'One brand,three ways to shop': situational variables and multichannel consumer behaviour

To counter the growth in online retailing, high street retailers are increasingly adopting multichannel distribution strategies, seeking to target individual consumers via both physical and electronic channels as multiple routes to purchase. In order to develop successful marketing strategies within this environment, however, an understanding of consumer selection between available purchase channels is clearly needed. This paper explores the issue of shopping mode selection from an environmental psychology perspective, applying a traditional Belkian analysis of situational variables in a longitudinal study of consumer channel selection decisions. Preliminary findings from an empirical study of consumers of a leading UK fashion retailer are reported which reveal significant differences in the prevalence of different Belkian variables between shopping modes, suggesting a major role for situational influence during the channel selection process.     

The structure of consumer confidence and real value added growth in retailing in the Netherlands

Consumer confidence is a determinant of the willingness to buy and thus of sales in retailing. The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether the structure of consumer confidence in the period 1987-2000 differs from the 1972-87 period. The main finding is that, in the 1972-87 period saving had a precaution motive and in the 1987-2000 period saving had a transaction motive. In the 1972-87 period, the utility and ability of saving were determined by the development of household wealth; and in the 1987-2000 period, the utility and ability of saving are determined by the level of household wealth. The perceived inflation is related more strongly to the perceived development of the general economic situation in the 1972-87 than in the 1987-2000 period. Empirical evidence is found that consumer confidence also influences real sales of retailers.     

The changing consumer in Germany

Changes in economic, demographic, and cultural factors in West Germany during the past decades are briefly described, as well as changes in consumption patterns and the way the major marketing variables have been used and implemented. Special attention is paid to the upheavals caused by the German reunification. Implications for marketing management are drawn by proposing eight bipolar constructs.     

Application of an environmental psychology model to in-store buying behaviour

Although the influence of the environment on behaviour has long been acknowledged by many environmental psychologists, not many studies have been done in a retailing context, and so far no study can provide a framework to determine how environmental cues might impact on store patronage. The main objective of this study is to explore the relationship between environment and human behaviour in a retailing context by adopting the Mehrabian Russell Model (M-R Model) so as to test the predictability and applicability of the model through measurement of the information load, the emotional states induced and the approach-avoidance behaviour of shoppers in two types of CD stores in Hong Kong. The findings show that in-store environment stimuli (expressed in terms of information rate) are positively related to the level of pleasure experienced in the store. In turn, environment-induced emotional states in the store are positively related to in-store shopping behaviour. Therefore, shopping behaviour favourable to retailers can be induced through manipulation of the store's atmospheric elements. The findings show that the in-store environment is dynamic in nature and the model is not as simple as that predicted by Mehrabian and Russell in a one-way direction. In-store behaviour also has positive effects on the pleasure felt in the store and the in-store rating of environmental stimuli.     

Persuasion knowledge and consumer reactions to pricing tactics

The current research investigates consumer knowledge of the pricing tactics that marketers frequently employ and the effects of that knowledge on responses to various price offers. In the research, a series of studies were conducted to develop and validate a knowledge measure designed to assess pricing tactic persuasion knowledge (PTPK). Consistent with the persuasion knowledge model, individuals with higher levels of PTPK were shown to have more knowledge-related thoughts regarding pricing tactic information than those with low levels of PTPK. Additionally, pricing tactic persuasion knowledge was shown to be more predictive of consumer choices regarding quantity surcharge offers and purchase interest evaluations following exposure to tensile claim offers (e.g., “Save up to 50 percent Off”) than several competing constructs.     

Pleasure and arousal in the marketplace: Interpersonal differences in approach-avoidance responses

A theory of individual response to environments is discussed. This theory is extended to apply to consumer responses in the marketplace. An empirical study that tests this theory is described. This study examines individual differences in patronage behaviors and attitudes based on emotional responses to an outdoor retail market. In this study, it was found that a consumer's emotional response to an environment is instrumental in resultant patronage behaviors and attitudes.     

Consumer-based brand equity and brand performance

The relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance was investigated across 15 product categories in Brazil and the UK. Brand equity was conceptualized as related to the level of social benefit offered by each brand and was measured with a simple questionnaire that asked consumers to rate brands with respect to their familiarity and quality levels. These measures were then related to brand market share and revenue. Results showed that the relation between consumer-based brand equity and brand performance varies across product categories, indicating that products differ with respect to their level of brandability and suggesting ways to measure it.     

