Assessing Consumer Visual Interest and Its Association with Brand Premium: An Empirical Approach Using Image and Text Search Data

Abstract

In our image-rich digital age, brand premium increasingly hinges on one's ability to catch the eyes of consumers (e.g., through rich aesthetics, noticeable design or visual content). However, despite the known role of visual information, quantifying visual interest for brands and products and its association with brand premium remain arduous. This paper introduces Excess Image Search (EIS) as a new behavioral, high-frequency, time- and space-varying, and easy-to-implement measure of visual interest and probes its robustness and impact on brand premium through the analysis of about 134.8 million records of online searches in the U.S. across two sectors (automotive and apparel). To do so, we first show that local shocks reducing visible consumption, such as (1) COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing and (2) adverse weather conditions, correlate with significant drops in EIS in high-density but not low-density states. Next, we assess the extent to which brands' EIS relates to survey-based measure of brand visual salience. Finally, we examine the relationship between EIS and brand premium assessed via brands' ability to command higher prices. EIS strongly correlates with price both across brands and within brands across product lines. In the used car market, this relationship persists at the product level over time and across locations and is stronger in markets with higher income inequality, where visible consumption is more prominent. Implications for brand management, the use of search data in research, and visible consumption are discussed.

Bio

Abhishek Borah is an Associate Professor (with Tenure) of Marketing at INSEAD with expertise in 1) Generating Managerial Insights from Textual data 2) Marketing-related Information and Investor Behavior. He holds a PhD in Marketing from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California with a focus in quantitative marketing and econometrics. Prior to joining INSEAD, he was a faculty member at the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington in Seattle and worked in McKinsey and Company. He was also a visiting assistant professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

His research has appeared in leading academic journals such as Harvard Business Review, Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Information Systems Research, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Customer Needs and Solutions. His research has been referenced in outlets such as Nature, Wall Street Journal, Ad Age, Fast Company, Forbes, and futurity.org.

In recognition of his research, Abhishek has been selected as a Marketing Science Institute (MSI) Scholar, which recognizes mid-career academics who have made significant contributions to marketing academia and practice. He was also selected as a 2019 Young Scholar by the Marketing Science Institute( MSI) where MSI identifies faculty members who are likely leaders of the next generation of marketing academics.

Abhishek has won the 2022 Sheth Foundation/Journal of Marketing Award for “Data Privacy: Effects on Customer and Firm Performance,” at the Journal of Marketing. The award honours the article published in the Journal of Marketing that has made long-term contributions to the field of marketing. This paper was also a finalist for both the Maynard Award and the MSI Paul Root Award in 2018. He has won the MSI Robert D. Buzzell Best Paper Award 2018 for “The Dark Side of Big Data's Effect on Firm Performance,” which is determined by MSI Company Trustees for the most significant contribution to marketing practice and thought. His paper “Improvised Marketing Interventions in Social Media” won the Lazaridis Prize in 2020-2021 given to the best paper in Innovation, Technology and Interactivity and was a finalist for the MSI Paul Root Award.

He has received Dean’s commendation in Excellence in Teaching award at INSEAD (2020-2021, 2021-2022) and was awarded the Undergraduate Faculty of the Year across all disciplines in the year 2017-2018 at the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington, Seattle. He has received funding for his research from the Marketing Science Institute, American Marketing Association, EBSCO, National Science Foundation, and University of Southern California’s Center for Global Innovation.

Abhishek Borah sits on the editorial review board for the top journals in marketing such as Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Interactive Marketing, and reviews papers on a regular basis for other leading academic journals. He is also a co-editor of a special section on the marketing-finance interface at the International Journal of Research in Marketing. He has co-organized/co-chaired the Marketing Strategy Meets Wall Street Conference, 2019 and the New Ideas in Marketing (NiM) online seminar series, 2020. He is also the Vice President of the INFORMS Society for Marketing Science (ISMS).