Theory in consumer behavior: A status report

This article examines the attitudes of 40 opinion leaders in marketing toward theory in consumer behavior. These individuals exhibited favorable attitudes toward theory in marketing in general. More favorable perceptions of the value of the contributions of theory to consumer behavior existed than for promotion and channels of distribution. In comparison to eight other areas of marketing, the consumer behavior area was perceived as having made the greatest past contribution to marketing thought and the one most likely to make worthwhile future contributions. The sample believed that much future effort was needed in progressing toward a general theory of consumer behavior and that such effort would indeed be forthcoming.     

Audience judgments as the potential missing link between expert judgments and audience appeal: An illustration based on musical recordings of “My Funny Valentine”

Previous research on the arts, entertainment, and other cultural objects has found, at most, a weak link between expert judgments of aesthetic excellence and audience appeal to nonexpert consumers. However, this tendency for audience appeal only weakly to reflect expert judgments of excellence raises the question of how this fragile relationship might be mediated by audience judgments of excellence. As the first study to examine the potential intervening role of audience judgments, the present article investigates the links between expert judgments, audience judgments, and audience appeal in an illustrative case based on 200 recordings of the song “My Funny Valentine.” The results support a scenario in which audience appeal is weakly related to expert judgments through the hitherto neglected intervening role of audience judgments so as to suggest refinements in our approaches to marketing entertainment, the arts, or other cultural offerings, as well as various consumer services, durables, or nondurables. Morris B. Holbrook (mbh3@columbia.edu) is the Dillard Professor of Marketing, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York. Holbrook graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in English (1965) and received his M.B.A. (1967) and Ph.D. (1975) in marketing from the Columbia Business School where, since 1975, he has taught courses in Marketing Strategy, Research Methods, Consumer Behavior, and Commercial Communication in the Culture of Consumption. His research has covered a wide variety of topics with a special focus on communication in general and on aesthetics, semiotics, hermeneutics, art, entertainment, music, motion pictures, nostalgia, and stereography in particular. Kathleen T. Lacher (ktlacher@comcast.net) lives in Tallahassee, Florida, where she has a consulting business. She received her B.M.E. in choral music (1978) and her Ph.D. in business administration—marketing (1991), both from Florida State University. She taught at Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, and Georgia Southwestern State University, Americus, teaching courses in Consumer Behavior, Research Methods, and Strategy. Her research covers consumer behavior, using both quantitative and qualitative methods. She performs with the Tallahassee Community Chorus, which debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2004, and holds the position of Secretary for the Board of Directors at the Tallahassee Habitat for Humanity. Michael S. LaTour (michael.latour@unlv.edu) is a professor of marketing and chair, Department of Marketing, College of Business, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He earned his Ph.D. (1986) in business administration from the University of Mississippi with a major in marketing. He graduated with multiple honors. His research has covered a variety of topics including psychophysiological response to promotional stimuli, gender issues in advertising, advertising ethics, cross-cultural consumer behavior, industrial buyer behavior, and consumer memory of advertising stimuli and product experience.     

The facilitating influence of consumer knowledge on the effectiveness of daily value reference information

As a means of enhancing consumer understanding of nutritional information, the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 requires the provision of percentage daily values (%DVs) on food labels. Findings from existing research, however, vary in their support for the assumption that including %DVs will assist consumers in their efforts to comprehend nutritional information. To shed further light on this issue, the present study examines the moderating role of consumer knowledge about how to use %DVs in evaluating a product’s healthiness. The results indicate that the usefulness of providing %DVs on a nutritional label depends strongly on this form of knowledge. Implications for public policy and directions for future research efforts are presented. Fuan Li (Ph.D., Florida International University) is an assistant professor of marketing in the Walker School of Business at Mercyhurst College (Erie, Pennsylvania). He has been a faculty member at East China Normal University (Shanghai, China) and St. Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota). His current research interests include consumer choice, consumer responses to trust advertising appeals, and relationship marketing. His work has been published both in English and in Chinese. Paul W. Miniard (Ph.D., University of Florida) is the BMI professor of marketing and the Ph.D. program director in the College of Business Administration at Florida International University (Miami, Florida). His research focuses on consumer behavior and advertising and has been published in a number of business and psychology journals. He is also a coauthor of a consumer behavior textbook. Michael J. Barone (Ph.D., University of South Carolina) is an associate professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa). His research, which primarily involves consumer responses to advertising and consumer choice, has been published in theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Marketing Letters, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business Research, andJournal of Public Policy & Marketing, as well as in various conference proceedings.     

