Consumer Complaining and Community Involvement: An Exploration of Their Theoretical and Empirical Linkages

Drawing upon Smith's [16] participation theory, it is proposed that consumers who complain are also very likely to be active in other areas of social, economic and political life. The relationship between consumer complaining behavior and political and citizen participation is investigated in this paper. Using data from a 1980 survey of Pennsylvania adults, it was found that complaining behavior was significantly related to community involvement in a multivariate analysis in which other key variables were controlled. Implications are explored for both consumer education and the study of consumer complaining behavior.     

Segmenting and Profiling the Chocolate Consumer: An Emerging Market Perspective

Psychographic segmentation has found higher merit among marketing scholars and practicing managers in designing effective marketing strategies to target and deliver better—especially for indulgence food such as chocolates. Hence, adopting a mixed method approach, 17 attitudinal statements were generated through focus group discussions and were used to segment a sample of 301 urban chocolate consumers. The survey data was subjected to a K-means cluster analysis, and it revealed the existence of three distinct clusters: the innovative national; the conservative patriot; and the global seeker. Chi-square analysis was conducted to profile the three groups. Though the study was exploratory in nature, the clusters exhibited such distinct buying patterns that the results hold tremendous value not only from an academic perspective but also for chocolate manufacturers and retailers. All three groups were buying chocolates for gifting purpose, while the young innovators liked to buy for self-gifts as well. Point of sales display had maximum impact on their purchase decision. The global seeker was buying more foreign brands versus the other two, who bought chocolate brands of national origin.     

An Information Processing Interpretation of Cross-National Consumer Characteristics

The identification of a valid interpretation of the similarities and differences in the behavior of consumers in different nations is impossible without a comprehensive theory of consumer behavior that explicitly takes into account differences in the characteristics of the consumer, the marketplace, the social environment, and the physical environment of these nations. Newell and Simon's version of information processing theory is advocated as the one theory that is capable of providing a solution to this basic problem of cross-national research.     

An Analysis of Consumer Complaints about Social Marketing Advertisements in Australia and New Zealand

While social marketers are rarely targeted in discussions of the ethics of advertising, we are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of ensuring that social marketing messages are developed and conveyed in an ethical fashion. The article reviews complaints made by members of the general public in Australia and New Zealand to the advertising regulatory bodies in those two countries for the five years 2000–2004; examining the number, type, and nature of these complaints – including the categories of advertising, and the types of appeals, which generate complaints from the general public in both countries. We find that, as for commercial advertising, there is a need for further research to explore “community standards” in relation to social marketing messages; and that there is a clear need for social marketers to consider consumer attitudes towards advertising when developing communication strategies and messages.     

Encoding Advertisements: The Creative Perspective

The role of advertising within consumer culture as an ideological force has received much attention within academic studies in the advertising and marketing disciplines, and has also been the subject of inquiry and debate in related fields within sociology and cultural studies. While many of these works approach the role of advertising in society through textual analysis of advertisements and consumer interpretations of advertising meaning, surprisingly fewer studies have approached the subject from the perspective of the producers of advertising, particularly within the advertising and marketing disciplines. This paper examines how advertisements are encoded with meanings by advertising "creatives" by exploring the practices and processes in which these cultural practitioners engage. A discourse analysis of ethnographic interviews conducted with copywriters and art directors within an Irish advertising agency forms the empirical material for this inquiry. Four central interpretative repertoires are developed from these interview texts which provide insights into the pivotal work of advertising practitioners as cultural intermediaries within consumer culture.     

Consumer Readings of Green Appeals in Advertisements

This study evaluates consumers’ interpretation of green advertisements. The overarching theme that surfaced from the findings was that of “convenience.” The themes brought out by respondents of “not compromising your lifestyle,” a “simple-fix,” and a “collective participation/minor changes” all reiterated the theme of convenience. This suggests that the environmental initiatives of many companies/brands are focusing on minor green activities rather than sustainable activities. Additionally, all advertisements alluded to anthropocentric considerations, a human-centered system of values that regards nature as subject to the demands of human-utility, as opposed to ecocentric considerations that provide a non-contingent basis for protecting the natural world.     

A Mood-Alleviative Perspective On Self-Gift Behaviours: Stimulating Consumer Behaviour Theory Development

This paper represents an attempt to highlight a novel perspective on consumer behaviour generally and self-gift behaviours specifically. Self-gift behaviours have not been viewed from an explicit mood-alleviative perspective in prior research. This is a strange shortcoming, since mood-alleviative self-gift behaviours have multiple linkages to other consumption phenomena and to consumer behaviour theory development. This paper specifies the contents of these linkages. It aims at demonstrating the relevance of studying mood-alleviative self-gift behaviours and at stimulating theoretical and empirical investigations addressing them by showing a need for developing and enriching the conceptual basis of consumer behaviour related mood research and by providing a general starting point for this. The specification is concluded by outlining directions for future research and delineating managerial implications.     

