As demand for "quiet" luxury grows, advertisers face a strategic question: how prominently should brand markers be displayed? Across five studies (N = similar to 2,000), we show that the effectiveness of brand prominence depends on consumer mindfulness. When mindfulness is low, prominent logos reinforce extrinsic status motives and increase preference for loud luxury. When mindfulness is high, subtle branding aligns with intrinsic, self-congruent motives and increases preference for quiet luxury. The findings offer an actionable targeting principle: match logo prominence to contextual and behavioral signals of consumers' inward- versus outward-oriented status motives.

Novel food technologies, such as genetic editing, cell-cultured foods, and controlled environment agriculture, offer potential solutions to global challenges like climate change and resource scarcity, yet their success depends on consumer readiness to adopt them. This research examines how cultural uncertainty avoidance and religiosity jointly shape adoption readiness for these technologies. Two studies were conducted with participants from Japan (a high uncertainty avoidance culture; n = 1214) and Singapore (a low uncertainty avoidance culture; n = 1189). Study 1 showed that in Japan, highly religious consumers were more willing to pay for and support novel food technologies than their secular counterparts, whereas in Singapore, secular consumers expressed greater support than more religious consumers. Study 2 demonstrated that symbolic value mediates these cross-cultural patterns, revealing how consumers interpret novel food technologies through identity- and value-based meanings that vary by cultural and religious context. These findings offer theoretical insight into the sociocultural predictors of technology adoption and provide practical guidance for tailoring strategies for adoption readiness across diverse markets.

Future food technologies (FFTs) are reconfiguring food provisioning by introducing new product choices, increasing efficiency, and promoting sustainability. However, as FFTs become more agentic, they also surface paradoxical tensions between consumers, producers, and technological infrastructures. This study examines what these paradoxes do: how tensions enacted in consumer discourse constitute the ongoing shaping of FFT-mediated food provisioning markets. Drawing on qualitative data from 24 focus groups (n = 117) in Aotearoa New Zealand, we show how paradoxical tensions constitute market shaping across three areas: (1) algorithmic governance of market choices, (2) corporate dominance in market access, and (3) legitimizing frameworks for market evolution. While FFTs promise optimized, "perfect" food experiences and new forms of market access, they simultaneously constitute predefined autonomy, imbalanced participation, and constrained agency through algorithmic standardization, corporate consolidation, and exclusionary market practices. Applying paradox theory, we show how participants' discursive practices perform institutional work that keeps FFT markets under continuous negotiation. These tensions are therefore generative rather than merely disruptive, constituting the ongoing configuration of technology-mediated food provisioning systems. This research contributes to macromarketing by showing how paradoxical tensions do not simply accompany FFT market evolution but organize the discursive and institutional work through which food provisioning systems are assembled, contested, and reconfigured. The findings offer insights for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and scholars examining the evolution of food systems in technology-mediated markets.

Amid the broader cultural rise of contemplative traditions, social media influencers, particularly those promoting mindfulness, blend commercial self-promotion with the ideological commitments of this philosophy. This study examines how they navigate authenticity and commerciality by repackaging mindfulness into marketable products. Using a qualitative analysis of 16 mindfulness influencers on Instagram, we identify two strategies, discourse and practice, that enable them to maintain authenticity while commercializing a belief system. Our findings challenge the assumption that authenticity and commerciality are inherently oppositional. This study demonstrates how these dynamics can coexist, while raising ethical concerns around authenticity inflation, informal expertise, and the monetization of belief systems.

Novel food technologies can contribute to more sustainable and resilient food systems, but their success depends on public acceptance. This study examines cross-country and demographic differences in consumer responses to three novel food technologies, gene editing, cellular agriculture, and controlled-environment agriculture, using data from 14,617 participants across eight countries. Adoption readiness was assessed across four dimensions: perceived safety, willingness to buy, willingness to encourage others to buy, and support for government initiatives. Results show substantial variation across countries and demographic groups, underscoring the importance of national contexts and sociodemographic factors in shaping acceptance, social endorsement, and policy support. These findings offer a multi-dimensional understanding of how consumers evaluate novel food technologies and provide insights for industry, researchers, and policymakers advancing future food innovations.

Consumers frequently face intertemporal choices that require trading off reward value against the delay before the reward is received. This research shows that mindfulness, defined as non-judgmental attention to and awareness of the present moment, increases consumers’ preference for delayed gratification. This occurs because mindfulness slows the subjective passage of time duration, leading consumers to perceive the future as more expansive; in other words, they feel “time-rich.” Consequently, they judge waiting for a larger reward as less costly, which makes the delayed option more attractive. Across six studies—two field investigations and four laboratory experiments, three of which used consequential behavioral measures—we provide convergent evidence for this effect and its underlying mechanism. The findings have practical implications both for consumers navigating trade-offs between immediate and delayed outcomes and for marketers designing more effective intertemporal incentives.

