Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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Over the past decade there has been a shift in marketing spend from above the line advertising, to below the line advertising commonly referred to as promotions. This has been brought about by recessionary economic conditions, increased competition, rising media costs and long term profitability prospects. Many fast moving consumer goods’ (FMCG) companies are shifting a large portion of their marketing spend from advertising to sales promotion. This has occurred because of consumers becoming more prone to deals, declining brand loyalty and the growing power of major retail chains. Sales promotion spend can comprise of as much as 50% of the marketing budget in certain industries and the majority of the marketing budget for most FMCG companies. This has been heightened further by the global financial recession which has both direct and indirect effects on South Africa. Approximately 70% of purchasing decisions are made in store by understanding how these decisions are made and how to influence them is essential in developing an effective marketing strategy. Besides product characteristics, promotional techniques are among the most popular instruments used by marketers to influence this process. Global trends show that 83% of all senior marketers increase or maintain spend on promotional merchandise year on year. However, they had limited insight into how to best spend the funds or if they even achieved their intended purpose. Despite the rise in promotional activity, especially in the FMCG sector, limited research has been conducted on the influence and effectiveness in South Africa. The purpose of this treatise, then, is to examine addresses the paucity in research with regard to consumer sales promotions in the non-alcoholic ready to drink (NARTD) market, particularly within South Africa. By developing a relationship model to measure the influence and effectiveness of selected sales promotion techniques on consumer off-take and attitude. That can be used by organisations to retain consumers, grow market share, improve brand equity and achieve higher profitability. Equipping marketers with an improved understanding of the impact of sales promotion techniques and consumer buying patterns within the South African NARTD market and delivering value to consumers through targeted promotions. In order to achieve this goal a thorough literature review was performed which drew on both academic- and industry-based research. This led to the development of a conceptual relationship model which was tested using rigorous measures incorporating questionnaire-style, quantitative data collection and statistical analysis. The research revealed that sales promotion techniques are an important element of a successful marketing strategy and when correctly executed deliver positive business results. FMCG companies operating within the NARTD market need to ensure that they incorporate sampling and premiums into their marketing mix even if this requires them to reduce their spend on above the line marketing activities. Ultimately, sampling and premiums were found to be effective sales promotion techniques within the South African NARTD market and have the ability to positively influence consumer off-take, brand love and buying behaviour.

Even big companies cannot guarantee their brands never ever fail customers. Recently the brand failures of Toyota taught us a vivid lesson that a brand takes decades to be built up but to be ruined overnight. Although, the advantages of building global brands are well recognized in literature, the superiorities of global brands in brand failure context are not yet studied. This study aims to investigate the effects of perceived brand globalness (PBG) on consumer affective and behavioral responses to brand failures. Global brands are perceived superior to local brands due to factors like higher quality perceptions and prestige feelings. Based on attribution theory, consumers are expected to have less negative responses to the failure of a brand which has a higher (vs. lower) PBG. Two studies were conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Both studies were 2 (high PBG vs. low PBG brand) × 2 (failure present vs. absent) between subjects factorial designs. More than 200 respondents participated in the experiments. Study 1 examined the effects of PBG on consumer responses to fictitious brands. In order to increase the generalizability of research, Study 2 used established brands to find out the effects of PBG on consumer responses while controlling the confounding variables of brand familiarity and brand equity of the selected established brands. The results indicate that the more a brand is perceived global, the less negative responses consumers have toward the failures. Moreover, this thesis examines the moderating role of consumer ethnocentrism on the relationship between PBG and consumer responses. The proposed hypotheses are generally supported. The findings enrich the literature and benefit the marketing practitioners by broadening their views of building global brands.

The purpose of this research study is to explore whether consumers would be complicit in the purchase of counterfeit goods once becoming aware of the counterfeit industry being linked to terrorism. Counterfeit goods are defined as identical copies of authentic products and they are produced without the permission of the registered owner (Carpenter & Lear, 2011). Almost any product can be counterfeited from clothing, shoes, jewelry, handbags and even medicines. Counterfeit products are sold at a fraction of the cost of the authentic product. This study identifies the ‘why’ to consumer complicity to purchase the counterfeit items. There are legalities involved with the selling of the copied products, and this research identified the underlying connections to terrorism along with the damaging effects on the U.S. economy. This study examined the variables of consumer knowledge of counterfeits and link to terrorism and willingness to purchase counterfeit products.

In this dissertation, I explore an unintended downside of Virtual Reality (VR) in marketing practice. I find that despite firms’ intention to use VR as a gateway experience to future consumption in reality, the same experience delivered in VR (vs. non-VR) mode lowers consumers’ subsequent desire for similar kinds of experiences because people satisfy their needs in VR that they otherwise would in reality. This effect is consistently observed among consumers with a strong (vs. weak) need to engage with the VR experiences, namely (1) high sensation seekers engaging with stimulating VR content and (2) highly mindful individuals engaging with calm and contemplative VR content. To document the underlying mechanism, I measure users’ physiological reactivity (i.e., Skin Conductance Response) to stimulating VR and find that high sensation seekers engage with stimulating VR content more intensely than low sensation seekers. As a result, high sensation seekers readily satisfy their need for sensation in stimulating VR, reducing their subsequent desire for stimulating consumption in reality. The negative effect is also observed among consumers with high dispositional mindfulness using calm museum VR. I further find evidence for consumers’ need satisfaction in VR by showing that the negative effect diminishes when the real-world consumption experience is dissimilar (vs. similar) to the previous VR experience. Two field studies in a South Korean VR “theme park” and the National Museum of Korea, and three controlled lab experiments consistently reveal VR’s negative effects on consumers’ cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses. I highlight implications of using VR as a substitute for reality and demonstrate how VR experiences can dissuade, rather than induce, corresponding consumption in reality among target consumers.

