Based on a previous empirical study of the effect of a residential demand response program in Sala, Sweden, thisproject investigated the economic consequences of consumer behaviour change after a demand-based time ofuse distribution tariff was employed. The economic consequences of consumers were proven to bedisadvantageous in terms of unit electricity price. Consumers could achieve more electricity bill saving throughstabilising their electricity consumption during peak hours, and this way bring least compromising of theircomfort level.In order to estimate the price elasticity of the studies demand response program, a new method of estimationprice elasticity was proposed. With this method, the intensity of demand response of the demand responseprogram was estimated in terms of price elasticity. Regression analysis was also applied to find out the priceincentives of consumer behaviour change. And the results indicated that the rise in electricity supply chargehardly contributes to load reduction, while the demand-based tariff constituted an advantageous solution on loaddemand management. However stronger demand response still

Tweens are a new cohort of children who are not considered children, but have not developed into fully autonomous teenagers (Hulan, 2007: 31). Tweens are regarded as the “richest generation of children” (Lindstrom, 2004: 175). Their high disposable income and ability to influence consumption through endorsement makes tweens a potentially profitable niche market. In order to formulate an effective marketing campaign, marketing managers need to be aware of children’s advertising literacy, as well as the effect which peer endorsement has on consumption. Consequently, to determine the impact of these variables, a questionnaire was administered to 574 respondents and an empirical correlation experiment was conducted involving 202 participants. The primary research objective was to determine tweens advertising literacy at different ages and the concurrent affect which it had on their propensity to consume; advertising literacy is described by Priya, Baisya and Sharma (2010: 154) as the extent to which children are aware that advertisements have a selling intent, are persuasive, and are intrinsically biased. The effect which endorsement had on consumption was also assessed. Data was analysed utilising SPSS (Statistics Package for Social Sciences). Key findings were graphically represented, and compared to literature with a focus on Piaget’s Hierarchy of Cognitive development and Roedder’s information processing model (Roedder, 1981: 145; Piaget, 1960: 135). The research established that there was a strong positive correlation between advertising literacy and age. The research showed that this cognizance had a concurrent negative effect on tweens propensity to consume and consequently advertising literacy had a negative correlation with propensity to consume. The research also determined the extent which endorsement influenced consumption. In accordance with Childers and Rao (1993: 464) the degree of conspicuousness during consumption was assessed. The research established that respondents were more inclined to consume an endorsed product which had higher conspicuousness during consumption (i.e. a public good) than a good with lower consumption conspicuousness (i.e. a private good). Similarly, endorsed luxury goods exhibited a higher consumption propensity than necessity goods. The research also determined that the reference group construct affected the extent to which endorsement influenced consumption; familial endorsement had a stronger effect on consumption than peer endorsement. From these key findings, recommendations for South African managers were provided. The report culminated with recommendations for future research. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Most recently in academic literature, over the past decade, it has been observed that the cultural approach to brand management represents a new school of thought. This has emerged from relational and community based brand perspectives: which chart the rising role, significance and influence in brand management of connected and savvy consumers. Furthermore, the researcher has identified that economic migrancy; the increase in multi-racial and multicultural relations, evident in childbirth; urbanism and urbanization; Globalization; conspicuous branded consumption; and Web2.0 continue to drive new methods and channels for information exchanges, collaboration and societal understanding. These in turn are shaping and changing the way in which branding, management and consumption are being understood and practiced. Brands have gravitated towards a position of offering individual and societal meaning. In doing so they have become cultural artefacts and language shapers. In tandem the conceptual argument for a brand being understood and used as a ‘human’ has grown in prominence. Collectively, these represent a global cultural phenomenon where the management of brands appears to be a cultural, diffused and self-defined practice. The purpose of this study was to examine this identified phenomenon in greater detail, from a brand management perspective. The aim was to investigate the nature of the relationship between culture and brands – to the benefit of brand managers. The method of qualitative investigation elicited iterated views from an international panel of academics and practitioners -­ in the form of a 16 month Expert Delphi Study. Through the Delphi process, they were encouraged to arrive at a consensus of opinions and understanding. Findings of this doctoral study suggest that culture and brands share strong relationship bonds, brought into existence by human desires. Equally, brands and culture both have the ability to influence each other. Furthermore, the successful management of brands requires a cultural approach, which mediates dynamic and complex networks of brand stakeholder relations. It was concluded that the understandings of brands, culture and management have to take into account: context, space and time – as porous boundaries of transience and transcendence. A new, grounded theoretical framework for brand management was developed - which took its inspiration from Aristotle’s Praedicamenta. In addition, alternative criteria for collecting and analysing biographical data were proposed.

