The impact of marketing campaigns deterring the supply and demand of endangered wildlife in Kenya and China

Poaching rhinos to sell their horns is one of the most pressing threats to wildlife and constitutes an illicit yet extremely profitable business. Employing construal level and reactance theory, two studies examine which marketing campaign is most effective in countries where the crime is actually taking place by distinguishing supply (=poachers in Kenya) and demand (=consumers of Chinese traditional medicine in China). Both studies follow a 2 × 2 between-subject design with an additional control group whereby temporal distance and social distance are manipulated to outline weaknesses of current antipoaching campaigns and identify alternatives that are more effective. Results suggest that economic and identity-related factors can explain consumers (China) and poachers (Kenya) intentions to purchase traditional Chinese medicine with rhino horn or sell rhino horn. In both countries, marketing campaigns featuring temporal distance were superior to close counterparts; yet, the mediating variables differ for each country. Close temporal distance elicits reactance. Interestingly, poachers do not seem to discriminate between close and far social distance. The findings have lifesaving implications for wildlife, profound practical implications for non-governmental organizations, and governmental agencies' additional theoretical contributions.     

The marketplace management of illegal elixirs: illicit consumption of rhino horn

This article examines the consumption of illegally traded rhino horn. We conducted a survey on 608 males in Vietnam, a country that is identified as among the world's largest recipients of illicit rhino horn. We find that supposed health benefits, such as body detoxification and hangover treatment, were the most common reasons for rhino horn usage. Consumers also used rhino horn to display economic wealth, acquire social status, and initiate business and political relationships. We illuminate the shift in the perceived place of rhino horn from functional to symbolic: rhino horn is not only supposed to possess curative properties but through its circulation within social and professional networks is also considered part of the consumers’ search for a sense of “self,” a sense of “us,” and the delineation of the “other.” We discuss implications for strategies that serve to reduce or prevent further loss of the rhinoceros.     

Financial Disclosure and Customer Satisfaction: Do Companies Talking the Talk Actually Walk the Walk?

Previous research demonstrates that consumers support firms’ CSR activities, and increasingly demand socially responsible products and services. However, an implicit assumption in the extant literature is that the purchaser and the consumer of the product are the same person. The current research focuses on a unique form of socially responsible consumption behavior: gift-giving. Through 30 depth consumer interviews, we develop a typology of consumers based on whether consumers integrate CSR-related information into purchases, and whether the purchases are for themselves or for others (i.e., gifts). We find that in some instances, consumers actively avoid purchasing products from socially responsible organizations and do so with the intention of managing their impressions with the gift recipient. This is counter to previous research that suggests consumers often choose to make socially responsible consumption decisions in efforts to satisfy self-presentation concerns. In addition, the decision to engage in socially responsible consumption for oneself but not for others was motivated by a variety of factors including the role of the recipient and a concern over the credibility of socially responsible gifts. Finally, some participants who do not incorporate CSR into their own personal consumption chose gifts based on a variety of CSR activities in an effort to build awareness for socially responsible organizations.     

Consumer response to economic crisis and lessons for marketers: The Turkish experience

Private consumption is the largest component of gross domestic product (GDP). It has a substantial impact on the speed of recovery from an economic crisis. This paper aims to examine the behavior of consumers, firms, and government in Turkey in response to the recent global economic crisis. Turkey was one of the few countries that emerged from the economic downturn relatively quickly. The demographics of consumers, the solidity of financial sector, and the government policies led to a speedy recovery from the crisis through an increase in consumption expenditures. During the initial shock, consumers switched to cheaper goods and decreased consumption expenditures in total. The government emphasized that the impact of crisis would be limited. The opening of credit lines, the temporary reduction in value-added tax and special consumption tax on certain commodities, aggressive marketing campaigns, and a rosy future drawn by chambers of commerce and NGOs in specific promotional activities were influential in increasing consumption. This paper discusses the consumer response to and the marketing lessons derived from this experience.     

