The research reported in this thesis tested the hypothesis that low-income families purchase private brands of selected food products because they represent acceptable quality at lower prices. The six food products selected were coffee, flour, peanut butter, bread, pork and beans, and margarine. The data collected in field interviews and subsequent statistical analyses consistently refuted the hypothesis. This finding is true for the low-income consumer segment and its sub-categories, white and Negro. The low-income consumers do not purchase private brands heavily, but test data indicate that this market segment buys more private brands than does the C > $7000 consumer group. There is evidence of substantial differences in the buying habits of low-income Negro and white consumers. While neither market segment purchases more private brands than national labels, the N < $3000 consumer tends to buy more private brands than does the W < $3000 consumer. Contrary to the hypothesis the indication is that the C > $7000 consumer knows price better than does the low-income consumer. Also, greater importance is attached to price by the C > $7000 group than by the low-income segment. This is not true of the Negro consumer. As stated above, the N < $3000 consumer buys more private brands than does the W < $3000 consumer. This tendency exists for price knowledge and the importance attached to price. The Negro consumer tends to know prices better, and he attaches more importance to price than does any of the other income segments tested. Regarding private-brand awareness, none of the market segments tested was well informed about private-brand market offerings. However, low-income consumers were able to name more private brands than were the C > $7000 consumers. Negro consumers were able to name more private labels than the W < $3000 group. The field data and test results all indicate that the Negro consumer tends to spend his money on the selected products more knowledgeably than the lower income white consumer. The Negro is better informed as to price and the private-brand offering. / M.S.

This research investigated the importance female consumers place on fit, style, price, color, fabric, and construction when purchasing a dress and sleepwear for themselves. Age, education, employment status, and income also were studied to assess their relationship to attribute importance. The data indicated that fit was the major consideration for both a dress and sleepwear. Dress style and price were of secondary concern; color, construction, and fabric were least important. For sleepwear, price, fabric, and style were of secondary importance; color and construction were of least concern. The sample of 133 respondents was divided into two groups: secretaries and custodians. When dress and sleepwear attribute importance scores were compared significant differences were found. Secretaries considered style more important for a dress; fabric was of greater concern in sleepwear selection. Fabric was more important when custodians purchased sleepwear. A comparison of garment attribute importance between the two groups indicated dress fit and style and sleepwear fabric were of greater concern to secretaries than to custodians. The price of the garments was of higher priority to the custodians. Age was significantly related to the secretaries' sleepwear color ratings and to the custodians' ratings on dress color. For secretaries, educational attainment was related to dress construction, employment status to dress style, and income to dress fit. No significant correlations were found between education, employment, or income of custodians and the importance of garment attributes in purchase decision. / M.S.

This dissertation examines the power of similar brand preferences to bring individuals together to have a conversation about social issues. Results across eleven studies reveal that people are more willing to discuss social issues with a stranger who shares (vs. does not share) their brand preferences. This is because they think those with similar brand preferences—but not those with other types of similarities—also hold similar personal values, and thus opinions on social issues, as them. This perception of shared opinions makes people more willing to engage in conversations with this stranger, because it overcomes the barrier of potential disagreement. The effect of brand preference similarity on willingness to discuss overcomes the effect of demographic dissimilarity and topic controversiality. This effect also persists when individuals learn that their conversation partner disagrees with them on a social issue, as long as the inference of generally shared values can hold. It attenuates when the inference on shared values is negated. After people engage in a real conversation, their opinions on the social issue converge with those of their conversation partner, especially if they believe their conversation partner shares their brand preferences. How does strangers connecting through shared brand preferences affect the brand? First, consumers have higher purchase intentions for their favorite brand after discussing a social issue with someone who shares (vs. does not share) their brand preferences. In addition, online brand communities, where people with shared brand preferences gather, demonstrate a more receptive and positive conversational tone than other communities. These propositions and findings are new to the literature on branding and interpersonal communication. Practically, the findings suggest both a powerful intervention that can tackle the issue of polarization, and a strategy for brands to engage in social issues in an inclusive way.

