Reducing uninformed responses: The effects of product‐class familiarity and measuring brand knowledge on surveys

Consumers often give answers to survey questions about which they are uninformed. Although research has documented this phenomenon and examined the conditions under which it occurs, the current research project is the first to examine how survey researchers might reduce uninformed response bias through the use of additional questions added to surveys that measure knowledge of brands for which consumers might be uninformed. In the current study, adding brand knowledge questions pertaining to an unknown (fictitious) brand reduced the likelihood of respondents providing uninformed responses when later asked to evaluate that brand. However, the effects of asking for brand familiarity on uninformed response rates differed by consumers' level of product‐class familiarity and the relative placement of the brand knowledge and brand attitude questions on the survey. Brand knowledge questions can suggest the existence of brands, placing them within a knowledge schema, thus leading to more uninformed responses from consumers low in product‐class familiarity. These results, coupled with recent other research findings suggest that researchers must consider the effects of related knowledge on what have been previously considered completely uninformed responses. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

品牌认知对消费者购买行为的影响

通过提出一个概念模型,探讨品牌知识和品牌关系如何影响消费者当前购买行为和未来购买行为。研究结果表明品牌认知(包括品牌知名度和品牌形象)直接影响消费者的当前购买行为,但是不直接影响未来的购买行为;品牌认知通过品牌关系(包括品牌满意度、品牌信任和情感)影响消费者的未来购买行为,并从产品质量、服务理念、品牌形象和消费感受四个方面提出对策建议。     

Exploring the incidence and antecedents of buying an FMCG brand and UPC for the first time

Two studies provide estimates of the upper range of incidence of first-time (brand and UPC) purchases, claimed reasons for these new purchases, and consumer profiles of first-time brand buyers. Study 1 analyzes three years of transaction data from 10,000 loyalty card members; Study 2 reports on 510 mall-intercept interviews in two different stores. Despite the vast range of items available in modern supermarkets, new brand purchasing is not particularly common: new brands constitute about 5% of items in a basket and are purchased on about 1/3 of shopping trips. The majority of these new-to-consumer purchases have been prompted by in-store stimuli (noticing new brands, price promotions and stock-outs). Interestingly, demographic characteristics between first-time and existing buyers did not differ. Providing further evidence to the habitual nature of grocery shopping, the results indicate limited opportunities to expand/change consumer repertoires suggesting the need for ongoing marketing activities for FMCGs.     

Effects of prior brand usage and promotion on consumer promotional response

We examine how prior purchases influence consumer response to promotional activity in brand choice decisions. To improve understanding of the nature of this influence, we separate previous purchases into those on promotion and those not on promotion, and consider their differential impact on subsequent brand choices. Impact may be observed at the brand level, category level, or both and we suggest circumstances in which each might occur. Across four product categories, consumer sensitivity to price, price promotions, and feature advertisements increases for all brands in the product category following a promotional purchase but also decreases for the most recently purchased brand. The magnitudes of the results indicate that prior promotional purchases influence choice more than prior brand usage does. We offer managerial recommendations regarding promotional activities, for both retailers and manufacturers.     

Tiger Woods,Nike, and I are (not) best friends: how brand's sports sponsorship in social-media impacts brand consumer's congruity and relationship quality

This study examines the effects of brand's sports sponsorship in social media on brand consumer's congruity and brand relationship quality. The study included a survey of targeting consumers whose ages range between early twenties and late forties; data from 322 respondents were collected. The results are as follows. First, brand's sports sponsorship in social-media activities relating to sports brands has significant effects on brand consumer's congruity. Second, this congruity significantly influences brand relationship quality. Third, male consumers, who have previously purchased products and services associated with a sports brand, perceive the sponsor's brand image more positively when they are exposed to the sponsor's brand's sports sponsorship in social-media activities, compared to those consumers having no previous purchases of the sponsored brand. Lastly, consumers in their forties with prior experience consuming the sponsor's brand products are most affected by the level of self-congruity with the sports brand compared to younger or older consumers.     

