Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed Aug. 2, 2007). PDF text: vii, 149 p. : col. ill. UMI publication number: AAT 3255892. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Marketing is about numbers but not necessarily just a number. From a big crowd to a half empty arena, adjectives carry numerical associations. The research within this dissertation builds on that idea while focusing on markedness, a linguistics theory, which has been called the evaluative superstructure of language. For example, asking "How tall is the person?" is not an indication that the person is tall but merely a neutral way to ask about a person's height. Tall, in this case, is considered an unmarked term given its neutral meaning. Asking "How short is the person?" however, implies the person is actually short in addition to asking for their height. Linguistics literature has touched on the power of language in numerical estimations but has not fully explored it, nor has linguistics literature transitioned to the marketing literature. Study 1 begins to explore markedness in a consumer setting by using Google Trends to show that unmarked terms, such as tall, are searched more frequently than marked terms, such as short. Study 2 shows that using an unmarked term results in significantly higher estimates of crowd size than using a marked term but is not significantly different than using a neutral term. Study 3 incorporates numerical anchors, which reduce the markedness effects. Study 4 illustrates how an unmarked term results in a wider range of crowd size estimates than a marked term. Study 5 shows how markedness effects are largely eliminated based on the source of the message (team) and capacity constraint of the arena. Study 6 incorporates time to show that markedness effects are stronger in a judgment framed as per day than per year. Studies 7, 8 and 10 show how a marked term, such as half empty, results in significantly different numerical estimates over time. This effect is eliminated when reference to a point in time, such as "at halftime", is removed (study 9). These findings highlight the role of markedness in consumer judgment and have important implications for a variety of marketing theories.

The milk industry in the Eastern Cape is very competitive and milk suppliers must use all means, including packaging, to influence buying behaviour. The aim of the study was to investigate customer preferences with regard to milk packaging in the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) area. The purpose was to develop a better understanding of customer preferences so that packaging could be designed to satisfy customer expectations and needs. The research design was based on a quantitative approach (non-experimental) and the study was descriptive in nature. The measuring instrument was a self-developed questionnaire, which was developed based on the literature study and previous empirical studies conducted by Adam and Ali (2014a) and Ahmed, Pumar and Amin (2014). The sample consisted of 199 adult shoppers in the Nelson Mandela Bay area, selected through snowball and quota sampling. Data was collected with the help of fieldworkers, coded into Microsoft Excel and processed with statistical software. Descriptive statistics and canonical correlation analysis were used to identify customer preferences and relationships between the different dimensions of milk packaging. The results revealed that size, materials, convenience in handing and product information (expiry date) were important. Colour and design were not regarded as important by the target group.

The thesis focuses on the consumer protection in public law. The objective of the thesis is especially give a general and complex view of the topic. The text is, apart from the introduction and the conclusion, divided into three parts. The first part introduces the topic by defining the term consumer and by studying the consumer protection. Subsequently a view on the differences between the public and private law is provided, so these could be applied in the study about the consumer protection in public law and about its characteristics and differences with consumer protection in private law. In the end of the first part an overview is given about norms, in which the consumer protection in public law is included, in European and Czech legislation. The two next parts amend the general first part by more particular look on the topic in certain areas. These areas are determined by the thesis that the consumer protection in public law consists mainly of the imposing of duties to persons who produce, import or sell products or provide services, in the administrative inspection over these duties and in arising liability in the case of breaching them. The second part brings nearer selected duties which aim to consumer protection - study about trans-sectional affecting prohibition of unfair commercial practices is...

