Drawing direct comparisons between one's brand and its competitors is widely used in advertising. Previous research has shown positive effects of comparative advertising: consumers have an improved attitude toward the brand. However, comparisons can be risky, leading consumers to develop more source derogations, perceive the advertisement as more aggressive, and have increased negative emotions and attitude toward the ad. / A plausible question posed by a brand manager or advertiser would be: how can we maintain the positive effects of drawing a comparison, while mitigating the negative effects? Research into the effects of narrative transportation shows that subjects react very favorably toward advertisements that induce them to imagine themselves in the described product scenario. This thesis was designed to investigate how coupling narrative transportation with comparisons in an advertisement affects consumers' reactions, and if the use of transportation can calm the negative effects of a comparison. The results of this study suggest that a transportive comparative ad is as effective as a transportive noncomparative ad---when paired with transportation, a comparison's negative effects are assuaged.

This research describes one approach to commercializing new horticultural crops for the natural products industry. The use of aeroponic technology proved to be feasible for the production of difficult-to-harvest, high-value root crops. Using Arctium lappa Asteraceae ("burdock") as a model crop in a modified A-frame aeroponic growing unit, the biomass and phytochemical yields of roots grown in aeroponics were compared to controls grown in a typical greenhouse soilless peat/perlite/sand mixture. No significant differences were seen in the yields of root biomass, measured as dry weights. No significant differences were seen in the phytochemical quality of the roots, as measured by the concentration of chlorogenic acid. Variability in the concentration of chlorogenic acid appeared to be lower in roots from the aeroponically-grown plants, indicating the possibility of improving phytochemical consistency using this horticultural technology. The feasibility of producing raw materials for the herbal dietary supplement industry in Native American communities and on reservations was also examined. Research exploring the use of a matched savings program called Individual Development Accounts indicated that low- and moderate-income Native American families are interested in becoming producers of herbal crops, using aeroponic and conventional horticultural technologies. This model of economic development for rural Native American populations may provide an example for integrating various tribal and federal programs with private enterprises to provide entrepreneurial opportunities for supplemental farm-based and home-based income. Finally, the feasibility of introducing a line of Native American branded products into the herbal dietary supplement market was tested. The results of this research indicate that this industry is an appropriate venue for adding value to agricultural products through the imagery and association of Native American culture, providing the consumer is convinced of the authenticity of the products. This multi-pronged, interdisciplinary approach to the commercialization of new agricultural crops, particularly those targeting niche consumer groups, could be transferred to other agricultural products.

Socio-cultural brand associations (e.g., brand personality) often drive the preferences and choices of consumers. While previous research suggests that the people and social situations represented in advertisements play an important role in shaping consumers' socio-cultural brand associations, extant theorizing offers little insight into the specific mental mechanisms involved in producing such outcomes. In attempting to address this important shortcoming, my dissertation develops a new conceptual framework for investigating social information processing, the Controlled-Automatic Meaning (or CAM) Model. This model casts social information in a central role, giving primary emphasis to the mental processes through which consumers draw socio-cultural meanings from the social cues used in advertising. Two studies aimed at providing an initial assessment of the CAM Model are reported. The first study utilizes conservative methodology to provide a strict test of the model's processing specifications, and unfortunately fails to provide evidence that preconscious exposure to social imagery impacts adult consumers' socio-cultural brand associations in the manner outlined by the model. The second study provides a more successful examination of the model's utility in predicting how children and adults process the social meanings contained in television advertising when the ads are seen under normal, marketplace viewing conditions. Results from the study provide compelling evidence of the model's utility in predicting and explaining developmental changes in consumers' processing of gender meanings represented in advertising. The second study's outcomes also suggest several promising directions for future research involving the CAM Model.