The influence of college students' shopping orientations and gender differences on online information searches and purchase behaviours

Using the data collected from a survey of 1277 US college students, this study investigated college students' shopping orientations, and examined the relationships between their shopping orientations and searches for information about and purchases of apparel products online and the differences between male and female students in their shopping orientations, online information searches and purchase experiences. Seven shopping orientation constructs were identified: shopping enjoyment, brand/fashion consciousness, price consciousness, shopping confidence, convenience/time consciousness, in‐home shopping tendency and brand/store loyalty. Results showed that participants' shopping orientations were significantly related to their searches for information about and purchases of apparel items online. In addition, male and female participants showed significant differences in their shopping orientations, online information searches and purchase experiences. This study provided suggestions for apparel e‐tailors to develop effective marketing strategies to reach their target market, for consumer educators and for educators in the retail merchandizing area to prepare their students for future careers.     

Online shoppers in Australia: dealing with problems

Although the Internet is a convenient platform to conduct commercial transactions, consumers are disadvantaged in the online marketplace due to insufficient information about goods and services as well as business and transaction process, lack of access to redress and several other problems. The number of complaints regarding online transactions increased in Australia from 2001 to 2005, and the number of Internet‐fraud related complaints reported to Consumer Sentinel (USA ) also increased from 2003 to 2006. This, in turn, has undermined consumer trust and impeded the growth of e‐retailing as well as added to the fear among e‐consumers of falling prey to online fraud. In spite of this, the nature and effectiveness of e‐consumer protection has not been adequately studied, notwithstanding extensive research into other aspects of e‐retailing. This article examines (i) the level of awareness of the respondents in the survey in Australia of the current policy framework for addressing consumer protection about online shopping in terms of redress; and (ii) the behaviour of the two groups of respondents in this survey who have and have not encountered problems with online purchases. The findings suggest that most respondents are not aware of the following issues, namely (i) which organizations are involved in e‐consumer protection; (ii) government regulations and guidelines; (iii) industry codes of conduct; (iv) self‐regulatory approaches adopted by business; and (v) the activities of consumer associations to protect consumers in the online marketplace. The findings also show that most respondents would seek redress if they were unhappy with their online purchases and if they knew how to proceed, and that most of them would settle disputes directly with e‐retailers. Also, online shoppers who had encountered problems were more likely to continue purchasing via the Internet than online shoppers who had not encountered any problems. This suggests that respondents find that the benefits offered by e‐retailing outweigh the risks associated with it.     

Applying the Randomized Response Technique in Business Ethics Research: The Misuse of Information Systems Resources in the Workplace

Mitigating response distortion in answers to sensitive questions is an important issue for business ethics researchers. Sensitive questions may be asked in surveys related to business ethics, and respondents may intend to avoid exposing sensitive aspects of their character by answering such questions dishonestly, resulting in response distortion. Previous studies have provided evidence that a surveying procedure called the randomized response technique (RRT) is useful for mitigating such distortion. However, previous studies have mainly applied the RRT to individual dichotomous questions (e.g., yes/no questions) in face-to-face survey settings. In this study, we focus on behavioral research examining the relationships between latent variables, which are unobserved variables measured by multiple items on Likert or bipolar scales. To demonstrate how the RRT can be applied to obtain valid answers from respondents answering a self-administered online questionnaire with Likert and bipolar scales, we build a behavioral model to study the effect of punishment severity on employees’ attitudes toward misuse of information systems resources in the workplace, which in turn influence misuse behavior. The survey findings meet our expectations. The respondents are generally more willing to disclose sensitive data about their attitudes and actual behavior related to misuse when the RRT is implemented. The RRT’s implications for causal modeling and the advantages and challenges of its use in online environments are also discussed.     

新品牌规避消费者预期效应的产品营销路径探索

产品营销关乎企业生存与发展,面临众多大品牌的激烈竞争,对于一个新品牌来说,如何规避消费者对新品牌的不信任预期,使自己企业的产品受到更多消费者的青睐,是一个普遍存在的问题.因为知觉恒常性和知觉定势的存在,消费者在购买产品之前就会形成自己的预期,改变消费者的预期会对产品营销带来非常巨大的作用.改变消费者的预期可以通过消费者...     

