Tesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 1991. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study examines the effect of involvement and background music in television commercials on consumers' attitudes toward the commercial, their attitude toward the brand and their intension to buy that spesific brand. Involvement refers to type of involvement (cognitive vs affective) and the level of involvement (high vs low). The planning of the experiment had been done according to research projects in the past. A commercial with different soundtracks was viewed by different subjects. Thereafter they completed a questionniare. The members of the different groups were subjected to different manipulations. The results indicated that background music in commercials have a significant influence on consumers' attitudes towards the commercial. (cognitive vs affective) had a on consumers' attitudes towards the a significant relationship between commercial , attitude toward the brand Type of involvement significant influence brand. There was attitude toward the and intension to buy. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie navorsing is die gesamentlike invloed wat agtergrondmusiek en betrokkenheid in advertensies uitoefen op die kyker se houding teenoor die advertensie, houding teenoor die handelsmerk en koopintensie ondersoek. Betrokkenheid verwys na tipe betrokkenheid (kognitief vs affektief) en vlak van betrokkenheid (hoog vs laag). Daar is gebruik gemaak van In laboratorium eksperiment om hierdie invloede te bepaal. Die beplanning van die eksperiment is gedoen na aanleiding van verskillende navorsingsprojekte wat in die verlede gedoen is. In Advertensie met verskillende klankbane is aan groepe proefpersone vertoon waarna hulle In vraelys voltooi het. Elkeen van die groepe (12) was aan verskillende eksperimentele manipulasies onderworpe. Hierna is die vraelyste gekodeer en die data statisties verwerk. Dit is gevind dat agtergrondmusiek In beduidende invloed op verbruikers se houding teenoor In advertensie uitoefen. Tipe betrokkenheid het ook In beduidende invloed op verbruikers se houding teenoor die handelsmerk uitgeoefen. Verder is In beduidende positiewe verband tussen houding teenoor advertensie, houding teenoor handelsmerk en koopintensie gevind.

Writers as diverse as Oscar Wilde (1915), Matthew Arnold (1960), Erich Fromm (1997) and a proliferation of contemporary self-help gurus, variously assert that it is preferable for people to focus on “being”, or to value “who you are”, instead of emphasising “having” or the material possessions you have acquired. These discourses assert that individuals content with “being” are happier and more fulfilled than those involved in the constant (and alienating) motion of acquiring material goods as representations of themselves (de Botton, 2004; Fromm, 1997; James, 2007). This thesis provides an in-depth critical exploration of one of these ideal “ways of being”: authenticity. It does not seek to discover what authenticity is in an empirical sense, nor to define what it should be in a normative sense, but to map the cultural work done by changing and often contradictory discourses of personal authenticity. More specifically, this study uses a qualitative research design, social constructionist theoretical framework, and discourse analytic method to critically discuss the discursive constructions of subject authenticity in South African brand culture. The sample consisted of (1.) ten marketing campaigns of several large, mainstream brands, which were popular in South Africa from 2015 to 2017, and (2.) fifteen smaller South African “craft” brands popular in the “artisanal” context. The analysis is presented in two distinct, but interrelated, sections (namely, Selling Stories and Crafting Authenticity), where the relevant discourses of authenticity for each data set are explored in depth. Through this analysis the thesis provides a critical discussion of the ways in which these discourses of authenticity work to produce and maintain, (or challenge and subvert), subject positions, ideologies, and power relations that structure contemporary South African society.

D.Com. (Marketing Management) / The reality is that the advertising industry has not yet achieved this kind of effectiveness - in fact, it will be argued in this chapter that the advertising industry is in trouble because there is considerable doubt as to how effective advertising works and whether it works at all. There is therefore an urgency in the advertising and marketing industries to find ways of making advertising more effective, and to develop methods of measuring the effectiveness of advertising. This study will deal with this subject, and will demonstrate that a micro approach to consumer behaviour, including an understanding of human values -and the motivation that drives behaviour, will contribute to making advertising more effective. This study will show that by enabling consumers to experience self related values which will create or reinforce a favourable disposition towards the brand, the effectiveness of marketing communications can be improved. When a market is very competitive with many similar brand offerings - as is the case with the luxury car market in South Africa - consumers are likely to choose between brands on the basis of value-expressive considerations (Reynolds & Gutman, 1984 : 27-37). Parity perceptions will increase the likelihood that consumers will choose a luxury car brand that they think has an image most consistent with their values. Values have been used successfully in the car market to help segment the market, or to help predict buying behaviour in this market. (Thekey findings of some of these studies are discussed in Chapter 5). A study ofvalues is therefore very relevant to the car market. A research study in the car market, particularly the medium/large sedan market, has for this reason been chosen to illustrate how a micro approach to consumer behaviour, including an understanding of values, could make the advertising for a brand in this market more effective.

