College—Age Consumers' Knowledge and Perceptions of Food Irradiation

Abstract

This paper explores consumers of 18—24 years of age and their perceptions of irradiated ground beef products and role of irradiation on their purchase decisions. Data was collected with a survey of college—age consumers. Results showed that the majority of participants would be willing to purchase irradiated food products. Participants were somewhat concerned about impact of irradiation on safety and taste. The term “irradiated” and cost to consumer had a negative impact on participants' willingness to purchase irradiated ground beef products. The identification of the attributes should provide a useful guidance for the beef industry in terms of determining marketing strategies to increase the level of this segment of the consumer groups’ preference for irradiated products.     

Understanding Attitude and Behavior of Canadian Consumers Toward Organic Wine

The main objective of this study is to identify the determinants of organic wine purchase and understand their effect in order to illustrate what influences whether Canadian consumers are willing to buy this special type of wine. The data for this study were collected across Canada by means of an online self-administered consumer questionnaire survey. Our major findings indicate that the attitude toward organic wine is defined mainly by consumers’ health consciousness and is negatively influenced by the wine involvement pleasure experienced with regular wine. Interestingly, Canadians are not forming positive attitudes toward organic wine based on their knowledge of organic production and its offering. The main predictors of organic wine purchase are attitude toward organic wine and wine involvement interest. Unexpectedly, price consciousness was not found to be a good predictor of organic wine purchase.     

Scarcity tactics in marketing: A meta-analysis of product scarcity effects on consumer purchase intentions

Scarcity tactics are an essential tool for marketers. Cues that signal the current or potential unavailability of a product generally enhance its value and desirability and in turn increase purchase intentions. While there have been earlier reviews, the fragmented nature of the research to date means there is no cohesion across findings. Given that retailers employ a variety of scarcity cues in a diversity of settings, it is important to identify the magnitude of the effect of scarcity cues and how the effect on consumers’ purchase intentions changes across conditions. This research presents a meta-analysis of 416 effect sizes from 131 studies. Results show that demand-based scarcity is most effective for utilitarian products, supply-based scarcity for experiences, and time-based scarcity for high involvement products. The results show that managers need to consider the above factors to maximize the success of scarcity tactics in their marketing campaigns.     

Product,Environmental, and Service Attributes That Influence Consumer Attitudes and Purchases at Wineries

Abstract

Direct sales of wine and winery souvenirs to winery visitors is important in a number of regions throughout the United States and around the world. The attributes that influence winery visitors' beliefs can have a significant impact upon wine purchases, repeat visits, positive word-of-mouth comments, and upon future purchases at restaurants and other retail outlets. A study of winery visitors found four underlying factors from a list of 17 attributes. Regression results indicated that several wine, environment, and service attributes have a significant impact upon consumer attitudes and purchases. Product and purchase involvement were also found to impact purchase behavior.     

Are Sustainable Consumers Health Conscious? A Segmentation Study of Wine Consumers

As a result of consumers’ increasing concerns with ethical, environmental, and health issues, sustainable consumption and production have become a popular topic of recent academic research and industry practices. The current study sought to provide in-depth insights into consumers’ views on sustainability by simultaneously examining their environmental and social awareness and behavior, health-conscious lifestyles, and diets; as well as the perceived importance of social and nutrition information on wine labels. Based on empirical data obtained through a web-based survey distributed to consumer panels in three markets – the US, the UK, and Germany – this research segmented wine consumers into four categories: Apathetic Consumers; Health-Conscious Diners; Holistic Perfectionists; and Ethical Advocates. The findings indicate that in general wine consumers are mindful about the environmental problems, social responsibility of companies, ethically produced and sustainably sourced products. The majority adhere to healthy lifestyles and watch their diets. Nevertheless, with the exception of only one cluster (Holistic Perfectionists), wine consumers do not actively seek social, environmental, or nutritional information on wine labels. This study shows that, at least currently, the preferences for the social factors are unlikely to outweigh dominating traditional wine purchase drivers, such as price, brand, country of origin, and grape variety. Industry implications for tailored marketing strategies are discussed.     