Suffering (significant effort with negative valence) is increasingly present in consumption, yet little is known about when it undermines motivation or well-being. This paper examines how suffering affects intrinsic motivation, well-being, and repurchase intention, moderated by material and experiential product types. Across four studies, we test whether suffering (vs. control) has differential effects on consumer outcomes. Study 1 (N = 300) shows that suffering reduces well-being in material but not experiential purchases. Studies 2a (N = 429) and 2b (N = 394) replicate this across scenarios, showing that suffering in material contexts lowers well-being and repurchase intention, effects not observed for experiential purchases. Study 3 (N = 487) shows that in material contexts, suffering reduces intrinsic motivation and well-being, thereby decreasing repurchase intention. These findings demonstrate that suffering undermines outcomes in material consumption, while experiential consumption appears insulated. We extend self-determination theory by showing how suffering impacts motivation across consumption types.

Mindfulness is gaining traction as an advertising tactic to boost audience engagement. Despite this, existing research provides limited insight into the impact of advertisements with integrated mindfulness elicitations, particularly regarding the mechanisms that might alter short-term memory retention. In the research, five studies examined how integrating elicitations of mindfulness, specifically through attention to the body, can be integrated into advertising. The studies explored how such integrated advertisements can manifest awe in consumers, thereby enhancing their immersion in the advertisement. Specifically, ads that incorporate mindful body cues (open body awareness, body scan, body senses, breath cues) versus a control condition absent of these cues enhance purchase intention and brand salience among viewers. This research practically introduces and defines mindfulness-integrated advertising to the field and theoretically illustrates the potential of mindfulness to influence information processing by elevating awe and immersion, and subsequently short-term memory, thereby boosting brand salience.

The rapid increase in population and unsustainable agricultural practices has significantly damaged the environment. Our study explores how to achieve food security through environmentally friendly methods such as controlled environment agriculture (CEA), genetic editing (GE), and farming automation (FA), with an emphasis on the importance of consumer acceptance of these technologies. Analyzing data from 2138 Australians and 1760 New Zealanders, we employ a two-step clustering method—(1) hierarchical clustering and (2) k-means clustering—to categorize consumers on the basis of their demographic and lifestyle preferences into three segments that capture differences in attitudes toward new agricultural technologies: “Green Urbanites,” “Environmentally Unconcerned,” and “Skeptical Foodie.” Our findings reveal that Green Urbanites are the most open to adopting CEA, GE, and FA, while Skeptical Foodies and Environmentally Unconcerned are more reluctant. We contribute to theory by studying a novel facet of consumer acceptance of sustainable technologies and revealing how consumption, living, and lifestyle patterns motivate new technology acceptance in the agricultural sector. To inform practice, we suggest tailored strategies to increase engagement of the identified segments and promote wider acceptance of sustainable agricultural practices for enhanced food security.

Digital influencers play an essential role in determining information diffusion during crisis events. This paper demonstrates that information diffusion (retweets) on the social media platform Twitter (now X) highly depends on digital influencers’ number of followers and influencers’ location within communication networks. We show (study 1) that there is significantly more information diffusion in regional (vs. national or international) crisis events when tweeted by micro-influencers (vs. meso- and macro-influencers). Further, study 2 demonstrates that this pattern holds when micro-influencers operate in a local location (are located local to the crisis). However, effects become attenuated when micro-influencers are situated in a global location (outside of the locality of the event). We term this effect ‘influencer network compression’ – the smaller in scope a crisis event geography (regional, national, or international) and influencer location (local or global) becomes, the more effective micro-influencers are at diffusing information. This shows that those who possess the most followers (meso- and macro-influencers) are less effective at attracting retweets than micro-influencers situated local to a crisis. As online information diffusion plays a critical role during public crisis events, this paper contributes to both practice and theory by exploring the role of digital influencers and their network geographies in different types of crisis events.

Cultured foods have the potential to profoundly transform the food industry. However, most current research focuses on cultured meat, neglecting other cultured products and begging the question of whether different promotional approaches are suited for certain types of cultured food products than others. To bridge this knowledge gap, we carried out two studies to explore how product type (cultured meat vs. cultured fruit) and benefit type (ethical vs. product attributes such as sensory and nutritional advantages) interact in determining consumers' willingness to try the products. Study 1 findings indicate that emphasizing ethical benefits is more effective for promoting cultured meat, whereas highlighting product benefits is more effective for promoting cultured fruit. We found that curiosity, a strong behavioral motivator, mediates the interactive effect of product type and benefit type on willingness to try. This research underscores the need for marketing messages to be tailored to the distinct cultured product types and enriches the literature on curiosity as an important mechanism in the context of cultured food acceptance.

