中国奢侈品消费与经营对策探析

随着中国经济快速发展,社会整体消费水平不断提高,奢侈品消费群体迅速崛起,中国奢侈品市场吸引了全球的目光。目前中国奢侈品消费市场仍处于初级阶段,消费群体可大致划分为富人和消费观念超前的年轻人两类。奢侈品消费的发展体现出境外旅游高消费、向理性消费过渡等趋势。国内购物中心在服务氛围、服务体验等方面应不断完善。     

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.     

How should a company respond to a product harm crisis? The role of corporate reputation and consumer-based cues

Product harm crises such as Vioxx and Firestone can be devastating events for companies. Although lawsuits by victims tend to draw most of the attention, observers, who typically learn of product harm crises through media outlets, can also cause extensive damage to the companies involved, as they represent current and potential customers of the product.This article provides guidance to practitioners in choosing the appropriate strategy to effectively deal with a product harm crisis. The authors recommend that corporate reputation and consumer-based cues, such as gender and nationality, be incorporated in the decision-making process regarding the choice of a corporate response.     

Coupons in context: discounting prices or decreasing profits?

A coupon is a commonly used sales promotion device offering the user a discount on the purchase of a product. Consumer coupon offerings are also becoming increasingly diverse: from “% off” and “$ off” to “Buy one, Get one free” (BOGO) offers and co-promotions (Buy X, Deal on Y). This paper reports the results of three experiments that examine whether the economic value of a coupon is a source of information to infer the price of the product/service, and the quality of the product/service, which inference can undercut the economic value, with resulting consequences for deal evaluations and purchase intentions. The framework predicts, and empirical results show, that increasing the value of the coupon does not always improve deal evaluations or purchase intentions. This could imply lower profits for the company. The presence of past price information about the brand, information about prices of other brands offered by the company, and information about competitors’ prices moderate the impact of coupon value on brand-related inferences. When such alternate sources of information are present and are diagnostic of the price of the promoted product, consumers are less likely to infer price and quality from the value of the coupon and higher coupon values are more likely to increase deal evaluations and purchase intentions. Implications for managers designing and communicating promotions are offered.     

The impact of advertising on consumer price sensitivity in experience goods markets

In this paper we use Nielsen scanner panel data on four categories of consumer goods to examine how TV advertising and other marketing activities affect the demand curve facing a brand. Advertising can affect consumer demand in many different ways. Becker and Murphy (Quarterly Journal of Economics 108:941–964, 1993) have argued that the “presumptive case” should be that advertising works by raising marginal consumers’ willingness to pay for a brand. This has the effect of flattening the demand curve, thus increasing the equilibrium price elasticity of demand and the lowering the equilibrium price. Thus, “advertising is profitable not because it lowers the elasticity of demand for the advertised good, but because it raises the level of demand.” Our empirical results support this conjecture on how advertising shifts the demand curve for 17 of the 18 brands we examine. There have been many prior studies of how advertising affects two equilibrium quantities: the price elasticity of demand and/or the price level. Our work is differentiated from previous work primarily by our focus on how advertising shifts demand curves as a whole. As Becker and Murphy pointed out, a focus on equilibrium prices or elasticities alone can be quite misleading. Indeed, in many instances, the observation that advertising causes prices to fall and/or demand elasticities to increase, has misled authors into concluding that consumer “price sensitivity” must have increased, meaning the number of consumers’ willing to pay any particular price for a brand was reduced—perhaps because advertising makes consumers more aware of substitutes. But, in fact, a decrease in the equilibrium price is perfectly consistent with a scenario where advertising actually raises each individual consumer’s willingness to pay for a brand. Thus, we argue that to understand how advertising affects consumer price sensitivity one needs to estimate how it shifts the whole distribution of willingness to pay in the population. This means estimating how it shifts the shape of the demand curve as a whole, which in turn means estimating a complete demand system for all brands in a category—as we do here. We estimate demand systems for toothpaste, toothbrushes, detergent and ketchup. Across these categories, we find one important exception to conjecture that advertising should primarily increase the willingness to pay of marginal consumers. The exception is the case of Heinz ketchup. Heinz advertising has a greater positive effect on the WTP of infra-marginal consumers. This is not surprising, because Heinz advertising focuses on differentiating the brand on the “thickness” dimension. This is a horizontal dimension that may be highly valued by some consumers and not others. The consumers who most value this dimension have the highest WTP for Heinz, and, by focusing on this dimension; Heinz advertising raises the WTP of these infra-marginal consumers further. In such a case, advertising is profitable because it reduces the market share loss that the brand would suffer from any given price increase. In contrast, in the other categories we examine, advertising tends to focus more on vertical attributes.