Market valuation models of the effect of advertising and promotional spending: A review and meta-analysis

A narrative review is presented, within the organizing framework of a meta-analysis, of econometric models reported in the business literature that estimate the effect of advertising and promotional spending on the market value of the firm. Results from published market valuation models are aggregated, and various model specifications are appraised. In brief the meta-analysis finds support for a positive relationship between levels of advertising and promotional spending and the market value of the firm. That is, marketing activities (represented here by observed advertising and promotions spending) are generally expected to deliver future cashflows and produce increases in shareholder wealth. The review seeks to enhance understanding among the community of marketing scholars of the properties of market valuation models published in the literature and serves as a springboard for ongoing investigation of a crucial question for marketing theory and practice. Margy P. Conchar (concharm@mail.ecu.edu) (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is an assistant professor at East Carolina University. Her research focuses on consumer behavior and advertising. Her work in consumer behavior concentrates on risk, motives, and optimal consumption experience. Her research in advertising focuses on the interface between advertising and finance, accounting, or economics. She has previously published in the proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Association for Consumer Research, the American Marketing Association of Educators, and the Society for Marketing Advances. Melvin R. Crask (mcrask@terry.uga.edu) (DBA, University of Indiana) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Georgia (UGA). He is currently serving as director of the MBA program at UGA. His teaching interests are in the areas of marketing research and marketing strategy. He has published more than three dozen articles and papers dealing with marketing research methods and with strategic issues in marketing. He is also the coauthor of two books, one on marketing strategy and one on marketing research. George M. Zinkhan (gzinkhan@terry.uga.edu) (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is the Coca-Cola Company Chair of Marketing at the University of Georgia. His major research interests include advertising, communication, and e-commerce.     

Life course perspectives on consumer behavior

Although marketing researchers have recognized the importance of early life experiences in shaping patterns of consumer behavior in later life, they have inadequate theoretical and methodological bases for investigating consumption-related issues over the life course. As a result, relatively little is known about the changes consumers experience over time, how they respond to these changes, and how early life experiences affect their consumer behavior. The life course approach, developed as an interdisciplinary program for studying various aspects of behavior, offers a framework for filling gaps in previous efforts to study consumer behavior over time. The purpose of this article is to advocate the life course approach for studying various types of market behavior. First, the author presents a general conceptual life course framework that serves as a blueprint for discussing theoretical perspectives and organizing, integrating, and reporting consumer research relevant to the life course paradigm. Second, methods of data analysis compatible with life course research are discussed. Finally, select areas of interest to marketing researchers (materialism and compulsive consumption) illustrate how the life course approach might contribute to previous efforts to study these consumer behaviors in an innovative way.     

Coping with organizational role stress: Intrinsic motivational orientation,perceived role benefits,and psychological withdrawal

Researchers have long recognized that individuals in stressful marketing roles find ways to cope with organizational role stress. This study examines the effects of three psychological coping strategies—intrinsic motivational orientation, perceived role benefits, and psychological withdrawal—in a model of organizational role stress. Results indicate that intrinsic motivational orientations reduce perceptions of role conflict and role ambiguity, and increase job satisfaction; that perceived role benefits positively influence job satisfaction; and that job dissatisfaction is the primary cause of psychological withdrawal. The study supports the importance of coping efforts in models of organizational role stress among marketing personnel. Dr. Keaveney’s research interests focus on retailing issues including retail buyer behavior, retail store image, and retail price promotions. Dr. Keaveney has also published in the areas of marketing organizational behavior, services marketing, and international marketing. She is co-author with Philip R. Cateora ofMarketing: An International Perspective, which has been published both in English and in Japanese. Dr. Keaveney has published articles in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Promotion Management, Journal of Marketing Channels, andJournal of Volunteer Administration. Dr. Nelson’s research interests include topics in marketing research, consumer behavior, and advertising. He has published in theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Research, and serves as occasional reviewer to these publications as well as to theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science. He teaches courses in marketing management, marketing research, and multivariate statistics.     

品牌社交媒体广告内容对消费者社交媒体参与度的影响

基于参与度理论与社交媒体特点定义消费者社交媒体参与度与它的四个维度：意识、产生情感、产生理性思考、认同。建立社交媒体广告内容分类标准，收集二手数据后使用方差模型分析品牌社交媒体广告内容对消费者社交媒体参与度的影响。结果显示社交媒体广告内容类型显著影响消费者社交媒体参与度，新产品内容效果最好，其次是促销、游戏/抽奖、社会责任内容。此研究结果不仅可丰富消费者行为视角的品牌社交媒体广告相关理论研究，也可为品牌设计社交媒体广告内容营销提供管理建议。     

