<p>This dissertation explores how consumers learn from repeated experiences with a product offering. It develops a new Bayesian consumer learning model, the unstable learning model. This model expands on existing models that explore learning when quality is stable, by considering when quality is changing. Further, the dissertation examines situations in which consumers may act as if quality is changing when it is stable or vice versa. This examination proceeds in two essays.</p><p>The first essay uses two experiments to examine how consumers learn when product quality is stable or changing. By collecting repeated measures of expectation data and experiences, more information enables estimation to discriminate between stable and unstable learning. The key conclusions are that (1) most consumers act as if quality is unstable, even when it is stable, and (2) consumers respond to the environment they face, adjusting their learning in the correct direction. These conclusions have important implications for the formation and value of brand equity.</p><p>Based on the conclusions of this first essay, the second essay develops a choice model of consumer learning when consumers believe quality is changing, even though it is not. A Monte Carlo experiment tests the efficacy of this model versus the standard model. The key conclusion is that both models perform similarly well when the model assumptions match the way consumers actually learn, but with a mismatch the existing model is biased, while the new model continues to perform well. These biases could lead to suboptimal branding decisions.</p> / Dissertation

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Allen M. Featherstone / This thesis focuses on the rapid growth of new generation contracts used by grain producers. Specifically, the research studies a potential customer base of producers not using Cargill’s new generation contracts. A survey was conducted to uncover possible customer demand for Cargill’s marketing solutions. Those surveyed do not have the opportunity to use these solutions because their operations typically lay outside the footprint of existing Cargill grain facilities. With Cargill’s Flex Delivery Program, sales professionals have the ability to sell grain marketing solutions, like new generation contracts, to farming operations outside of existing asset footprints. From the experiences of current sales professionals offering new generation contracts via Cargill’s Flex Delivery Program, the author hypothesized that there are three primary variables influencing the likelihood of a customer finding value in the Flex Delivery Program. The size of farming operation, the number of facilities they deliver grain to and the importance they place on forward marketing are critical components to determining if a farming operation may market grain through Cargill’s Flex Delivery Program using a new generation contract. The survey results revealed the percentage of the sample population fit the criteria of a Flex Delivery candidate. The survey questions were also designed to uncover farmer demographics, current marketing styles, competition, and, in general, provide good background information useful for making follow-up sales calls on those selected to survey. The results show roughly a third of those surveyed are Flex Delivery candidates.

Master of Science / Department of Psychology / James C. Shanteau / This project included two studies that looked at how the brand name and price of consumer products can affect intended purchasing decisions. In Study 1, 30 undergraduate students tested products from three different product categories (crayons, tissues, and tortilla chips). Each product category consisted of three different brands; one with high brand value, one with medium, and one with low brand value (generic). The brands for each product were as follows: Crayons (Crayola, Roseart, and Dollartree); Tissues (Puffs, Kleenex, and Wal-Mart); Chips (Tostitos, Mission, and Kroger). The design for this study was a 3x3+3+3 matrix. For each brand, there were five conditions: 1) the product in the correct brand name; 2) the product in a switched brand name; 3) the product in the other switched brand name; 4) the product alone, no brand name; and 5) the brand name alone, no product. The product alone and brand name alone conditions acted as controls. Participants were unaware that the products had been switched. After trying each product, participants rated their likelihood to purchase that product on a 9-point Likert scale; 1 being “definitely would not buy” and 9 being “definitely would buy.” In Study 2, 47 participants completed an online survey assessing their likelihood to purchase three different products (a bicycle, a watch, and a T.V.) based on the price alone. The brand names were removed so as to not create an interactive effect. This study had the same design as Study 1. After a within-subjects Repeated Measures ANOVA, it was found in Study 1, that the two brands with higher brand value were rated as higher quality than the generic. Study 2 found that when just looking at price, subjects were more likely to purchase the cheapest product. In conclusion, it seems that the brand name associated with a product can cause people to rate the quality of that product as either higher or lower depending on the strength of the brand, even if the product itself is lower quality. Also, when looking at the prices of products without the brand names, people want to purchase the lowest priced product.

Given the growing number of socially conscious and ethical consumers, brands have been taking a strategic approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) by integrating socially responsible activities into the brand's core value proposition in order to remain relevant in the marketplace and drive brand equity. Extant research on CSR has investigated its effect on various consumer behavior outcomes. However, from a brand-building perspective, there is still a lack of understanding on how to effectively leverage CSR, and not enough directions on how to overcome its challenges in order to build brand equity. Therefore, through three essays, the objective of this dissertation is to provide a deep understanding of the effect that CSR has on brand equity while revealing brand-building strategies that can be implemented to effectively leverage CSR, specifically within the (1) global, (2) luxury, and (3) co-creation contexts.

The purpose of this study was to examine the elderly person's consumer complaint behavior and susceptibility to misleading and deceptive practices in the marketplace. The study was based on social integration theory, which concerns a person's ties to society. Also included was the concept of perceived adequacy of resources. Resource categories examined in the present study included financial resources, time resources, and knowledge/skills resources. / A mailing list was purchased from American List Counsel, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey, to obtain a nationwide random sample of persons age 65 and older. Respondents to the mailed questionnaires included 143 males (56.3%) and 107 females (42.1%) and four unknown. The total response rate of usable questionnaires was 27% (n = 254). Mean age of the respondents was 71. / Results of this study indicated that social integration was not related to an elderly person's susceptibility to misleading/deceptive practices or his/her consumer complaint behaviors. An elderly person's perception of his/her resources was not related to his/her consumer complaint actions. Moreover, there was no significant relationship indicated for perception of resource adequacy and susceptibility to misleading practices. / Analysis of the data revealed a weak but significant rank correlation existed between age and complaint behaviors. In regard to perceived adequacy of resources and age, only the financial resources category showed any significance. Finally, a weak but significant relationship existed between age and susceptibility to misleading and deceptive practices in the marketplace. / Implications and suggestions for future research include continued emphasis on consumer education for elderly persons and assessing individual characteristics, particularly personality, as indicators of consumer complaint behaviors and susceptibility to misleading and deceptive practices. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-03, Section: A, page: 0765. / Major Professor: Elizabeth B. Goldsmith. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The growth of minority groups in the United States affects consumer spending. Since culture influences many aspects of one's life, companies, educators and public policy makers are paying attention to this growth. In the past research based on Hispanic populations have included mostly Mexican-Americans in the Southwestern United States and have studied product categories other than apparel. The purpose of this research was to identify the demographic characteristics, general lifestyles, apparel-shopping lifestyles, and apparel-shopping patterns of Caribbean Hispanic women, and the relationships among these variables. The mall intercept method was used to collect data through a self-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics, correlations, chi-square, factor analysis, one-way ANOVA, multiple linear regression, and discriminant analysis. The sample consisted of 193 women. / Results indicated that Caribbean Hispanic women in this study were more educated and had higher incomes than previously reported for the Hispanic population. The research findings do not support the stereotypical belief and information about Hispanics promoted in trade magazines or the media. Respondents were interested in self enhancement and enjoyed shopping. They paid cash for apparel, worn neutral colors, preferred cotton fabrics, and patronized department stores. Some relationships between lifestyles, demographics and shopping patterns were found. Apparel-shopping lifestyles predicted more shopping patterns than did general lifestyles or demographics. This was significant at.05 level. An apparel-shopping behavior model was proposed. The potential uses of lifestyles to subsegment the Hispanic market should be explored. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: B, page: 4280. / Major Professor: Carol Avery. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

This dissertation describes three laboratory experiments that observe how an individual's choice behavior is affected by repeated exposures of stimuli and by manipulation of the order in which stimuli occur in a series. Based on Wells and Chinsky's (1965) original studies and Strong's (2002) extension of their work, this study replicates the 2002 study in a different country, and adds two variations by changing the type of stimuli and the manner of their presentation. Additional independent variables were introduced into the original Wells and Chinsky methodology, such as exposure length, contrasting colors, and response latencies, as well as the presentation of stimuli in evenly spaced and massed series. Findings tend to support the hypotheses that a different cultural environment does not significantly alter the results of Strong's extension; that the change of stimuli from numbers to less abstract images like food icons does not significantly affect results; that massed exposures produce a more favorable choice pattern than spaced exposures; and that a stimulus placed last in a stream is more likely to increase choice frequency for massed exposures than for spaced exposures. These results represent a first step toward future analysis of the effects of these manipulations on choice patterns for the more complex types of messages used in advertising / acase@tulane.edu

This study is intended to ascertain the potential impact of a market-driven mechanism on changing MBL participants' social behavior. A qualitative case study investigation of whether values sought by participants and organizers are derived and the affect on social behavior after receiving these values. The methodology is to observe MBL participants' behaviors and activities during and when the MBL mechanism is available. Multiple in-depth, semi-structured long interviews are conducted with participants and organizers to understand the value demands they seek. Pertinent documentation is reviewed about the previous and current behaviors and activities of this cohort. Finally, I will participate in the MBL to understand their behaviors and their relationship to the value demands sought. This is a study deemed successful if the research technique allows me to identify participant and organizer value demands, whether they realized these demands in the MBL, whether participants' behaviors were modified to socially desired ones as a result of their involvement in the mechanism and whether participants' realized value demands from alternative and competing mechanisms during the intervention. I expect to find that participants and organizers become involved with the MBL to derive values that are different from those actually derived. Participants seek to improve their community position by enhancing their feelings of self-worth. They will realize this goal in a basketball environment with friends and an arena to compete for community social-esteem (social network circle). Organizers seek to improve participants' community by in increasing the proximity between participants and their potential involvement in illicit activities / acase@tulane.edu

In the 21st century market, characterized by an emphasis on commercial and public sources of information, like globalized media and internet, one could question the relevance of experiential and personal influences (Kotler, 2004) on brand equity. In order to contribute to this answer, this study builds on the conclusions of two previous papers: Moore Wilkie & Lutz' (2002), who found strong intergenerational influences (IG) on the transfer of brand equity from mothers to daughters at the category and brand equity levels; and Childers and Rao's (1992), who studied IG from a cross-cultural perspective in the US and Thailand. This research was conducted in Mexico, a collectivistic/high power distance/high uncertainty avoidance society (Hofstede, 2001), considering it as a symbol of a group of 22 countries sharing these cultural dimensions. By researching IG effects between mothers and their sons/daughters in a time span of approximately 14 years, this study diverges from previous literature by demonstrating that match in family life-cycle (between mothers and married daughters), may be a stronger determinant of IG prevalence than the amount of elapsed time living separately. Diverging from Childers and Rao's conclusions for Thailand, the results indicate that even in collectivistic/high power distance/high uncertainty avoidance societies, when young adults live away from home, IG is lower for publicly than for privately used products, suggesting the presence of peers' influence. Finally, no significant differences were found between mothers' real brand preferences and sons/daughters' memory of their mothers' brand preferences; a result that may be associated with the cultural characteristics of the Mexicans. This study revealed that personal and experiential sources in the 21st century, particularly IG continue to be relevant in the creation of brand equity / acase@tulane.edu

This study examines the relationship between ethnic consumers' reactions to advertising appeals and their acculturation mode. A model of acculturation was tested that proposes the existence of four acculturation modes based on combinations of American and ethnic cultural identification levels. An experiment was conducted using a two (advertising appeals: American and ethnic) X four (acculturation modes: assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization) X two repeated measures (products: beverage and phone) design. Subjects' ad affect and ad cue recognition responses were analyzed. The hypotheses predicted that subjects' responses to the American and ethnic appeals would vary by acculturation orientation. / The sample consisted of 220 African-American college students. The sample's distribution of American and ethnic cultural identification scores represented two of the four possible acculturation modes--the Integration-oriented (HI-American, HI-Ethnic ID) and the Separation-oriented (LO-American, HI-Ethnic ID) modes. The MANCOVA and ANOVA results indicated significant product effects. Overall, the findings showed that both acculturation groups had higher ad affect and correctly recognized more cues for the ethnic ads than for the American ads. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3224. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.