Public thesis defense of Fanny CAMBIER

Doctoral Commission in Economics and Management Sciences

The Rector of UCLouvain and the Doctoral Commission in Economics and Management Sciences announce that Mrs Fanny CAMBIER will publicly support her dissertation, for the title of Doctor in Economics and Management Sciences of UCLouvain.

Title: 

Advertising Consumer Empowerment Strategies: 

An Investigation of Key Mechanisms and Success Contingencies

Summary:

Despite the growing interest in Consumer Empowerment Strategies (i.e. the democratization of internal innovation processes to consumers; CES), the failure rate of the resulting new "consumer-driven" products is sobering. Marketing communication is an important lever for the adoption of new products, but theoretical and managerial knowledge about CES advertising remains scarce. Through a series of experiments, qualitative data and expert interviews, four essays explore here how to effectively advertise CES. An exploratory study first reveals that the brand audiences’ advertising responses to “consumer-driven” claims depend (positively or negatively) on a multitude of aspects expected or signalled in marketing communication. The second essay demonstrates the signalling value of brand process transparency in inferring brand integrity because it effectively substantiates the consumer-driven claim and increases perceived empowerment. The third essay shows why and how brand audiences can challenge consumer empowerment and brand integrity when the consumer-inventor is visually present in advertising to endorse his/her product. The fourth essay examines how and why CES advertising can benefit brands suffering from poor consumer relationships in highly complex industries. By providing an in-depth understanding of the brand audiences’ responses to CES-related advertising, psychological mechanisms and success contingencies, this research contributes to both innovation and persuasion literatures. It also provides managers with guidance for developing more integrated innovation and advertising strategies.

After a master's degree in Business Engineering at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain, Mons 2003), Fanny worked for more than ten years as a marketing manager at Unilever, Ferrero and Mondelez International among others. Fanny is currently a PhD student at UCLouvain; as a member of the Louvain Research Institute in Management (LouRIM) and the Center of Consumers and Marketing Strategy (CCMS), her research focuses on consumer behaviour, communication of innovation practices and consumer (dis)empowerment. She has presented her research at leading international conferences, including the ACR North-America Conference and the AMS Annual Conference. The Journal of Business Research recently published an essay derived from this PhD thesis.