Effective relationship marketing requires accurate measurement of customer tenure/loyalty and a thorough understanding of its impact on firm performance. Although such studies are plentiful for brick-and-mortar firms, few exist for Internet-based E-tailers. Given the visit-intensive customer behavior online, past methods and theories on customer bases analysis and lifetime-profitability relationship based on purchase events may not apply in an e-commerce context. This dissertation proposes a measurement framework that incorporates customers' online visiting behavior both at the in-session, "micro" level and at the long-term, "macro" level using three metrics: session duration, number of pages viewed and online customer lifetime (OCL). Both stochastic model and neural networks are designed and validated for the measurement of OCL. We then study the relationship between customers' online visiting behavior and firm performance by studying five propositions that relate to whether (1) there exists a positive relationship between OCL and customers' purchase intention, (2) customer who spends longer time or view more pages in a session is more likely to buy, (3) customer with longer online lifetime contribute more to firm's profit, (4) customer with longer session duration and more page viewed is more profitable and (5) product type has an impact on the lifetime-purchase and lifetime-profitability relationship.

Message-effects research has explored in some depth the effects of emotion-evoking persuasive message elements such as fear and humor. Interestingly, persuasion research has for the most part neglected the impact of sexually-oriented appeals in persuasive contexts. To address this inadequacy, this study was designed to realize two overarching goals: (1) To contribute to what little is known about the effects of sexually-oriented appeals within persuasive contexts, and (2) to determine if this type of appeal can be effective beyond the consumer product domain to more socially-relevant contexts (e.g., disease prevention, parental responsibility, art museum visitation). For the purposes of this study, sexually-oriented appeals are defined as any appeal which is perceived by the audience as sexual and subsequently evokes a sexual response. In addition, appeals of this nature are also perceived by the audience as credible, appealing, and relevant. Regarding method, this study utilized a replicated message treatment design. Thirteen pairs of matched messages were used to test the effects on the dependent variables. Important advantages gained by utilizing this method and the appropriate statistical analyses included: increased generalizability and internal validity, and the ability to inspect treatment effect magnitude and variability. Overall, the findings of this study contribute to the above-mentioned goals. First, sexually-oriented appeals were found to be more persuasive than matched nonsexual appeals for social marketing topics. Second, sexually-oriented appeals stimulated more ad execution-related thoughts, fewer message-related thoughts, and fewer counterarguments. In addition, subjects were able to recall more visual aspects of sexually-oriented appeals than nonsexually-oriented appeals but there was no difference in copypoint recall between the two appeals. These results are congruent with past emotion research and affective models of persuasion. This research provides evidence that sexually-oriented appeals can be persuasive, at least in a social marketing context, and provides insight into the impact of sexual appeals on the persuasive process.

Drawing from research in involvement, message incongruency, schema theory and associative memory models, hypotheses were developed predicting that message incongruency will have differential effects on information processing within levels of high (HI) and low (LI) involvement subjects. It is argued that various characteristics of an executional cue may not affect HI and LI consumers in traditional ways prescribed by peripheral- versus central-route processes. Rather, the presence of incongruencies between the visual and verbal elements within a print ad may have a greater attractive force and motivate more thorough elaboration of pictorial and copy information than congruent elements. Although support for hypotheses was limited, cell means were remarkably consistent in the predicted directions and proportions, especially for recall of copy information and recall of the primary picture object. These patterns provide some support that the two dimensions of incongruency, relevancy and expectancy, do play a role in information processing for both high-and low-involvement consumers.

Smells are being included as key components of product offerings in an ever increasing number of product categories. However, this practice is guided only by intuitive beliefs that the addition of smells might lead to richer brand identities, help brand preference etc. This is because olfaction research in marketing is in its infancy while studies in branding have focused on strategies to extend a brand's existing equity rather than on issues relating to the initial formation of brand knowledge structures. Thus, there is little understanding of the processes that govern consumer learning of products that involve olfactory in addition to visual and verbal elements. This research examines the role of smells vs. visual/verbal elements in the encoding process of such multimodal brands. Our primary focus is on exploring the effects of congruency among the various elements on the derivation of olfactory associations and learning of the brand. Subjects in the study were exposed to fictitious brands of bath oils and asked to rate the appeal of each brand. Subjects examined the triads of brand elements (i.e., smells, colors and labels) in one of two sequences and the combinations that represented each brand differed based on various congruency conditions. Subjects then undertook a recognition task that was devised to test their learning of the associations between the brand elements. The results suggest that visual/verbal elements play a dominant role in shaping encoding of the product offering. Visual/verbal associations were learned quite easily, regardless of congruency. By contrast, associations between the odors and the labels or colors were learned more accurately when the relevant pair was congruent. Further, the labels and colors seemed to guide the learning of smells. Thus, when the smell was the sole incongruent element and the visual/verbal cues consistently pointed in a different direction, the odor was aligned with the other elements. Consequently, overall brand learning was contingent on the number of congruent cues that were present to assist in the derivation of olfactory associations. These findings provide guidelines to marketers faced with various branding decisions relating to product offerings that incorporate smells.