The influence of gender,social cause,charitable support,and message appeal on Gen Y's responses to cause-related marketing

Abstract

This study examined the influence of gender, type of social cause, amount of charitable support, and message appeal on Gen Y consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions towards an apparel brand within the context of cause-related marketing. A questionnaire, with an experimental design component, was administered to a sample of 562 Gen Y college students. Results suggest that Gen Y consumers are more likely to form positive attitudes towards an apparel brand when the amount of the charitable support is clearly communicated. Gender did not influence attitude towards brand, but did predict purchase intentions. Attitude towards brand, subjective norm, evaluation of the advertisement, and involvement in social causes were strong predictors of purchase intentions. When developing CRM initiatives, marketers should consider Gen Y's involvement in a social cause (e.g. volunteerism) rather than their stated interest in the given cause, and they would be well advised to state precisely (in advertisements) the amount of monetary contribution made to charitable causes.     

Country of Origin Effects on Industrial Products Coming from Eastern Europe

Summary

Industrial buyers and consumers may have opinions about the general quality of products and companies from different nations and use such opinions as informational cues in their buying processes. This article presents a comparative study of the industrial profile of a “New European nation” and Western European nations. Tentative implications of the differences in industrial profile are suggested for international marketing strategy.     

Antecedents of Taiwan Chinese Consumers’ Purchase Intentions Toward U.S.- and Japanese-Made Household Appliances

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to understand the factors influencing Taiwan's Chinese consumers’ purchase intentions toward U.S. and Japanese household appliances. The authors attempt to develop and test a comprehensive model linking such purchase intentions to several constructs including Taiwan Chinese consumers’ openness to foreign cultures, consumer nationalism, product familiarity, traditional cultural values orientation, and product-country image. The result of analysis using structural equation modeling shows that consumer nationalism has a strong indirect effect on purchase intention via the product-country image construct. Taiwan Chinese consumers’ traditional cultural values orientation and openness to foreign cultures have direct effects on consumer nationalism and, hence, are important antecedents in explaining the purchase intentions toward foreign-made goods by Taiwan Chinese consumers. With the growing importance of the Chinese domestic market, this study provides international marketing managers with practical implications in important areas such as market segmentation, branding strategy, and market research and practices in the Chinese consumer market.     

The environmental value‐attitude‐system model: A framework to guide the understanding of environmentally‐conscious consumer behaviour

Business writers such as Charter in 1992 predict that addressing the environmental consciousness of consumers will be one of the most important issues industry will face in the 1990s, and was seen by Ottmann in 1992 as the marketing trend of the decade. In 1993 Coddington judged much of green consumer potential to be latent as the environmental concern expressed in surveys was not clearly visible in current consumer behaviour. How best to respond to this new challenge and exploit the potential market is still causing confusion amongst marketers. However, it is a practical business concern as consumers may become more explicit in their demand and use their purchase power as an economic vote to effect social and environmental change. It is argued that marketing conclusions can only be drawn from a thorough understanding of the phenomenon. In this paper, the value‐attitude‐system model of Vinson et al. in 1977 is applied and extended to provide an insight into the complex phenomena affecting environmentally‐conscious purchase behaviour by integrating the underlying influences from the individual belief system.     

Interactive music for multisensory e-commerce: The moderating role of online consumer involvement in experiential value,cognitive value,and purchase intention

Background music adds a multisensory element to marketing and e-commerce. Applying interactive sensory-enabling technologies (SETs) to online shopping websites is an area of interest in sensory marketing. This research examines interactive background music in e-commerce and investigates how online consumer involvement moderates the effects of interactive music. Single-factor experiments with three conditions (interactive music, static background music, and control) were conducted to investigate its impact on experiential value, cognitive value, and purchase intention of high- and low-involvement consumers among both students (Study 1, N = 251) and nonstudent samples (Study 2, N = 218). Different music genres were applied to stimuli of the two studies to demonstrate the generalizability of the findings. Results find that interactive music enhances the experiential value of e-commerce for low-involvement consumers. By contrast, high-involvement consumers show greater purchase intention under the interactive music condition due to a heightened level of perceived cognitive value. Involvement is an effective predictor of elaboration and purchase intention under the interactive music condition, but not under the other two conditions. The contribution is twofold: (a) it shows the impact of music as an interactive SET and, (b) demonstrates the moderating role of consumer involvement in the context of multisensory integration in e-commerce. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed along with limitations and directions for future research.     