To ensure a long-term successful product brand, it is important to build brand awareness, to reach the consumer’s mind, encourage a consumer to develop a preference and eventually provide a positive contribution to consumer decision-making. Therefore, there is a need to understand and identify the role of brand awareness in the purchase process. An understanding of students as consumers and their brand awareness is important to marketers, particularly as students are recognised as a specialised market segment for a variety of products. The research focused on identifying the differences, if any, in brand awareness and its role in students’ purchase of sportswear clothing and sportswear shoes (high-involvement products) and coffee (a low-involvement product). A drop-off survey was used to collect the required empirical data from a convenience sample of 450 students enrolled at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The empirical findings showed that students were more aware of sportswear clothing and shoe brands than of coffee brands. Advertising played an important role in the awareness of sportswear shoes and clothing brands, but seemed unimportant in the case of coffee. Brand elements were found to enhance brand awareness. The brand name was important for coffee, while the name and the logo played a role in students’ awareness of sportswear brands. The study deduced that differences in brand awareness between high-involvement and low-involvement products exist among the students. Marketers thus need to choose appropriate strategies to create and increase brand awareness for the different products.

E-Commerce research shows that existing studies on online consumer choice behavior has focused on comparative studies of channel or store choice (online or offline), or online store choice (different e-tailers). Relatively less effort has been devoted to consumers’ online brand choice behavior within a single e-tailer. The goal of this research is to model online brand choice, including generating loyalty variables, setting up base model, and exploring the effects of Internet-specific attributes, i.e., order delivery, webpage display and order confirmation, on online brand choice at the SKU level. Specifically, this research adopts the Multinomial Logit Model (MNL) as the estimation methods. To minimize the model bias, the refined smoothing constants for loyalty variables (brand loyalty, size loyalty, and SKU loyalty) are generated using the Nonlinear Estimation Algorithm (NEA). The findings suggest that SKU loyalty is a better predictor of online brand choice than brand loyalty and size loyalty. While webpage display has little effect on the brand choice, order delivery has positive effect on the choice. Online order confirmation turns out to be helpful in choice estimation. Moreover, online consumers are not sensitive to net price of the alternatives, but quite sensitive to price promotion. These results have meaningful implications for marketing promotions in the online environment and suggestions for future research.

Discrete choice models and the assortment optimization problem are the fundamental aspects of the broader field of revenue management, which now spans a broad array of industries such as airlines, hotels and online advertising. The main focus here is to first study the consumer preferences and their substitution behavior when they are faced with multiple options, explain those observed behaviors with mathematical models and then identify an optimal set of options to offer to maximize revenues. This dissertation enriches the choice models and assortment optimization fields by studying the setting when such options are available in multitude, either to the sellers or to the consumers to choose from. The first half of this dissertation focuses on the situation when sellers have access to a vast array of features to be chosen for products they want to offer. The second half of the dissertation focuses on the situation when customers are faced with a lot of options to choose from. This dissertation formulates concrete mathematical discrete choice models to tackle those situations, then studies the assortment optimization problem of maximizing the expected revenue resulting from these newly introduced choice models, and finally also designs efficient algorithms to solve them. Chapter 1 explores discrete choice models which capture consumer behavior and choices when faced with a set of different alternatives, and the resulting assortment optimization problem along with the different existing algorithms for solving them as well as the existing challenges therein. Chapter 2 models and solves the problem when the sellers have access to a vast array of inventory of products. Chapter 3 models dynamic preferences of consumers and the choice overload phenomenon when the customers are faced with a lot of options, and solves the ensuing optimization problem. Chapter 4 showcases the applicability and effectiveness of such models and approaches on high dimensional data from a field experiment on Flipkart, the largest e-commerce firm in India.

The situational self-image, which recognizes the affect of situational influences, particularly social roles, was the specific topic of investigation of this study. It has generally been hypothesized in marketing literature that consumers will purchase the brand with the image most congruent with the consumers' self-image. Symbolic Interactionism, a field of study in sociology, provides the theoretical foundations for the construct situational self-image. Realization of the relationship between the situational self-consciousness and involvement was also investigated.

