Protection of the consumer against unfair standard terms

The protection of the consumer against unfair standard terms is one of the most important aims of the world-wide consumer movement. The present paper gives a survey of possible means of regulation and of international trends in legislation and administrative control. It comes to the conclusion that effective consumer protection cannot be achieved by information only, but that restrictions with respect to the contents of standard term contracts are indispensable. Observance of these restrictions must be secured by an effective procedural control (mandatory authorization of standard terms in advance or at least an administrative control by consumer protection authorities).

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Verbraucherschutz vor unlauteren Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen

Zusammenfassung Der Schutz des Verbrauchers vor unlauteren Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen gehört zu den wichtigsten Zielenderweltweiten Verbraucherbewegung. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über bestehende Regelungsmöglichkeiten und internationale Entwicklungstendenzen. Er kommt zu dem Schluß, daß ein wirksamer Schutz des Verbrauchers in diesem Bereich durch bloße Information nicht erreicht werden kann, sondern daß den Allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen inhaltlich bestimmte Grenzen zu setzen sind, deren Einhaltung durch eine effektive verfahrensrechtliche Kontrolle (Genehmigungspflicht oder doch wenigstens Kontrolle durch eine Verbraucherschutzbehörde) gesichert werden muß.

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Eike von Hippel is Professor of Law at the University of Hamburg and Staff Member of the Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht, Mittelweg 187, D-2000 Hamburg 13, West Germany. The contribution was given as a speech at a conference of the Deutsch-Britische Juristenvereinigung and the British-German Jurists' Association in London, November 19, 1977.     

Corporate image,loyalty, and commitment in the consumer travel industry

Abstract

This article examines the impact and interrelationship of corporate image, satisfaction, and commitment on customer loyalty in the travel industry. A corporate image–commitment–loyalty model was developed and tested. Partial least squares (PLS) was used to test the direct and indirect linkages between the four variables, and an alternative model was proposed. The tourism and travel industry is highly price sensitive and competitive with low levels of customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is a valuable asset in highly competitive markets, and understanding factors affecting customer loyalty is important to travel agencies who are seeking ways to maintain a strong customer base. The results of a mail survey conducted in New Zealand indicate that corporate image has a positive significant influence on customer commitment and customer satisfaction. Affective commitment is the focal point in the relationship and contributed most in predicting customer loyalty. The influence of customer satisfaction, on the other hand, contributed a much smaller effect. The key implications for travel agencies are build strong emotional bonds with customers and improve corporate image through trust and service delivery.     

Antecedents of retailer loyalty: Simultaneously investigating channel push and consumer pull effects

This study includes information technology (IT) related industries as the focus and aims to examine the antecedents of retailer loyalty toward brand owners by simultaneously investigating push and pull effects in the channel system. The study interviews 274 independent retailers who sell IT related products to end consumers. The results show that the retailer perceived value of selling the brand owner's products plays a pivotal role in promoting their loyalty toward the brand owners. Retailer loyalty toward brand owners comes directly from brand owners' push efforts, and indirectly from pull effects. Additionally, the specific asset invested by each party (brand owners, retailers, and customers) strengthens the relationship within each other in the channel system.     

医药行业基金可投资性分析

近年来股票型医药行业基金的业绩大幅领先于同类基金的平均水平,具有投资价值。此外,医药行业未来前景向好,投资者可以选择长期持有该类基金。     

医药行业基金的业绩分析

最近几年,A股市场行业差异明显,在结构性行情的背景下,凸显出行业基金的配置价值.股票型医药行业基金通过研究精选个股,使得业绩大幅领先于同类基金的平均水平.     

Information technology and consumer behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet

Sustaining business success hinges upon a firm׳s ability to understand and capitalize on consumer behavior trends. Synthesizing information from a variety of sources, this paper discusses the nature of use of the Internet by American travelers. In general, the adoption of the Internet has reached a level of saturation and some traditional channels such as online travel agencies (OTAs) continue to dominate travel planning. While traditional means of Internet use for travel planning appears to be widespread across all customer segments, higher-order Internet uses (i.e., social media) are now prevalent among some segments, particularly among travelers of Generation Y. Also, there seems to be an important bifurcation in the traveler population in that the traditional online consumers remain unchanged with their pattern of use of online tools while sizable groups are adopting emergent information sources and transaction channels. This article details the particulars of these trends and offers managerial implications and future research directions.     