If we label it, will they care? The effect of GM-ingredient labelling on consumer responses

More than 60% of foods in North American supermarkets contain GM ingredients. While North American consumers seem less concerned about GM foods than Europeans and Japanese, many consumer activists argue that consumers have a “right to know” if what they eat has GM ingredients. Will informative labelling of GM foods lead to major shifts in buying patterns? An experimental study found minimal effects of GM labelling overall but significant differential reactions to GM-labelled products across consumers with differing levels of consumer activism, perceived benefits of genetic engineering, and interest in novel foods with consumer benefits.     

Aesthetics and the online shopping environment: Understanding consumer responses

As the e-tail industry continues to grow with increasing competition witnessed, the study of how to entice and retain online customers has never been as important as at present. Our hierarchical model examines how the two dimensions of web aesthetics, aesthetic formality and aesthetic appeal, influence online consumers’ psychological reactions, including perceived service quality, satisfaction, and arousal, and how these psychological changes, in turn, influence online consumers’ conative tendencies. The results indicate: (1) consumers’ cognitive, affective, and conative outcomes can be significantly evoked by aesthetic stimuli; (2) the two dimensions of web aesthetics exhibit dissimilar patterns of influences; and (3) purchase task significantly moderates consumers’ responses in terms of magnitude and direction. The study provides practical guidelines for properly manipulating the two dimensions of web aesthetics based on consumers’ motivational orientations.     

An evaluation of strategic responses to consumer boycotts

This article documents the relative effectiveness of the various marketing strategies, in particular the public relations strategies, that firms use to combat the likelihood of boycotts as a politically motivated form of anti-consumption. This study focuses on boycotts that relate to corporate practices and aims to provide a rationale for appropriate publicity-based responses to the threat of corporate practice related boycotts. The purpose is to determine whether the techniques that firms use to mitigate the detrimental effects of negative publicity will be similarly effective for a boycott situation. The authors use two experiments to investigate the influence of publicity-based strategic responses to boycott requests on consumers' perceptions and behavior.     

Application of hedonic price modeling to consumer packaged goods using store scanner data

This paper contributes to the marketing research literature by proposing an application of hedonic modeling to consumer packaged goods using store scanner data. While other studies have applied hedonic price modeling to CPG, the interpretation of their results might have been flawed. This paper, by proposing an extension of the traditional approach to account for sales quantity, makes the hedonic modeling results based on CPG scanner data acquire their intended interpretation. Hedonic modeling provides an additional alternative in the toolkit of the applied marketing researcher to assist revealing markets' relative preferences. To illustrate the use of hedonic modeling in CPG, the paper focuses on Premium Carbonated Soft Drinks. It uses a full year of weekly store scanner data from grocery stores sampled across the U.S.     

Private certification schemes as consumer protection: a viable supplement to regulation in Europe?

In the European single market, most product certification schemes are privately organized. This paper considers the goals and pitfalls of private certification as a form of market‐based and multi‐stakeholder consumer protection that relies on the transparency of information and the possibility of consumers choosing accordingly with their preferences.     

Cooling off and backing out: Understanding consumer decisions to rescind a product purchase

Consumers sometimes have the right to exit a sales contract during what is known as a cooling-off period. Sales process research generally does not address cases when consumers withdraw from sales contracts during this period. Since securing product sales involves substantial marketing and sales costs, a need exists to better understand not only consumer rescission decisions and their legal context but also the managerial implications of the cooling-off period. This exploratory qualitative study examines purchase rescinding and develops a conceptual model using timeshare as the context. Results suggest that rescission relates to a mismatch between product features and personal circumstances, post-purchase concerns about product value, reassessment of financial capability, reflections on sales presentations, and cautionary influences of reference groups.     