The purpose of the study was to determine the differences in the total annual income, total annual and monthly expenditures, and consumer expenditure patterns between American and foreign graduate students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI & SU). The study was based on a survey entitled "Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Graduate Students Demographic and Economic Impact Study" conducted in April, 1989. The sample size used in the analysis was 442, including 373 American and 69 foreign students. The findings from the study showed that (1) the American students had significantly higher total monthly expenditures than did the foreign students; (2) the American students had significantly higher absolute expenditures on tax, auto insurance, gasoline and auto repair, medical, laundry, and gifts and contributions, while the foreign students had significantly higher expenditures for telephone calls~ and (3) the American students had significantly larger percentage expenditure on tax, auto insurance, gasoline and auto repair, and entertainment, while the foreign students had significantly larger percentage expenditures on food, utilities, telephone, and travel. / Master of Science

Instant puddings were prepared using ultra-high-temperature (UHT) processed and conventionally (HTST) processed milk at 6°C and 23°C in six replicates of a 2X2 factorial design to determine the effect of milk type and temperature on apparent viscosity and gel strength of pudding. Apparent viscosity was estimated from linespread readings on separate 25 ml samples of pudding measured at 0, 5, 10, 15, and 30 minutes after preparation. Gel strength was determined from penetrometer readings on separate warm and refrigerated 100 ml samples of pudding measured at 15, 30, 60, and 90 minutes after preparation. Consumer evaluations of flavor and texture of the puddings were obtained as well as word descriptors of UHT milk by those consumers who had tried the product. A five-point hedonic scale of 1=dislike extremely to 5=like extremely was used by 200 consumers to register their perceptions of flavor and texture of the puddings. Apparent viscosity was greater with HTST milk, warm milk, and longer elapsed time. The combination of cold milk and shorter time was least viscous. Gel strength of refrigerated pudding was greater for HTST milk, cold HTST, and longer time. Nonrefrigerated pudding was firmer for HTST milk and cold milk. Shortest time resulted in softest gel strength, with no difference between other time periods. Although values from objective measures differed between puddings made with UHT and with HTST milk, consumer responses to the texture and the flavor of the puddings were similar for the four milk type by temperature variations. / M.S.

This dissertation investigates consumer valuation of car characteristics with the special focus on two non-physical attributes of an automobile such as safety and comfort. Consumer valuation of automobile attributes is of interest to car manufacturers who supply the characteristics, consumers who purchase them, and policy makers who regulate the automobile. This study uses two approaches to accomplish this goal. The first one is the traditional hedonic method which calculates consumer willingness to pay for measurable components of safety and comfort, whereas the second one combines these components into comfort and safety indexes. It is argued in this study that these individual components, which can make a car safer or more comfortable, are evaluated by consumers in the broader context of safety and comfort before the final choice is made. It is also argued that this aggregation can be justified by a high degree of multicollinearity between various car attributes which has been observed in the previous hedonic studies of the automobile market. Included here is also a comprehensive discussion of econometric problems associated with the characteristics approach. The computational part is based on the new and the most extensive data set used in the hedonic literature of the automobile market. The study concludes by presenting the set of price and income elasticities of demand for the safety and comfort related variables. The results of both methods indicate that many car attributes are Giffen goods, which implies a positive relationship between the marginal willingness to pay and quantity purchased. The main reasons for these findings could be attributed to the impact of the government quality standards affecting automobiles and the shortcomings of the hedonic procedure (treatment of nonlinearities). / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to determine consumers' attitudes toward and perceptions of global warming and hybrid cars and examine the car purchasing behavior in Singapore. The benefits of the study will provide marketers with insight of consumers' demand for cars in Singapore. Findings will help automakers develop more effective, consumer-oriented advertising plans for cars in Asia as Singapore consists of diverse Asian ethnic backgrounds- Chinese, Indian, and Malaysain.

Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Any brand has a specific identity that the company wants to portray to consumers in its target market – its brand identity – what the brand stands for. This is also the case for Oakley, a luxury brand competing in the sports and fashion industries. In essence the brand identity of a company is that what the brand is characterised by and what it stands for in the minds of consumers. By communicating its brand identity to consumers, a company create associations with the brand, which in turn forms the brand image that consumers have of the brand. The greater the degree to which consumers associate the brand with those characteristics that the brand in effect stands for, the greater the congruence between brand image and brand identity. The aim for a company is to realise a brand image in the minds of consumers that is similar, if not the same as the brand identity that it has identified for itself. In this study, the brand identity of Oakley is identified and the brand image that consumers have of the brand examined. The two concepts are then compared to find out to what degree the two are related and whether Oakley has in fact managed to portray their brand identity accurately (as reflected through the brand image). The relationship between price and quality for a brand represents the degree to which consumers believe the brand to be worth the money paid for it. It is widely believed that a brand with a high price is also of high quality and vice versa. This is not necessarily exclusively the case. The concept of quality and value differ from one individual to another, since it is based on the subjective perception of each individual. As mentioned earlier, associations form part of the brand image that consumers have of a brand. One of these associations might be their perception of quality of the brand, given the price of the brand. A luxury brand can charge a premium price, on the basis of various characteristics, one of which is the fact that the brand is perceived to be of high quality. Oakley is a luxury brand and charges a premium price. The study examines the quality and price of the brand by looking at the perceptions that consumers have of the brand with reference to the price/quality relationship, which represents one of the associations that contribute towards the formation of consumers’ brand image.

