<p> Coupons are a marketing tool used to entice consumers to try a new brand or product in the hopes that they will then become loyal users after trial (Boundless, n.d.). Issuing coupons is a common practice for many businesses because it is relatively inexpensive to begin, and can be used for general advertising purposes in addition to attracting new customers. Digital coupons have been introduced in the last few years and their acceptance is growing, with redemptions in 2010 increasing by 10 times the 2009 rates and projected to increase exponentially with each year (Savings.com, n.d.). </p><p> Early coupon academic studies in the promotional literature examine profitability maximization through manipulating coupon characteristics or the coupon process such as the timing of release, length of expiration dates, amount of the cents-off, and other related monetary factors. Despite the ability to adjust coupon features to maximize revenue and redemption, the effect is not strong enough to generate the motivation required to elicit new use from non-users being targeted nor improve the overall low redemption rates. </p><p> Basic characteristics such as demographic and socioeconomic variables as well as some predisposing motivational characteristics have also been studied to predict coupon use. While some of these characteristics demonstrate differences between consumers who do and do not use coupons, characteristics provide little insight into why non-users choose not to coupon. Furthermore, the findings cannot be generalizable to the population as a whole when the redemption rate persists at 2%. With digital coupons a rapidly growing practice, it is important to determine whether or not this new coupon format might contribute to behavior change in current non- or infrequent users of coupons. </p><p> While most previous research has concentrated on characteristics of the consumer, characteristics of the coupon, and predisposing motivational constructs, this study examined why consumers rejected coupons by examining their narratives on the various stages of the coupon process to narrow down the factors contributing the most to deterring coupon use. </p><p> The Phase 1 study included 58 participants, 29 frequent users and 29 infrequent users. Participants completed a set of questionnaires measuring previously identified predisposing characteristics, given guidance on the selection of digital coupons loaded onto shopper loyalty cards and were provided with Sunday circulars. Each participant had 1 week to try and redeem the digital coupons and complete follow up questionnaires to determine any changes post-trial. Participants were invited to participate in 1 of 6 focus groups to determine themes related to the digital coupon trial. </p><p> The Phase 2 study included 10 individuals who participated in depth interviews focusing on the processes, motivations and decisions related to coupon use during grocery shopping. The interview was broken out into 5 stages: 1 is an ice-breaker introduction to the study; 2 involves rapport building and setting the tone; 3 is the depth interview that attempts to elicit understanding into the motivation, timing, and rationale behind rejection of coupon use; 4 presents some popular emerging technologies based on emerging applications of interest to the Association of Coupon Professional Board; and 5 includes a brief discussion of different type of coupon and verification. </p><p> Overall, , the consumer&rsquo;s perceived purpose of the coupon is to save money through item cost reduction whereas from a marketing perspective the coupon is intended to entice consumers new to the brand or to encourage trial of a new product (Boundless, n.d.). This difference in perception could be a major contributor to the valuation process and resistance/rejection themes of infrequent users. Interestingly, very few infrequent users rejected the practice of coupons outright and were far more likely to resist or postpone the practice. More research should be conducted to identify when, how and why infrequent users re-evaluate coupons or try the process again. </p><p> Coupon industry members should review the coupon practice and make a decision to either abandon or overhaul the process as it currently does not provide value to either the manufacturers issuing the coupons or the consumers, even those actively using coupons. If the decision is to overhaul the practice then a decision should be made whether or not to adapt to the current perceptions that coupons are a means to reduce product price or re-educate consumers and industry members alike on the coupon as a means to solicit trial. Lastly, many of the existing apps do not address any of the coupon-related barriers, incongruities, or infrequent user needs. A disruptive technology is needed to change consumer perceptions, encourage coupon use and provide value added utility beyond just bypassing the coupon process to make the practice relevant in today&rsquo;s mobile culture. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

<p> Although it is well established that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-image, choice researchers have largely ignored how this desire impacts what consumers choose. The current research investigates the notion that people's choices can serve as a signal that affects their beliefs about themselves. I explore a self-signaling framework to make unique predictions in two important substantive domains: prosocial giving and forfeiture choice. </p><p> The first essay shows that consumers are more likely to give to a charity when the donation appeal mentions a hedonic product. This occurs because the presence of a hedonic product changes the self-attributions, or self-signaling utility, associated with the choice to donate. I demonstrate the effect with real choice and field experiments, and provide evidence that the increase in donation rates occurs because the choice not to donate is a stronger signal of selfishness in the context of a hedonic product.</p><p> The second essay looks at forfeiture choices and finds that the structure of the self-concept can determine whether or not people give up an unused good. I develop a conceptual framework based on a known aspect of the self (self-concept clarity) to predict that when consumers are less clear about their self-concept they are more likely to self-signal. Four experiments show that people are more likely to keep an informative good or service they do not use (e.g. keep paying for a digital magazine subscription they do not read) when they are unclear about their self-concept.</p><p> Taken together these findings enrich our understanding of the role of self-signaling in choice, enhance our knowledge of how people use choice to manage their self-image, and link the behavioral findings of self-signaling in marketing to an established literature on self in psychology. The results have implications for choice theorists interested in understanding self-image motives and for marketing practitioners interested in understanding choice. </p>