An Economic Perspective on the Information Content of Magazine Advertisements

Numerous researchers have examined the information content of advertising. Most studies indicate that product category profoundly affects information content. This paper builds on previous research by applying Nelson's search-experience classification of product categories to examine the impact of product type on the information content of magazine advertisements. The results support Nelson's framework, but primarily for price, quality and availability information cues. The most surprising result is the high information content for experience durable goods.     

Celebrity Endorsements in Advertisements and Consumer Perceptions: A Cross-Cultural Study

ABSTRACT

We studied consumer perceptions of celebrity endorsements from a cross-cultural perspective. In empirically examining consumer perception of celebrity endorsement, we used Hofstede's cultural dimensions to develop research propositions and examined these propositions through focus group discussions involving consumers from India and the United States. Findings indicated that specific differences and similarities exist in how consumers across India and the United States perceive celebrity endorsements. There is a positive, although moderate, impact of celebrity endorsements on attention and exposure of consumers. Implications for marketers as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Customer Involvement in Product Development: An Industrial Network Perspective

Purpose: In business markets, working with customers and users has become increasingly important to get knowledge about customer needs and to develop new products. The purpose of this article is twofold: (1) to develop a framework for analyzing customer involvement in product development in a business market context, and (2) to apply this framework to a particular company to describe and analyze how it practices customer involvement.

Methodology/approach: The article takes its main theoretical starting point in the industrial network approach, but also uses other literature from the innovation and product development field. The empirical study applies a qualitative case study approach and focuses on one company in the truck business.

Findings: The suggested framework deals with four key aspects of customer involvement: Why, when, how, and who. The observed pattern of the truck manufacturer shows how dealers, hauliers, and truck drivers are all part of the overall understanding of the customer. These actors are involved for different, typically very clear, purposes at different points in time through surveys, product clinics, and field testing. The pattern, referred to as mixed facilitative, is not one of close collaboration with individual customers, but one of broad involvement of several customers through business intelligence and direct involvement.

Research implications: First, the article provides researchers with a framework and method for studying customer involvement in product development. Second, the case study provides an illustrative example of the customer involvement pattern pursued by a leading company in a major industry. This enhances the understanding of the focal phenomenon, leads to managerial implications, and gives ideas for future research.

Practical implications: There are several managerial implications related to the why, when, how, and who questions. For example, it is pointed out that managers should consider involving customers more extensively than what seems to be common today—for example, by using customers as codevelopers, working with them throughout the entire development process (i.e., not only early and late), and including different types of users (with different requirements and wishes).

Originality/value/contribution of the article: The contribution lies in the development of a framework centered on the four key questions of customer involvement in

product development and using this framework for observing a pattern, and finding explanations and relating this pattern to how other firms are doing.     

Effects of Consumer Weight Level and Advertising Appeals on Consumer Attitude Toward Food and Advertisements

This study examines the link between consumer weight level, food type, and consumer attitude toward both food and food advertisements. Further, this research explores how food advertisements containing emotional or informational claims influence the attitudes of overweight and normal-weight consumers. Two experiments were conducted to study the interaction between weight levels, food types (meat vs. vegetables), and advertising appeals (emotional vs. informational). The results showed mixed support for the six hypotheses. The findings indicate that consumer weight level interacts with food types, and emotional/information appeals affecting food evaluation and attitudes toward food advertisements. Managerial implications for food manufacturers and advertisers are discussed.     

Reaching Goals and Doing Good: Exploring Consumer Responses to Meaningful Advertisements

The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumers respond to meaningful advertisements, which promote products or brands by portraying moral virtues and life meaning. The authors present findings of an online survey in which participants reported their responses to two meaningful advertisements. A conceptual model was proposed and tested based on the survey data. Results demonstrated that when viewing meaningful advertisements participants' perceptions of meaningfulness positively influenced their feelings of elevation, which leaded to favorable attitudes towards the advertisement and brand. Empathy served as a moderator in the conceptual model. Participants who felt low empathy actually experienced stronger feelings of elevation. This study presents how consumers respond to portrayals of moral virtues and life meaning in advertisements. It contributes to the literature of advertising by demonstrating that the emotion of elevation benefits advertising effectiveness. It has significant implications to advertising professionals as well.     