Revised CSI and Australian consumers: incorporating ‘innovation’ and ‘automobile purchases’

The first objective of this study was to identify Australian consumers' decision-making styles for automobile purchases. Second, adding an innovation consciousness scale to the original consumer styles inventory (CSI) to assess Australian consumers' car purchase behaviour. Based on a sample of 214 respondents from Australian automobile consumers, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on Sproles and Kendall's (1986) CSI adapted for automobile purchases. As such, the validity of the CSI in the context of high-involvement purchases was tested. The results found that only two factors, ‘brand’ and ‘habitual consciousness’, of the original model were retained and other factors such as ‘investigation process’, ‘information search’, ‘value within budget’ and ‘innovation consciousness’ factors were confirmed for automobile purchase decision-making styles. ‘Innovation consciousness’ was proven to be one of the most reliable and valuable scales for automobile purchase decision-making styles in relation to Australian consumers. The paper also discusses suitable marketing strategies for automobile consumers in Australia. The current research should prove valuable not only to academic researchers but also to automobile companies/managers. The findings will also provide insight into how automobile companies could position themselves with respect to their marketing strategies in Australia.     

Brand protection across the enterprise: Toward a total-business solution

Though counterfeit products pose a large and growing problem, brand owners may not always respond effectively. Corrective efforts may be scattered or reactive, with some brand owners not even recognizing the problem. Previous research has indicated a total-business solution, involving virtually all functions of the enterprise, can help address the problem in a more systematic and effective way. To better identify what a total-business solution might look like, we asked a sample of 42 respondents—33 brand-protection practitioners and nine other respondents with academic, service, or other perspectives—to identify all functions and tactics that might be associated with brand-protection efforts. Altogether, respondents identified 38 functions associated with 757 unique tactics among more than 1,300 total tactics. Using these data, we assessed the depth and breadth of each function. We also identified multiple functions that can together support a total-business solution, and our results can help managers engage these functions to protect their brands. Future work may gauge the extent to which firms actually incorporate these functions as well as how managers consider the value, breadth, and depth of each function in relation to their organizations.     

Understanding the impact of store flyers on purchase behaviour: An empirical analysis in the context of Spanish households

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how Spanish consumers are really influenced by store flyers. The present study examines decisions of households regarding: (i) incidence (using a binary logit model); (ii) brand choice (using a multinomial logit model); and (iii) quantity (using a Poisson model). The models described above are applied to scanner choice datasets of the purchases made by Spanish households in two product categories (olive oil and coffee) over 53 weeks. The study finds that the main effect of such flyers is brand switching, rather than acceleration or stockpiling. However, consumers are not homogeneous in these responses to store flyers. Price sensitivity is found to be a more important driver of flyer-proneness than brand loyalty; moreover, the study finds a strong relationship between price-sensitive, flyer-prone consumers and decisions on incidence, choice, and purchase quantities. In contrast, the influence of the presence of brands in store flyers on incidence of purchases is not more prevalent among brand-loyal consumers than among non-brand-loyal consumer; however, such flyers are able to induce loyal users to stock up on their preferred brand. The managerial implications underline that manufacturers and retailers should be aware that the inclusion of a brand in store flyers (without necessarily offering a price discount) can simultaneously cut promotional costs and increase sales profits. In addition, managers should use other types of promotions (such as in-store displays) to encourage consumers to stock up on the brand.     

Brand switching in clothing: the role of variety‐seeking drive and product category‐level characteristics

The study explores the impact of internal factors such as variety‐seeking drive, loyalty, involvement, perceived risk, pleasure and similarity perceptions on brand‐switching propensity in clothing purchases using multiple regression. The model derived shows that five internal factors including involvement, perceived risk, loyalty and variety‐seeking drive have an impact on brand switching propensity. The findings highlight that highly involved and loyal consumers are likely to show brand‐switching propensities in their clothing purchases, thus buying from a repertoire of brands and stores. These findings imply that retailers should ensure that their clothing brands or stores are among those in the multi‐brand repertoire of the consumer.     

How Consumer Ethnocentrism (CET), Ethnocentric Marketing,and Consumer Individualism Affect Ethnocentric Behavior in China

This study investigates how the value of consumer ethnocentrism (CET) and ethnocentric marketing affect consumers' purchase intentions for domestic and foreign brands in China. In predicting ethnocentric consumer behavior, past research has tended to focus on consumers' ethnocentric values rather than ethnocentric marketing stimuli. In addition, this study examines how the consumer value of individualism and collectivism (IC) affects ethnocentric choice behavior. An experimental study was conducted on 220 Chinese millennials, using fictitious advertisements. The study found that the CET value has moderate effects on consumer purchase intentions for foreign brands, while it strongly influences consumer purchases of domestic brands. In addition, the findings suggest that ethnocentric advertising may not encourage purchases of domestic brands, but can discourage foreign brand purchases. More significantly, individualistic consumers were found to show a greater preference for foreign brands and also their brand choices were less affected by the CET value and ethnocentric advertising.     

