One trend that is becoming overwhelmingly popular in mainstream America, particularly among the youth (prior to and as they enter the workforce) is getting tattoos (Armstrong, Owen, Roberts, & Koch, 2002; Chivers, 2002; Laumann & Derick, 2006), yet there is little empirical evidence on the impact of having tattoos in an employment context. The current dissertation sought to understand this impact by examining the influence of employee tattoos on customers’ stereotypical perceptions, attitudes toward the employee, organization, and products, and behavior toward the employee and organization across two studies. In the first study, customers viewed a marketing video in which the employee either had a visible tattoo or not. Customers reported more stereotypical perceptions of tattooed (versus nontattooed) employees, such that they perceived the tattooed employee as possessing more artistic traits, having a less favorable appearance, and being risker. Stereotypical perceptions of artistic traits were the strongest, and these perceptions mediated the relation between tattoo presence and evaluations of the employee, organization, and product. In a second field study, employees (who either had a tattoo or not) sold restaurant cards to customers at a convention to raise money for a charity organization. Results showed that customers engaged in more avoidance behaviors with tattooed (versus) nontattooed employees; however, there were no significant differences in purchasing behavior based on tattoo presence. The results of both studies provide insight into a mechanism for how tattoo presence impacts customers’ reactions to employees, organizations, and products. Implications and future research ideas are discussed.

Abstract Problem: CSR appears frequently in various kinds of reports of different corporations. However, managers are confused about how to practice CSR strategically. Little is known about consumers’ awareness of CSR and how consumers react toward socially responsible corporations and their products. The cosmetic industry has been criticized a lot on CSR because of unethical and unsustainable business activities. Renowned companies in the cosmetic industry are working on different CSR initiatives, but no single study has been done on CSR and its impact on consumer behavior in the cosmetic industry. It is of critical importance to investigate consumers’ awareness of CSR, and to explore consumers’ attitudes and tendency of purchase behavior toward CSR in the cosmetic industry. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate consumers’ awareness of CSR in the cosmetic industry and channels consumers get CSR information from. Furthermore, the aim is to investigate consumers’ attitudes on different CSR activities and how consumers’ purchasing behaviors are affected by these CSR activities. Theoretical perspective: The study combines stakeholder theory with theory on CSR’s impact on consumers’ attitudes and behavior. It refers to consumers as one important stakeholder group for a corporation. Method: A quantitative method is used in the study. Primary data of consumers’ awareness of CSR, consumers’ attitudes and tendency of purchasing behavior were collected through an online questionnaire. The results of the questionnaire were analyzed and interpreted. Conclusions: Consumers get CSR information of the cosmetic industry from different channels. Consumers’ CSR information about the cosmetic industry is between “poor” and “average”. They expect cosmetic companies to communicate more about CSR with the public. CSR is not an important factor that influences consumers’ purchase decision. However, consumers are willing to pay more for cosmetic products made in socially responsible ways. Consumers believe it is important that cosmetic companies fulfill their legal and ethical responsibilities, but they do not ask cosmetic companies to be philanthropically responsible.

The online game industry grows rapidly in these few years. Attrated by the huge market revenue, many game developers start to produce or publish the online game products. This results in a large amount of online game products. The purpose of this study is to understand the consumer behavior of online games. The lifestyle and the demography will be discussed in this study. The focus of this study is to find out if the consumer behavior will be affected by the difference of the lifestyle and demography. This thesis is based on the E.K.B. Model to develop the structure of consumer behavior, and refers to the A.I.O.structure for the lifestyle dimensions. A structured questionnaire is used to investigate the consumer behavior for online games. The findings are as follows: First, the characteristics of online game consumers are Male, 19 to 30 years old, student, college degree and income per month under 10,000. Second, consumers tend to use internet to find related information. Third, while selecting an online game product, consumers put more emphasis on the company service. Fourth, most consumers purchase the online game and the subscription fee card in the convenience stores, but the percentage of consumers obtain these via internet is increasing. As for lifestyle and demography, demogrphy affects consumer behavior significantly, but the lifestyle doesn¡¦t. Online game developers or publishers should provide good service. Also they can develop different marketing strategies for different market segments based on the demography.

Thesis (M.Env.Stud.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-145). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-178). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

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Aim: This study presents the relationship between marketing strategy and consumer behavior. We discuss how marketing strategy can influence consumers’ buying decision. Hence, our aim is to understand how consumers choose supermarkets for buying and how the supermarkets’ marketing strategies affect their buying decision.Method: This study was carried out by using a qualitative and quantitative research method. We gathered relevant information by conducting a survey on 120 consumers and 3 in-depth interviews with three managers from ICA, Willys and Coop supermarkets.Findings and Conclusions: Through the analysis of the survey and interview, we discover that price strategy is not the most important effect that can influence consumers’ buying decision. Our findings show that consumers will rather pay more attention on product quality and services of supermarkets. Also new marketing promotional methods such as using smart phone application (APP) has become a popular strategy used by supermarkets to attract and retain more customers.Practical Implications: Given the fact that our sample size of respondents is small, the study results cannot be generalized. In other words, the results may not be applicable to all consumer behaviors and supermarket marketing strategies. In addition, this study was restricted to geographical limitations.Originality/Value: The study results show how marketing strategy influences consumer behavior in supermarket industry and the factors that motivate consumers’ buying decision in a global context. More also, the paper fills the gaps in the related literatures. This thesis is a detailed research on marketing strategy for impacting consumer behavior in supermarkets industry.

Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.