Substantivism helps us appreciate two views on the meaning of the economy: the institutional view and the neoclassical view. This study analyzes the behaviors of producers and consumers in the supermarket industry and finds that the neoclassical school lacks a realistic behavioral theory. We observe that institutional behavioral theory is closer to reality because it recognizes that consumers are affected by their social environment through habit and emulation, and producers are survival maximizers. These social obstacles prevent humans from acting like homoeconomicus. We focus only on the supermarket industry, but this conclusion can be applied to all industries. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

<p dir="ltr">. Consumer behavior in food and fashion is significantly contributing to environmental distress. Psychological distance emerges as a key obstacle preventing consumers from taking action. Environmental issues often appear distant in terms of time, space, social relevance, and uncertainty, making it challenging for consumers to engage with and modify their behaviors accordingly. Conversely, subjective well-being presents itself as a more relatable concept for consumers. Thus, this dissertation, comprising two essays, seeks to explore the significance of subjective well-being within the realm of consumer sustainability in the food and fashion industries. In Study 1, employing structural equation modeling, we initially demonstrate that consumer food waste adversely affects emotional well-being through post-purchase regret (Study 1a). Furthermore, utilizing ordered logit regression, we identify that perceived distance to grocery stores correlates with increased household food waste (Study 1b). In Study 2, through a systematic literature review, we observe a pattern in consumer behavior regarding sustainable and unsustainable clothing consumption and its relationship with emotional subjective well-being (Study 2a). However, due to the limited number of relevant studies and their focus on only one aspect of subjective well-being, further investigation becomes necessary. Consequently, in Study 2b, employing path analysis, we empirically examine the relationship between domains of sustainable clothing consumption behavior and subjective well-being, revealing a positive correlation, particularly in the early stages of the consumption process. To assess whether consumers perceive subjective well-being as closer to them in comparison to environmental concerns when promoting sustainable actions, we conduct an experiment. Our findings, analyzed using t-tests, indicate that the psychological distance of subjective well-being is indeed lower than that of environmental topics (Study 2c). These results underscore the significance of subjective well-being within the context of consumer sustainability and lay the groundwork for alternative communication strategies aimed at promoting sustainable consumer behavior. The implications and limitations of our findings are thoroughly discussed.</p>

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Although the advance of social media has enabled people to build social connections much more easily than ever before, loneliness—an aversive feeling of being isolated and disconnected—persists in modern society. In this dissertation, I examine when, how, and why loneliness influences consumer behavior. First, I develop an experimental method to induce loneliness and identify a circumstance that experimenters can obtain a successful loneliness priming effect. Across three experiments, I demonstrate that the same loneliness primes produce different loneliness responses based on the availability of cognitive resources. Specifically, participants who are cognitively depleted tend to rely on responses evoked by the loneliness primes (showing the intended loneliness priming effect) while those with abundant cognitive resources are not affected by the loneliness primes. Building on the findings from Experiments 1-3, I investigate how loneliness affects consumer behaviors in two different marketing contexts, nostalgic product consumption and charitable giving by focusing on how consumers cope with loneliness through consumption. In Experiments 4-5, I demonstrate that consumers who lack cognitive resources tend to form positive attitudes toward nostalgic products when experiencing loneliness. In Experiments 6-7, I show that lonely consumers with limited cognitive resources are likely to donate money to a charitable organization. Additionally, I find that consumers can regulate feelings of loneliness by spending money either for themselves (i.e., nostalgic products) or for others (i.e., charitable giving). This dissertation contributes to our understanding of loneliness in marketing by identifying a circumstance in which such emotional distress significantly influences consumer behavior and by showing how consumers spend money to cope with loneliness. / Ph. D. / Although the advance of social media has enabled people to build social connections more easily than ever before, loneliness—an unpleasant feeling of isolation and disconnection—persists in modern society. The purpose of this dissertation is to expand our understanding of how consumers behave when faced with the unpleasant feeling of loneliness. Specifically, in this dissertation, I examine when, how, and why loneliness influences consumption behaviors such as preference for nostalgic products and charitable giving. First, I identify a way to experimentally manipulate consumers’ feelings of loneliness. I then apply this methodology in order to investigate behavioral differences between more and less lonely participants. Specifically, I demonstrate that lonely consumers are likely to prefer nostalgic products. This effect occurs because nostalgic consumption is associated with an expectation of positive emotions that consumers may seek out in part to reduce feelings of loneliness. In a similar vein, I show that loneliness can increase consumers’ intentions to donate to a charity. Importantly, such intentions to donate are differentially impacted by the types of charitable organizations represented. Specifically, lonely consumers are more likely than less lonely consumers to donate money to a charity supporting a person-related cause (e.g., helping children). Such an effect occurs due to the expected psychological benefits such donations will yield, such as anticipated positive emotions from helping others, which may help lonely consumers overcome their negative feelings. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of loneliness in marketing by showing that consumers may strategically spend money, either on products or via donations, to cope with their emotional distress. Several implications for marketing researchers and practitioners are discussed.