PurposeThere is scientific consensus that employees' attitudes have a fundamental impact on customers' experiences. This paper seeks to focus on how to create favourable employee attitudes that are relevant for the creation of the service brand. In this context, the aim is to develop a framework that combines the concept of the perceived employer brand with employee outcomes that are relevant for service branding.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical data were collected from a sample (n=2,189) of a worldwide operating insurance company. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modelling.FindingsFirst, the findings underpin the idea of a relationship between the perceived employer brand and service branding. Second, the influence of particular drivers for employee attitudes is determined.Research limitations/implicationsResearch is based on data from only one company. Furthermore, customer outcomes are not investigated directly. Thus, research needs to be taken further by investigating the creation of a service brand, simultaneously exploring employees' attitudes and customers' experiences.Practical implicationsInfluencing customer experiences is a complex process that involves interactions among several stakeholder groups. In order to raise efficiency, it is proposed that companies focus on creating a strong employer brand as this constitutes an efficient way of service branding.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the influence of the perceived employer brand on employees' attitudes, which is especially important in service settings. The investigation of customer‐relevant employee attitudes emphasises the significance of creating a strong employer brand. Furthermore, long‐term effects are considered by investigating the influence of the perceived employer brand on potential employees' identification.

Firms increasingly use games to interact with their customers. Yet, surprisingly little is known about whether, when, and how such "gamified" interactions engage consumers with a firm's brand, thereby facilitating self-brand connections. Building on flow theory, we show that gamified interactions that are highly interactive and optimally challenging facilitate self-brand connections, because such games lead to emotional and cognitive brand engagement. A field study and three experiments across various product domains and game designs support our theory. We also identify conditions under which consumers do not become engaged with a brand, namely when firms restrict their decisional control either to voluntarily participate in the game (i.e., compulsory play) or to spend as much time as desired playing the game (i.e., time pressure). Our findings advance existing knowledge about the use of games in marketing and provide important implications for how marketers can harness their potential to build selfbrand connections.

This research examines the effect of gamified information presentation—conveying information about a product innovation in the form of a game—on consumer adoption of that innovation. The key hypothesis is that gamified information presentation promotes consumer innovation adoption and that it does so through two parallel psychological processes—by increasing consumer playfulness, which stimulates curiosity about the innovation, and by enhancing the perceived vividness of information presentation, which increases the perceived advantage of the innovation relative to (less innovative) competing products. Evidence from seven studies, including two field experiments, supports this theorizing. The results also show that for gamified information presentation to increase innovation adoption, it is essential that the information is integrated into the game. These findings advance the understanding of the psychological forces that govern how consumers respond to receiving product information in the form of games, and they have important practical implications for how firms might use gamified information presentation to promote sales of new products.

We document a novel driver of consumer behavior: pay ratio disclosure. Swiss corporation performance data gathered during a legally mandated pay ratio referendum reveals that salient high pay ratios are associated with decreased firm sales (Pilot Study). An incentive-compatible field experiment shows that, when ratios are revealed, consumers avoid firms with high ratios relative to competitors (Study 1). Finally, the effect of high pay ratios also depends on consumers' political ideology: Democrats and Independents show decreased purchase intentions for products sold by firms with high ratios, whereas Republicans are unaffected (Study 2).