The role of consumer knowledge,experience,and heterogeneity in fish consumption: Policy lessons from Japan

Fish supply worldwide has increased significantly in recent decades, driven by the growing demand for food in developing economies, especially Asia. Many developed countries, including Japan, have implemented health policies that promote fish consumption. Despite efforts to encourage consumers to purchase fish, Japan has not achieved satisfactory results due to competition from cheap livestock products. The purpose of this study is to understand how consumers compare fish to other protein sources and how different consumer attributes influence the purchase frequency of fish. We used factor analysis to create a perceptual map of consumers' evaluations concerning protein sources, and a Bayesian hierarchical model incorporating individual heterogeneity to model purchase frequency. Our results show that Japanese consumers place great importance on availability when evaluating protein sources, and that fish is considered less available than other livestock products. In addition, Japanese consumers still prefer wild fish to farmed fish in terms of quality. Individual consumer attributes, such as age, household structure, and eating habits, were found to influence the decision to purchase fish. Consumers’ first-hand fish-related experience is found to be an important determinant of fish consumption. However, the effect of their knowledge identified in the conventional model was not detected in the Bayesian model. These results suggest that experiences allowing consumers to feel closer to fish are more effective than exposure to excessive information campaigns. Using lessons from Japan, this research could aid policymakers and suppliers of fish products to fashion appropriate and effective strategies for encouraging greater fish consumption.     

In search of well-being: Factors influencing the movement toward and away from maladaptive consumption

Common consumption behaviors may become harmful to consumers. Maladaptive consumption is the result of an increase in frequency or amount of everyday, normal consumption (adaptive) behaviors, which may cause significant harm to consumers and society. The authors explore maladaptive behavior and investigate how important insights about maladaptive consumption may lie at the intersection of harm. Consequently, the discussion focuses on how marketers and policymakers, through their strategic approach, can both encourage and mitigate maladaptive behavior. Understanding the transition from adaptive to maladaptive behaviors, and the return to adaptive consumption patterns, is critical for marketers, consumer advocates, and policy researchers, focused on dampening overconsumption with its corresponding harm. A discussion of the implications of maladaptive consumption on consumer health and well-being sets the foundation for rethinking marketing practice and public policy. Finally, a set of research propositions are offered for future research.     

Sustainable consumption: consumption,consumers and the commodity discourse

This paper examines the concept of sustainable consumption by focusing on the consumption habits of Irish consumers. The key research findings fit into three broad and interrelated categories. Firstly, whilst recent sustainable consumption literature suggests that new research should focus on the issue of consumption, in and of itself, our study shows that consumers themselves view environmental problems from a supply and not a demand perspective. They focus on issues such as recycling and waste and not consumption itself. Secondly, our study shows that consumers have green opinions about very diverse issues and these are directly related to the individuals' lifestyles. Finally, our research shows that “material green” consumers are buying into a particular image in their consumption practices. This is very much connected to the meanings of their consumption that are derived from the communication value they attach to commodities. As such our study provides support for earlier conceptual research which suggests that in order to encourage less consumption we must use existing commodity discourse to achieve such ends.     

The food neophobia scale and young adults’ intention to eat insect products

In the coming years, the new EU Regulation on Novel Food is likely to facilitate the development of a niche market for insects and insect‐based ingredients in many European countries. In this research, the aim is to explore the relationship between willingness to try (WTT) and behavior of eating insects, where the independent variables are food neophobia, sensory property expectations, and previous consumption. In total, 88 Italian participants took part in the study. The food neophobia scale (FNS) was constructed using 9 of the 10 items from the original FNS, and a Structural Equation Modeling approach was used to test the research hypotheses. The results show that males are more open to trying insects than females, and food neophobia is negatively correlated with the willingness to eat insects. Findings also indicate that the first exposure to insects positively increases consumers’ sensory property expectations. Intention to try is a strong predictor of the behavior of eating insects. People who scored lower on the FNS were more likely to try (intention) and consequently eat insects (behavior). These findings enhance knowledge about factors which could lead to lower levels of negative prejudice and greater willingness to taste edible insects among Western consumers. Finally, some marketing implications are discussed, like the need of information campaigns to emphasize positive sensory attributes of edible insects to increase the WTT this unfamiliar food.     