This dissertation explores the psychological processes involved with the placement of real brands within television programming. While empirical evidence tells us that television images influence individuals, on the one hand, and that television programs contain references to specific forms of consumption, on the other hand, the psychological effect of specific references to brands has, to date, only been reasoned theoretically (e.g., Levy 1959; McCracken 1988). Because it focuses on individuals' responses to specific brands placed within a popular culture text, the technique of product placement provides an ideal context for studying the relationship between branded products and popular culture elements. Drawing from the psychology literature, I propose that the effectiveness of product placements varies depending on the specifics of the placement. Based on a Tripartite Typology of Product Placement, I make predictions regarding the processing and persuasive impact of each type and combination of placements. This conceptual framework was tested through a newly developed methodology called "the theatre methodology," which used a videotaped original screenplay as the setting for the presentation of stimuli. As predicted, the number of modalities and the degree of plot connection were shown to significantly improve memory. The study further revealed a significant interaction between plot connection and modality, caused by a stronger effect of plot connection on the visual placements than on the auditory placements. In terms of attitude, the results suggest two equally persuasive but dramatically different strategies. Indeed, product placements that were visually placed in the background were as persuasive as placements that relied on both audio and visual modalities and were highly connected to the plot. Contributions to marketing and cognitive and social psychology theory are discussed.

This dissertation critiques the techniques used to market and distribute consumer electronics products in the United States. Using the wireless networking industry as a case study, I argue that the consumer electronics industry is at the cutting edge of the commercial, consumer nature of U.S. culture and that it operates according to the ideological moorings of what the Frankfurt School called "the culture industry." These moorings include the obscuring of contradiction and the politics of production behind a unified product image, the erasure of individual consumer choice in favor of efficient means of product distribution to an infinite consumer base, an exaggerated presentation of cultural values in product packaging that teach consumers what they should believe and how they should act, and a carefully constructed use of statistical data and quantified consumer behavior to maintain a mass, homogenized culture that opposes characterizations of diversity or heterogeneity that do not expand the consumer base or the target demographic. The rhetorical appeals of consumer electronics marketers depend upon recycled consumer values to create desire through a universal product image, through carefully designed product information, and through highly developed language. The dominant appeals in wireless networking products are to mobility, security, and entertainment. I explicate these appeals using a methodology derived from social-epistemic rhetoric, a rhetoric that examines sites of conflict and contradiction as the arbiters of culture. I explore the contradictions in what I call choicing, or the prediction and manipulation of consumer choice through the marketing, distribution, and use of mass-produced goods. These contradictions include several consumer tactics that confront choicing strategies.

Arizona apple producers compete with Washington for fresh apple markets. As Arizona's apple production increases, its market share should also increase. Using quadratic programming to determine the spatial equilibrium between the wholesale markets of Los Angeles and Denver, the timing and quantity of apple sales from Arizona to these two wholesale markets are determined for current and potential fresh apple production in Arizona. The quadratic programming model is used to determine the feasibility of controlled atmosphere storage for Arizona. The quantity of apples sold monthly to Los Angeles and Denver wholesale markets are determined given restrictions on the percentage of the wholesale markets that Arizona apple producers could supply. Revenue from controlled atmosphere storage exceeds the variable costs associated with storage, marketing, and storage of apples.