Thesis (MComm (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Against the background of the challenge marketers face in influencing consumer perceptions of brands, this study attempts to assess the effect of the senses on the perception of a brand. Perception is the way in which consumers interpret the world around them, with the senses as the receptors of information from the environment. One way of influencing consumer perceptions is by stimulating or involving multiple senses in brand building. To test this statement, the following research question was drawn: ‘Do the senses affect the perception of a brand?’The empirical study was one of an experimental nature, and a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design was used to assess the effect of the senses on the perception of a brand. In order to focus the research and to provide information to a leading distributor of alcohol spirits in South Africa, it was decided to concentrate on alcohol, more specifically, brandy. Due to the nature of the selected brand, sensory properties in relation to the product were used to measure the effect of the senses on brand perception. The nature of the brand is a consumable, and taste was used as the dependant variable to measure perceptions. The stimulated senses in the experiment are sight, sound and smell. The stimuli were: sight with the visible brandy colour, sound in the form of brandy being poured into a glass and smell as an enhanced honey aroma. Several experiments were conducted in a sensory laboratory, which assessed the effect of the senses on the perception of a brand, by way of individual main effects, two-way interactions and a three-way interaction. A convenience sample of 240 alcohol spirit consumers, from the Western Cape, was used to conduct the experiment. The empirical results indicated that the three independent variables (individual main effects or two-way interactions) did not have significant effects on perception. Most importantly, it was found that the three-way interaction of sight, sound and smell did have a significant effect on the perception of a brand. Therefore, this study revealed that multiple stimulated senses affect the perception of a brand. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie handel oor die effek van sintuie op persepsie van ’n handelsmerk, teen die agtergrond van die bemarkings uitdaging wat bemarkers teenstaan om verbruikers se persepsie van handelsmerke te beinvloed. Persepsie is die manier waarop verbruikers die wêreld interpreteer, met die sintuie as ontvangers van inligting vanuit die omgewing. Een manier waarop persepsies beinvloed kan word, is deur die stimulering en betrekking van ‘n meerderheid van sintuie met die bou van handelsmerke. Om hierdie stelling te toets is die volgende navorsingsvraag gestel: ‘Beinvloed die sintuie die perspesie van ‘n handelsmerk?’Die empiriese studie was eksperimenteel van aard, en ‘n 2 x 2 x 2 faktoriese ontwerp is gebruik om te bepaal wat die effek van die sintuie op ‘n handelsmerk persepsie is. Om inligting aan ‘n verspreider, wat ‘n markleier van alkohol spirietes in Suid-Afrika is, te verskaf, is daar besluit om op alkohol, en meer spesifiek, brandewyn te fokus. Weens die aard van die gekose handelsmerk is sensoriese eienskappe in verband met die produk gebruik om die effek van die sintuie op die handelsmerk te bepaal. Die produk is ‘n verbruikbare produk, en smaak is as die onveranderlike gebruik om persepsie te meet. Die gestimuleerde sintuie in die eksperiment was sig, klank en reuk. Die stimuli was: • sig met die sigbaarheid van die brandewyn kleur, • klank in die vorm van ‘n brandewyn wat geskink word en • reuk as ‘n beklemtoonde heuningreuk. Verskeie eksperimente is uitgevoer in ‘n sensoriese laborotorium om te bepaal wat die effek van die sintuie op die persepsie van ‘n handelsmerk is. ‘n Geriefliksheidsteekproefmetode van 240 verbruikers, van die Wes Kaap, was gebruik om die eksperiment uit te voer. Hierdie respondente was almal alkohol verbruikers wat ook spirietes gebruik. Die empiriese resultate het getoon dat die drie veranderlikes (individuele hoof effekte of tweerigting interaksies) geen beduidende effek op persepsie gehad het nie. Die belangrikste bevinding was die dat die drierigting interaksie van sig, klank en reuk wel ‘n beduidende effek op die persepsie van ‘n handelsmerk gehad het. Die studie het getoon dat, dus veelvoudige gestimuleerde sintuie die persepsie van ‘n handelsmerk beinvloed.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration