Thesis advisor: Mary Ann Glynn / My dissertation examines changes in audience sensemaking by the public and media about Apple’s novel product, iPad. My study begins on December 28, 2009, one-month before the introduction of the iPad by Apple and ends with the anniversary of its retail availability on April 2, 2011, shortly after the launch of the second-generation iPad. Using primarily qualitative methods, I analyze archival data including online forums and news articles to understand audience sensemaking as it unfolds. I investigate how sensemaking by the two audiences a) changes over time, b) changes with different types of material interaction with the product, c) incorporates the use of functional and symbolic frames in their public discourse about the iPad, and d) changes based on the public role of the audience. In doing so, I advance explanations as to how meanings about novel products stabilize. More broadly, I elaborate how nascent product categories can emerge by focusing on the cultural-cognitive processes that undergird product classification systems. As a result, I offer novel pathways for product category emergence. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Management and Organization.

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Abstract This study mainly investigated the changing of pricing leverage of brand among different situations, especially, among distinctive product categories and among various levels of product knowledge which consumers obtained. Firstly, the research tries to verify existence of the hypothesized pricing leverage of brand; that is to test (1) the influences of levels of brand awareness on consumers¡¦ price perception; and (2) the effect of brand awareness on consumers¡¦ tolerance over the price increasing. In addition, this research manipulates three other variables, namely: product category, product knowledge which consumer obtained, and consumers¡¦ involvement toward the product in interest, as to seek and explore the conditions on which the pricing leverage of brand can occur. As experimentation is the method of this study, it utilizes a 3 ( brand awareness: high, middle, low) x 3 ( product category: convenience goods, shopping goods, specialty goods) x 2 ( product knowledge: much, little) x 2 (involvement: high, low) factorial design as its basic framework of experiment design. A focus group depth interview discussion, which participants were from target subject group, was held to collect the appropriate or suitable products, brands, pricing levels, product information, and product attributes, ... etc. The products eventually used in the experiments are six items: fresh milk, toilet tissue, hand-bag, leisure shoes, watch, and digital camera. According to the products chosen, the brand names are selected based on the levels of awareness in the markets in which the subject purchase. The subjects of the experiments are 144 students of National Sun Yat-sen University located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. There are 815 entries of data obtained from the subject in the experiments. Factor analysis, ANOVA, and MANOVA are used to analyze the data obtained from the experiment. The analysis findings support several propositional statements, including (1) the higher level of market awareness a brand enjoys, the higher price perception consumers acquire for it; (2) Among the difference product categories, the effect of price leverage of brand varies; (3) there is no influence from the magnitude of product knowledge which consumer obtained on the price leverage of brand.

With the emergence of urban shopping mall in Taiwan, the general commodity marketers created a new retailing business model. Several stores of the same product category convene together in the mall to take advantage of the congregation of a consumer crowd. The current study conducted a questionnaires survey at Dream Mall of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, studying consumer behavior regarding the same-product category store: purchase readiness, information search, and store choice. The three testing same-category-stores in the mall are Daiso, Nitori and the Working House, which all are selling household wares. Another two major topics of the current research are shopper types and evaluation of shopping mall. The 468 valid consumer subjects for the study were randomly solicited to participate the questionnaires survey at the door fronts of each above stores.The result of indicates there exist different types of shopper in the mall., There are significant differences in terms of purchase readiness and in information search. Moreover, purchase readiness and attribute consideration on products significantly affect their store choice.

When launching brand extension strategies globally, It is very important for today’s brand marketers to understand the differences in those countries with high cultural diversity such as South Africa,. This research intends to investigate the role that a consumer’s cultural value plays in evaluating brand extensions, in the context of the cultural dimension of individualismcollectivism, in order to close the theoretical gap in this area.This research is quantitative and causal in nature, and used an experimental factorial design in the conduct of the research. Triandis’ scales were used in the questionnaire design, and 161 MBA students participated in the experiment at GIBS. The research results disprove that cultural values play a role in evaluating brand extensions, and there was insufficient evidence to prove that individualists differ from collectivists in evaluating brand extensions. Nevertheless, the research results found that there are some positive interaction effects between the product category relatedness and product involvement in the process of brand extension evaluations. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In recent years, there are several studies concerning brand and fashion. Nonetheless, there are few studies conducted on fashion brand which concerns embodying various industries. Without a doubt, brand value is the key factor of fashion industries success. This study will try to research on the broader usage of brand value. The purpose of this study is to research the influence of consumer¡¦s purchasing intention and willingness to pay of the commodities under each product categories; after combining with the fashion brand, under the different evaluation of fashion brand. The four hypotheses in the study are directed towards the relationship between consumers recognized evaluation of fashion brand, purchasing intention and willingness to pay for the brand separately. Hence, the investigation here will be to scrutinize the change of consumer¡¦s purchasing intention and willingness to pay after combining with particular fashion brand. The following hypotheses will be tested through a designated questionnaire with the convenience sampling method. A total number of 197 questionnaires were returned. By using a number of statistical methods and exploring the relationship between each variances and testing each hypotheses, the following conclusions are generated¡G 1. The study infers that products are non-convenience goods¡Bunnecessary goods¡Bhigh-durability¡Bhigh-visibility¡Bhigh-using-frequency can increase the consumers¡¦ willingness to pay after combining with the fashion brand. 2. The fashion brand with high-brand-evaluation when combined with most of product categories¡¦ commodities will evidently boost consumers¡¦ purchasing intention and willingness to pay. Thus, we can try to develop more feasible proposal. 3. Even in the industries that are unsuitable to incorporate the idea of fashion, we may still be able to find a feasible proposal. 4. The study suggests that fashion brands do the wholly survey on the bicycle industry and analyze their possibility and potential in this industry. Further research on the market of bicycles should be directed specifically towards young women who earn lower than 1,500,000 per year. Keywords: Fashion, Brand, Evaluation of Fashion Brand Product Category, Purchasing Intention, Willingness to Pay

Recently, there is a new advertising model created by Groupon. Its major attractions include high discount and e-coupon as transaction object. In addition, it is presented as an online group-buying business model and usually has a limit on transaction volume. Due to the prosperous growth of Groupon advertising model, this study explores what factors affect the performance of Groupon advertising model based on the empirical data and literature review. Based on the literature review and preliminary analysis of the collected empirical data, we proposed seven factors which may affect the performance of Groupon advertising model. They are discount, price, limit on transaction volume, urban income, population density, threshold of transaction and product category. These factors were included as independent variables in the regression model. The results indicated that discount, urban income, population density and threshold of transaction have significant effects on advertising performance. Among them, the threshold of transaction has the most significant impact. It indicates that setting a threshold of transaction will facilitate the transaction volume. In addition, the results also indicated that different product categories result in different performance. However, the population density has no significant impact on the advertising performance.

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The potential use of the Internet for apparel retail marketing is extremely viable (Murphy, 1998); however, most of the journal papers on apparel Internet shoppers are limited to the comparison of demographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics between shoppers and non-shoppers (McKinney, 2004). Little empirical research has addressed the role of impulsiveness in online apparel shopping behavior. In the past, impulse buying was considered as something bad and consumers felt guilty after impulse buying (Ainslie 1975; Levy 1976). However, most researchers now no longer view impulse buying as a negative phenomenon because studies showed that impulse buying satisfies a number of hedonic desires (Piron 1991; Rook & Fisher 1995; Thompson, Locander, & Pollio 1990). Impulse buyers exhibited greater feelings of amusement, delight, enthusiasm, and joy (Weinberg & Gottwald, 1982) and often felt uplifted or energized after a shopping experience that involves impulse buying (Rook, 1987; Gardner & Rook, 1988; 1993) because impulse buying can provide the enjoyment of novelty and surprise, and the ability of mood alteration (i.e., breaking out of negative mood state) (Gardner & Rook, 1988; Rook, 1987). Recognizing the positive feelings generated from impulse buying and considering the increasing frequency of college students'' Internet shopping (Seock, 2003), one strategy to create competitive advantages in the apparel market of college students is to understand the variables related to impulse buying and based on the understanding provide a website that generates pleasurable shopping. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between online apparel impulse buying behavior and apparel involvement, apparel website attributes, and product category/price. The data were collected using an online survey with a structured questionnaire. To recruit participants, 37,590 e-mails were sent to six universities located in different regions of the United States. A total of 687 college students responded to the survey including 284 online apparel buyers, 194 non-online apparel buyers, and 209 non-apparel website visitors. When the impulsiveness of online apparel purchases in general was used to divide the participants into impulse buyer and non-impulse buyer groups, the Chi-square test results showed that there were significantly more female respondents in the impulse buyer group than in the non-impulse buyer group. However, when impulsiveness of last purchase was used to divide the participants into impulse purchase and non-impulse purchase groups, the results showed no significant difference between the genders. For other results, the findings were all consistent. Respondents in the impulse buyer and purchase groups than the non-impulse buyer and purchase groups had a greater amount of total monthly income and spent more money on apparel products. The impulse buyer and purchase groups visited websites that sold clothing/accessories more frequently and purchased more apparel products online over the past six months than the non-impulse buyer and purchase groups. These results suggest that impulse buyers are an important segment of the apparel online market. Four hypotheses were put forward to test the relationships among the variables. Before the proposed hypotheses could be examined, the factor analysis was first conducted to determine the constructs of apparel involvement and website attributes. The results showed that apparel involvement consisted of three factors (i.e., sign value/perceived importance, pleasure value, risk importance/probability) and website attributes consisted of four factors (i.e., website design, product presentation, promotion, product search/policy information). The results of MANOVA showed that the impulse buyer group perceived the sign value/perceived importance and the pleasure value of apparel involvement significantly higher, and perceived the risk importance/probability of apparel involvement significantly lower than the non-impulse buyer group. Based on the results, H1 was supported. Impulsive and non-impulsive online apparel buyers differed significantly in their apparel involvement. For H2, the results indicated that the impulse purchase group evaluated the website where they bought the last apparel item significantly better in website design, product presentation, promotion, and product search/policy information than the non-impulse purchase group. Based on the results, H2 was supported. The evaluations of the attributes of websites where impulse purchases and non-impulse purchases of apparel products were made were significantly different. Test of H3 showed that some product categories purchased by the respondents in the impulse purchase group were significantly different from those bought by the non-impulse purchase group. Categories such as shirt/blouse and belt were bought more frequently by the respondents in the impulse purchase group whereas shoes were bought more frequently by those in the non-impulse purchase group. The respondents in the impulse purchase group bought more items that cost less than $25 than those in the non-impulse purchase group. Based on the results H3 was supported. The product categories purchased by the impulse purchase group and non-impulse purchase group were significantly different. The multiple regression results showed that the sign value/perceived importance of apparel involvement contributed the most in explaining impulsiveness of online apparel buying behavior, followed by product price, risk importance/probability of apparel involvement, and product presentation of website attributes. Other factors, such as the pleasure value of apparel involvement and website attributes in website design, promotion, and product search/policy information, had no significant linear relationships with the impulsiveness of online apparel buying behavior. Based on the results, H4 was partially supported. From the results of the present study, it is concluded that apparel involvement, website attributes, and product price are closely related to the impulsiveness of consumers'' online apparel buying behavior. This study is beneficial to researchers and marketers by identifying possible psychological reasons for impulse buying as well as suggesting strategies to develop an apparel website that facilitate impulse buying behavior. / Ph. D.

