Loyalty programmes, used as a tool to improve brand loyalty among consumers, have grown in popularity in the South African business environment. Loyalty programmes are essential in understanding customers and to keep customers involved while promoting a brand simultaneously. Although loyalty programmes are also being utilised in the pet food industry, information of the impact it has had on brand loyalty of pet food brands are limited. It is for this reason that the loyalty programme of a leading premium pet food brand, Eukanuba South Africa, has been chosen for the study, to establish how brand loyalty manifests itself in the pet food market. The aim of the study set out is therefore to establish what brand loyalty constructs are more important to loyalty programme members, assisting in tailoring the brand’s marketing methods to attract and retain loyal customers. Moolla and Bisschoff’s conceptual brand loyalty model and questionnaire were adapted and utilised to measure nine brand loyalty constructs through 38 questions. The nine constructs measured include brand relevance, perceived value, brand trust, involvement, family/culture, commitment, repeat purchase, brand affect and switching cost/risk aversion. The empirical study consisted of two independent groups, the Loyalty Programme members and the Breeders’ club members. A convenience sample of 1066 Loyalty Programme members were utilised, with 209 respondents. Access was granted to the entire database of breeders, consisting of 1047 breeders, of which 205 responded. The data was analysed utilising statistical calculations, including the Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin measure of sampling adequacy, the Bartlett’s test of sphericity, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient, mean values and Spearman’s Correlation. The data was also subjected to a factor analysis with Varimax rotation, which resulted in two conceptual frameworks, one relating to Loyalty Programme members, the other to Breeders’ club members. The results indicate that there are variations from the nine factors adapted from Moolla and Bisschoff’s conceptual model, but that the new conceptual models are reliable. The new conceptual model consisting of nine factors could be established for the Loyalty Programme members, including brand relevance, brand trust, involvement, family/culture, commitment, repeat purchase, brand affect, switching cost/perceived value and risk aversion. These nine factors explain 66.61% of the cumulative variance, indicating that these nine factors are sufficient in explaining brand loyalty among Loyalty Programme members. The seven factors identified forming part of the conceptual model for the Breeders’ club members are brand relevance, commitment, involvement, brand trust, family/culture, repeat purchase and brand affect. These seven factors have also been found to be sufficient in explaining brand loyalty among Breeders’ club members, with a cumulative variance of 63.57%. It can be concluded that the Loyalty Programme members are not representative of the population due to the limited sample, whereas that of the Breeders’ club members are as the entire population formed part of the study. It is therefore recommended that a representative sample of Loyalty Programme members should be included in future research. This will also aid in the construction of a customer profile for both Loyalty Programme members and Breeders’ Club members that is accurate and reliable, aiding in future marketing endeavours. Managerial attention is also necessary to ensure adequate emphasis is given to different factors, as the two groups will respond differently to brand loyalty constructs. The study contributes to the body of knowledge relating to brand loyalty in the pet food industry, helping in understanding which brand loyalty constructs are vital in improving and maintaining brand loyalty. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Loyalty programmes, used as a tool to improve brand loyalty among consumers, have grown in popularity in the South African business environment. Loyalty programmes are essential in understanding customers and to keep customers involved while promoting a brand simultaneously. Although loyalty programmes are also being utilised in the pet food industry, information of the impact it has had on brand loyalty of pet food brands are limited. It is for this reason that the loyalty programme of a leading premium pet food brand, Eukanuba South Africa, has been chosen for the study, to establish how brand loyalty manifests itself in the pet food market. The aim of the study set out is therefore to establish what brand loyalty constructs are more important to loyalty programme members, assisting in tailoring the brand’s marketing methods to attract and retain loyal customers. Moolla and Bisschoff’s conceptual brand loyalty model and questionnaire were adapted and utilised to measure nine brand loyalty constructs through 38 questions. The nine constructs measured include brand relevance, perceived value, brand trust, involvement, family/culture, commitment, repeat purchase, brand affect and switching cost/risk aversion. The empirical study consisted of two independent groups, the Loyalty Programme members and the Breeders’ club members. A convenience sample of 1066 Loyalty Programme members were utilised, with 209 respondents. Access was granted to the entire database of breeders, consisting of 1047 breeders, of which 205 responded. The data was analysed utilising statistical calculations, including the Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin measure of sampling adequacy, the Bartlett’s test of sphericity, Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient, mean values and Spearman’s Correlation. The data was also subjected to a factor analysis with Varimax rotation, which resulted in two conceptual frameworks, one relating to Loyalty Programme members, the other to Breeders’ club members. The results indicate that there are variations from the nine factors adapted from Moolla and Bisschoff’s conceptual model, but that the new conceptual models are reliable. The new conceptual model consisting of nine factors could be established for the Loyalty Programme members, including brand relevance, brand trust, involvement, family/culture, commitment, repeat purchase, brand affect, switching cost/perceived value and risk aversion. These nine factors explain 66.61% of the cumulative variance, indicating that these nine factors are sufficient in explaining brand loyalty among Loyalty Programme members. The seven factors identified forming part of the conceptual model for the Breeders’ club members are brand relevance, commitment, involvement, brand trust, family/culture, repeat purchase and brand affect. These seven factors have also been found to be sufficient in explaining brand loyalty among Breeders’ club members, with a cumulative variance of 63.57%. It can be concluded that the Loyalty Programme members are not representative of the population due to the limited sample, whereas that of the Breeders’ club members are as the entire population formed part of the study. It is therefore recommended that a representative sample of Loyalty Programme members should be included in future research. This will also aid in the construction of a customer profile for both Loyalty Programme members and Breeders’ Club members that is accurate and reliable, aiding in future marketing endeavours. Managerial attention is also necessary to ensure adequate emphasis is given to different factors, as the two groups will respond differently to brand loyalty constructs. The study contributes to the body of knowledge relating to brand loyalty in the pet food industry, helping in understanding which brand loyalty constructs are vital in improving and maintaining brand loyalty. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Electronic banking (hereafter referred to as digital banking), has not been fully embraced by local South Africans, in comparison to larger more established banking industries of the world. Despite the research literature available on e-commerce, much is still unknown about digital banking drivers in developing countries such as South Africa. In particular how clients feel about this form of banking and what the strategic challenges that require resolution for local consumers and banks to both benefit from this symbiotic relationship. Arguably, digital channels are the future of banking globally as the autocatalytic nature of the internet and mobile devices continue to fuel digital transformation. In order for local banks to leverage this area of technological evolution, customer perceptions about this service platform, particularly the areas that were targeted for this investigation need to be prudently considered from a customer perspective for future corrective measures that need to be undertaken and ultimately solve for customer satisfaction. Many South Africans have been early adopters of digital banking services, however many are still wary of this form of banking. A “magic pill” for implementation was not sought after, but rather a learning approach to embrace the opinions and perceptions of consumers.

The information age and the information society have become dominant features in the newm illennium.H owever,t heset ermsa reo ften referredt o with the youngerg enerations in mind,n eglectingth e older andm oree xperiencemd emberso f our society. This thesis focuses on the 'Grey Market' (travellers over the age of 50) who use the Internet on a regular basis - therefore also referred to as 'Silver Surfers' - and in particularf or their travel and tourism decision-makingI.t aims to identify experiences andp rocesseosf travel decision-makinga,n alyseth e impacto n the useo f the Interneta s an informations earcha s well as evaluateth e effectivenesos f the Interneti n providing informationf or particulara ndn ot mainstreamm arkets egments. The methodologye mployedi n this particularp iece of researchb uilds on positivisma s most consumerb ehaviourt heoriesd o; howevera more inductivea pproachw as taken. While relying on existingt heoriesn ewera nd lessw ell testedm ethodso f datac ollection were put to use.T he methodsw ere triangulatedu, tilising bothq uantitativea ndq ualitative research methods which complement each other in the results. An initial pilot study questionnairwe asf ollowedu p with semi-structureidn -depthi nterviewsw hich thenl edt o the completiono f the final survey,t hat was administeredb y 'e-surveying'u sing both conveniencea nd snowballs amplinga nd resultedi n 517 valid responsesfr om 'Silver Surfers' around the United Kingdom. Main findings of this thesiss how a distinct patterno f behaviourin the travel decisionmaking process of this particular market segment as well as what kind of information they were researchingo n the Internet.M ost importantly,t he respondentdso not consider themselvesto o different from other (younger)a geg roupsa nde vent houghs omeo f their informationr equirementsa re distinctive,t hey do not want to be consideredju st as 'the older consumers'.