Modeling the Effects of Green Advertising on Brand Image: Investigating the Moderating Effects of Product Involvement Using Structural Equation

ABSTRACT

?This experimental study examined consumers’ response to green advertising for high- and low-involvement products by measuring its effect on consumers’ intention to purchase such brands. The present study enhances our understanding of the moderating role of product involvement and extends the structural equation tests of the four causal models. A dataset of 169 respondents is used to examine the role of brand image and brand attitude in the context of green advertisements. Consistent with earlier findings, the suggested model provides a good fit of the data and results indicate that positive attitude toward green advertisements, brand image, and attitude toward the brand enhances the chances of consumers’ purchase intention of such brands. The study also verifies that product involvement moderates the positive relationship between attitude toward green advertisements and brand image such that at higher levels of product involvement, attitude toward green advertisements has a stronger effect on brand image.     

Chronological cues and consumers’ preference for mere newness

Chronological cues are ubiquitous in retail settings, whether they come in the form of production, release, on-shelf, or purchase dates, etc. Yet, they remain relatively underexplored in the marketing literature. Could newness that arises from these chronological cues lead consumers to prefer options merely because they are newer, above and beyond any substantive benefits conferred or implied by that newness? We propose and find in a series of eight preregistered studies (n= 2,216) that consumers exhibit mere newness preference across many product domains—preferring chronologically newer options over older options with no substantive benefits to newness. We provide evidence that overgeneralization is one important driver of mere newness preference: Most consumers hold positive (negative) associations with chronological newness (oldness) in an implicit association test, and mere newness preference is reduced in domains in which the opposite association exists. Consequently, consumers are willing to pay a newness premium even for mere newness.     

Restaurants and the Bring-Your-Own-Bottle of Wine Paradox: Involvement Influences,Consumption Occasions,and Risk Perception

The current study focuses on differences between high- and low-involvement consumers in terms of the bring-your-own-bottle of wine phenomenon, influence of consumption occasion(s), and how bring-your-own-bottle is used by consumers as purchase risk-reduction strategy. Results show that level of wine involvement determines the importance of bring-your-own-bottle of wine. The consumption situation in which bring-your-own-bottle of wine might occur is a main factor when buying wine. Bring-your-own-bottle of wine is largely the result of risk-reduction strategies where high-involvement wine consumers are more susceptible to perceived risk in the full-service casual restaurant sector and reduce this risk through bring-your-own-bottle.     

闻“香”而悦便会因“情”而买?——消费者涉入的调节作用

嗅觉器官是人类接收外界信息的重要器官,已有大量研究证明在顾客的消费过程中利用环境气味刺激个体的嗅觉能够积极影响消费者对于产品的购买意愿或所在环境的评价。文章基于精细加工可能性模型,通过实验研究方法引入消费者涉入作为调节变量,验证环境气味对消费者情绪的影响以及探讨情绪机制的边界条件。实验结果显示:环境气味能够提升消费者购买意愿,情绪在环境气味和购买意愿之间起中介作用;情绪的中介效应被消费者涉入调节,对同一产品而言,涉入度低时,消费者购买意愿显著增强,涉入度高时,消费者购买意愿差异不显著。本研究对于拓展感官营销的适用边界具有一定的理论意义,也对企业有效采取气味营销、提升感官营销效果具有重要的实践意义。     

A Conjoint Analysis of Quality Wine

Abstract

Weighted least squares approach for conjoint analysis is used to examine buyer preferences towards wines produced in different Spanish regions. Two producer regions are considered, Na-varra and Aragon, and three wine attributes: price, origin and grape vintage year (wine age). In both regions, differences between urban and rural consumers' preferences are tested. Results indicate that the origin of the grapes is the most important attribute for the wine consumer. Rural consumers prefer locally produced wines while Rioja wines are better considered by urban consumers. The price and the age of the wines are secondary attributes in consumer preferences. Finally, some market segments are formed based on individual consumer preferences and some of their sociodemographic characteristics in order to address differentiated marketing strategies to these segments.     

