Using Content Analysis to Understand the Consumer Movement

Drawing on the work of Jenkins and Perrow, a content analysis of information in the New York Times Index is examined to analyze the environment of the consumer movement in the United States over a fourteen-year period. The results suggest that a fundamental change has occurred in the movement, with less visible activism and less overt business support being provided.     

食品可追溯体系中的消费者行为研究:一个文献综述

随着疯牛病等食品质量与安全问题的爆发,生产者、消费者和政府对食品质量与安全问题高度关注,用以解决食品质量安全问题并恢复消费者对食品质量与安全信任的食品可追溯体系逐步出现,目前已在全球范围内初步形成。为了探究消费者对食品可追溯体系的接受度与期望、支付意愿以及食品可追溯体系在消费者购买决策中的作用,国外学者对食品可追溯体系中的消费者行为进行了大量的研究。这些文献为我们理解消费者对食品可追溯体系的需求与期望,从而积极推进本国食品可追溯体系的发展具有重要的理论价值和现实意义。     

A Content Analysis of Problem-Resolution Appeals in Television Commercials

The considerable power of the repeated message leads observational learning theoriests to maintain that television messages have significant impact upon viewers. Television advertisements typically present quick and easy solutions to problems, thus discouraging careful, step-by-step decision making. Consumers who come to expect easy solutions may suffer disillusionment if they extend those lessons to more complex problem solving. This study documents the pervasive problem-resolution format presented in television commercials and draws implications about consumer behavior.     

基于消费行为变化的员工福利激励模式研究

知识经济的到来,传统的福利模式逐渐失去了激励作用。本文从消费行为变化的角度出发,分析了消费行为变化的趋势,指出弹性福利可以适应这种变化的原因,并对弹性福利模式的设计实施进行了初步研究。     

The Consumer Costs of Food Certification: A Pilot Study and Research Opportunities

Certification labels have become a ubiquitous feature on food products across grocery store shelves. Although it is widely acknowledged that certified products often garner higher prices than their noncertified competition, less is known regarding what those price differences are based on, and what the personal, political, or ethical implications are for consumers. This research note argues for greater attention to the implications of certified food prices—which we conceptualize as the “consumer costs” of food certification. The paper discusses the theoretical linkages between food certifications and prices, and outlines the resulting consumer costs of which we are concerned. Through a pilot study in Salt Lake City, Utah, we investigate prices found on certified grocery store rice, and consider the causes and implications of the consumer costs of food certification.     

Consumer Regulation Strategies: Attenuating the Effect of Consumer References in a Voting Context

Consumption cues (e.g., brands, money, and advertisements) can have powerful effects on cognition, perception, and behavior, yet how people regulate responses to such cues is not well understood. This is surprising given that consumption cues are increasingly present in nontraditional consumer contexts, such as healthcare, education, and politics. This research develops a measure of two types of consumer regulation strategies, cue‐based and budget‐based (studies 1–4), and demonstrates that these strategies influence how people respond to consumption cues in a political context (study 5). Specifically, in a study involving the 2012 American Presidential Election, priming survey participants as consumers (versus citizens) influenced both voting intentions and self‐reported voting behavior, and the newly developed consumer regulation scale was instrumental in detecting this effect. These findings suggest there may be merit in the escalating debate and concern over referring to voters as consumers.     

A Content Analysis of Animation and Animated Spokes-Characters in Television Commercials

Abstract

This study employed content analysis to examine animation and animated spokes-characters in television advertising. The majority of spokes-characters observed in this study were humans, animal personifications, or product personifications. Characters were more likely to speak for the product than provide visual demonstration although they did both in more than half the cases. There were far more non-celebrity than celebrity spokes-characters, and a large majority of them were male. Significant differences were found in the use of animation across dayparts, program types, product classes and product categories. Although no increase was evident in the use of animation since the last study was completed, there was evidence to suggest that the role of animation has been changing in the past decade. Findings indicate that animated spokes-characters are being used more often to present high involvement products to adult audiences.     