Search regret: Antecedents and consequences

Consumer search behavior has received considerable research attention in marketing. An area that has not been studied, however, is unsuccessful consumer search and the outcomes of such. This study proposes the concept of “search regret,” a postsearch dissonance that results from an unsuccessful prepurchase search. A pilot study is conducted to verify the existence of the search regret construct and to identify its potential antecedents and consequences. A conceptual model is then presented and tested. Based on the results, implications for retailers as well as suggestions for future research relating to search regret are discussed.     

Saving for Retirement—A Case for Financial Education in Germany and UK? An Economic Perspective

Demographic changes, tight public budgets, and reduced generosity of occupational pension plans shift the responsibility for an adequate retirement provision towards the individual. Applying the theoretical perspectives of Behavioural Finance and New Institutionalism to the domain of retirement provision offers insights into the difficulties individuals are facing in planning for retirement, carrying out, and revising plans. Lacking financial literacy seems to lie at the heart of the problem and points to a possible solution: providing financial education to consumers through non-governmental organizations and state-related agencies. This article is examining which role consumer education and consumer advice can play to enhance financial literacy with regard to pensions and old-age provision. As two case studies Germany and the UK are compared because the institutional set-up of the pension systems and the approaches towards consumer policy are very different. The case studies show that financial education with regard to old-age provision can be successful if it reaches consumers in their environment at life-stages where important decisions need to be made. To achieve that considerable efforts have to be taken in terms of funding and organizational set-up. However, evaluation is necessary to prove the effectiveness of the education especially for vulnerable consumer groups. If evaluation reveals that these groups cannot be targeted effectively or that consumers are not taking action subsequently to attending financial education, there might be a case for changing behaviour through the institutional set-up of pension schemes (i.e., through automatic enrolment) and using financial education as a supportive policy instrument.

The effect of a Halal label and label size on purchasing intent for non-Muslim consumers

This study examined whether the purchasing intent of non-Muslim consumers in Taiwan was negatively affected by Halal labeling on meat products. Specifically, does a Halal label or the size of the Halal label have an impact on purchasing intention? A multinomial logit model with a random utility theory was utilized to determine the probability of purchasing Halal labeled meat products in Taiwanese traditional markets. The survey was distributed via Survey Monkey and 907 responses were collected. Results showed that a vast majority of non-Muslim Taiwanese consumers would still buy (33%) or try to buy (55%) Halal labeled meat products. Further, larger sized Halal labels did not keep non-Muslim consumers from purchasing the meat products. Rather, consumers showed higher purchasing intent with a larger Halal label, as long as the butchers adopted cold storage techniques to help keep the meat fresh. Therefore, governments, companies, and traditional market butchers should be less concerned about adopting Halal labels in traditional markets. The results of this study supports prior studies and confirms that non-Muslim consumers in Taiwan do not appear to be negatively influenced by a Halal label, regardless of the label size.     

Understanding the impact of online customers’ shopping experience on online impulsive buying: A study on two leading E-commerce platforms

Research offers some indication that the online customers' shopping experience (OCSE) can be a strong predictor of online impulsive buying behavior, but there is not much empirical support available to form a holistic understanding; whether, and indeed how, the effects of the OCSE on online impulsive buying behavior are affected by customers' attitudinal loyalty and self-control are not well understood areas of research. In this study, we examine how functional and psychological dimensions of the OCSE influence online impulsive buying within e-commerce platforms. We will investigate customers' attitudinal loyalty as a mediator between the OCSE and online impulsive buying behavior, and the customers' self-control as a moderator between customers' attitudinal loyalty and online impulsive buying. To analyze these relationships we will conduct an online survey (n = 1489) with customers of two leading Chinese e-commerce platforms: Jindong and Taobao. The findings from structural equation modeling indicate a positive relationship between the tested dimensions of the OCSE and customers' online impulsive buying. We also find a mediating role of customers' attitudinal loyalty and negative moderation of customers’ self-control. Theoretically, the findings contribute to the literature regarding online impulsive buying and the online customer experience. For managers, the findings stress the importance of ethical management with regard to the online shopping experiences.