Service provider responses to anxious and angry customers: different challenges, different payoffs

Anxiety and anger, two frequently experienced emotions during service consumption, arise from different appraisals of the eliciting event, i.e., attribution to uncontrollable circumstances and low coping potential for anxiety versus attribution to providers and high coping potential for anger. These appraisal differences were hypothesized to impact the occurrence of supportive provider responses (higher for anxiety than for anger), and the value given to supportive responses by anxious versus angry customers (higher evaluation for anxiety than for anger). It was also hypothesized that, although evaluation of provider response would mediate the relationship between the intensity of both anger and anxiety and satisfaction with the service encounter as a whole, the power of this mediating effect would be stronger for anxiety than for anger. Hypotheses were confirmed in a survey of air travel passengers reporting episodes of anxiety and anger. Implications of these results for challenges and payoffs involved in the development of adaptive response strategies to anxious and angry customers are discussed.     

Culture, product type, and price influences on consumer purchase intention to buy personalized products online

With personalization, consumers can choose from various product attributes and a customized product is assembled based on their preferences. Marketers often offer personalization on websites. This paper investigates consumer purchase intentions toward personalized products in an online selling situation.The research builds and tests three hypotheses: (1) intention to purchase personalized products will be affected by individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity dimensions of a national culture; (2) consumers will be more likely to buy personalized search products than experience products; and (3) intention to buy a personalized product will not be influenced by price premiums up to some level. Results indicate that individualism is the only culture dimension to have a significant effect on purchase intention. Product type and individualism by price interaction also have a significant effect, whereas price does not. Major findings and implications are discussed.     

Critical consumer issues in St. Lucia: an examination of consumer challenges and related learning among rural adults according to income levels

Consumer education is a relatively new and growing interest in St. Lucia. Neither the government nor the National Consumer Association has established a consumer education programme to address the growing consumer concerns in the country. The purpose of this study was to examine critical consumer issues, related learning challenges and strategies among rural adults in St. Lucia according to income levels. Rural adult consumers are most disadvantaged in terms of levels of education, income and access to resources, which may help to prevent and mediate consumer concerns. The specific research questions examined were: (1) What is the nature of problems experienced by rural St. Lucian adult consumers in the marketplace? (2) How do rural St. Lucian adult consumers solve the challenges they encounter in the marketplace? (3) What is it like for rural St. Lucian adult consumers as they go about trying to learn to solve the consumer issues they face? and (4) What do rural St. Lucian adult consumers perceive to be the requisites for effective decision making in the marketplace? Data were collected using a questionnaire comprising of 29 questions divided into four sections (problems, strategies, solving consumer problems and making effective decisions) and two biographical questions. A total of 500 rural adult consumers were surveyed verbally through door‐to‐door contact. The findings of this study revealed that middle‐income rural adult consumers experience more problems in the marketplace than those with each lower or higher level of income. Middle‐income rural adult St. Lucian consumers in particular seek more information and are comfortable with using more strategies than the lower‐ and higher‐income rural adult consumers. This research gives us a better understanding of the problems faced by rural adult consumers based on their income. Research results will be useful to the government of St. Lucia and the National Consumer Association when they decide to establish an adult consumer education programme for St. Lucia.     

For our valued customers only: Examining consumer responses to preferential treatment practices

Preferential treatment is a prevalent relationship marketing practice of companies treating some customers better than others. Using two studies, the authors explore the practice of preferential treatment and show that preferential treatment influences both consumers who receive it and those who do not. Two underlying mechanisms for this effect are identified. When treated unfavorably, fairness concerns arise, negatively affecting consumers' subsequent behavioral response toward the firm. On the other hand, when treated favorably, consumers experience feelings of gratitude, which positively influence their purchase behaviors and word-of-mouth. However, a presence of others who do not get the same treatment leads to feeling of embarrassment, consequently reducing fairness perceptions. As a result, receiving preferential treatment does not always lead to positive attitudinal and behavioral consequences. Overall, fairness and gratitude represent two mechanisms underlying the effect of preferential treatment on consumer subsequent behaviors and each has its distinct antecedents.     

Liar,liar, my size is higher: How retailer context influences labeled size believability and consumer responses to vanity sizing

The present research applies anchoring theory to investigate the influence of retail environments on consumer responses to vanity sized garments. The findings reveal that responses to vanity sized garments in classic retail environments and department stores are diminished, because these retailer environments foster greater anticipation of accurately sized apparel. Meanwhile, disbelief in vanity sized garments is suspended in trendy and off-price retail environments, because anchoring effects set up expectations that vanity sizing may be more likely in these environments. The findings are supported by the mediating explanation of believability for classic and department store contexts but not for trendy and off-price environments. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.