The purpose of this research is to determine if a consumer’s demographics, perceived consumer effectiveness, and awareness of fair trade practices affect their level of hedonic and utilitarian motivations that ultimately influence their purchase intentions. Two separate studies were conducted: a focus group and a survey. Middle-aged and older respondents were more motivated to buy fair trade clothing by both hedonic and utilitarian motivations than younger respondents. Respondents with only some college or an Associate’s degree are more hedonically motivated than other education levels. Respondents with a high household income are more motivated by their hedonic and utilitarian motivations than respondents with a low income. Respondents with high PCE responded more to their hedonic and utilitarian motivations to buy fair trade clothing than consumers with low PCE. Respondents that see promotional campaigns for fair trade clothing are overall less motivated to buy fair trade clothing than respondents that do not. Respondents that feel that people could make fairer choices if they were aware of which companies had high ethical principles are overall more motivated than respondents that feel people could not. As a respondent’s buying intention grew, the respondent grew more motivated in both hedonic and utilitarian categories.

This dissertation analyzed consumer primary motivations for attending farmers' markets, preferences for product features, and differentiated produce. We used consumer survey data collected at farmers' markets in Nevada and Utah during summers of 2008 and 2011, respectively. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay employed binary and multinomial logistic models to assess primary consumer motivations for attending farmers' markets. Results indicate that many consumers attend farmers' markets primarily to purchase fresh produce. Other motives such as social interaction, purchasing ready-to-eat food, and buying packaged foods, arts, and crafts were also analyzed. In this first essay, consumers who attended farmers' markets were clustered into three groups based on their similar characteristics. Results from this essay are useful to vendors at farmers' markets for they indicate primary motivations to attend. It also provides guidelines to farmers' markets managers in their efforts to meet attendees' expectations. The second essay used an ordered logistic model to analyze consumer preferences for eight fresh produce features. These features are product variety, quality, appearance, pricing, local, organic, freshness, and knowledge of local growers. Findings show that consumer preferences are strong for product quality, freshness, local and organic production. Policy makers can use results from this essay to provide necessary assistance to farmers to feature their products based on consumers' preferences. Health-related policy makers can use the results to implement programs aimed at increasing fresh produce consumption. The last essay used a multinomial logistic, conditional and ordinary least squares models to respectively investigate consumer preferences for differentiated fresh produce, willingness to pay, and stated demands for green peppers, cucumbers, and yellow squash. Comparison between preferences before and those after information about production and place of production was also done. Results demonstrate that consumer willingness to pay and the probability of purchasing each of the three products grown conventionally in Utah overweight those for either organically or conventionally grown of unknown origin. This essay provides information pertaining to produce differentiation through labels. The information has significant impact on preferences for conventionally grown local produce and negative effect on conventionally grown fresh produce of unknown origin. Green peppers, cucumbers, and yellow squash are ordinary goods with inelastic stated demands. Produce growers can use results from this essay to adopt production practices to meet consumer preferences. Results are useful to policy makers in enforcing local and organic certification regulations. They can also be used for pricing and marketing strategies.

Yes / Luxury brands are increasingly targeting the middle class through ‘masstige marketing’ as the trendy business opportunity,' which combines luxury and mass appeal. This strategy aims to make high-end brands more accessible to a wider audience, catering to the desires and preferences of the middle class. Grounded in the Mass Prestige (Masstige) theory, this study examines the direct and indirect impact of Symbolic motivations (snob, Veblen, and bandwagon) on Masstige Purchase Intention (MPI) via Inspiration Towards Masstige (ITM) as a mediator. Moreover, the contingent impact of Brand Credibility (BC) between ITM and MPI was assessed. Two independent studies were conducted among consumers of clothing and car brands. Results supported all the hypothesized paths reflecting symbolic motivations as important predictors of MPI directly and through the underlying mechanism of ITM. However, significant differences were observed in the impact size of the Veblen and bandwagon motivations on ITM and MPI among clothing and car brand consumers. Moreover, results revealed that BC significantly interacts with ITM to augment the MPI in both studies. However, this contingent impact was stronger to enhance MPI among the consumers of car brands than clothing brands. Furthermore, study implications and future research directions are presented in detail. / The full text will be available at the end of the Publisher's embargo period: 2nd Sept 2025