Submitted by Juliana Trad Verissimo (juliana.trad@gmail.com) on 2012-09-24T16:20:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTATION_JULIANA_VERISSIMO.pdf: 6958070 bytes, checksum: b8c2ba13a57f7e7c59bcc1d2b033be9c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Eliene Soares da Silva (eliene.silva@fgv.br) on 2012-09-24T16:24:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTATION_JULIANA_VERISSIMO.pdf: 6958070 bytes, checksum: b8c2ba13a57f7e7c59bcc1d2b033be9c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-09-24T16:47:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTATION_JULIANA_VERISSIMO.pdf: 6958070 bytes, checksum: b8c2ba13a57f7e7c59bcc1d2b033be9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-18 / In a dynamic and competitive global environment, many companies realize that continuous development and introduction of new products are key activities to their survival and growth. One of today’s biggest challenges to businesses involves knowing how to act in a world in which both the frame and the basis of competition are constantly changing, and where restructuring and portfolio shifting are central activities for capturing a fair share of global growth. Both the fast pace of technological innovation and the rising affluence of developing economies present businesses with risks and opportunities, and it is not only important that companies pay attention to the launch of top-notch products in developed markets, but also mandatory that they know how to launch old news to new markets. Using the Brazilian market as an example, this dissertation sought to study how multinational companies have been using advertising in the launch of new product categories and subcategories that are already sold elsewhere to new geographies. After reviewing the literature available, developing propositions, and evaluating those with the help of three case studies, it was possible to verify some linearity between the cases and the literature studied. These included the search for category legitimation preceding that of brand legitimation; the usage of expert sources to legitimate new categories; the usage of argument based appeals; and the advertising of more than one product feature per ad. Nevertheless, given some discrepancies noticeable between what was observed in Brazil and the literature consulted, it was also possible to verify that the way advertising cues are conducted in new geographies likewise depends on the competitive scenario faced, as well as on country specific economic and cultural variants. / Em um ambiente global dinâmico e competitivo, muitas empresas notam que constante desenvolvimento e lançamento de novos produtos são atividades-chave para seu crescimento e sobrevivência. Hoje, um dos maiores desafios enfrentados por tais empresas envolve saber como agir em um mundo em que tanto o escopo como a estrutura do ambiente competitivo estão em constante mudança, e em que reestruturações e mudanças de portfólio são centrais para as companhias que visam capitalizar com o crescimento global. Tanto o rápido ritmo de inovação tecnológica quando a crescente afluência de economias emergentes apresentam riscos e oportunidades para as empresas, o que torna importante não apenas que estas estejam atentas ao lançamento de produtos de última geração para mercados desenvolvidos: faz-se também necessário que saibam como lançar produtos antigos para novos mercados. Usando o mercado brasileiro como um exemplo, esta dissertação procurou estudar como multinacionais têm utilizado anúncios publicitários no lançamento, para novos mercados, de categorias e subcategorias de produtos já vendidas em outros países. Após uma revisão da literatura disponível, do desenvolvimento de proposições, e da avaliação destas através de três estudos de caso, foi possível verificar a existência de alguma linearidade entre os casos e a literatura estudada, incluindo: uma busca pela legitimação da categoria que precede àquela pela da marca; o uso de 'especialistas' para a legitimação da categoria; o uso de apelos baseados em argumentos; e a divulgação de mais de uma característica de produto por anúncio. No entanto, dadas algumas discrepâncias entre o que foi observado nos casos e aquilo descrito na literatura consultada, também foi possível verificar que a maneira como os anúncios são feitos em diferentes lugares depende igualmente do cenário competitivo enfrentado pela empresa, bem como de variantes econômicas e culturais específicas da localidade em questão.