Assessing performance in services: the travel agency industry

The aim of this article is to compare different approaches to the evaluation of economic performance in tourism. For the first time in tourism, this article simultaneously applies traditional productivity measures as well as parametric and non-parametric techniques to estimate efficiency and compares the results obtained. The empirical application is carried out on a sample of 567 travel agencies operating in Spain in 2004. The results reveal important differences depending on the methodology employed. Overall, none of the methodologies can be said to be better than the rest. These results highlight the importance of considering different approaches when evaluating performance in tourism.     

Exploring the elements of consumer nostalgia in retailing: Evidence from a content analysis of retailer collages

This article focuses on consumer nostalgia in the retailing environment to identify the types of nostalgic memories evoked by remembering a retailer and the elements associated with such nostalgic memories. A projective technique involving collage construction enabled informants to reflect their feelings about, memories of, experiences with, or relationships with a retailer that they have selected. The findings uncovered three distinct types of retailer-related consumer nostalgic memories and six elements that comprise retailer-related consumer nostalgic memories. The findings of the study offer a comprehensive understanding of retailer consumer nostalgia. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Electronic funds transfer at point of sale: a consumer viewpoint*

The first section examines the advantages and disadvantages of electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS) as a payment method for consumers. The next section looks at the legal issues and especially at consumer problems arising from the use of wellestablished related technology, automated teller machines (ATMs). The third part sets out the European Commission's strategy for EFTPOS. Finally, the last section summarizes the consumer issues involved and suggests that an international legal framework is needed to deal with them.     

Defensive strategy against a private label: Building brand premium for retailer cooperation

We build a game-theoretic model of price competition between a national brand manufacturer and a retailer that also sells its private label. In particular, we examine a national brand's strategy of building brand premium in the context of channel coordination. The importance of national brand's brand equity has been well-documented in many empirical and behavioral studies. We reinforce the argument that building brand premium should be the first line of defense for a national brand instead of aggressively cutting wholesale price. Not only does the national brand manufacturer benefit from it, but also the retailer who sells both the national brand and its own private label has less incentive to promote the latter. Therefore, it can induce retailer cooperation, which is essential for a successful strategy in a distribution channel.     

How retailer and competitor decisions drive the long-term effectiveness of manufacturer promotions for fast moving consumer goods

While both retailer and competitor decisions contribute to long-term promotional effectiveness, their separate impact has yet to be evaluated. For 75 brands in 25 categories, the author finds that the long-term retailer pass-through of promotions is 65 percent, yielding a long-run wholesale promotional elasticity of 1.78 before competitive response. However, competitors partially match the wholesale price reduction by 15 percent, which decreases promotional elasticity by 10 percent. The range of retailer and competitor response across the analyzed cases is very wide, and is affected by category and brand characteristics. As to the former, large categories yield stronger retailer response, while concentrated categories yield stronger competitor response. As to the latter, smaller brands face a fourfold disadvantage compared to leading brands: they obtain lower retail pass-through, lower retail support, and lower benefits from competing brand's promotions, while their promotions generate higher benefits to competitors. Interestingly, the mid-1990s move from off-invoice allowances towards scan-back deals only partially improves their promotional effectiveness compared to that of leading brands.     

Effects of sales promotion type and promotion depth on consumer perceptions: the moderating role of retailer reputation