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of Commerce, law and Management, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements of the Masters’ in Commerce degree in the School of Economic and Business Science - Marketing / The world is changing at a rapid pace and consumer demands are constantly evolving. Innovation is key for brands that aim to stay relevant in todays’ markets. The brand extension strategy is a key marketing tactic to achieve innovation and it has therefore become crucial to understand how marketers can leverage on the parent brand image to build brand extensions. The primary objective of the study was to investigate how brand extensions can leverage on the parent brand image in order to achieve a positive brand extension perception. This was investigated in accordance with specific brand building constructs. The study focused on a consumers’ perspective of the Clover Tropika brand within emerging economic areas. Various literature relating to the parent brand image, brand extensions, as well as the relationship between the two were explored. Literature shows that newly innovated products have a high failure rate should and in an event where they are successful, it is as a result of a brand extension created from an existing brand, where congruency between the two exists. The research was based on a quantitative approach which adopted convenience sampling at Mall intercepts. A total sample of 238 consumers responded to a self-administered questionnaire at Southgate and Maponya Mall which are located in the south west of Johannesburg. All respondents were above the age of 18 and consented to participate in the research by willingly placing their completed questionnaires in the box provided on the day. The data techniques used included Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) which had a core focus on Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) which assisted in confirming the relationships proposed in the conceptual model. SEM also focused on path modelling to determine the causal relations. Nine out of the ten hypotheses proposed had a significant level of p<0.001 proving support for the proposed hypotheses. The research found that there is a significant relationship between brand awareness and brand attitudes, as this hypothesis had the highest path coefficient score. After the research was conducted. it was noted that high recall and recognition of the parent brand, accompanied by favorable attitudes, are key factors in leveraging on the parent brand image to build brand extensions. Moreover, brand extensions need to have high perceived fit in order to leverage extensively on the parent brand image. / NG (2020)

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, Johannesburg 2019 / Consumer brand identification is a concept that helps us to understand the reasons behind brands helping consumers to express their identities and find the true meaning of themselves through brands. Brands are used by consumers to construct their self-image and to fulfil self-verification needs. This study sought to test the six drivers of Consumer Brand Identification, (CBI) as identified by Stokburger-Sauer, Ratneshwar and Sen (2012) and their impact on brand loyalty. The six drivers/antecedent are; brand-self similarity, brand distinctiveness, brand prestige, brand social benefits, brand warmth and memorable brand experiences. These drivers were tested on the five South African commercial banks, namely, Standard bank, First National Bank (FNB), Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (ABSA), Capitec and Nedbank. A quantitative cross-sectional research design was used. A non-probability sampling method was employed with 244 respondents dispersed throughout South Africa who completed a self-administered questionnaire. The results confirmed the influence of four of the six drivers, being brand distinctiveness, brand prestige, brand social benefits and memorable brand experiences. Further to that, it was found that brand distinctiveness has a stronger causal relationship with CBI when consumers have lower involvement in the brand’s product category. Brand social benefits had a stronger relationship with CBI when consumers have a higher involvement in the brand’s product category. CBI was found to have a positive consequence on brand loyalty which further lead to brand advocacy. The findings also revealed that FNB was the most popular bank, with ABSA being the least popular bank. From the findings, it was recommended that banks should focus on driving an emotional connection with the brand and the consumer which can be through socially lead events that make them feel like they belong and taking consumers through memorable brand experiences. Through this, brand distinctiveness can be further enhanced. / XL2019

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 the field of Strategic Marketing Johannesburg, 2017 / Purpose: This study investigates the effectiveness of brand experience as a differentiator in the South African short-term insurance industry. Design/Methodology/Data Collection: This paper reviewed available literature in the fields of brand experience, brand differentiation, brand distinctiveness as well as the South African short-term insurance industry. A quantitative approach was used in order to prove the effectiveness of brand experience as a differentiator. The data was collected through a snowball sample using the Qualtrics online platform with a total of 101 responses received. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationship between the variables identified in the study. Key findings:  Brand distinctiveness and brand personality have a positive effect on brand experience.  A decrease in brand differentiation however has a high likelihood of resulting in an increase in brand experience. The same applies the other way round.  A combination of brand personality, education, employment status and consequences of brand experience affect brand distinctiveness positively. Implications: A highly competitive market as well as changing customer demands have resulted in marketers being challenged to develop strategies that will enable brands to connect both rationally and emotionally with their customers. Brand experience is crucial in achieving this. Research Limitations: The study only focussed on short-term insurance policy holders based in Johannesburg and excluded the rest of the country. Further research could consider looking at the rest of the country / MT2017