Discovering India's three levels of luxury consumption: An exploratory research to find a conceptual framework

Luxury marketing research has moved from functional product attributes to a ‘democratized’ view in emerging economies. This seems to be based on the development of interactive and digital communications. Luxury research studies have historically focused on the brand's and marketer's perspectives. Thus, little attention has been given to the consumer's view of what we consider to be the individual drivers, i.e., the ‘inner and outer self’ and how that impacts luxury consumption. This paper presents a framework of luxury and self, using concepts such as interdependent or outer, independent or inner, and a new concept of ‘digital self’. These appear as three levels of luxury consumption, i.e., conspicuous, individual, and interactive. The interdependent self is influenced by the external motives and leads to conspicuous luxury behavior. Individual self is affected by internal motives and thus influences individual luxury consumption. Digital self affects the networks of motive and relationships and thereby impacts interactive luxury consumption and behavior.     

Babymoon tourism between emotional well-being service for medical tourism and niche tourism. Development and awareness on Romanian educated women

Health tourism and wellness tourism have become "temptations" with many world markets looking to take advantage of their growing popularity. Babymoon tourism is one of the hottest trends in travel today. The aim of this study is to fill a gap in the research on babymoon tourism by measuring the awareness of, and interest in, this trend in Romania through convenient sampling. The results show that 28% of respondents know "babymoon", but they agree on its positive impact. Our research results emphasize the necessity of promoting babymoons due to the actual trend and because the holiday market has been focused on well-being and promoting the concept of hedonic well-being. Additionally, to promote Romania as a babymoon destination, we must consider that today's consumers are prosumers seeking experiences and emotional wellbeing. Promoting babymoons for emotional well-being can result in two managerial outcomes for Romania: brand identification and intention to revisit.     

The food neophobia scale and young adults’ intention to eat insect products

In the coming years, the new EU Regulation on Novel Food is likely to facilitate the development of a niche market for insects and insect‐based ingredients in many European countries. In this research, the aim is to explore the relationship between willingness to try (WTT) and behavior of eating insects, where the independent variables are food neophobia, sensory property expectations, and previous consumption. In total, 88 Italian participants took part in the study. The food neophobia scale (FNS) was constructed using 9 of the 10 items from the original FNS, and a Structural Equation Modeling approach was used to test the research hypotheses. The results show that males are more open to trying insects than females, and food neophobia is negatively correlated with the willingness to eat insects. Findings also indicate that the first exposure to insects positively increases consumers’ sensory property expectations. Intention to try is a strong predictor of the behavior of eating insects. People who scored lower on the FNS were more likely to try (intention) and consequently eat insects (behavior). These findings enhance knowledge about factors which could lead to lower levels of negative prejudice and greater willingness to taste edible insects among Western consumers. Finally, some marketing implications are discussed, like the need of information campaigns to emphasize positive sensory attributes of edible insects to increase the WTT this unfamiliar food.     

Cause-related marketing 2.0: Connection,collaboration and commitment

The article aims to explore and revise cause-related marketing (CRM) in light of an emerging concept of the market and the roles assigned to companies and consumers in marketing communication processes. Based on a dialogical reflexive approach to case studies, we take our point of departure in theoretically identifying key CRM constituents and their interrelations, and we show how current theories within CRM build upon axioms of a traditional firm-centric view on value creation and fail to meet the challenges of new market structures and relations. This tension of axioms provides a point of direction for introducing the Pepsi Refresh Project as a case illustration of an alternative CRM practice that redefines CRM from company-driven to community-driven – and points towards relocating CRM from an overt to a covert brand and marketing communication strategy. CRM becomes a joint value- and identity-constructing practice transforming consumer criticism into brand involvement and community commitment. By reflexively merging theoretical and case insights, the contribution of the article lies in the revisiting of existing CRM theories in the context of connected, critical and empowered consumers and the subsequent outlining of what we suggest to be CRM 2.0.     

Modeling the Factors Affecting Organic or Local Cucumber Purchasing Motivations in Northern Iran

This article has attempted to examine the impact of motivation on the purchasing and represents a model for organic or local cucumbers buying dimensions. Data were collected by a sample of 300 people in two northern provinces of Iran during 7 months and were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Results indicate that not using pesticides, preserving people’s health, conservation, better taste, and region of origin of organic or local cucumbers have significant positive impacts on purchasing dimensions and persistence has no significant effect on purchasing dimensions.     

Profiling the ageing wellness consumers in the retailing context

In the context of retailing, ‘wellness consumption’ cannot be defined by a product or service category, but by shopping motives. As previous research strongly suggests our consumption patterns to be influenced both by age and generational effects, in the current study we explore the wellness orientations of consumers at different ages/belonging to different generations as they manifest in everyday practices, especially in the context of retailing. Drawing on that, we aim to shed light on implications of the population ageing on retailing-related wellness industry. The main focus is on Baby Boomers. Starting with a random sample of 18–75-year-olds (N=1600), we extracted six dimensions connected to different aspects of wellness. Next, the dimensions extracted among aged 18–75 and 55?64 were fed into respective cluster analyses which both yielded seven segments. The differences in the composition of wellness dimensions indicate that age-/generation-specific segmentation is warranted and will return in more accurate estimations of the market potential and more targeted marketing activities. Examination of the parallel typologies enabled us to gain a broader understanding of differences between generations. There was an obvious age-/generation-based pattern in the cluster memberships in the 18–75 sample, all clusters offering different opportunities for the wellness market.     