A Content Analysis of the Portrayal of Mature Individuals in Television Commercials

This inquiry analyzed the extent to which television commercials used mature models, relative to younger models. It also analyzed the extent to which commercials portrayed the elderly in a favorable or an unfavorable manner. The study used content analysis to test twelve hypotheses. The authors arrived at conclusions relating to the depiction of mature individuals in television commercials and set forth various recommendations to advertisers, based on the analysis.     

Examining Consumer Purchase Behaviors and Attitudes toward Condom and Pharmacy Vending Machines in Italy: A Qualitative Study

Unplanned births in Italy have significantly declined over the past 30 years, distinguishing Italy from other Western countries. Italy's success may be attributed to condom vending machines (CVMs), which contribute to minimizing embarrassment in contraceptive purchases. This study examined consumer perceptions toward CVMs and their impact on condom purchasing attitudes and behaviors among Italian women. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among participants living in Florence, Italy, a popular region for these machines. Grounded theory and a constant comparative method were used for qualitative theme development. Data suggest participants feel positively toward machines, considering them a convenient purchase outlet. Participants noted barriers and facilitators to machine use, offering improvement opportunities for consumer behavior researchers, marketers, and machine retailers (i.e., alternate CVM placement, diversified product offerings, product quality guarantees), potentially contributing to their efficacy as viable condom purchasing alternatives. Findings expand consumer behavior and embarrassment literature and offer insight for future CVM implementation.     

中国股市对居民消费行为影响的实证分析

本文采用协整方法,运用G ranger因果检验方法考察股票价格、居民收入和消费的关系,定量分析了我国股票价格变化对居民消费的影响。实证研究表明:收入水平是影响居民消费的最重要因素;我国股市在全样本期并没有显著的财富效应,当样本期从1996年开始选取时,股市呈现出一定的财富效应,但较微弱,其MPC值仅为0.06左右。     

Consumer Credit Use by Low Income Consumers Who Have Had a Consumer Education Course: An Exploratory Study

This research examines the use of bank credit cards by forty-eight low income persons who successfully completed a consumer education course. Data for a twelve-month period showed participants undertaking relatively high credit obligations in relation to repayment capabilities. Banking affiliation and knowledge concerning credit card accounts were significant in explaining variance in credit behavior. The findings suggest it may be useful to identify additional variables beyond those now used for evaluating credit risks among low income people.     

Social Consumer Neuroscience: Neurophysiological Measures of Advertising Effectiveness in a Social Context

The application of neurophysiological methods to study the effects of advertising on consumer purchase behavior has seen an enormous growth in recent years. However, little is known about the role social settings have on shaping the human brain during the processing of advertising stimuli. To address this issue, we first review previous key findings of neuroscience research on advertising effectiveness. Next, we discuss traditional advertising research into the effects social context has on the way consumers experience advertising messages and explain why marketers, who aim to predict advertising effectiveness, should place participants in social settings, in addition to the traditional ways of studying consumer brain responses to advertising in social isolation. This article contributes to the literature by offering advertising researchers a series of research agendas on the key indicators of advertising effectiveness (attention, emotion, memory, and preference). It aims to improve understanding of the impact social context has on consumers' neurophysiological responses to advertising messages.     

Consumer Responses to Product Placement in Television Sitcoms: Genre,Sex, and Consumption

The paper presents a study of consumer responses to products placed in a sitcom, “Ads R’ Us,” created as a stimulus to ascertain the influence of a television program’s genre and male/female respondents’ sex on responses. Textual analysis is used to analyze sitcoms, a category of programs created in accordance with genre conventions, the structural framework that influences responses to media vehicles. First‐generation feminist reading theory, which challenged the patriarchal assumptions mostly unquestioned in the US until the early 1960s, is used to analyze responses produced by second‐generation respondents, who came of age a generation later, after the women’s liberation movement led to socio‐cultural changes. The study draws from multidisciplinary theory and integrates stimulus‐side/response‐side research to enhance understanding of the text‐context‐consumer relationship. Findings indicate that second‐generation responses to placed products are problematized by the coexistence of patriarchal and feminist perspectives that color male/female readings of sitcoms.     

