Conference Report - ACR 2000

by Marsha Richins

My column for this issue of the newsletter is a report of the October ACR conference. For those of you who couldn't attend, this will give you a sense of some of the delightful things that you missed. This on-line version of this column contains links to the full text of some of the speeches and songs (yes, songs!) that were a part of the conference. Particularly, I direct your attention to the part of the on-line version of the conference report that includes the full text of Jerry Kernan's writings about Keith Hunt, which were too lengthy to be presented in whole at the luncheon tribute to Keith.

I would like to draw your attention also to another item in this issue of the newsletter--the one-time reappearance of an old ACR News feature that sadly is no more. Old ACR hands will recall the Ask Hal Linden newsletter columns of yesteryear. As pure luck would have it, I was able to dine with Hal last week and took the opportunity to ask him some of the questions that have been piling up at ACR headquarters. His thoughtful responses appear elsewhere in the newsletter.

This year's ACR Conference was held October 19-22, 2000, at the Little America Hotel and Towers, Salt Lake City, Utah. Conference co-chairs Mary Gilly and Joan Meyers-Levy did a great job of putting together the program and attending to all the other details necessary for a smooth running conference. They were ably assisted by the amazing Kathy Brown, ACR's conference facilitator staff person, who managed to be everywhere at all times during the conference to solve any minor problems that arose.

Although I hardly managed to leave the hotel, I understand that Salt Lake City was a beautiful venue for the conference. The view from (some of) the hotel rooms of the early morning sun shining on the mountains was an inspiring way to start each day.

The conference was attended by 654 ACR members, which appears to be an ACR record. This exceeded our optimistic projections and (slightly) the hotel's capacity for some events. There was standing room only at some of the doctoral consortium sessions, and a few people graciously agreed to eat at the hotel buffet when the seating capacity for the Friday luncheon was exceeded.

For those of you who passed on this year's conference because you thought it was going to be at the Little America Truck Stop further up I-80 in Wyoming, some highlights of the conference are described below.

Keith Hunt

The 2000 ACR Conference was dedicated to retired Executive Secretary Keith Hunt in honor of his long years of service to ACR. The Saturday luncheon was a tribute to Keith. It included comments about Keith and his ACR service by Sid Levy, Gary McKinnon (one of Keith's colleagues at BYU), Hal Kassarjian (who read a touching tribute written by Jerry Kernan), Jerry Olson, and Tacy Wells (one of Keith's daughters). Morris Holbrook was master of ceremonies and provided the highlight of the lunch with his a capella rendition of "The Ballad of H. Keith Hunt" while dressed in cowboy garb (including six-shooter).

ACR Doctoral Consortium

Another highlight of the conference was the first-ever ACR Doctoral Consortium, organized by co-chairs Susan Fournier and Ratti Ratneshwar. One hundred and ten doctoral students attended the event; the program also involved fifteen faculty members. Although the student participants paid a nominal registration fee of $10, the expenses of the event were largely borne by ACR. The consortium program was composed of two parts, both held on Thursday.

The first segment of the program ran from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. It included a plenary session in which I made welcoming remarks and keynote speakers Linda Price and Jennifer Aaker addressed the students. Linda spoke to issues of creativity, "breaking out of the box," and maximizing the value of interdisciplinary perspectives. Jennifer's talk concerned the everyday business of doing research, including thoughts on conducting programmatic research and tips for being a productive researcher. Following the plenary session, consortium participants divided into concurrent breakout discussion sections. The three breakouts focused on the substantive themes of consumer judgment and decision-making, studying consumption, and applied consumer behavior. Each involved intense discussions between the students and a panel of four faculty participants.

The second segment was more social in its goals: a buffet dinner for all consortium participants from 7.30 p.m. onwards, right after the conference evening reception. The students got an opportunity to get to know each other better and also to mingle with several of the faculty.