An extension of the benefit segmentation base for the consumption of organic foods: A time perspective

Abstract

Benefit segmentation is a long-standing marketing approach that emphasises the ‘what’ and ‘how’ dimensions of consumer benefits; that is, what benefits consumers perceive in product/service consumption, and how such benefits are perceived. This research proposes a fresh time-based approach to benefit segmentation – namely, focusing on the ‘when’ element or when in time benefits take effect. Drawing upon a survey of UK consumers, it explains and discusses consumption motivations through examining antecedents of temporally dominated benefits in application to organic food. Specifically, the study investigates why some consumers predominantly seek present-based benefits vis-à-vis future-based benefits or vice versa in organic food purchase and consumption behaviour. Using correlation and regression analyses, the research findings establish significant associations of level of involvement, prior knowledge level, and product usage level, and some association of time orientation with the temporally emphasised consumption benefits consumers ultimately pursue. Overall, the research highlights the added contribution of a time perspective in a benefit segmentation approach which can assist marketers in understanding better and communicating more effectively with consumers through drawing up consumer profiles based on when in time their dominantly pursued benefit for an offering is perceived to take effect.     

The rules of engagement: how to motivate consumers to engage with branded mobile apps

ABSTRACT

This research presents and validates a framework, which illustrates how to motivate consumers to engage with branded mobile applications, or apps. The framework shows that consumer involvement with branded apps underpins two sets of consumer perceptions of the benefits that the app offers, which reflect the different motives for engaging with the app, as consumers experience them. These perceptions include the utilitarian motives of security, usefulness and ease of use; and the hedonic motives of interpersonal utility, attachment (with the device) and entertainment. This range of motives leads to the willingness to pay for the app and the willingness to recommend it. This research contributes to marketing theory by clarifying specific details of the psychological process through which it is possible to motivate consumer engagement with branded apps - i.e. by means of binding involvement, perceptions of how apps’ benefits meet individual needs and two key outcomes. The findings also yield managerial relevance. Above all, the outcomes of this research suggest that, by involving and motivating consumers through the improvement of the benefits that a branded app offers, it is possible to increase the app’s revenues and to encourage word-of-mouth, creating value for app providers and consumers.     

Market Segmentation for Fast-Food Restaurants in an Era of Health Conciousness

Abstract

Recent societal changes toward heightened interest in health and nutrition indicate consumers' health- and nutrition-related attitudes and behaviors may be important for segmenting the market for fast-food restaurants (FFR's). This research conducted a recent survey of 387 consumers to investigate the extent to which these variables, as well as demographics, predict patronage of FFR's. Findings indicate that consumers who do not patronize FFR's have the strongest involvement with health-related issues, while frequent patrons have the weakest involvement. Thus, marketers could use a combination of general health- and nutrition-related attitudes and behaviors to supplement demographic information when plotting their marketing strategy.     

The Differential Impact of Price-Related Consumer Promotions on Loyal versus Non-Loyal Users of the Brand

Abstract

Consumer goods manufacturers regularly spend millions of dollars annually on sales promotions such as couponing, rebates, sweepstakes, and other premium offers. Although the impact of advertising on consumer purchase behavior has been documented in the marketing literature, the impact of promotions on purchase behavior has received relatively little attention. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between brand loyalty, purchase involvement, product experience, and their impact on the efficacy of consumer promotions. The results show that sales promotions have applications beyond their traditional role as short-term promotional tools. Managerial implications as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Applying an extended theory of planned behavior to examine state-branded food product purchase behavior: The moderating effect of gender

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to use an extended model of the theory of planned behavior to investigate the antecedents which lead to consumers’ purchase of state-branded food products. Relationships among attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, health-consciousness, intention to purchase, and actual purchase were examined. In addition, the moderating role of gender on consumer purchasing was assessed. The hypothetical model was empirically tested using data collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). Results implicated that consumers’ attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control of purchasing state-branded products significantly predicted their intention to purchase, and consumers’ intention to purchase significantly predicted their actual purchase of state-branded products. The relationship between health-consciousness and intention to purchase, however, was not found. Gender differences were found only between consumers’ perceived behavioral control of state-branded purchasing and their intention to purchase. Implications for marketers, farmers, and restaurant owners are provided.