To Share and Protect: Using Regulatory Focus Theory to Examine the Privacy Paradox of Consumers' Social Media Engagement and Online Privacy Protection Behaviors

Consumers' personal information often informs retailers' marketing efforts in terms of creating value in the online marketplace. This study examines four factors related to consumers' social media engagement and online privacy protection behaviors. Regulatory focus, social exchange, and marketing relationship theories explain the online consumer personal information share-and-protect model developed. Consumers aged 18–64 years across the United States participated in this survey research. The results suggest that while personal privacy violation experience and perceived secondary control of one's personal information are influential antecedents, privacy concerns and trust in social media websites mediate each of these respectively. The findings suggest that promotion- and prevention-related behaviors regarding personal information align with the orientation of the antecedents, indicating that regulatory focus theory shows promise for examining the privacy paradox. We conclude by developing a matrix that integrates regulatory focus and social exchange theories to guide future research.     

Smart Homes as a Means to Sustainable Energy Consumption: A Study of Consumer Perceptions

European and national policies are aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and increasing energy efficiency—also in the household sector. For this purpose, new solutions for private homes based on information and communication technologies (ICT) are being developed and tested. However, up to now, hardly anyone has seen, experienced or lived in an environment that offers the full range of ICT-based energy management solutions. In this study, consumer reactions to a fully furnished and equipped smart home are analysed using focus groups (four groups with a total of 29 participants). The analysis looks at consumer perceptions of and reactions to an energy management system which optimizes electricity consumption based on different ICT solutions. The topics that were demonstrated in practice and then discussed with the participants included variable tariffs, smart metering, smart appliances, and home automation. In general, there were positive group reactions to the smart home environment. Consumers saw many advantages for themselves; especially the chance to save money. However, giving up high levels of flexibility and adapting everyday routines to fit in with electricity tariffs were regarded as difficult. Smart appliances and smart meters were therefore considered to be necessary elements by most participants. Concerns regarding data privacy played a major role in one of the groups.     

Entrepreneurship Education in a Poverty Context: An Empowerment Perspective

Empowerment is an important but understudied phenomenonExperiential Learning in entrepreneurship education. We integrate literatures on empowerment theory and experiential learning to propose a conceptual model of empowerment‐based entrepreneurship education. The concept of entrepreneurial empowerment is introduced as a cognitive state characterized by meaning, competence, self‐determination, and impact toward entrepreneurial activities. The model proposes that empowerment has a mediating role in the relationship between experiential learning approaches in a poverty context and the acquisition of learning outcomes. The model is illustrated using an entrepreneurship and adversity program that supports local low‐income individuals in starting and growing their ventures.     

Courting Women Using Sports Marketing: A Content Analysis of the US Open

As surprising as it may sound, sales to the female sports market are almost equal to sales to the male sports market. Also, an increasing percentage of viewers of various broadcast sports events consist of females, even in male-dominant sports like football and baseball. Couple these with the increasing role that females play in purchasing decisions for a variety of products, and sports marketing emerges as an effective vehicle to reach this lucrative market. To investigate the extent to which marketers are taking advantage of this promotion strategy, a two-step project was conducted. First, gender differences with regard to advertising were delineated based on an extensive literature review. Second, a content analysis of commercials shown during the men's and women's tennis final in the 1990 US Open was performed. The results of the content analysis were contrasted with the expected findings indicated by the literature review. Only one product was found to be specifically targeted to women. Moreover, very few differences were found between the advertising strategy in both finals. The results indicate that to a large extent, marketers are not taking advantage of sports marketing targeted to women, and continue to use sports marketing to target the traditional male sports fan.     

消费物价上涨背景下的低收入者财政补贴研究——基于2007与2006的比较分析

本文在模拟低收入者效用函数的基础上,运用补偿性变化、等价性变化和消费者剩余变化,衡量了消费物价上涨对低收入者的影响。实证显示:低收入者2007年的效用等价于在2006年的物价水平下减少可支配收入125.2887元。如果财政补贴的目标是让低收入者的效用回到消费物价上涨前的水平,则需对低收入者补贴130.7842元;如果财政补贴的目标是弥补低收入者因消费物价上涨而减少的消费者剩余,则应对低收入者补贴128.3211元。