<p> In social media settings, many firms issue commands to consumers&mdash;to post, share or like content&mdash;often using forceful and direct (vs. polite) language. However, prior research has shown that commands issued with assertive language elicit negative responses and reactance and also reduce the probability of compliance (Brown and Levinson 1987; Dillard and Shen 2005; Kellerman and Shea 1996; Quick and Considine 2008). In the present research, I show that brands benefit from using assertive language, specifically in the form of increased care and concern from consumers. This is because assertive language communicates an intention to control, and intentionality is one indication of a humanlike mind (Epley and Waytz 2009; Kozak Marsh, and Wenger 2006; Waytz et al. 2010b). Five experiments demonstrate the relationship between assertive language, mind attribution, and care and concern for the brand. Both statistical and experimental evidence of the mediating role of mind attribution are presented. Finally, a boundary effect of this relationship is also explored by examining the role of mind valence, which decouples the link between mind attribution and brand care and concern when a threatening or malevolent mind is attributed to a brand. Thus, this research contributes to the brand anthropomorphism literature by showing that mind attribution, which not only suggests the brand is humanlike but the specific manner in which it is humanlike, can be elicited with subtle linguistic cues and has beneficial effects for the brand. This work is unique in showing a benefit to assertive language. It also offers insights to the mind perception and brand relationship literatures. Finally this work is managerially useful as assertive language can be readily implemented by firms and fits with a wide variety of brand traits and associations. Additionally the outcome of brand care and concern is beneficial to firms. </p>

<p> This research describes psychological values as they appear in social commerce related online marketing campaigns. Values are studied by their functional roles, which is what they do, rather than what they are (Gouveia, Milfont, &amp; Guerra, 2014). According to the functional theory of values, values guide actions and express needs. Marketing campaigns and values are explored because both marketing and values seek to guide actions and express needs. Exploring this calls for a qualitative study using content analysis. This research conducts two content analysis studies to verify accuracy. The first uses an open coding method, and the second uses a qualitative deductive analysis approach. The results retrieved throughout both studies use different word codes, but when listed together indicate that insightfulness, knowledge, and social support show the highest frequency and co-occurrence. Both studies also show that digitoral marketing campaigns rely much more on thriving needs than survival needs. Both studies confirmed, however, that survival needs are mostly expressed through displays of power, obedience, personal stability, and survival.</p><p>

The integration of philanthropy into corporate advertising and sales promotion campaigns is becoming a popular persuasion tactic. Companies are now using product advertising to portray themselves as benefactors of charities and social causes. The underlying marketing premise is that a firm can do better by "doing good." Philanthropic advertising can be grouped into two basic categories. One category ties consumer purchases to the corporate donation while the other communicates the firm's benevolence without a purchase connection. Causes perceived by consumers as personally relevant receive more cognitive elaboration than those causes perceived to have little relevance. On the surface, philanthropic advertising appears to be a "win-win" situation. The firm achieves an additional sale, or enhances its image, and the charity receives needed financial support. However, little is known as to how these messages influence consumer perceptions, attitudes and purchase likelihood. This study examined the effects of different forms of philanthropic messages, with varying levels of personal relevance, on consumer perceptions and behavior. It addresses these issues from an attribution theory viewpoint. Specifically, this study suggests that, given varying combinations of philanthropic advertising and personal relevance, consumers form different perceptions of the firm's altruism. These attributions influence consumer attitudes and purchase intentions. The study used an after-only, with control group, experiment to investigate the differential impact of the experimental factors. Two hundred and seventy-five graduate students responded to randomly assigned advertising stimuli and answered a questionnaire that measured their attitudes and purchase intentions. The initial hypothesis tests failed to show any significant results. Overall, subjects did not perceive any difference between the two types of philanthropic promotions. However, some effects emerged when the blocking factors were introduced. These results indicated that those who had a less favorable attitude toward business tended to respond unfavorably to philanthropic advertisements. Additionally, non-users of the product had more favorable responses for philanthropic advertisements than non-philanthropic advertisements. Messages of high personal relevance also produced more favorable responses than low relevance messages. Individuals who were not active contributors responded favorably to the purchase-linked messages. The results imply that these messages may have a different impact on various consumer segments. This message strategy can be useful in stimulating brand switching among current non-users.