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This research explores the evolving landscape of luxury travel beyond traditional markers such as quality, exclusivity, and cost. As the luxury travel market is projected to reach USD$2.7 billion by 2032, emerging forms such as community-based, idle, and sustainable luxury challenge conventional norms. This study delves into the evolving landscape of luxury travel through the lens of mindfulness, with the Faroe Islands serving as a captivating case study. The intersection of exclusivity and environmental consciousness in this remote destination introduces the concept of 'mindful luxury.' Analyzing the experiences of 16 tourists, we uncover a profound transformation in luxury travel, blending uniqueness with curiosity, awareness, and contemplation. This mindful approach redefines luxury experiences as not just indulgent but as profoundly transformational, paving the way for sustainable practices in the future.

Food consumption is being reconfigured as a consequence of consumers' ethical concerns. While preferences and tastes may be influenced by broad ethical positions, constructions of social identity also reflect shifts in food consumption. Important tools within this nexus are 'future foods', produced through novel technologies such as artificial intelligence or genetic editing, supporting consumers in the construction of identity markers. Through 24 (n = 121) focus groups in rural and urban Australia, we explore to what extent future foods contribute to alleviate tensions between broader ethical principles and consumer identities. We argue that the collective discourse around future foods has the potential to shift the culture of food ethics in the future, enabled through three moral identity markers. Specifically, identities of citizen-consumption that view ethics as 'eating for change'; nationalism as a form of patriotic morality that encourages the consumption of national brands and protectionism; and nostalgic knowledge and historical identities of the past to reconfigure ethical ideals for the future. These discursive identity constructions shed light on how consumers may redefine food ethics in the future, legitimising citizenship through demonstrating virtue, patriotism as loyalty to social groups, and nostalgic capturing of history to 'ethicise' the future.

OBJECTIVE:To explore the lived experiences of prediabetic participants in an in-home, family-based meal kit delivery intervention for 12 weeks. Delivered foods followed a plant-dominant pattern, including small meat portions, to encourage long-term adoption of this pattern.METHODS:Qualitative in-depth individual interviews (n = 21) were undertaken online with 7 pilot participants, at 3-time points (preintervention, during intervention, and postintervention). Three online focus groups were also undertaken postintervention with 12 participants.RESULTS:Postintervention, most participants reported positive changes in eating patterns and mindset changes enabling future healthier eating. The deliveries inspired enthusiasm for tastier cooking and family involvement. Although participants indicated they felt well-being improvements, they often became focused on the outcome of their physical test results (eg, weight), leading to some disappointment and feelings of failure.CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:Participant engagement with the intervention was high, but other underlying emotions, outside diet behavior, can affect long-term adoption outcomes. This has implications for designing future interventions.

This study is a pioneering investigation into the themes present in story ads, examining both universal themes and the influence of viewers’ culture-mediated self-construal on their attitudes towards themes. Using a mixed-methods approach, we analyzed story advertisements from the six largest economies (the USA, the UK, China, Japan, Germany, and India) to identify common themes (studies 1 and 2) and conducted experimental testing in three of these countries (the USA, Japan, India) to evaluate the identified themes (study 3). The results revealed that story ads from different countries contain a limited number of universal themes. Additionally, we found that favorability towards these themes varies across countries and is moderated by viewers’ self-construal. These findings build a case for incorporating themes into future academic research and managerial practice, highlighting the significant role that culture-mediated self-construal plays in shaping audience attitudes towards story themes.

Mindfulness challenges allow consumers to track meditation frequency through posting social media updates documenting their regular meditations. However, little is known about the effects of mindfulness on consumers in these representative online settings. In one study (1a and 1b) the research utilises two types of data to explore how a contemplative practice such as mindfulness influences online behaviour. Specifically, consumers who have completed a 60-day online meditation challenge showed an increase (vs. decrease) in original tweets (vs. retweets) (study 1a), and further, consumers who completed the challenge (vs. did not complete) showed higher (vs. lower) positive sentiment of original tweets. Despite some research showing engagement in social media as maladaptive, we provide a positive and unexpected contribution to show that mindfulness has a positive effect on how consumers may engage with social media. Further, we contribute a novel research method based on Twitter that advances immediate and unique marketing methods. Finally, we expand the practical application of mindfulness by exploring how consumers are organically, and consequentially, practicing mindfulness in field settings.

Evaluations consumers apply towards the way food technologies are framed is an important overlooked domain of food communication and advertising. We explore two distinct conditions of food technologies—technologies that manipulate external environments (i.e., robotics) and technologies that manipulate food internally (i.e., gene editing). The current research demonstrates that food manipulated in an external environment (vs. internal manipulation) has higher purchase intent (Study 1). Further, we explore how food technologies may be framed differently in messages to influence consumers’ sense of agency. Study 2 demonstrates that food technologies that manipulate the food environment induce a higher sense of agency, whilst in contrast food technologies that manipulate food internally influence a lower sense of agency, impacting purchase intent. Study 3 explores a unique way in which sense of agency can be increased for food technologies with internal manipulations through framing the technology as agency-supportive. Investigating the impact of food technologies and how they may be framed to influence consumer psychology, and more specifically sense of agency, has rarely been explored. However, as food technologies have important upstream consequences on downstream advertising, their role on consumer psychology warrants investigation.