The success of NIKE, Inc. is deemed miracle by professionals on both Wall Street and Madison Avenue. Research done in the past tends to credit the growth of NIKE, Inc. to its marketing strategies. By placing the achievement of the company in the postmodern context, this study analyzes the cultural factors which contribute to the company's achievement. A brief yet well-documented history of NIKE, Inc. is provided. The nature and function of NIKE, Inc.'s athlete endorsements and contemporary sport are analyzed in a cultural context. The cultural significance of three representative NIKE advertisements, and the globalization of NIKE, Inc. are also scrutinized. A literature review provides theoretical guidelines to the understanding of the relationship between the business achievement of NIKE, Inc. and the postmodern reality we are living in today. Interviews with 38 key informants and questionnaire surveys show that NIKE, Inc. is a dream factory which uses the American Dream as a selling point to expand its market both within the United States and overseas. Therefore, the success of NIKE, Inc. should be viewed more as a cultural phenomenon than as a business achievement. / Graduation date: 1995 / Best scan available for figures. Original is a black and white photocopy.

Small-talk, flattery, teasing, ridicule, threats or insults are part of the daily fabric of consumers life. This dissertation is concerned with the way consumers behave toward others depending on how they are treated themselves. Pay-it-forward is the notion that a person who is treated well by someone should be nice toward others (and conversely, a person who is treated badly may treat other people badly in turn). The present research proposes and shows that the pay-it-forward mechanism does not always occur; in fact, under certain circumstances consumers behave in a manner that contradicts it. Although research has begun to explore social influences on consumer behavior, to date a coherent theoretical account of how social treatment (i.e., the way a person acts toward another individual during a social encounter) influences consumers is lacking. This thesis offers a theoretical framework for the impact of social treatments, and tests it in four scenario-based experiments and two field studies. Results provide support for the proposed conceptual model, indicating that two dimensions of social treatment (affiliation: friendliness vs. hostility; and relevance for self-assessment: high vs. low) interactively influence consumers likelihood to engage in socially-elevating behaviors (i.e. helping another consumer, picking up the tab when dining out with others, returning money to a salesperson who accidentally gives them too much change back for a purchase). Process evidence for the underlying roles of positive/negative affect and perceived social efficacy is provided. The dissertation addresses the implications of these findings to existing theory, and identifies avenues for future research. / Marketing

In the beginning of the twenty-first century it became clear what consequences companies’pursuit of economical growth had created on our environment and our social lives. Now theworld is standing in front of a challenge and that is to find a sustainable way to produce,consume and live in order to help our environment and social lives. An example of anorganization that is working towards a sustainable way of living is Fair trade LabelingOrganizations International. They set up international fair trade standards in order to supportthe sustainable development of small producers in poor countries, such as ensuring that theproducers receive prices that cover their costs.Research results indicate that the fair trade label could lower the value of the brand that it isattached to, as well as decrease the original brand’s customer loyalty. While there is also thebelief that fair trade is a positive thing for a brand. Therefore our aim with this dissertation isto look at how the consumer behavior changes when the product is co branded with the fairtrade label. We will therefore look at how co branding with the fair trade label affect differentaspects of consumer behavior. The different aspects that we have used are need recognition,information search, evaluation of alternatives, post purchase behavior and perceived brandpersonality.The study is performed on Dutch consumers by doing a quantitative research. The studyshowed that there are four variables that affect consumer behavior when co branding with fairtrade these are price sensitivity, reason for buying, expected quality and perceived brandpersonality.This study contributes to the lack of research concerning the connection between co brandingwith fair trade and consumer behavior. The conclusions drawn from this study could be usedas guidelines for company managers that are thinking of adding a fair trade label to theproduct, but it could also be used as guidelines for managers that already use fair trade.