Experimentation in the 21st century: The importance of external validity

Much of the consumer behavior literature is devored to what has been referred to as theory applications (TA) research in which the main focus is on laboratory experiments with student subjects and high internal validity. In this articlee, the author argues that external validity concerns should be given more attention, particulary in TA research. Three recommendations are made for implementing these concerns: (1) consumer behavior articles should be required to have a section indicating how increased levels of external validity can be obtained with other studies, (2) “joint ventures” between consumer behavior and marketing science researchers can be profitable and should be encouraged, and (3) analyses of electronic scanner panel data or other secondary data can be used to generate higher levels of external validity. Three examples are given from the marketing literature of how findings from experiments and scanner data can be combined to advance a stream of research. Russel SS. Winer is the J. Gary Shansby Professor of Marketing Strategy, the associate dean for academic affairs, and the chair of the marketing group at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley. He received a B.A. in economics from Union College (New York) and an M.S. and Ph.D. in industrial administration from Carnegie-Mellon University. He has been on the faculties of Columbia and Vanderbilt universities and has been a visiting faculty member at M.I.T., the Helsinki School of Economics, the University of Tokyo, and ócole Nationale des Ponts et Chauséee. He has written three books,Marketing Management, Analysis for Marketing Planning, and Product Management, and has authored more than 50 papers in marketing on a variety of topics, including consumer choice, marketing research methodology, marketing planning, advertising, and pricing. He is the editor of theJournal of Marketing Research and is on the editorial boards of theJournal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, and theJournal of Interactive Marketing. He is the academic director of the Fisher Center for the Strategic Use of Information Technology. He has participated in executive educattion programs around the world and is an academic trustee of the Marketing Science Institute.     

中小企业实施搜索引擎营销策略分析

搜索引擎是中小企业的一种有效网络营销手段.目前比较吸引企业的搜索引擎营销模式主要有搜索引擎竞价排名、关键词广告、搜索引擎优化等.中小企业搜索引擎营销策略包括基于搜索引擎的网站优化策略、基于搜索引擎的网站推广策略、基于搜索引擎的广告投放策略、基于搜索引擎的信息收集策略,以及这些策略综合形成的组合.随着搜索引擎市场规模不断扩大并稳步发展,我国搜索引擎用户数量快速增长,用户对搜索引擎高度认可并广泛使用,搜索引擎营销的前景广阔.     

Categorizing cognitive responses: An empirical investigation of the cognitive intent congruency between independent raters and original subject raters

Cognitive response coding is relevant for researchers who collect cognitive responses from individuals in the form of answers to open-ended questions or as thoughts produced while exposed to advertising messages. Coding of these cognitive responses is normally completed by a panel of two to four independent judges. This article is the first to empirically investigate cognitive intent congruence aspects underlining the data generated through cognitive response coding. The results show that there are definite gaps in the congruence of cognitive intent between the cognitive coding results that respondents, serving as cognitive response coders of their own thoughts, can provide and those cognitive response patterns provided by independent raters. The current study’s results raise a “yellow” caution flag regarding external independent raters’ ability to produce valid cognitive intent coding patterns that cannot be ignored by future researchers. The authors offer interpretation, implications, limitations, and directions for future research. Karin Braunsberger (braunsbe@stpt.usf.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington) is an associate professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Her research interests are in the areas of research methods, consumer thought processes, and services marketing. Her research has been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Services Marketing, and others. She serves as a member of the editorial review board forJAMS. R. Brian Buckler (bucklerrb@mail.avila.edu) (Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington) is an associate professor of marketing at Avila University (since 1996). He teaches both undergraduate and MBA Marketing courses. He is serving a second term as president of the American Marketing Association—Kansas City, Regional Chapter and has also served as director and vice president of Membership. His teaching and research interests include marketing strategy, marketing research, and consumer behavior. David J. Ortinau (dortinau@coba.usf.edu) (Ph.D., Louisiana State University) is a professor of marketing in the College of Business Administration at the University of South Florida, Tampa. His research interests are in the areas of consumer satisfaction and value evaluations/models; services marketing and service quality within selected market segments; research methodologies/scale measurement development; marketing education issues; attitudinal, motivation, and value issues within the consumer behavior framework; and marketing interactive technologies. His scholarly contributions have been published in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research (JBR), theJournal of Health Care Marketing, theJournal of Services Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Education, and others. He is coauthor (with Joseph F. Hair Jr. and Robert P. Bush) ofMarketing Research: Within a Changing Information Environment (3d ed.). He serves as an editorial board member forJAMS andJBR, as well as an ad hoc reviewer for several other journal outlets. His teaching interests focus on marketing research methods and scale measurement, consumer/social behavior, and services marketing.     