我国消费者教育理论初探

值此尹教授诞辰80周年并从事理论研究工作60周年之际，谨以此文表示衷心祝贺。     

International Consumer Attitudes Toward Cloud Computing: A Social Cognitive Theory and Technology Acceptance Model Perspective

The purpose of this article is to examine the factors affecting consumer attitudes toward cloud computing in the United States and Australia. The technology acceptance model and social cognitive theory are utilized to test relationships between technology acceptance model constructs (perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) with individual characteristics that are shaped by environmental factors as part of social cognitive theory (consumer innovativeness, security concerns, performance expectations, and social networks) on consumer attitudes toward adopting cloud computing services. Consumers in the youth segment are used to test the hypotheses in two different countries (the United States and Australia). The results of the analysis indicate similarities and differences related to behavioral intentions and adoption behavior toward cloud computing services. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumer Perceptions of Health Claims in Advertisements and on Food Labels

It has been hypothesized that consumers are more skeptical of health claims made in food ads than of health claims made on food labels. Therefore, the current research explores consumers' skepticism of health claims when the source of such claims is identified as a food ad or a food label. The study also examines whether consumers' beliefs are affected by nutrition information on food labels and whether health claims that have been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and by consumer groups are more likely to affect consumers' beliefs than are unchallenged health claims. The findings have implications for understanding the role of education in reducing consumer misperceptions of health claims.     

Same-Sex Couples in Advertisements: An Investigation of the Role of Implicit Attitudes on Cognitive Processing and Evaluation

This research examined how implicit attitudes are associated with cognitive processing and self-reported evaluation of advertisements featuring same-sex couples. Hypotheses were posited using the theoretical framework of social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1986) and perspectives on implicit attitudes. In Study 1, participants watched and evaluated 10 television advertisements while physiological measures of cognitive and affective processing were collected. Ads varied such that half used same-sex couples as protagonists while the other half used other-sex couples. Participants demonstrated less positive responses to ads featuring same-sex couples. Physiological and self-reported responses were associated with implicit attitudes toward homosexuality Negative implicit attitudes toward homosexuality were associated with more negative affect, less attention, less positivity, and less liking for ads featuring same-sex couples. Two subsequent studies replicated these findings in nonstudent samples, indicating that participants preferred ads with other-sex couples (Study 2) and that implicit attitudes were associated with this response (Study 3). This research suggests that implicit attitudes affect processing and evaluation of ads featuring same-sex couples in ways unaccounted for by explicitly measured attitudes. Results are discussed in terms of advancing theory, furthering understanding of the dynamic processing of ads featuring in-group and out-group members, and practical implications.     

Measuring childhood materialism: Refining and validating Schor's Consumer Involvement Scale

This paper examines the measurement of childhood materialism using Schor's ( 2004 ) Consumer Involvement Scale. Schor treated consumer involvement empirically as a unidimensional construct, though she suggested that conceptually it may be multidimensional. Using confirmatory factor analysis procedures on data collected from children in the U.S. and U.K., the psychometric superiority of a three‐factor structure is established, comprising dissatisfaction, consumer orientation, and brand awareness components. Additional analyses demonstrate distinct associations between each of these components and other constructs, including self‐esteem, outside school activities, and child–parent relations. The scale's generalizability across boys and girls is also confirmed. The results suggest that Schor's Consumer Involvement Scale will be useful for researchers interested in studying the important topic of materialism in children. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Impact of Competitiveness on Consumer Responses to Comparative Advertisements

We examine the impact of consumers' competitive tendencies on responses to comparative advertising appeals and the underlying role of schadenfreude: pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Consistent with our theory that the depiction of others' misfortunes is compatible with more-competitive consumers' concerns for distinguishing themselves via competition, our studies show that comparative ads are associated with greater schadenfreude, as well as more favorable attitudes and a greater willingness to pay (WTP), among more- (versus less-) competitive consumers. Further results indicate that such relatively more favorable responses among consumers with greater competitive tendencies are limited to comparative ads depicting misfortunes involving brands whose choice is more deserving of failure (i.e., lower-quality brands). Importantly, even less-competitive consumers are revealed to respond favorably to comparative ads and to experience more schadenfreude when they are assured that they will not suffer the depicted misfortune.     

消费者增权理论与我国消费者权益保护法的完善

消费者增权理论是近年来西方社会科学领域关注的热点问题之一,在消费者增权理论中,信息供给型增权和制度供给型增权是两种主要模式。我国现阶段的消费模式和消费者权益保护实践表明,制度供给型消费者增权可以更好地保护消费者利益。所以,从消费者增权理论出发,完善消费者权益保护法律体系,是增进消费者利益保护和实现消费和谐的重要举措。