This is a multidisciplinary information systems thesis with a strong sociological focus. Theoretically it uses the technical concerns of human-computer interaction as the background to consider the separate theories of consumer decision-making and the diffusion of innovations. Emphasis is placed on understanding how consumers make sense of the Internet and come to define the role and use of the Internet in their lives. A practical framework for hermeneutic investigation was created to access the unreflective thoughts and actions driving online consumer decision-making. Implicit within hermeneutics is the prospect of transcendental interpretations and the ability to investigate in situ new avenues of research that emerge as a result of anomalous comments or findings. Hence, this thesis presents two different, but inter-related, research inquiries and their associated findings. Initial interest was centred on consumer behaviour and interface design. Specifically, can a dedicated 'consumer interface' be designed using principles based on consumer perceptions of online convenience. The resulting data analysis created a framework of advice that interface designers can use to improve their understanding of the nature and limitations of convenient interfaces and associated consumer decision-support technologies. A second research theme emerged from the data analysis which broadened the focus into a consideration of online consumer behaviour as a distinct issue. Specifically, a new from of interactive behaviour prevalent in electronic retail markets was identified and, following a second literature review, labeled "surrogacy". Related in form to the personal shoppers found in traditional marketplaces, surrogacy differs from electronic intermediaries with regard to (i) the motivations of use and (ii) the symbolic and functional benefits of usage. The emergence of this phenomenon suggests that interactions between individuals (as consumers) and Web-based systems are maturing, albeit in a non-predictable manner. Together, the methodological refinements presented here with the accompanying research findings provide a reference point for further work in the following three areas: interface design for electronic marketplaces; Web-based consumer decision support technologies; and the development of interpretive approaches suitable for socio-technical investigations.

Titel: Social marketing: Konsumenters prioritering av funktionella och symboliska värden kopplade till konsumtionen av nötkött.   Författare: Ahl Niklas, Foong Yingwai, Mörk Victor   Handledare: Henrik Sällberg   Institution: Managementhögskolan, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola   Kurs: Kandidatarbete i Företagsekonomi, 15 högskolepoäng   Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att analysera under vilka omständigheter social marknadsföring påverkar konsumentens prioritering av funktionella och symboliska värden kopplade till konsumtionen av nötkött.   Metod: Enkätundersökning med uppföljningsintervjuer riktade till de tre segmenten; regelbundna nötköttkonsumenter, flexitarianer och vegetarianer. Dessa segment utgör konsumenter och icke konsumenter av nötkött. De konsumenter som medvetet valt att begränsa eller avstå från att konsumera nötkött måste ha grundat sitt beslut på skäl som inte är religiösa.   Slutsatser: Det finns förutsättningar för att påverka konsumtionen av nötkött genom social marknadsföring. Slutsatsen grundas på att samtliga segment primärt baserar sin konsumtion på sociala informationskällor samt att det fanns tendenser till att respondenter inom segmentet för flexitarianer både påverkade och blev påverkade av omgivande konsumenters konsumtionsbeteenden.   Nyckelord: Social marknadsföring, nötköttkonsumtion, konsumtionsbeteende / Title: Social Marketing: Consumers’ priorities of functional and symbolic values with regards to consumption of beef.   Authors: Ahl Niklas, Foong Yingwai, Mörk Victor   Supervisor: Henrik Sällberg   Department: School of Management, Blekinge Institute of Technology Course: Bachelor’s thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits   Purpose: Purpose of this paper is to analyze the circumstances under which social marketing affect the consumer's priority of functional and symbolic values with regards to the consumption of beef.   Method: Written survey followed by interview session with focus on the three different segments of regular consumers of beef, flexitarians and vegetarians. These segments include both consumers and non- consumers of beef. All respondents who activly chose to restrict or refrain beef consumption has to base their decision on reasons which are other than religious.   Results: This paper found possible situations where social marketing influenced the consumer behaviour with regard to beef consumption. This conclusion is based on the fact that all segments included in this paper mainly based their consumer behaviour on social information sources. The result also showed a tendency for the respondents in the segment of flexitarians to both influence and to be influenced by each other's consumer behavior.   Keywords: Social Marketing, Consumption of Beef, Consumer behaviour

