates an extensive literature review and a number of propositions. Previously collected data from a set of in-depth personal interviews undertaken with senior managers in a Korean electronics company were reanalyzed and reinterpreted using the grounded theory approach. This allowed insights to be provided into how, in a collectivist culture, information sharing is reinforced by the organizational learning concept. The research findings show that managers in a chaebol use organizational learning to identify skilled and knowledgeable staff, and to improve the organization’s capability by placing emphasis on developing harmonious, mutually oriented relationships that permeate throughout the organization. In addition, top management demand that staff identify with government economic objectives and align the organization’s strategy accordingly so that the products produced are marketable. By ensuring that management procedures, processes and systems evolve naturally, change is managed in an incremental and pro-active manner.

The influential role other customers play in forming a customer's service experience has gained growing academic and managerial attention recently. We intend to extend this stream of the research by proposing the effect of the interactions with other customers on the customer's quality perception of the service provided by the service firm. Through our findings we suggest that service firms should look beyond service personnel and consider other customers as a human factor influential on customer perceptions of service quality. Specifically, we propose that the perceived quality of C2C interactions indirectly affect customer perceptions of service quality through the mediation by the perceived social-emotional support. Using the selective halo effect theory, we theorize that the perceived quality of C2C interactions influence perceived quality of the assurance and empathy dimensions of SERVQUAL. We also suggest that the strength of the effect depends on customer role types. In order to fill the gap in the customer interaction research, which is mostly centered around experiential service settings, we choose a service setting in which functional benefits are more valued (i.e. healthcare services). Our study findings will help service managers become more aware of the importance of managing C2C interactions and learn specifically which aspects of C2C interactions to manage.

The emergence of peer to peer systems such as online auction websites is a major element in e-commerce yet relatively little is known about what influences its adoption and use in different parts of the world. Using an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), user attitudes and behaviors from three national environmental contexts, Korea, Germany and New Zealand, are examined and compared to determine the factors influencing the adoption and usage of this system. The key questions this paper addresses are: Are there national differences affecting the ability for the TAM to predict OAWS acceptance, and if so, in what way? And are differences observed between heavy and light user motivations and perceptions of the medium and how these differ across national environments? Answers to these questions will increase the understanding for future marketers and developers of peer-to-peer systems. An extended TAM model was developed from which a number of hypothesized relationships are posited. We use the Davis, Bagozzi and Warshaw (1989) core TAM model extended by our arguing for two key influencing factors on a user’s attitude to using a new technology, perceived risk and computer affinity. We contend the drivers of perceived risk are: perceived enjoyment, trust in intermediary, perceived reputation system effectiveness, and positive past experience. Additionally we address the limited understanding in the literature of the national environment effects on technology acceptance. National cultural effects such as uncertainty avoidance and individualism, along with technological heritage and country innovativeness may need to be understood to determine potential differences in consumer activity and the robustness of the theoretical model. We also considered usage behavior to be important. Research for example, identifies heavy users as influencers on other potential adopters; thus important targets for developers and marketers of new technologies. Results suggest that although the core TAM is somewhat robust for the three nations along with the extended model for the respondents from South Korea, there are some key differences in the extended model between New Zealand and Germany. Specifically the relationships: Positive Past Experience and Perceived Risk are not supported in NZ or Germany, and “computer affinity” and “attitude to using” unsupported in Germany. We similarly found differences in the attitudes of light and heavy users between the samples, especially the Korean sample with the others. Our findings highlight that national environmental variations, especially between the “eastern” and “western” samples are important, which could be attributed to both uncertainty avoidance and individualism. Key conclusions and recommendations will be given.