Relationship marketing is emerging as a major theme in the marketing literature. Its central focus is the establishment, development, and maintenance of relationships between exchange partners (Morgan and Hunt 1994). The relationship definition of marketing states that the goal of "marketing is to establish, maintain, enhance, and commercialize customer relationships so that the objectives of the parties involved are met" (Gronroos, 1990). It is believed that good quality relationships improve the chance that relationships continue (Crosby, Evans and Cowles, 1990). This study investigates the antecedents of good relationships and the role relationship quality plays in determining whether relationships will continue. It also examines the determinants of relationship importance and its effect on the likelihood of continued interaction. Three major research questions are posed: In what types of buying situations are relationships important to the customer? What determines the quality of buyer seller relationships? and Is the role of relationship quality in determining the likelihood of continued interaction moderated by the importance of the relationship between buyer and seller? Using constructs from existing literature, a model is developed to address these questions. A mail survey instrument measures each of the constructs in the model and is sent to buyers and purchasing agents in industrial firms. This study provides many interesting results. Inherent risk factors, such as financial risk and termination costs, are the most influential determinants of relationship importance, while additional situational measures may be needed. In terms of relationship quality, a number of factors are significant determinants, some attributed to the characteristics of the salesperson and others attributed to the relationship itself. The likelihood of continued interaction is strongly influenced by relationship quality and enhanced by the addition of relationship importance. These results in terms of marketing theory suggest that relationship importance should be included in models that investigate relationship quality and that there are many dimensions of relationships that influence whether relationships continue. For managers, these results suggest the salesperson's ability to develop and maintain strong customer relationships improves the chance that relationships continue. Relationship importance also influences the appropriateness of relationship marketing strategies.

As a social phenomenon, the elitist, snobbish and conspicuous nature of luxury in Europe and early America, described in Veblen's (1899) "Theory of the Leisure Class," has transcended into a democratized new luxury in the United States. This new luxury empowers a larger portion of the population to fulfill their consumption fantasies. The most extraordinary change is from conspicuous consumption to ubiquitous inconspicuousness. This and other changes are continuing to impact marketing strategy, brand management, product development and the retail environment, presenting opportunities for marketing researchers. A Hermeneutic examination, using Seidman's (1998) three-interview series model, was conducted among consumers of the iconic New Luxury (Fiske and Silverstein, 2002) brand, Victoria's Secret. This examination aims to describe a slice of life, as opposed to a slice of science, and allow a better understanding of what it is like to form brand attachment and loyalty in the context of New Luxury. Women, who have been working more, earning more, and marrying later in life, provide an appropriate participant pool to demonstrate how the concept of "old" luxury has changed in contemporary America. This examination presents five dimensions of consumers' meaning-making processes. These afford Victoria's Secret a unique position in the market, as well as in consumers' lives. In the market, it is perceived as prestigious and commands a significant premium despite being ubiquitous and accessible to all. In consumers' lives, it takes a unique position of an emotional brand that is highly functional, thereby differentiating itself from both categories simultaneously. The study's findings point to the obsolescence of "Luxury" in contemporary markets and research contexts, and suggest future reexamination of luxury in light of paradigm shifts among markets, consumers, and marketers. This research describes and discusses the advantages of qualitative methods in marketing research and consumer research. Specifically, issues of researching female consumers not as prey for marketers but as an influential market player, and the implementation of hermeneutics in consumer research (Arnold and Fischer, 1994) are addressed and encouraged. Finally, this research urges conducting academic research geared toward application by practitioners in addition to developing, classifying and testing theoretical concepts.

<p> Subjective norms (family members and close friends) between the ages of 18 and 34 who were part of the SurveyMonkey Audience were part of this quantitative study. The study examined those more likely to share/retransmit the belief-based informational advertisement related messages of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), consumer health, and politics with/to college students between the ages of 18 and 24. For organizations to more efficiently and productively target college students with their informational advertisement related messages, they must gain a better understanding of the types of messages more likely to be previewed and shared/retransmitted by subjective norms. This study examined (a) the frequency in which subjective norms utilized Facebook to communicate with college students, (b) willingness of subjective norms toward previewing certain types of informational advertisement messages on Facebook, and (c) willingness of subjective norms to share/retransmit certain types of informational advertisement messages on Facebook. An online survey was administered utilizing a SurveyMonkey audience platform. A total of 173 participants volunteered to complete the online survey. The results indicated that the strength of the relational tie of a subjective norm was not significantly correlated to their willingness to share/retransmit informational advertisement messages. Gender of the subjective norm was a better predictor of who is more willing to share/retransmit certain types of informational advertisement messages with/to college students on Facebook. This study concluded with implications for practice and future research recommendations.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 13, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: B, page: 5101. Adviser: Edward Hirt.