This study uses a between-subjects experimental design to test the effect of two sales promotion formats (coupon versus markdown) with either high and low face values on consumer attitudes toward the deal, perceived product quality, and purchase intentions. The reputation of the retailer offering the deal is predicted to moderate the relationship between the promotional offer and consumer responses. Consumers perceive product quality to be higher when offered a high value coupon vs. markdown but there is no significant difference in perceived quality across promotion types when the promotion face value is low. When a deep price discount is offered by a retailer with a negative reputation, however, consumers have more favorable attitudes toward the deal and higher purchase intentions when provided with a markdown vs. coupon. Conversely, a high value coupon elicits more favorable evaluations than a markdown when the retailer has a positive reputation. When the value of the promotion is low and the retailer has a positive reputation, consumers have more positive deal attitudes and purchase intentions when offered a markdown vs. coupon. There is no significant difference in the effects of promotion type when the retailer has a negative reputation. The findings therefore establish retailer reputation as an important moderator of sales promotions effectiveness. This research is limited by the use of a single product category and a student sample. Process measures are also needed to validate the proposed theoretical conceptualization. The results provide managers insight into the type and value of the sales promotion to offer based on consumer perceptions of the retailer's reputation in the market.     

Marketplace spirituality: challenges for the New Age retailer

The consumers of New Age spirituality products have been said to be involved in a form of ‘pick and mix’ religion or to be browsing in a ‘spiritual supermarket’ which emphasises borrowing from a wide variety of cultures. The paper details the different physical and virtual channels through which consumers may access goods and services. Retailers who serve this market are typically independent traders and face many of the challenges that are characteristic of the small business sector. The term ‘New Age' is identified as applying to a broad range of retailers who attempt to occupy different market positions. The research however identifies considerable product overlap between these retailers and suggests that the market displays limited differentiation. As this paper is an exploratory study, it finally sets out a series of research themes for future work.     

Protection of the weak consumer under product liability rules

The author examines how the weak consumer is treated in one of the main areas of consumer protection, namely product liability. One should distinguish between the weak consumer in a physical sense, especially children, elderly or disabled persons, and in an intellectual sense, namely people with insufficient education or illiterates. If the judge in product liability cases uses the model of the average consumer as a standard to determine the defectiveness of a product, weak consumers will be underprotected. The author suggests that, if the product may be used by a set of weak consumers, the producer should provide for adequate safety measures directed at this group. On the other hand, there is a third kind of weak consumer, namely the weak consumer in an economic sense. The raising of producer's liability may result in an increase in prices for products harmful to low income consumers. Therefore, consumer policy should aim at a reduction in social inequalities.

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Schutz des schwachen Verbrauchers im Produkthaftungsrecht

Zusammenfassung Der Autor untersucht die Stellung des schwachen Verbrauchers in einem der zentralen Gebiete des Verbraucherschutzrechts, nämlich der Produkthaftung. Dabei sollte man zwei Typen von Schwäche unterscheiden: einmal in einem physischen Sinne, etwa Kinder, ältere Menschen, Behinderte, dann in einem intellektuellen Sinn, etwa Menschen mit unzureichender Schulbildung, Analphabeten, in gewisser Weise auch der Landessprache nicht mächtige Ausländer. Wenn der Richter in Produkthaftungsstreitigkeiten den Durchschnittsverbraucher als Maßstab zur Bestimmung der Sorgfaltspflicht des Herstellers verwendet, so ist der schwache Verbraucher nur unzureichend geschützt. Der Autor schlägt vor, daß in den Fällen, in denen ein Produkt auch zum Gebrauch einer Gruppe von schwachen Verbrauchern bestimmt ist, der Hersteller hinreichende Schutzmaßnahmen auch und gerade für diese spezifische Verbrauchergruppe unternimmt. Dies mag zu einem Preisanstieg für solche Produkte führen, was gerade den ärmeren Verbrauchern Nachteile bringt. Aus diesem Grunde muß die Verbraucherpolitik soziale Disparitäten beseitigen.

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Santiago Cavanillas Múgica is Professor of Private Law at the University of the Balearic Isles, c/Miguel de los Santos Oliver, 2, E-07012 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.     