In line with the significant impact of information overwhelming on consumer behavior, the study conducted by Iyengar and Lepper (2000) showed that information overload could merely happen while being presented by too much choice, which is also referred as the phenomenon of “choice overload.” In contrast to the classic economic and psychological theories that the more choice, the better, their field observation and lab experiment concluded the finding that having more choice may be demotivating. Through the classic jam study of theirs, which was conducted in an upscale grocery store, they found that while displaying 24 different exotic jams at the sample booth (the large choice set) in the store, only three percent of the sampling shoppers actually purchased one of the jams. However, 30 percent of the sampling shoppers purchased one of the jams during the display of six jam samples (the small choice set). The too-much-choice effect was observed not only in the supermarket but also in an educational context. While providing six versus 30 essay topics to students, the quality of essays was found to be significantly better in the limited-choice (6) condition than in the extensive-choice (30) condition. In marketing practices, marketers tend to provide abundant alternatives to consumers because it increases the likelihood to match different needs and interests of various consumers (Haynes, 2009). However, researchers have noticed that providing extensive choice could result in negative consequences such as making one dissatisfied and unconfident with the choice or defer the decision. Although many empirical studies have shown that the too-much-choice effect occurs in different contexts (e.g. charity donation, prize drawing, and essay topics) or with various product categories (e.g. mp3 players, pens, and chocolates), it has not been consistently observed. Scheibehenne, Greifeneder, and Todd (2009) did not find the statistically significant relation between the size of choice sets (small vs. large) and the percentage of the participants who made a choice in the restaurant-picking task and charity donation task. To better understand the too-much-choice effect, thus, the purpose of this study is to develop a holistic and theoretical model of the too-much-choice effect inductively based on empirical findings. To date, most of the studies that have been conducted focus on experimental examinations, which are essential building blocks for theory development. However, experimental findings only provide fragmentary explanations about the phenomenon. By assembling the pieces derived from those segments, therefore, the too-much-choice effect is treated as a continuum, which may better explain under what situation the effect is more likely to appear and what consequences it may result in.

Subjective knowledge (SK thereafter) is defined as what consumers think they know, or their perceived level of knowledge (Brucks, 1985). SK influences what consumers search for, the effort that they put into searching, and the purchasing decision and choice of brands they finally make (Hadar, Sood, & Fox, 2013; Moorman, Diehl, Brinberg, & Kidwell, 2004). The existing literature on consumer knowledge development mainly argues that SK development is associated with consumers’ product related experience, such as product ownership and experience from usage (Alba & Hutchinson, 2000; Park, Mothersbaugh, & Feick, 1994). This study contributes to the literature as follows. We consider a broad market segmentation where the market consists of product owners and non-owners, The literature suggests that these two groups of consumers should have different levels of perceived knowledge due to their different product-specific experience (Park et al., 1994). Our research specifically contends that it is important to distinguish, within the group of non-owners, between those who intend to buy and those who do not intend to buy the product. Thus, this study examines how previous ownership and intention to buy, which is the goal motivation, influence the SK levels of consumers, which in turn impacts on consumers’ heterogeneous preferences for different attributes within a product category. It is contended that the motivation to learn about a product category of non-car owners who have strong intentions to buy influences what this group learns compared to those non-owners who do not intend to buy. More specifically, the research proposes to uncover how learning influences how different groups of consumers perceive their subjective knowledge and how this relationship in turn shapes their preferences, especially when we compare owners and non-owners who have strong intentions of buying a product. Therefore, we develop following research hypotheses: H1: The SK level is positively associated with the product ownership experience. H2: The SK level is positively associated with purchase intention. H3: The relationship between purchase intention and SK level is moderated by the ownership of the product. H4: Preference heterogeneity for different types of brand attributes of the product between owners and non-owners is moderated by the SK level. The empirical context that illustrates the importance of this research is the Chinese car market where the majority of consumers are first time buyers. Our research shows that the SK level is positively associated with both car ownership and purchase intention. Furthermore, the segmentation analysis finds that purchase intention has a significant effect only on non-car owners’ SK level, while the effect on car owners’ SK level is insignificant. An interesting finding is that SK development, in turn, influences consumer’s preferences for different types of brand attributes of a product. We demonstrate the role of SK in forming consumer preference heterogeneity by comparing preferences for a tangible and a non-tangible brand attribute respectively across different consumer segments. We further show how this preference heterogeneity across two consumer segments (car owners versus non-car owners) depends on their SK level. The results of this study can be generalized beyond the specific context of the empirical study of the Chinese car market when marketers are considering new products launch or launching products where the majority of consumers may be unfamiliar with the product.