Retailers’ Price Positioning and the Motivational Profiling of Store‐Brand Shoppers: The Case of Spain

In recent years, retailers have worked to advance store‐brand strategies, leading to greater success and higher congruence with the retailer's positioning. In this new competitive context, this research aims to characterize store‐brand shoppers in terms of motivation and benefits sought, as well as analyze, on the basis of congruence theory, the moderating role of a retailer's price positioning on store‐brand shopper characterizations. The empirical study combines survey and household panel information related to leading retailers in Spain; the findings reveal that store‐brand shoppers are motivated by their price sensitivity, whereas they are less sensitive to service quality and name brands. However, the retailer's price positioning exerts a moderating effect on shopper profiles: In less price‐oriented retail chains, store‐brand purchases seem motivated less by price and more by quality, brand awareness, and brand reputation.     

The influence of green brand innovativeness and value perception on brand loyalty: the moderating role of green knowledge

Building on arguments relating to the differences between innovation and innovativeness and their influences on brand loyalty, this study investigates how green brand innovativeness and value perception influence green brand loyalty. In addition, the influences of a mediating variable green perceived value (GPV) and a moderating variable (consumer green knowledge) on the development process of green brand loyalty are examined. Data were collected using an online survey administered to a consumer panel in China, and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the conceptual model with a sample of 826 Chinese respondents. The results demonstrate that green brand innovativeness was directly associated with brand loyalty and indirectly influenced brand loyalty via GPV. Moreover, green knowledge significantly moderated the relationship between green brand innovativeness and GPV. Therefore, to promote green brand loyalty, organizations must allocate resources into enhancing consumers’ perceptions of green brand innovativeness and green value, and improving their environmental knowledge.     

How digital platforms influence luxury purchase behavior in India?

In an emerging country such as India, consumers are tech savvy and connect easily with digital media platforms. They use these platforms even for luxury purchases. However, there have been only a few conceptual papers on this process. Therefore, this study aims to explain how digital platforms influence consumers’ decision for luxury brands in India. Two qualitative studies were conducted with young Indian consumers as they are the heaviest users of digital platforms and the most frequent purchasers of luxury brands. The first study consisted of 156 respondents in 15 focus groups in four major Indian cities. The second was made up of 95 on-site customer observations in 18 retail luxury stores and 45 consumers’ interviews. These data were further validated by 32 interviews with luxury brand managers and retail managers We found and developed a cyclical framework that projects digital media influences on Indian consumers at all the phases of purchase, i.e., pre-purchase is digital and hedonic, purchase is experiential and enjoyable while digital media is used and post-purchase is based on aspirations, lifestyles and virtual networks. More importantly, these consumers are always connected to reference groups digitally who significantly affect their purchase behavior and subsequent brand choices.     

Exploring the Antecedents and Consequences of Míng Pái Kòng (Brand-Name Fanaticism) Among China's Generation Y

ABSTRACT

The authors examine antecedents and consequences of míng pái kòng (MPK)–brand-name fanaticism, obsessive fandom, and purchases of global name brands―among a large number of Gen-Yers in China. This phenomenon is scrutinized because Confucian virtues discourage self-expressive, materialistic flaunting behaviors. A survey of 510 respondents finds that consumers’ need for uniqueness and peer influence affect brand consciousness, MPK, and willingness to pay a price premium for name-brand merchandise. Results indicate that relationships between brand consciousness and MPK are more evident in males and suggest that MPK may be marked by incongruity between projections of status and self. Managerial implications are discussed.     

The Effects of Following Islam in Decisions about Taboo Products

This study tests the role of consumers’ religious motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) in their decision making regarding the consumption of a prohibited brand or product category because of a religious declaration called Fatwa. Despite numerous studies on the effects of religion in consumers’ marketplace behaviors, little is known of about consumers’ decision making under a religious ruling like Fatwa. A Fatwa is a decree issued by religious scholars for Muslim communities. A survey based on the Theory of Planned Behavior asked young adult Muslims about their responses to a brand, and two product categories that were subject to Fatwa. The data concerning the respondents’ decision making were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test hypotheses based on the available literature. The analyses found that the respondents’ motivation in following Islamic teachings had the greatest effects in their deciding to smoke, listen to contentious popular music, but was not relevant for buying the Coca Cola brand. The results are discussed in terms of the study's theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and future research.