Because the fresh milk market is growing gradually to be mature in Taiwan, the major firms of the fresh milk industry try to find the other way to make profit. They try to segment the fresh milk market by the higher price or some new functions of fresh milk. This study is to discuss the consumer¡¦s behavior in fresh milk market. According to the attribute of buying effecting factors, it can class the consumers as 1.group of product-distinction; 2.group of marketing-distinction; 3.group of subjectivity-distinction. These groups can be helpful to understand consumer¡¦s buying effecting variables and the acceptance to higher price fresh milk. The conclusions of this study are presented as follows: 1.Fresh¡BHigh Quality and 100¢H Nature, these three factors of buying effecting are most important to the fresh milk consumers. 2.Leading firms in fresh milk industry actively promote their higher price products, but the consumer can¡¦t aware these products easily and keep low will to buy that. 3.According to the attribute of buying effecting factors, it can class the consumers as 1.group of product-distinction; 2.group of marketing-distinction; 3.group of subjectivity-distinction. The conclusions above are significant to the management in the following aspects. 1.Understanding the consumer¡¦s behavior, the firms could match the real needs of the consumers. 2.To launch a new product must have the unique selling proposition (USI), and you can earn the consumers. 3.The firms in fresh milk industry could make different marketing strategies to the distinct consumer groups.

The thesis is intended to illustrate and analyze the role of consumer experience and the authors also take demographic cultural factors into consideration by researching on the consumers’ evaluation towards iPhone experiences.  The authors used both exploratory and descriptive strategies. In order to obtain the primary data, the authors applied multiple methods, including quantitative and qualitative methods, respectively, questionnaire, structured and unstructured interviews. The authors applied SD-logic, Four Realms of Experience, Consumer behavior determinants and Decision making process theories to analyze the role of experience. And in order to answer three research questions, the authors firstly introduced the analysis of demographic subcultures, including nationality, age and gender; then the role of experience marketing in consumer decision making process is identified. Finally, the analysis of qualitative findings will be presented.

Background and Problem: Consumer behavior has become a topic of great interest in today’s society. Considering todays competitive markets it is imperative that companies understand the needs and actions of their customers. There are many influences behind consumers’ decisions of choosing one brand over another. This thesis investigates Swedish consumers and why some private label products succeed, while others fail within different product categories. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the nature of the good influences Swedish consumers in their decision between private label and national brand goods. Frame of reference: Three theories are applied in order to understand consumer choices: brand loyalty, perceived risk factor and social risk factor. Method: Both a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews have been carried out and applied to the three theories. Coding of interviews was used to understand how the level of influence varies amongst different product types. In order to respond to the research questions, these findings were compared to sales statistics received from Swedish supermarkets. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the three influences affect consumer choices differently,depending on the type of good. Private label brands succeed in low loyalty, low social risk, and low perceived risk goods, while national brands take the lead in high brand loyalty, high social pressure and high associated risk good categories.

Purpose: To identify the relevance ethnocentrism, affinity and product country-image (the three theory effect affectionately called “the enchilada effect” by the authors) have on the consumers’ decision-making process as well as their effect on the consumers’ preferences for certain product attribute importance and types. Problem: In modern society most marketplaces around the world are full of foreign products. The importance ethnocentrism and the country of origin (COO) effect have on the consumers’ decision process has already been studied and identified on several researches along several decades. This mentioned, the authors think not only ethnocentrism, but also affinity and PCI might have an effect on this decision process as well. Therefore, they believe this to be an interesting and important consumer behavior phenomenon to investigate. Further, they want to identify how much these theories influence the consumers in two areas: first, the relative preferences of 8 attributes importance (price, quality, design, weight, energy saving, capacity, material, and HDD storage capacity) distributed in 4 product categories (laptops, refrigerators, bicycles and shoes); and second, their effect on consumers’ preferences over two types of product versions (low-end versus high-end) that differ in price and their added features with the basic price-quality relationship i.e. the more expensive the better it is.