Consumers from an emerging country generally associate brands from developed countries with high quality. An interesting question is how do they perceive different brands with different positioning strategies? While many more brands position themselves as global brands rather than foreign brands, I argue that for emerging country consumers, there should not be a perceived quality difference between a global brand using the English language versus a foreign brand using other languages written in the Latin alphabet. This could be because consumers stereotype the country image at the regional level and appearance level, not at the country level. This should be most salient when consumers are less familiar and/or more distant from the country being evaluated.

The role of other customers play in determining a service customer's experience has emerged as important and received growing attention recently. Yet, the role of companions has not. In this study, using the healthcare setting as our research context, we explore how companions affect the patient throughout the service encounter process. Specifically, we propose that the quality of the role companions play affects the quality of the role patients play, which eventually affects the perceived quality of the service patients receive from the healthcare provider. In other words, we propose companions as a source of improving customer perceptions of service quality. Further, in an effort to define the desirable type of companions, we propose that the quality of relationship between the customer and the companion will influence the customer perception of the companion role quality. We also propose that the patient's stress level will moderate the effect of companion's role on the patient's role. In order to measure the quality of the role a companion and a patient play respectively, we first developed a scale for each by comprehensively compiling existing scales for each. We adopted the existing SERVQUAL items to measure perceived service quality. We adapted existing scales for measuring the quality of relationship between the patient and the companion and for measuring the patient's stress level. We plan to conduct a self-administered survey among the patients at a major university hospital in Seoul, Korea. We will analyze the collected data through a factor analysis, an analysis of variance, and a structural equation modeling approach. Findings of the current study will contribute academically by extending the research stream in viewing other human factors in the service setting as influential factor in determining the customer perception of service quality. Managerially, our study will contribute by demonstrating the importance of ensuring that companions play their role well throughout the service encounter process and also by presenting a comprehensive scale to measure the companion's role.

The objective of this paper is to understand consumers’ responses (attitude, perception of quality and luxury) to production delocalization in the luxury industry, based on brand origin matching consumers’ origin or not, in order to understand the interaction brand origin and consumer ethnocentrism on those responses.Two experiments were conducted. Study 1 exposes 166 respondents (French, Italian and other European) to a message of delocalization of either a French or Italian brand supposed to delocalize production to China. Study 2 assesses, among 62 French women, the implicit preference toward French luxury brands (through the Implicit Association Test, Greenwald et al. 1998) and the level of consumer ethnocentrism (through CETSCALE, Sharma et al. 1995). Then, the group is exposed between subjects to 2 delocalization messages X 2 country of delocalization (China, Poland EU) Although brand origin is not salient when consumers evaluate brands (no explicit preference for French brands over Italian brands across studies), it is nonetheless present below awareness, as part of the brand heritage and the brand identity (measured through an implicit preference for French brands over Italian brands among our French respondents). It manifests in context of brands delocalizing out of the home country. Across studies, the attitude toward the brand, the perception of quality and perception of luxury is affected negatively post-exposure to a message of delocalization. Yet, this result is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism and message framing. When the message induces positive consequences for the brand and for the national economy, French respondents (and Italian respondents in study 1) are less affected by the delocalization of their home brands than other respondents. In turn, when the message highlights a loss in national employment, respondents judge the brand more negatively. The effect is stronger for respondents higher in ethnocentrism. The country of delocalization does not influence those results. There is scarcity of papers investigating the CoO effect for luxury brands, although the luxury business model and luxury brand identity are rooted into brand origin. This paper is the first to our knowledge to investigate the effect of brand origin and consumer ethnocentrism on brand delocalization.