Older shopper types from store image factors

This study aims to characterise the older shopper by exploring unobserved heterogeneity within the segment and developing an older shopper typology from an empirically derived store image scale. Store attribute theory informed a two-stage research design. Firstly, a ‘pool’ of salient store attributes was identified through in-depth interviews. Scales were then developed and quantitatively tested using data collected through a household postal survey. Seven store image factors emerged, forming the basis of the typology. Five clusters were subsequently profiled using behavioural and demographic variables: Prudent neutrals, All-Round demanders, Reluctant casuals, Demanding sociables, and Affluent utilitarians. A discussion of the resultant classification's utility in terms of retail strategy, including opportunities for better targeting through adjustment of the retail offer, is presented. This study develops a store image scale that reflects the importance of store choice decisions of older shoppers, extending store image research by providing contemporary insights into the requirements of older shoppers in a changing retail environment.     

Psychological antecedents and risk on attitudes toward e-customization

Consumers can experience relatively low prices with the dramatic diffusion of online shopping even with customized products, which are commonly more expensive than regular products, due to unique functions of customized product order processes in online environments. This paper investigates how two psychological antecedents, (1) need for uniqueness and (2) status aspiration, can influence consumers' attitude with regard to forming procedures toward e-customized products and how perceived risk, another psychological factor, on purchasing e-customized products plays a role of moderating factor. A self-administered online survey of 321 Japanese consumers is conducted to examine a proposed conceptual model with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The analysis using results indicates that the need for uniqueness directly impacts on attitude toward e-customized products while it mediates the effect of status aspiration. A multi-group analysis to test a moderating effect of the perceived risk on purchasing e-customized products highlights the significant effects of psychological factors. The result also provides potential guidelines to e-tailors on possibility of segmenting markets as well as promoting their customized products using these psychological criteria of their target consumers.     

Understanding the role of situational factors on online grocery shopping among older adults

This paper seeks to identify the situational factors that drive the adoption of online grocery shopping among older adults. A two-step research process is employed. First, exploratory qualitative research is carried out to identify situational factors that older adults take into account when deciding whether to buy groceries online. This is followed by a conjoint experiment to determine which situational factors are considered most important when making such a decision. The sample consisted of 9 participants in the in-depth individual interviews and 206 respondents in the conjoint experiment. The findings indicate that health, mobility issues, and distance to a store are the most important situational factors driving older adults to buy groceries online. Moreover, the findings confirm that the adoption of online grocery shopping among older adults is a result of a complex trade-off of situational variables. The findings contribute to managerial practice by providing online grocery retailers with insight that can be applied when designing promotional programs targeted at older adults.     

Investigating the gap between citizens' sustainability attitudes and food purchasing behaviour: empirical evidence from Brazilian pork consumers

Consumers worldwide are increasingly concerned with sustainable production and consumption. Recently, a comprehensive study ranked 17 countries in regard to their environmentally friendly behaviour among consumers. Brazil was one of the top countries in the list. Yet, several studies highlight significant differences between consumers' intentions to consume ethically, and their actual purchase behaviour: the so‐called ‘Attitude‐Behaviour Gap’. In developing countries, few studies have been conducted on this issue. The objective of this study is therefore to investigate the gap between citizens' sustainability‐related attitudes and food purchasing behaviour using empirical data from Brazil. To this end, Brazilian citizens' attitudes towards pig production systems were mapped through conjoint analysis and their coexistence with relevant pork product‐related purchasing behaviour of consumers was investigated through cluster analysis. The conjoint experiment was carried out with empirical data collected from 475 respondents surveyed in the South and Center‐West regions of Brazil. The results of the conjoint analysis were used for a subsequent cluster analysis in order to identify clusters of Brazilian citizens with diversified attitudes towards pig production systems, using socio‐demographics, attitudes towards sustainability‐related themes that are expected to influence the way they evaluate pig production systems, and consumption frequency of various pork products as clusters' background information. Three clusters were identified as ‘indifferent’, ‘environmental conscious’ and ‘sustainability‐oriented’ citizens. Although attitudes towards environment and nature had indeed an influence on citizens' specific attitudes towards pig farming at the cluster level, the relationship between ‘citizenship’ and consumption behaviour was found to be weak. This finding is similar to previous research conducted with European consumers: what people (in their role of citizens) think about pig production systems does not appear to significantly influence their pork consumption choices. Improvements in the integrated management of this chain would better meet consumers' sustainability‐related expectations towards pig production systems.