The informal feedback from consortium participants regarding the program has been quite positive. Still, Ratti and Susan are conducting a survey to gauge satisfaction with the structure and content of the program to guide future staging of an event that is likely to become a fixture at the annual ACR conference.

The Friday Luncheon

The Friday luncheon is always the venue for ACR's annual business meeting and the ACR President's address. At the business meeting, Executive Director Jim Muncy reported that ACR now has 1,747 members and that ACR continues to be in sound financial condition, even with the departure of good luck charm Keith Hunt.

Next, winners of this year's ACR Board elections were announced. For 2001, the new board members will be Steve Hoch (President-Elect), Debbie MacInnis (Treasurer), and Tom O'Guinn (Director--Academic). Other board members for 2001 are Valerie Folkes (President), Marsha Richins (Past-President), Jan Pappalardo (Director--Government), Christine Wright-Isak (Director--Industry), and Jim Muncy (Executive Director).

Terry Shimp announced the Award for Best Journal of Consumer Research Article from 1997, an award that is made three years after publication. This year there were co-winners. Thomas C. O'Guinn and L.J. Shrum received the award for their article "The Role of Television in the Construction of Consumer Reality" (March 1997), and I was honored to have my paper, "Measuring Emotions in the Consumption Experience" (September 1997), also be named.

Recipients of the Robert Ferber Award, which is given annually for the best JCR article based on a recent doctoral dissertation, were also announced. This year's winner is Mark Ritson for his article, co-authored with his dissertation advisor Richard Elliott, "The Social Uses of Advertising: An Ethnographic Study of Adolescent Advertising Audiences" (December 1999). An honorable mention award was given to Parthasarathy Krishnamurthy for his article, co-authored with his dissertation advisor Mita Sujan, "Retrospection versus Anticipation: The Role of the Ad under Retrospective and Anticipatory Self-Referencing" (June 1999).

Joan Meyers-Levy and Mary Gilly presented the Franco Nicosia award for best ACR competitive paper. The co-winners are Glenn L. Christensen and Jerry C. Olson for their paper "Involved with What?: The Impact of Heterogeneity in Goal Hierarchies on High Enduring Involvement"; and John Godek, J. Frank Yates, and Seigyoung Auh for their paper "Customization Decisions: The Roles of Assortment and Consideration."

Finally (people were pretty tired of sitting by this time--a stretch-break helped), I presented this year's Presidential Address, titled Consumer Behavior As a Social Science.

The Saturday Evening Reception

The highlight of the Saturday evening reception was a performance by the Saliva Sisters, a musical group of considerable talent and not-so-subtle wit. Their appearance at ACR was made possible, in part, by the University of Utah Marketing Department. The Saliva Sisters' performance culminated in the rendition of an ACR anthem to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus.

Comments from the Conference Co-Chairs

I asked the conference co-chairs if they would prepare something that I could put in the conference report, and they rolled their eyes. (This was Sunday morning of the conference--I think they were tired.) However, I recalled that Mary Gilly had mentioned that she'd done some high level analysis and had an almost fool-proof way to get conference papers accepted. This sounded pretty top-secret to me, but I bribed her into sharing it with ACR members. This is a must read for those of you planning to submit a paper for the 2001 conference.

Then Joan Meyers-Levy let it slip that she'd been keeping a diary about her experiences as conference co-chair. Wow! This was just too good to pass up, and I had to fork over again. (This was getting expensive. Hope my department chair doesn't notice the receipts for the vicuna coat and the lift passes to Heavenly Valley that I slipped in with my conference reimbursement request.) For some interesting insights into Joan's inner self (and the task of conference co-chair), check it out.

Of course, the best part of the conference was attending the sessions, meeting old friends and new, and figuring out where to have dinner. Next year the ACR conference will be in Austin, Texas. As a UT alum, I can vouch for what a great location this will be. So order your cowboy boots now and get ready to taste some rattlesnake chili and the best barbecue in the world.