This research addresses an urgent contemporary problem within advertising and brand management in the new era of social networks - how do companies act on social networking platforms and how is this perceived by consumers? Being successful on Facebook is, seemingly, not as straight forward as many might think, and the misuse deriving from misperceptions can create negative brand impacts. This research aims to shed light on the yet under researched topic of firm-created Social Media advertising and its effects on the consumer mindset. This has lead to three overarching research questions, which provides a strong theoretical and practical contribution to the status quo:   RQ1:          What is the influence of the gap between motivational factors to “Like” a brand’s Facebook page and the subsequent firm-created Facebook advertising on perceived advertising value?   RQ2:          What is the influence of perceived advertising value on consumer brand-related activities?   RQ3:                      What is the influence of (1) perceived advertising value and (2) consumer brand-related activities on brand equity?   A quantitative research approach was adopted using a self-administered survey among 101 European Facebook users between 18 and 35. The framework of this research comes from four elements of theory; Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory to identify the underlying motivational factors to engage with a brand on Facebook, advertising value by Ducoffe (1995), to measure how the brand’s advertising is perceived, consumer brand-related activities (COBRA) by Muntinga, et al. (2011) to classify the level of consumer involvement with the brand on Facebook, and the brand value chain by Keller & Lehmann (2003), which is closely related to consumer-based brand equity as developed by Aaker (1991) and Keller (1993).   The main conclusions of this research include that the gap between initial motivations to start a brand-relationship on Facebook and the subsequent activities performed by the firm is smaller for those in a currently active brand-relationship while it is considerable larger for those who have decided to exit the relationship. Moreover, while not statistically confirmed a clear tendency was identified that the perceived advertising value of a brand on Facebook is attributable to the extent of this gap. In the same vein, the decision to continue or exit a brand-relationship on Facebook is attributable by the level of perceived advertising value. The type and level of interaction with a brand is influenced by the perceived advertising value, however, can be influenced by targeting specific motivations to interact. Both the perceived advertising value and the level/type of interaction with a brand were found to influence the consumer mindset. Especially the form (entertaining, enjoyable) in which advertising is dispersed on Facebook proves to be important.

In recent years, there has been an increased number of people that are engaged in gaming - a phenomenon connected to constantly developing internet infrastructure and a growing middleclass. The phenomenon of Cloud gaming has received increasing attention since it was introduced some years ago; in 2022 all Cloud gaming services combined had 31,7 million paying users. The number that is estimated to triple by 2025. Given this information, we proceeded to identify a gap in previous literature within the topic of Cloud gaming. Previous research within the topic of Cloud gaming has predominantly discussed Cloud gaming as a business model rather than focusing on consumers. We sought to seize the opportunity to fill this research gap by studying consumers' motivations to engage in this new technology and examine which factors can influence the customer's decision-making process in the path to purchase. We also wanted this study to contribute to marketing practice by examining important current research priorities within the field of marketing. In order to investigate our research purposes, we adopted an exploratory qualitative study where we, with the help of online focus groups, investigated the customers' perceptions of Cloud gaming as a service and their motivations to engage in it. Another purpose of this study was to find out how the gaming industry may be affected by the increased usage of cloud gaming, therefore we wanted to conduct a semi-structured interview with an industry representative. The most interesting result of this study indicates that a somewhat odd situation arises for the Cloud gaming companies where the respondents who spent the least amount of money and engage the least in traditional gaming, showed the greatest motivation to engage in Cloud gaming. Therefore we suggest that there are a number of different measures that must be kept in mind by marketers within the industry.