A State-of-the-Art Analysis of Food Consumption Studies

Abstract

A review of empirical food consumption studies is offered in this paper. A large number of recent food consumption studies from the areas of food and nutritional science, psychology, social psychology, sociology, anthropology, and consumer research are brought together. Twelve research themes are identified from the literature review and key findings and their implications are discussed. A heuristic and evaluative classification is developed to get a systematic understanding of the research issues covered by current food consumption research. A few suggestions for future food consumption research are mentioned on the basis of research gaps identified by the classification. To conclude, the theoretical prospects of studying food-related value conflicts and cross-cultural differences in emotional eating are spelled out in detail.     

Does sustainability really matter to consumers? Assessing the importance of online shop and apparel product attributes

Although there is a shift in consumers' consumption behavior towards more sustainable patterns across a variety of different contexts, sustainable apparel has still not become a mainstream trend despite the textile industry's excessive usage of valuable resources. Albeit extant research found different potential barriers elucidating why consumers hesitate to purchase such apparel, it remains unclear whether sustainability really matters to consumers in a clothing context and further, which aspects are of relevance during consumers' purchase decision. We thus conducted two studies with four best-worst scaling experiments in which 4,350 online shoppers assessed the importance of both conventional and sustainable apparel attributes, as well as sustainable apparel attributes only, and the willingness to pay for sustainable product attributes. We further inquired the importance of conventional as well as sustainable online shop attributes. Our findings indicate that conventional apparel attributes such as fit and comfort, price-performance ratio, and quality are of higher relevance to consumers than sustainable attributes. The most important sustainable apparel attributes are the garment's durability, fair wages and working conditions, as well as an environmentally friendly production process. Consumers also indicated to prefer the latter three attributes to a 20% discount. Moreover, consumers demand less as well as sustainable packaging, free returns, and discount campaigns. Our findings reveal a gender gap regarding green consumerism with female respondents assessing most sustainable attributes as more important than male respondents do.     

The effectiveness of coupons on the restaurant consumers’ purchase decision

Coupons have been used as promotional and marketing campaigns with the key objective of boosting sales through new customers or bringing back existing ones (Venkatesan & Farris, 2012). Coupons are distributed to consumers through digital formats, smartphone applications, and print formats (Restaurant Business, 2015). The focus of this research is to examine the effectiveness of coupons as a marketing contrivance on the restaurant consumers’ purchase decision including the most efficient mode of transfer. A cross-sectional survey⁴ was used and collected from 247 participants. Frequency distributions, cross-tabulation, chi-square, and independent sample t-tests were used to assess consumer motivations, behaviors, and attitudes toward coupons.     

赶大集 拓内需

<正>"626家企业,10余类、近6000多种商品参加展销,其中一半以上为第一次在北京市场亮相。现场累计销售额达到6578万元,日均销售72万余元……"这是自2010年3月以来,在商务部、各地政府大力支持下,北京市商务委员会联手各地商务部门,成功地举办了9期"各地商品大集"的战果。     

Providing assets in the sharing economy: Low childhood socioeconomic status as a barrier

In the past few decades, the modern marketplace has offered consumers a proliferation of models for consumption based on sharing and access. Extant literature provides systematic examinations of motives for consuming products through the sharing economy on the demand side, but factors that affect consumers' asset-providing decisions on the supply side remain understudied. The current paper explores whether the socioeconomic environment one grew up in might produce a long-lasting impact on willingness to sharing one’s unused assets. Results from the analysis of a national-level field dataset and six preregistered studies (combined N = 45,289) reveal that lower childhood socioeconomic status can hinder consumers’ asset-providing behavior, an effect that holds beyond the influence of other factors such as current SES and asset availability. We identify greater territorial feelings towards one’s assets as a central mechanism driving the decreased asset-providing behavior of consumers with a lower childhood socioeconomic background, and we show that asset providers’ closeness to potential borrowers attenuates the negative impact of lower childhood SES.     