Creation of consumer loyalty and trust in the retailer through store brands: The moderating effect of choice of store brand name

Within the current economic context, store brands play an important role in differentiation strategies based on assortment and positioning in terms of distributor prices. To begin with, this study identifies three determining aspects of retail loyalty and trust: satisfaction with price levels, the perceived image of the assortment and loyalty to the store brands (SB). Secondly, this study proposes a theoretical relational model among the aforementioned aspects. Finally, this study analyzes the moderating role that the strategy of choosing SB name (umbrella brand label vs. brands different from the label brand) plays in the relationship between loyalty to SB and loyalty to and trust in the retailer. By including this moderating variable, we seek to contribute to current academic research and to provide insights into the importance that SB strategy (label vs. own name) has for the effect of loyalty to SB on the relative results of the retail company. Our research results show that making the umbrella SB name the same as the label brand name increases the positive effect of customer loyalty to SB on loyalty to the retailer, but not the effect of trust on this loyalty compared to chains that use SB names different from those of the label. These results have important implications for management.     

PET乳制品包装:色彩是流行发展趋势更是保护产品需要

在今天日益竞争激烈的市场环境下,包装显得尤为重要.选择和发展正确的包装容器需要很好地了解包装的材料的一些优点和弊端,并且要考虑到什么样的包装材料才能够使产品显得与众不同.饮料的生产商往往把包装作为产品打开市场的工具,希望能够吸引到不同的消费群体.除此之外,对于包装材料及其添加剂的精心选择会给里面的内容物提供更好的保护作用.通过提供更好的保护来延长乳制品的货架保存期是许多商家追求的目标,也是今天日益扩大的市场经济的需要.对于乳制品饮料而言,如果货架保存期超过传统的14天,达到60天甚至是90天,乳制品的品质都没有明显的变化,就可以满足分销网点的需求.尤其在物流状况还不是很发达的中国,较长的货架保存期可以减少乳制品的退货率,从而开辟新的销路,而且可以提高乳制品的市场竞争力.由于PET优越的力学性能,它已经成为不同饮料包装的首选.而且在许多国家,PET已经在乳制品包装行业里占有一席之地.作为营销的一种重要的手段,包装容器的设计涉及到色彩的选择.好的包、装色彩选择和优质的着色技术可以进一步提高对于产品的保护功能.在这篇文章里我们会深入讲述与PET乳制品包装有关的色彩选择的决定因素.     

财政信用担保资金绩效评价模型及其指标体系探析

财政信用担保资金绩效评价应把握分类实施和多维度考察原则,根据目前财政信用担保资金运行机制的现状特征及其评价模型,适宜构建3张评估表格2个层面15个指标的绩效评价体系,选取浙江省秀洲区财政信用担保资金绩效进行了实证分析,并对评价结果作出分析及提出相关对策建议。     

The sublime and consumer behavior: Consumption as defense against the infinite

The latest financial crisis has aroused public discussion about the moral aspects of financial speculation and the rights and responsibilities of different market actors, including private consumers of financial products. Shifting the focus away from the level of individual morals and choices, this paper sets out to trace the discursive “conditions of possibility” for reflective and responsible financial consumption. Through a critical discourse analysis of media and marketing texts, the paper identifies and examines four conventionalized discourses of stock market investing: market mechanics, market psychology, market participation, and market expertise. The paper shows how each of these widely normalized discourses articulates investing as an individual enterprise of wealth management, devoid of broader social or political relevance. It is argued that the prevalence of such representations is likely to discourage social awareness with regard to financial consumption and to impede the establishment of fair and sustainable market practices.     

New product success in the consumer packaged goods industry: A shopper marketing approach

Marketing activities that influence shoppers along the various stages of their path-to-purchase are gaining attention from both manufacturers and retailers. Using a dataset with detailed information on 105 new products (NPs) launched in the U.K. by 44 leading brands and sold across 13 major retail banners, we provide strong support for the prominent role of both upper- and lower-funnel marketing actions that influence consumers before (upper) or during (lower) their shopping trip. We show which of these shopper-marketing instruments have the largest effect on NP performance at a retailer, and whether and how their effect is moderated by the retailer's store context. When it comes to NP success, the lifeblood of CPG companies, the lower-funnel marketing actions targeting shoppers directly at the point-of-purchase predominantly decide your fate. Thus, manufacturers should work ever harder to collaborate with retailers and push the store-specific shopper-marketing instruments in a favorable direction through information sharing and tailoring of their marketing program to individual retailers. Indeed, not all news is bleak for brand manufacturers. We identify five pieces of good news that brand manufacturers can use to their advantage.