Purpose - This paper aims to explore how children's developing ability to effectively regulate their emotions influences their consumer behavior. Design/methodology/approach - Working with 80 children and one of their parents, this study used direct observations of child behavior in a task where they needed to regulate their emotions and a survey of parents about their child's emotional development and consumer behavior. The research used quantitative methods to test whether children's emotion regulation predicted parent reported consumer behavior (e.g. purchase requests, parent-child purchase related conflict) via multiple regression analyses. Findings - After controlling for children's age and linguistic competence, the study found that children's ability to control positively valenced emotions predicted consumer behavior. Specifically, children who had more difficulty suppressing joy/happiness were more likely to ask their parents for consumer goods and were more likely to argue with parents about these purchases. Practical implications - Content analyses of commercials targeting children have shown that many of the persuasive appeals used by advertisers are emotionally charged and often feature marketing characters that children find affectively pleasing. These findings suggest that these types of marketing appeals may overwhelm younger children which can lead to conflict with parents. Consequently, marketers and policy makers may want to re-examine the use of such tactics with younger consumers. Originality/value - While the potential link between children's emotional development and consumer behavior has been suggested in theoretical work, this is the first known study to empirically test this theorized relationship.

Nowadays firms are dealing with fierce competition and are "forced" to keep launching new products and strategies that would attract consumers'attention. One of the fastest growing marketing strategies - Cause-related marketing (CRM) addresses these trends as well as benefits from them. Cause-related marketing is a strategic partnership between a for-profit and non-profit organization. The contributions to the cause are made via consumer'purchases. As many statistics prove, CRM is a very effective strategy resulting in higher sales, enhanced image as well as loyalty. The question remains: how is it possible? What marketing concepts and techniques stand behind CRM? The diploma theses answers those questions and explains most important markteting and psychologial concepts from consumer's and firm's perspective.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Strategic Marketing, October 2016 / The South African eco-friendly products industry is still growing. With the growth potential existing in this industry, it is evident that marketing practitioners and producers alike need to understand the consumer dynamics involved in order to ensure that the sales of ecofriendly products increase. The growth potential that the researcher refers to is also confirmed by other researchers in their recent work (Sonnenberg, Jacobs, and Momberg, 2014). Eco-friendly products range from eco-friendly shopping bags, green clothing, solar powered electronics, and recyclable goods to name a few. As consumers change to be more environmentally conscious, their choices in products will be influenced by various factors including their decision-making styles. The “eco-friendly” or “going green” terms are commonly used globally for those products that consumers choose to buy because of their minimum negative impact on the environment. The decision-making styles that are most influential when South African consumers buy these products must be known by the relevant marketing practitioners within the South African context in order to ensure that they their strategies gain traction and also influence buying behaviour. Relevant branding and positioning strategies must be implemented by the relevant organisations in order to differentiate their eco-friendly products from others that are available to consumers as the market becomes more competitive with local and international brands being sold online and in retail shops. Investment into ensuring that these products are well-known will decrease the level of impulsive and careless buying of these products as the brands are currently not highly differentiated to the South African consumers. This study sourced primary quantitative data from consumers that buy and use eco-friendly products; a survey questionnaire was used in order to understand the influence of decision-making styles on the careless and impulsive buying of eco-friendly products. The findings of this study will enable the researcher to put forward the results that will demonstrate which decision-making styles mostly influence impulsive and careless buying 2 of eco-friendly products. Practitioners will be able to identify which dynamics to focus on when formulating their marketing strategies in order to effectively differentiate their respective products to consumers / GR2018