<p>Every consumer decision incurs a cost. An hour spent researching products is an hour not spent working. Vacation days used in the winter are vacation days not used in the summer. A dollar spent on a car payment is a dollar not spent dining out. What determines the extent to which consumers consider such opportunity costs when making decisions?</p><p>Although every purchase requires an outlay cost (i.e., spending dollars in order to obtain a good), outlay costs only have economic significance because some other good or service must be given up as a result. Consumers have unlimited wants but limited resources, so satisfying one want means not satisfying another (the opportunity cost). An opportunity cost is "the evaluation placed on the most highly valued of the rejected alternatives or opportunities" (Buchanan 2008) or "the loss of other alternatives when one alternative is chosen" (Oxford English Dictionary 2010). Opportunity costs are foundational to the science of economics and, normatively, consumers should account for opportunity costs in every decision they make. I define opportunity cost consideration as "considering alternative uses for one's resources when deciding whether to spend resources on a focal option."</p><p>Because consumers face opportunity costs, every purchase decision is effectively a choice among alternative resource uses, not just a decision of whether or not to make a particular purchase. When consumers consider their opportunity costs, alternative resource uses specify the broadest form of competition that products face: each resource use competes for share-of-wallet with all other potential resource uses. Understanding when consumers consider a purchase decision as an allocation across multiple options, and what those considered options are, allows researchers and practitioners to better understand why consumers make the purchases that they do, why they restrain from making the purchases that they do not, and how to influence purchases of focal options by increasing or decreasing consideration of alternative resource uses.</p><p>What determines when consumers consider opportunity costs? In Essay 1, I propose that consumers consider opportunity costs when they perceive immediate resource constraints. In Essay 2, I propose that consumers consider opportunity costs when the resource in use increases the accessibility of alternative resource uses in memory.</p><p>Beyond addressing when consumers consider opportunity costs, I address three additional questions. First, who is more likely to consider opportunity costs? Individuals with a high propensity to plan are likely to consider opportunity costs even when they are not immediately constrained. Second, which opportunity costs are consumers more likely to consider? Consumers are more likely to consider opportunity costs that are more typical of the category of possible resource uses than opportunity costs that are less typical of the category of possible resource uses. Third, what are the consequences of opportunity cost consideration? Individuals who consider their opportunity costs are more sensitive to their value than those who do not consider them. In addition to aiding our understanding of the consumer decision process, understanding opportunity cost consideration has important implications for consumers' sensitivities to the structure of the decision environment, understanding the nature of competition and cross-price elasticities, memory for foregone options, and construction of preferences.</p> / Dissertation

The motivations underlying consumers¡¦ purchase of luxury brands are valued in the industry and in the research field. On the other hand, consumers not only could buy luxury brands from luxury brands¡¦ store, but could buy them from second-hand store or just rent them. They even could buy counterfeit luxury brands which almost have the same performance with luxury brands. There are also many extant literatures about these consumers¡¦ behavior. But it still lacks the discussion about the differences between consumers who have different consumption behaviors. The motivation of this research is to fill up this research gap and to discuss the differences between consumers who have different consumption behaviors for luxury brands. Perceived risk theory is adopted in this research. The purpose of this research is to explore the differences in performance risk, financial risk, psychological risk, social risk and time risk between consumers who have different consumption behaviors for luxury brands. This research is verified through the survey study. Collectively, the results support that: the consumers who have different consumption behaviors for luxury brands have different combinations of perceived risk.

In 2008, the Taiwanese film ¡§Cape No. 7¡¨ set the record of 500,000,000 box offices. Then this year also has the hot movie ¡§Wanhua¡¨. People start to expect the native movie industry economy is improving gradually. However, according to the overall box office, Hollywood still holds 80% market. Local film industry who want to get back lost audiences and change their long-standing habits of going to the cinema is to see Hollywood films, should be more understanding of the consumer behavior of the movie going and the underlying factors. This study is from the audience perspective and use of the consumer behavior theory to compare on consumer decision-making for Taiwanese and Hollywood Films. Then find out how product attributes, motivation and cultural factors in the film will influence the attitude toward Taiwanese and Hollywood films and the willingness to see these movies. Finally we can understand why most audiences are prefer Hollywood than Taiwanese films and get the meaning of movie marketing. According to the SEM analysis in this study, leisure motivation and word of mouth factor influence the attitude of Taiwanese films most. And effect factor of the attitude of Hollywood films are leisure motivation and degree of recognition of cultural values in movies.