An extensive body of research on the effects of the country-of-origin (COO) on the purchase of foreign brands has emerged in the international marketing stream. Although previous studies have enhanced the understanding of the effects of the COO on the purchase of foreign brands, they provide limited insight into organizational buyers’ behavior on foreign brands. The objective of this research is to provide an understanding of the effects of the COO on overseas distributors’ behavior in international marketing channels. Integrating the theory of planned behavior and the concepts of country-induced biases, the current study develops an empirically testable model that explains and predicts overseas distributors’ behavior in international marketing channels. The model identifies attitude toward foreign brands, social valuation of the origin of brands, and perceived behavioral control as the factors affecting overseas distributors’ intention to place foreign brands. The model also incorporates the factors of country-induced biases—buyer animosity and perceived risk to the origin of manufacture as the antecedents of attitude toward foreign brands. The model is tested using the primary data drawn from a survey. Findings from an examination of 103 distributors in America reveal that these country-induced biases affect the intention to place foreign brands, in the manner of the hypotheses, through the attitude toward foreign brands. Finally, the present study discusses implications for theory and practice, indicates limitations, and concludes with some suggestions for future research.

This paper aims to compare the impact of country of origin and brand’s aspects on young consumers’ willingness to buy global brands. We chose the United States because this country is the origin of the most valuable global brands, besides arousing contradictory opinions and feelings, as well as reactions of love and hate. The brands Apple, Levi’s and McDonald's, represent products and services, all of them recognized as global and US iconic brands, at the same time: Apple has been admired and followed; McDonald’s has been used as a symbol in political demonstrations against the United States or against globalization, while some protesters wear Levi’s jeans. The tested constructs include aspects related to country of origin (Country Image, Country Affinity, Ethnocentrism) and brand (Brand Personality and Self-Brand Connection). We conducted a survey with 367 students, potential consumers of the brands, and applied Structural Equation Modelling to analyze the impacts of constructs on their willingness to buy. The results indicate that consumer-brand relationship showed greater strength and significance than other constructs, highlighting that during purchasing it is more important how the consumer perceives himself in relation to the brand than the way he perceives or feels about brand’s country of origin. We deliberately chose brands of high brand equity for analysis, but in the future, the model could be applied to low brand equity brands, not-iconic brands, other countries and its brands, and other product categories.

This paper presents a research study into urban adult Chinese consumers’ preferences in China with an analysis of the literature on country of origin effects on consumer brand preferences. The study implemented a mixed methods approach. Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data with results and conclusions are given.

The main purpose of this study is to introduce and examine a multidimensional model of almost all relevant social media characteristics and their impact on brand perception and brand behavior. In order to incorporate social media’s high complexity we introduce our concept of SMURF and its related outcomes. Therefore we follow the original idea of Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) that define a brand community as a customer-customer-brand triad. Furthermore, we suggest an extension of their model that includes four dimensions covering all SMURF of a social media brand presence (SMBP), namely (1) customer-brand relation, (2) customer-customer relation, (3) customer-community relation and (4) customer-channel relation. For our defined core constituents of brand perception as well as for the essential elements of brand behavior already existing and tested reflective measures were used. Regarding the multidimensional construct of SMURF, the measurement instrument by Wiedmann, et al. (2013) was used. In detail, any SMURF core element was captured with one global item. Furthermore, any reflective and formative measures were specified to those brand and Facebook fan page which has been tracked most frequently by the respondent. The first contribution is to provide a multidimensional framework of value-based drivers of SMURF with special focus on an overall brand presence context. Second, the findings contribute to explain the consequences of social media attractiveness such as unique relevance features which provide a great brand appeal. In this study, customers who are strongly attracted to a brand fan page experience a high positive brand perception as well as a high positive brand behavior. Third, the empirical findings of the applied PLS-SEM approach indicate that customers have a specific motivation of being attracted and connected to a brand in a social media context.

This study explores the relationship among brand experience, consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty with virtual experience and the virtual community as the intervening variables. We intend to discuss how the new concept of ‘brand experience’ impacted by the internet environment. We integrate the following new research subjects together: brand experience, virtual experience and virtual community. As the research purpose is to understand the effects of virtual environments on brand experience on consumer satisfaction and on brand loyalty, it takes virtual experience as the intervening variable to discuss whether it positively or negatively influences the relationship between brand experience and consumer satisfaction, and takes the virtual commodity variable as the intervening variable to discuss whether it positively or negatively influences the relationship between consumer satisfaction and brand loyalty. This study takes the virtual community members of apple brand in taiwan as the research subjects and 516 questionnaires were completed and returned. The results show that the brand experience had a positive effect on the consumers’ satisfaction and brand loyalty. In addition, the virtual experience has a positive moderating effect on the relationship of brand experience and consumer satisfaction. Finally, this study also discovered that the virtual community also has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between consumers’ satisfaction and brand loyalty.