我国城镇居民消费行为研究分析

城镇居民消费是我国消费经济理论研究的重点,也是我国启动内需的中坚力量,但目前缺乏对城镇居民消费行为研究的系统梳理和归纳。文章在对相关文献进行重新整理和深入分析的基础上发现,现有研究主要基于宏观、微观两大视角对城镇居民消费行为进行分析,由于研究前提、研究方法、研究变量、要素选择的不同,研究结论并未达成一致。现有研究的不足之处,一是大量研究都在借鉴和套用西方消费理论,缺乏专门针对我国城镇居民行为的理论框架;二是有限理性下城镇居民的非理性、主观性或其他新的行为特征有待后续研究继续探索和发掘,应放宽现有研究经典假设,构建城镇居民消费综合模型,进一步拓展现有研究的深度和广度。     

Critical Success Factors for Peak Electricity Demand Reduction: Insights from a Successful Intervention in a Small Island Community

This paper examines a successful residential peak electricity demand reduction project which employed a multi-disciplinary approach. The purpose of this study was to examine the critical success factors necessary for reducing peak demand and total energy consumption in a small Australian island community. This case study research is based on qualitative data obtained from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with residents from 22 households. It is proposed that the results of the examined project are transferable to other communities if the utility is able to develop the necessary trust, access, influence, and partnership with residential consumers required to create the environment for electricity demand reduction success. Findings from this research highlight the potential approach for future policymaking aimed at reducing peak electricity demand and total energy consumption in multiple communities, thus helping achieve government low carbon targets while reducing infrastructure spending.     

Small but Sincere: How Firm Size and Gratitude Determine the Effectiveness of Cause Marketing Campaigns

Cause-Marketing (CM) has gained momentum in recent years, both in marketing research and practice. However, while CM aims to influence consumers on an emotional or affective level, research into the emotional and affective response to CM campaigns is scarce. The current research fills this void by showing that a CM campaign is a win–win–win strategy. Though the tangible benefits of CM campaigns go to the firm and the philanthropic cause, our perspective is novel by arguing that the consumer benefits as well, albeit intangibly; CM campaigns provide an opportunity to do good, and hence induce feelings of gratitude in consumers. However, this effect depends on several contingencies. In particular, consumers perceive greater effort by small firms, relative to large firms, that engage in CM campaigns, leading them to assess the underlying motives as more sincere and then experience stronger feelings of gratitude for the opportunity to donate. Four experiments confirm this greater CM effectiveness for small compared with large firms. In turn, this study offers substantive contributions for both marketing research and practice: It proposes a cost-effective strategy for enhancing CM effectiveness, and specifies concrete strategies for both small and large companies.     

Measuring consumer-based brand authenticity

Postmodern consumers use brands to create an authentic self and to reconnect to place, time, culture and others. Although previous research has identified that consumers draw on a range of cues in order to attribute authenticity to branded objects, no scales exist to measure the construct of brand authenticity. Building on the existing literature, this paper uses quantitative methods to develop a psychometrically robust measure of brand authenticity from a consumer's perspective. Findings demonstrate convergent, discriminant and predictive validity, whereby 14 items represent three interrelated first order factors labeled quality commitment, sincerity and heritage that correspond with a higher order brand authenticity construct. This study extends our understanding of the consumption of authenticity. Moreover, it provides a tool by which firms can evaluate the effectiveness of strategic decisions designed to deliver an authentic brand offering to consumers. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Death imagery in antipoaching advertising

In three studies, death imagery and regulatory focus are examined for their effects in wildlife protection campaigns. Images of death are found to lead to positive intentions to conserve wildlife through fear, but only when ads are prevention-focused rather than promotion-focused. In Study 1, participants who view an image of a dead elephant indicate feeling fear and stronger intentions to conserve wildlife. In Study 2, participants who view a prevention-focused ad depicting a dead rhino indicate stronger intentions to sign a wildlife conservation pledge, but the effect is attenuated when the ad is promotion-focused. Study 3 finds similar results using the image of a dead tiger. Theoretical insights and practical implications are discussed.     

Do consumers who conduct online research also post online reviews? A model of the relationship between online research and review posting behavior

The purpose of the research is to investigate whether consumers who conduct online product research also more likely to post online product reviews. An information theory-based classification algorithm is used to estimate the likelihood of a consumer posting an online review conditional on having conducted online product research. Data from a nationally representative probability sample of American internet users are used to estimate the model. The results indicate that the characteristics of consumers who have a greater propensity to conduct online product research but a lower tendency to post online product reviews differ substantially from those who are more likely to post online product reviews but less likely to conduct online product research. The research is important because the degree to which consumers who conduct online product research are similar to those who post online product reviews can be used to track the effectiveness of online word-of-mouth marketing campaigns.