Development and validation of scales to measure attitudes influencing monetary donations to charitable organizations

Charitable organizations are under increasing financial pressure to attract and retain private donors. However, scales measuring consumer attitudes toward giving to charity have yielded ambiguous results in the past. Scales to measure consumer attitudes toward the act of helping others and toward charitable organizations are developed and tested for dimensionality and internal consistency using advocated procedures. The resulting measures are important to academicians, policymakers, and practitioners in the development of theory, public policy, and marketing strategy. Deborah J. Webb is a visiting assistant professor of marketing in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. She received her Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Her research interests are consumer behavior, marketing and society, and social marketing. Her work has been published in theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing and theJournal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing. Corliss L. Green is an assistant professor of marketing in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. She obtained her Ph.D. from Florida State University. Her research interests include advertising and promotion, ethnic consumer behavior, and social marketing. Her research has appeared in such journals as theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Services Marketing, and various other journals and proceedings. Thomas G. Brashear is an assistant professor of marketing in the Eugene M. Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his Ph.D. from Georgia State University. His research focuses on international marketing management, sales management, and research methodology.     

Information content and consumer readership of print ads: A comparison of search and experience products

This study builds on past research involving the economics of advertising information (Nelson 1970, 1974) to examine the interplay between advertisers' provision and consumers' readership of information. The authors focus on the prepurchase verifiability of advertising claims in three product categories: search products, experience shopping products, and experience convenience products. They use a broader measure of the information content of advertising than in past research, together with Starch readership scores for a sample of ads from nine U.S. magazines. The results show that the relationship between information provision and readership is positive for search products, negative for convenience products, and nonsignificant for shopping products. Average information levels are significantly higher in ads for shopping products than for convenience and search products. These findings suggest that advertisers may be underinforming consumers when promoting search products. George R. Franke (gfranke@cba.ua.edu) is a professor and Reese Phifer Fellow of Marketing at the University of Alabama. His Ph.D. is from the University of North Carolina. His research interests include public policy, ethics, advertising, and research methodology. His previous research on the information content of advertising includes articles that received best-paper awards from theJournal of Advertising and theJournal of Public Policy & Marketing. Bruce A. Huhmann (bhuhmann@nmsu.edu) is an assistant professor of marketing at New Mexico State University. His Ph.D. is from the University of Alabama. His research interests include advertising, consumer behavior, and international marketing. His primary stream of research focuses on verbal and visual appeals in advertising. He has also coauthored a study on sources of information used in consumer decision making. He has published articles in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Health Care Marketing, theAsia Pacific Journal of Management, and in other journals and conference proceedings. David L. Mothersbaugh (dmothers@cba.ua.edu) is an associate professor and Board of Visitors Research Fellow in marketing at the University of Alabama. His Ph.D. is from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include advertising, rhetorical language, consumer knowledge, search and decision making, e-commerce, and services marketing. He has publications in journals such as theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research, and theJournal of Consumer Affairs, as well as in various conference proceedings.     

Cross-cultural and cognitive aspects of web site navigation

The Web is intrinsically a global medium. Consequently, deciding how a Web site should express potentially culturespecific content to worldwide visitors is an important consideration in Web site design. In this article, the authors examine some of the site content characteristics that can lead Web site visitors to an optimal navigation experience, or flow, in a cross-cultural context. In particular, a cognitive framework focuses on the effect of culture on attitudes toward the site and flow. The authors suggest that the congruity of a Web site with a visitor’s culture is a site content characteristic that influences the likelihood of experiencing flow. The authors develop a conceptual model to account for the impact of culture and other site content characteristics on flow and describe preliminary evidence supporting their model. David Luna, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. His primary interests are in language processing, the role of language in advertising and electronic marketing, and cross-cultural advertising. His work has been published or is forthcoming in theJournal of Consumer Research; Journal of Advertising; Journal of Consumer Psychology, Psychology and Marketing; International Marketing Review; Marketing Science Institute Working Paper Series; and other publications. Laura A. Peracchio, Ph.D., is a professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her primary research interests include understanding persuasion processes with applications to social marketing, consumer decision making, language processing, and children’s consumer behavior. She is an associate editor of theJournal of Consumer Research and serves on the Editorial Board of theJournal of Consumer Psychology. Her work has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and other publications. María D. de Juan is a professor of business administration at the University of Alicante (Spain), where she has lectured since 1991. She has been a lecturer at the University of Florida and at the Southampton Institute (United Kingdom), as well as at several Spanish business schools. She is the author of theShopping Centre Attraction Towards Consumers, Sales Promotions, andCommercial Distribution: Channels and Retailing. Her articles about distribution and consumer behavior have been published or are forthcoming in several journals and edited books, including theJournal of Consumer Psychology. She focuses her research on commercial attraction and consumer behavior.     

