THE INFLUENCE OF BRAND TYPE ON THE PREFERRED AGENT IN A
SERVICE CONTEXT: A CHOICE BASED CONJOINT ANALYSIS
Humanoid service robot Romeo. Retrieved from: Robots.nu
Redmer (Nils) van der Veen S2770423
r.n.vanderveen@student.rug.nl 1st supervisor: Dr. J. Van Doorn 2nd supervisor: Dr. L. Lobschat
MSc Thesis Marketing Intelligence (February - June 2017)
INTRODUCTION
Problem statement
Gap in literature appearance robot in service context and the
effect of brand concept.
2 research questions
1. To what extent does the appearance of service agents
(human vs. robotic) have an impact on consumers’ preference in
the service frontline?
2. To what extent could differences with regard to consumers’
preferences for a type of service agent (human vs. robotic) be
explained by the influence of consumers’ tendency to
anthropomorphize and type of brand?
CONTROL VARIABLES AGE
GENDER
LEVEL OF EDUCATION
TECHNOLOGY READINESS
By Redmer van der Veen, S2770423
Human employee
Service agent preference Tendency to anthropomorphize H3b+ H2b+ H1b+ Human-like robot Machine-like robot H2a+ H3a+ Brand concept (premium vs. economy) H1a+
ANALYSIS
Choice Based Conjoint analysis (N=146) 1. Type of service agent
2. Brand concept 3. Discount
GENERAL RESULTS
People prefer human employees in general but,
Machine-like robots preferred over human-like robots
Premium brands do not amplify the preference for human-like robots, since people prefer a human employee of a premium brand.
Economy brands do not amplify the preference for machine-like robots (N.S) Hypothesis Supported?
1a Consumers prefer a human employee over a human-like robot as service agent. Yes
1b Consumers prefer a human-like robot over a machine-like robot asservice agent. No
2a Premium brands amplify consumers’ preference for a human-like robot over a machine-like robot. No
2b Economy brands amplify consumers’ preference for a machine-like robot over a human-like robot. No
3a The higher consumers’ propensity to anthropomorphize, the stronger the preference for a human-like over’ a machine-like robot’. No
SEGMENTATION ANALYSIS
By Redmer van der Veen, S2770423
Look at segments
Conducted a Latent class analysis Result in 6 segments
Segment 1 is most interesting for premium brands
Segment 3 is most interesting for economy brands
Attributes Class1 Class2 Class3 Class4 Class5 Class6
MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
Premium brands should focus on segment 1:
Human employee
People with high level of tendency to anthropomorphize
Economy brands should focus on segment 3:
Machine-like robot,
FURTHER RESEARCH
The influence of knowledge and skills of the service agent
Include colours, they might have an effect on perceptions
1MS
C THESIS DEFENSETHE INFLUENCE OF BRAND TYPE ON THE PREFERRED AGENT IN A SERVICE CONTEXT: A CHOICE BASED CONJOINT ANALYSIS
