In many mature markets competition keeps growing. As a result, products are increasingly becoming similar, which often prompts price reductions and other promotional tools to ensure profit margins and the long-term marketing viability. Another solution frequently employed to win the competition is the use of emotional advertising (Rossiter & Percy, 1997). This is because products sharing the same or similar attributes can generate different emotion, therefore, be perceived different. However, the frequent use of emotional advertising has led to the situation that not only products but also their ads become similar primarily because consumers buying products of the same category tend to prefer similar effects. Such similarity of the ads is likely to create confusion among the ads so that consumers may not identify the brands of the ads correctly. Impacts of the confusion, however, may differ due to a number of variables. Of the variables, a few critical variables are examined in this study, and several propositions are suggested for the future study.

New product entails risk, causing resistance to adoption. The recommendation system may decrease the psychological risk by guiding decision making process to be more efficient (Häubl and Trifts, 2000). AI (Artificial Intelligence) has been getting smarter and smarter and widely applied to the recommendation system. Even while you are browsing on your Facebook, AI recommends you the products that you may like based on the customized analysis of your interest. However, do people always love to adopt the smart recommends from AI? Definitely no! Then when and why people reluctantly accept AI recommendation? We assume that the product or service where the sense and feeling is important, people might be reluctant to accept the recommendation from artificial intelligence. This is because people might feel threatened when the AI challenges against human uniqueness (Gray and Wegner, 2012). Thus, in this study we investigated how the recommendation system types (AI vs. Human) affect brand attitude depending on the brand image (Symbolic vs. Functional). We found consumers are reluctant to accept a recommendation from AI in symbolic brand where human sense and feel are considered to be critical factors (Study1). This effect was further explained by uncanny-feeling toward the AI recommendation system (Study2). This research is meaningful in that it is the first attempt to apply the artificial intelligence recommendation concept to the marketing strategy by incorporating the concept of brand image. We predicted and found AI based recommendation system is reluctantly accepted for symbolic brand. Furthermore, we discovered the underlying process for this phenomenon as uncanny feeling. People seemed to have uncomfortable feelings against AI recommendation when the brand image is related to sense and feel considered as nature of human uniqueness. Thus, marketers should be very cautious when utilizing the AI recommendation system not to threaten human uniqueness area.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of store attributes on brand equity of and brand attitude toward Korean SPA brands. Data were collected from women living in Seoul in ages from 18 to 39 with purchasing experience at Korean SPA brands. A total of 554 questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis including factor analysis and structure equation analysis. The results were as follows: For store attributes, 8 factors were extracted: product assortment, fashionability, price, quality, store environment, service, convenience in location and advertisement. Two factors, brand awareness, brand image were extracted for brand equity, and brand attitude was derived as a single dimension. Product-related store attributes such as product assortment, price, quality have positive effects on brand awareness, brand image and brand attitude. Other attribute such as store environment has positive effect on brand awareness and brand image, Attribute such as advertisement has positive effect on brand awareness and service, convenience in location have positive effect on brand attitude. Moreover, brand image and brand awareness have positive effect on brand attitude. These results indicate the product-related attributes are important factors to consider for improving brand equity and brand attitude for Korean SPA brands.