In this paper, researchers investigated current fashion brands’ social media micro-blogging marketing strategy and consumers’ word of mouth reactions. More than 5,000 of the micro-blogs posted by fashion brands and 143,000 of customers’ comments were analysed in this study. Researchers firstly investigated the overall micro-blogging marketing structure for each fashion brand and compared them. Then researchers identified the type of expression pattern of each fashion brand currently in the micro-blogging context, negative or positive sentiments. Researchers found that fashion brands are using different micro-blogging marketing strategies. Forever21 used 61% micro-blogs for customer communication. H&M posted very diverse micro-blogs content to their official account. Their main micro-blogs were used for new product promotion (43%) and brand’s live event broadcasting (33%). Luxury brands, such as Burberry, more than 52% of micro-blogs posted last year were used for new product promotion and 36% of their micro-blogs contents included celebrities’ images of wearing Burberry product. Chanel used 60% of their micro-blogs to broadcast and introduce their brand events. There was no sale information posted on Chanel and Burberry’s micro-blogs account. Through sentiment analysis, researchers also found the brands have very positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). Particular, luxury fashion brands are having better e-WOM than fast fashion brands.

The empirical study at hand explores the relationship between traditional and social media, and shows that media coverage and different forms of corporate communications do have an impact on social media chatter. Moreover online advertising is capable of taking advantage of awareness aroused by media coverage.

The author invites attendees of the Special Session on Film Making for Marketing Research and Communication to have a critical look at the short history of film making in the marketing discipline and foresee its future. There are two perspectives for this discussion: one is a broad overview of film making for consumer behavior research, and the second is the personal reflection of the author who first engaged in film making nine years ago. Film making as a research approach in the academic areas of marketing and consumer behavior is just beginning its early “teenage” years. It counts its formal age from the time it obtained legitimacy when the first Film Festival took place at the Association for Consumer Research Conference in Atlanta, USA, in 2002. Since then, the Film Festival has become an integral part of this major conference that draws together a global academic audience of consumer researchers. In fact, film festivals are now included in the European, Asia-Pacific, and Latin American ACR conferences, and as of 2012, there were more than 125 films accepted into the various ACR Film Festivals (Belk and Kozinets 2012). The current number of accepted films probably exceeds 150, which demonstrates growing interest in film making in the academic discipline of marketing. Russell W. Belk and Robert V. Kozinets,“founding fathers” of the ACR Film Festivals have become instrumental in developing guidance and academic criteria for the novel research approach of videography. Films are expected to be topical, theatrical, theoretical, and technical. That means that 1) the topic under visual investigation should relate to consumer research; 2) the film should flow in a dramatic and engaging way; 3) a theoretical perspective and contribution should be evident; and 4) the film should have good production values (Belk and Kozinets 2012). The author, who started making films without prior expertise after attending a workshop, has since produced four videographies of various lengths and levels of mastery. They have been presented at conferences globally, one was published in a special multi-media issue of an academic journal, two have earned academic awards, and all of them have found use in the classroom. Topic-wise, the films related to consumer research by exploring happiness (“Finding Harmony in the Jungle”), the role of narratives on food product packaging (“It All Began with a Kiss, or When Packaging Sells a Country”), the transformational power of street language (“Red Bull on the Roof of the World or From Landscape into Servicescape”), and the Easternization of the West (“Yoga and Fashion”). The videographies were filmed in Belize, Italy, England, Indonesia (Bali) and China (Tibet). The film making process for the author has been rewarding because of the creative potential that comes with videography and the use of visual channels of communication for academic purposes. Challenges include making sure the films have the necessary rigor to qualify as academic work.