In order for e-commerce businesses to attract customers and consequently increase revenue, it is essential to understand the behaviour of online consumers. This involves understanding how consumers react to website elements, and what could influence the adoption of online channels. Given the applied nature of this research area, a number of studies have been carried out by marketers and information systems experts in order to develop a better understanding of consumer behaviour and web elements impact on adoption of online services. However, as web services continue to expand, so does the need for further research concentrating on specific types of products or services. Many academic articles have been published to cater for specific web portals such as retailing, banking, governmental transactions, hotel booking, and many other areas. Whilst this is the case, there remains a lack of research examining customer behaviour when using airline websites. Given the specific nature of online consumers, and the amount of business surrounding e-ticketing, it is imperative that this gap in research is addressed. Multi-faceted limitations surrounding online consumer behaviour within the airlines industry emerge from the literature. For example, the majority of previous research has relied solely upon traditional theories and as such, other important perspectives related to travel warrant investigation. Additionally, apparent links between website qualities and website adoption remain under investigated in the context of the airline industry. Another gap in research relates to the investigation of the moderating role of travellers’ characteristics such as their demographics, internet experiences, and travel habits. Based on these limitations, this research aims to develop a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary (i.e. consumer behaviour, information systems, travel and tourism) theoretical model that is capable of examining the factors that influence travellers’ online satisfaction and intention to purchase air tickets from airline websites. In developing this model, this research adopts a positivist, deductive, and quantitative approach. Thus, based on the analysis and synthesis of literature, a conceptual model comprised of nine constructs is proposed. Inspired by the Information Systems Success Model, e-satisfaction is centralised in the model and suggested as the main predictor of intention to purchase airline tickets. Information web qualities and system web qualities are considered as antecedents of e-satisfaction. The two constructs from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) are also integrated into the model. Other important factors such as e-trust, airline reputation, and price perception are also embedded. The suggested model has been validated using a measurement scale based on previously validated items. This research adopts an online survey that targets real travellers from Saudi Arabia who have used airline websites. Interviews, focus groups, and a pilot study were conducted to validate the survey items. Data collection procedures utilized the social media channels for the two operating airlines in Saudi Arabia as well as a snowball method. Data analysis techniques including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling were used to validate the relationships and to test overarching research hypotheses. Additionally, group comparison techniques including invariance analysis were used to explore the moderation effect of demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age, education level, monthly income, occupation, and location), internet experience, and travel habits (i.e. origin of the airline used, actual tickets purchase, travel frequency, motivation for travel, type of travel, and type of funding). The results from this research suggest that the most influential factors motivating travellers to purchase online are e-satisfaction followed by website trust. Furthermore, travellers’ perceptions of website quality also played an important role in influencing e-satisfaction. Price was the next influential factor. Several other factors appeared to have direct and indirect associations with intention to purchase and e-satisfaction. Additionally, findings emanating from group analysis suggest that some demographic factors and travel habits have a moderating influence over the research hypotheses. As such, this research makes several contributions to the consumer behaviour and web quality literature within the travel and tourism context. The findings from this research can assist airlines in shaping their web development priorities and enable them to focus on the most influential factors. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the application of these findings, an evaluation of the studies undertaken, and suggestions for future research.

In this study we have examined young consumers thoughts and opinions regarding how green marketing is used in the fast fashion industry. Previous studies in the topics of fast fashion shows that the concept is increasing at the same time as the demand for sustainable products are greater than ever before. Companies uses green marketing in order to meet the demand for sustainable products, but green marketing is often used in a wrong way and products are marketed as more green than they are. We wanted to see consumers understanding of green marketing campaigns from fast fashion companies and how they perceive "green" in messages. Also thoughts and opinions about sustainability strategies and green products have been discussed in order to meet our purpose to see how young consumers perceive green marketing in the fast fashion context? Our study is based on a qualitative research and two focus groups were used for the collecting of empirical data. A previous field study about consumers responsibility toward fast fashion has additionally has been used as both inspiration to the chosen topic and the results has been used for problem discussion and in the discussion chapter in this study. The theoretical framework contains of the parts fast fashion, consumer behaviour, sustainability, green marketing and green campaigns. All parts are chosen to its relevance to the issue and are discussed from a fashion perspective. Results from our study shows that young consumers in age of 20 to 30 years old don't perceive green marketing. The connection between fast fashion and green marketing is unclear and consumers don't relate fast fashion with sustainability. Young consumers low knowledge about green marketing and sustainability in the fast fashion context is a reason why they don't care about the environment when buying clothes. Our study further shows that consumers associates sustainable collections with limited assortments, unattractive and expensive products and therefore prefer other products. Finally this study shows that consumers want green marketing to communicate a clearer message to understand the advantages of buying green. / Program: Master Programme in Fashion Management