基于消费心理学的广告策划研究

市场经济被人们称为"眼球经济",越来越多的企业认识到广告能否抓住消费者的眼球和心智是判断一个广告是否成功的第一标准,它直接影响了企业品牌形象的塑造和产品的销售表现。因此,对于消费心理学的研究便成为企业广告策划中必不可少的一个环节。     

Social responsibility and personal success: A research note

Views of corporate social responsibility recognize thatindividual decision makers are key to implementing socially responsible programs and that it is difficult to ask executives to act in a socially responsible manner if such actions have a negative impact on personal success. Using a sample of more than 300 advertising executives, the compatibility of social responsibility and personal success are explored by examining the relationship between social responsibility and advertising executives’ incomes and titles. Findings indicate that neither penalties nor rewards accrue to advertising executives for socially responsible actions. Implications for executives wanting their organizations to be viewed as socially responsible are discussed.     

A provider-cost/patron-effort schema for classifying products

Since the commodity-oriented thinkers of marketing’s early history, marketers have sought a valid schema for classifying products. Currently, the marketing literature is dominated by two types of schemata for classifying products: product-based and consumer cost-based. Despite marketing tenets such asexchange is the focal notion of marketing andgood marketing theory integrates the perspectives of firms and consumers, no existing schema embodies either exchange or a dual firm/consumer perspective. After reviewing the existing classificational schemata, one such schema is proposed and evaluated. The two classifying dimensions of this schema are providers’ relative variable costs (PRVC) and patrons’ relative effort (PRE). Crossing high and low levels of PRVC and PRE yields four product categories: low cost/effort, patroneffort heavy, provider-cost heavy, and high cost/effort. His work has appeared inJournal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Business Horizons, Business Ethics: A European Review, and other journals. His current research interests include marketing theory, advertising, and ethics. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Purdue University. will soon receive his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of North Texas. His work has appeared inAcademy of Management Journal, as well as the proceedings of the American Marketing Association, the Decision Science Association, and the Society of Franchising. His research interests include building and testing models in international marketing, consumer behavior, and marketing management. His current research interests include self-referent processing of advertisements and consumer satisfaction.     

When marketing strategy meets culture: the role of culture in product evaluations

This research investigates how national culture interacts with marketing strategy to influence consumers’ organic post-consumption satisfaction ratings of entertainment products rich in cultural content. Drawing upon a communication theory framework, we develop hypotheses concerning multiple interaction effects between culture and marketing strategies on consumers’ product evaluations. We test these hypotheses by analyzing consumer reviews of 260 movies in 25 country markets. In support of our hypotheses, we find that the cultural congruence between the product and the market improves consumer reviews, and that the effect is stronger in cultures characterized by collectivism, femininity, and uncertainty avoidance, as well as for products more heavily loaded with cultural content. In addition, we find that the negative effect of delay in product launch timing weakens for cultures characterized by long-term orientation, and that the positive effect of advertising spending on consumer evaluations is stronger in cultures characterized by high power distance belief. These results provide practical insights into how managers should make decisions concerning product design, launch timing, and advertising strategies in international markets.     

An integrated design for personal computers in the marketing curriculum

This article discusses the role of personal computer applications in courses throughout the marketing curriculum. Learning theory suggests that PC applications be introduced in modules over the entire marketing program and not concentrated in just one or two courses. The final capstone course in marketing is seen as the logical place for a culminating, integrative learning experience with software applications. Software recommendations are provided for each typical marketing course and a decision support exercise is described for the capstone course.     

Underlying dimensions of barriers to market entry in consumer goods markets

The importance and underlying dimensions of twenty-five market entry barriers in consumer markets were examined through a survey of marketing executives from 151 U.S. firms. The results indicate that there are three major underlying dimensions of entry barriers.     

Why and how do creative thinking techniques work?: Trading off originality and appropriateness to make more creative advertising

The research examines the effects of divergent and convergent creative thinking techniques on creative ideation processes. To analyze these effects an experiment is undertaken on advertising creatives, account executives, and students. Results demonstrate that divergent thinking techniques improve the idea originality of account executives, but not creatives. Alternatively, creatives produce more appropriate ideas by using convergent thinking techniques, yet account executive performance is clearly harmed by them. Few effects are seen on the student control group, who lack both knowledge of techniques and the domain. The findings suggest that creativity techniques are not a one-size-fits-all proposition but need to be tailored to the person and the situation in which they are applied. Implications for researchers and marketing managers are discussed.