Celebrity endorsers are featured in 10 to 20 percent of commercials in the United States (Agrawal and Kamakura, 1995). While firms have invested significant capital in celebrity endorsers, they traditionally shy away from those who have been involved in illegal or immoral acts (Briggs, 2009; Creswell, 2008). However, the rules of endorser selection appear to be changing. Recently, a new type of endorser whose celebrity is built in part upon criminal activity or violent history has emerged. These celebrities, often rappers, successfully endorse major brands such as Vitamin Water and Chrysler. They are frequently described as having another form of credibility--street credibility (Spiegler, 1996). Patrick (2005) suggests that the street credible celebrities will replace athletes as the most important product endorsers. Therefore, it is important to determine the nature of street credibility, who has it, and how is it gained. As well, we need to understand how diverse consumer groups relate to these endorsers. The first essay of this dissertation develops a definition for the construct of street credibility, outlines its antecedents, and investigates its attraction to different consumer groups. To do so, existing ethnographic, anthropological and sociological studies regarding street culture (i.e. Bourgois, 2003; LeBlanc, 2003) are consulted. A modified form of grounded theory using "extant theory and ethnographic studies" is employed to build a foundation for this emerging construct (Burton, Cherlin, Winn, Estacion, and Holder-Taylor, 2009). Next, theoretical sampling (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) is used to select interview respondents in two U.S. communities. The first community represented inner-city consumers and the second represented consumers outside the inner city. The results from this study indicate that street credibility is based on one's ability to thrive within the streets' culture of terror with street smarts and the creation of a tough persona. This form of credibility is increased as one gains financial, physical, and sexual power within street culture's context. This study suggests that the inner-city consumers' affinity toward the street credible celebrity is rooted in their similarity to the endorser while non-inner city consumers' affinity is based on the celebrities' ability to evoke fantasy. A second set of in-depth interviews with respondents who were inner-city minorities, inner-city non-minorities, non-inner city minorities, and non-inner city non-minorities were conducted. The purpose of this study was to buttress the findings from the earlier studies, further delineate how diverse populations view street credibility, and to gain insight as to which products and brands are best represented by these endorsers. The findings here were in line with the previous interviews and also indicated that non-inner city minorities are attracted to these endorsers based on their shared histories as minorities. Additionally, in terms of product match, street credible celebrities were reported as being able to endorse non profits as well as low priced "street" themed or high price-premium products, but not those products that are mid-tier. The second essay of this dissertation provides a review of literature on endorser credibility, endorsers as reference group members and source persuasion. This essay then provides evidence that consumer affinity for the street credible endorser, in spite of his or her association with negative information, is inconsistent with the "traditional" models of credibility and endorser effectiveness. Building on McCracken's (1989) Meaning Transfer Model, this essay posits that consumer affinity for the street credible endorser is based on his or her meanings and uses. This is further delineated in a proposed model of "Relationship, Feelings and Fantasy and Experiential Consumption Model." This model posits that consumer affinity for street credible endorsers is based on the endorser's ability to provide the consumer escape from the stress of daily life through transformational fantasy. Here, street credible endorser's association with certain scandals authenticates their street credibility and in doing so adds to the fantasy these celebrities evoke. This model resolves the anomaly of affinity for endorsers tied to negative information. Moreover, this model answers Amos, Holmes, and Strutton's (2008) call for research that provides insight into attraction to celebrities who are bankable endorsers despite their negative actions. The purpose of the third essay of this dissertation is to provide further understanding the role that fantasy plays in consumers' affinity for street credible endorsers. As scale measures for neither the construct of street credibility nor that of fantasy type has yet to be developed, a series of studies using Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis are first conducted. These studies yield two separate reliable and valid scales, one for each construct. Next, the basic assumptions of the Relationships, Feelings, and Fantasy and Experiential Consumption Model are tested. Here, Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis indicate that the brand personality scale (Aaker 1987) accurately measures celebrity brand personalities. The relationships between celebrity type and fantasy generation are explored using MANOVA. Results from these studies indicate that street credibility and cool are different constructs. In addition, an analysis of the data suggests that street credible endorsers are less cool and hold brand personalities that are less sincere and exciting than traditional endorsers. However, street credible endorsers are more able to evoke transportation fantasies and less able to evoke identify fantasies than their traditional counterparts. We find that each endorser group's ability to evoke fantasy is mediated by the consumer similarity to the endorser. In agreement with the model, these findings suggest that the exotic nature of street credible endorsers do indeed contribute to this his or her ability to evoke transportation fantasies.