This dissertation discusses the continued existence and enforceability of exemption clauses within the framework of the subsequent movement towards consumer protection. It is argued that the provisions of the Act will lead to the consequence that unfair exemption clauses will be phased out because it could be declared void in terms of this Act and consequently its use will become impractical. Although exemption clauses can be viewed as an essential part of most contracts, such clauses are regarded as one of the most contentious clauses in practice, because they usually exclude the liability of the supplier for losses resulting from defective performance. This Act will lead to a shift away from the strict rule of freedom of contract towards a position of consumer awareness and fair contracting. The Act further provides consumers with the right to, inter alia, good quality goods and services and guarantees these rights by prescribing and controlling the liability of the suppliers. As a result, liability due to defective goods and services may no longer be exempted through exemption clauses. Disputes regarding the fairness of such clauses must further also be considered in view of the guidelines set out in the Act. This study however welcomes the enactment of the Act and believes that it could benefit the country as a whole. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

Although extensive academic research (Czellar, 2004; Nandan, 2004; Keller&Hoeffer, 2003; Aaker, 2004; Kaputa, 2006; Griffen, 2002) has explored consumer perceptions, little research has assessed the impact of brand identity strategies on consumer perceptions, which was the purpose of this dissertation. Kotler and Keller (2006:275) assert the importance of understanding how the brand is perceived by consumers and what impact a brand identity strategy has on consumer perceptions. These perceptions can be described as a brand image which refers to a brand’s subjective or perceived attributes in relation to other brands. This perceived image of the brand does not belong to the product but is the property of the consumer’s mental perceptions and in some instances can differ widely from a brand’s true physical characteristics. By determining the consumer perceptions of a brand, this dissertation investigated the impact of a brand identity strategy on consumer perceptions. The research problem then exists in the possibility of differences between the perceptions of the brand, namely the brand image (reality) and the desired identity that the company sets out to establish. The literature review demonstrated that it is not only the brand identity strategy (which the organisation creates), but also the consumer’s perceived image of the product (the state of the consumer’s mental perceptions), that has impact on the way the brand is perceived. The closer the perceived image of the brand is to the organisation’s aspired brand identity, the less the differences and more successful the brand identity strategy. These differences constituted the research problem. The primary research objective was to determine the impact of the brand identity strategy of a consumer product on consumer perceptions. The following secondary research objectives were identified: • to determine what desired perceptions the company wanted to establish with its current brand identity strategy, • to assess whether differences existed between the brand image, (the perceptions in the minds of the consumers), and the brand identity strategy (the way the brand managers want the consumers to think and feel about the brand). Taking the purpose of the study and the objectives into account, a qualitative research was conducted, which was exploratory in nature. Text data analysis was the method used to analyse the content and context of the data collected by means of an open-ended questionnaire. The data was collected in two phases. In the initial part of the study, focus groups were conducted among members of the target market to gain an initial understanding of consumer perceptions of the brand. The focus groups assisted the author in developing questions that were used in the open-ended questionnaire in the second phase. In this way, relevant and meaningful data was retrieved ensuring that the research objectives were met. A comparison study was conducted by means of the focus groups to assess whether the responses were of similar nature compared with the responses derived from the questionnaire. It was concluded that a brand identity strategy facilitates the shaping of a mental image by consumers and thereby leveraging it to gain a competitive advantage. According to Dempsey (2004:32), it begins with understanding what the brand means to the consumers (brand image) and what the brand sets out to convey (brand identity) to the consumer. Many organisations know how they want to be viewed and what mental space they want to capture, but find it challenging to maintain a consistent brand identity at all brand contact points. The differences between the brand identity strategy and the consumer perceptions clearly revealed a significant impact of the brand identity strategy on consumer perceptions. Therefore, it can be concluded that the brand identity strategy impacts on consumer perceptions for the specific brand in the study with some brand identity elements having a stronger influence on forming perception than others. Once there was an understanding of how the brand is perceived by target consumers and how the brand is planned to be perceived in the future, the author identified the possible differences that needed to be bridged between the two and offered recommendations and key shifts required to move from the current perceptions to the ideal brand identity. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Marketing Management / MCom / Unrestricted

Materialism has long been a subject of interest to researchers. More negative than positive consequences have been reported from studies on the lifestyles of materialists. For example, increased consumer and credit card debt, shrinking saving rates, increased number of consumers filing for bankruptcy, lower levels of life satisfaction and the depletion of natural resources are reported to be emanating from the increasing levels of materialism in societies. It is thus important to investigate the factors that can be implicated for the growth of materialism. Most of the studies attempt to explain materialism at a given point in time in isolation of the events people have experienced in their early life or childhood. Realizing that this practice is a shortcoming in consumer research, there is a call that consumer behaviour, such as materialism, be studied as a function of past life experiences using the life-course approach. While few studies have applied this approach to understanding materialism, little is known about the psychological processes that link childhood family structure to materialism. It is against this background that this study used the life-course approach to study how childhood family structure affects materialism through psychological processes of perceived family resources (tangible and intangible), perceived stress from the disruptive family events, and money attitudes of Generation Y South Africans. The study also assessed the moderating role of money attitudes on the relationship between childhood family experiences and materialism. Money attitude dimensions of status, achievement, worry, security and budget were introduced to broaden the life-course study of materialism because they are reported to begin in childhood, to remain in adulthood and they function in the background of every behavioural intention and action. Generation Y (commonly reported to be born between 1977 and 1994) were the subject of this study, because the literature reviewed revealed that these emerging consumers are not only numerous (about 30 percent of South Africans are Generation Y), have considerable influence and spending power, but most have been raised in disrupted single-parent/income families. With reports from family sociologists on the outcomes of divorce and single-parenthood (for example, stress, inadequate family resources, and low self-esteem) questions were raised as to how these outcomes would affect Generation Y money attitudes and materialistic values. Ten hypotheses were formulated to empirically answer the research questions. Using quantitative methodologies based on the nature of the research questions and problems, data were collected through online questionnaire from 826 business undergraduate students from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and Western Cape Universities. University-aged respondents were appropriate for this study since they are ideally suited to remember their past family circumstances and must have already formed consumption habits, attitudes and values at their age. The first research problem was to evaluate how two of the life-course theoretical perspectives (i.e., family resources and stress) selected for this study would explain the materialistic values of Generation Y South Africans raised in non-intact (did not live with both biological parents before 18th birthday) and intact (lived with both biological parents before 18th birthday) family structures through the money attitudes adopted. The results showed that even though a significant difference in perceived family resources (both tangible and intangible) and stress was found between subjects raised in non-intact (or disrupted) and intact families, the difference in materialism as a whole was not significant. In terms of the three materialistic values of success, happiness and centrality, subjects raised in disrupted families significantly scored higher in the happiness dimension. For the money attitude dimensions of status, achievement, worry, budget and security they significantly scored higher in the worry money attitude. Results of the correlation analyses showed that perceived decrease in tangible (food, clothing and pocket money) family resources was a childhood factor that affected later worry money attitude to significantly and positively influence all of the three materialistic values. Perceived decreases in intangible family resources (for example, love and emotional support) negatively affected the symbolic money attitudes of status and worry, which in turn, positively affected only the happiness dimension of materialism. Perceived increase in stress positively affected all of the symbolic money attitudes of status, worry and achievement. These, in turn, positively influenced only the success and happiness materialistic values. The second research problem was based on an assessment of the moderating role of money attitudes on the childhood family experiences to materialism relationship. Using hierarchical regression analyses, it was found that only the achievement and worry money attitude dimensions moderated the family resources to materialism relationship. This means that when subjects hold higher worry and achievement money attitudes, an increase in family resources (tangible and intangible) will have less effect in reducing materialistic tendencies. For the stress to materialism relationship, only the worry money attitude dimension had a moderating effect, meaning that when higher worry money attitude is held, an increase in stress from family disruptions would have a greater effect in increasing materialistic tendencies. None of the five money attitude dimensions did, however, moderate the childhood family structure to materialism relationship. The results of this study do not only have theoretical implications, but also provide valuable information to consumer-interest groups, banks and retailers, especially in terms of the money attitudes of Generation Y consumers in South Africa.

Conducts a deep research of the online and smartphone consumer behaviour with a focus on the Spanish Millennials. The main goal of the thesis is to identify a different online and smartphone pattern among Millennials in Spain, compared to the general population. At the same time, obtaining valuable and insightful information about the Spanish Millennials consumer behaviour and trends is another goal of the thesis. This thesis aims to provide key findings on the topic, adding valuable knowledge, based on the current situation and behaviour of this segment of the Spanish population.

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