This study comprises what triggers ethical consumption, based on personality archetypes. It has been conducted through semi-structured interviews. The respondents were students at Linnaeus University in the ages of 20-27. The personality archetypes were mapped through a conceptual model, based on the foundations of a personality; ego or social, with tendencies of having freedom or order characteristics. The respondent’s ethical behaviour was mapped in a conceptual model, then analysed in accordance with existing personalities. The results show differences in what triggers consumers’ behaviour in ethical consumption and that the individual’s personality determines to what extent.

Interest in understanding Human Beings’ behaviour can be traced back to the early days of mankind. However, interest in consumer behaviour is relatively recent. In fact, it is only since the end of World War II and following economic prosperity of some nations (e.g., U.S.A.) that the world witnessed the rise of a new discipline in the early 1950s; namely, Marketing Research. By the end of the 1950s, academic papers on modelling and analysis of consumer behaviour started to appear (Ehrenberg, 1959; Frank, 1962). The purpose of this research is to propose an integrated decision framework for modelling consumer behaviour with respect to store incidence, category incidence, brand incidence, and size incidence. To the best of our knowledge, no published contribution integrates these decisions within the same modelling framework. In addition, the thesis proposes a new estimation method as well as a new segmentation method. These contributions aim at improving our understanding of consumer behaviour before and during consumers’ visits to the retail points of a distribution network, improving consumer behaviour prediction accuracy, and assisting with inventory management across distribution networks. The proposed modelling framework is hybrid in nature in that it uses both non-explanatory and explanatory models. To be more specific, it uses stochastic models; namely, probability distributions, to capture the intrinsic nature of consumers (i.e., inner or built-in behavioural features) as well as any unexplained similarities or differences (i.e., unobserved heterogeneity) in their intrinsic behaviour. In addition, the parameters of these probability distribution models could be estimated using explanatory models; namely, multiple regression models, such as logistic regression. Furthermore, the thesis proposes a piece-wise estimation procedure for estimating the parameters of the developed stochastic models. Also proposed is a three-step segmentation method based on the information provided by the quality of fit of stochastic models to consumer data so as to identify which model better predicts which market segments. In the empirical investigation, the proposed framework was used to study consumer behaviour with respect to individual alternatives of each decision, individual decisions, and all decisions. In addition, the proposed segmentation method was used to segment the panellists into infrequent users, light to medium users, and heavy users, on one hand, and split loyals, loyals, and hardcore loyals, on the other hand. Furthermore, the empirical evidence suggests that the proposed piece-wise estimation procedure outperforms the standard approach for all models and decision levels. Also, the empirical results revealed that the homogeneous MNL outperforms both the heterogeneous NMNL and DMNL when each one of these distributions is applied to all decisions, which suggests the relative homogeneity in consumer decision making at the aggregate or integrated decision level. Last, but not least, through the use of the proposed framework, the thesis sheds light on the importance of consumer choice sequence on the quality of predictions, which affects the quality of segmentation. The reader is referred to chapter 3 for details on these contributions.

This thesis is set in the context of the automotive industry where launches of new products with high levels of technical innovations are becoming increasingly complex for consumers to comprehend. Car manufacturers need to understand consumer perceptions of new models so they can categorise their products form the consumer perspective, to obtain a more accurate indication as to where their products fit within the increasingly defined consumer segments. Situational and personal variables now play the most important roles in marketing. In the area of nested segmentation consumer variables are only concerned with their needs, attitudes, motivations and perceptions and overlook any previous experience, exposure or familiarity that a consumer may or may not have had with the product. It is argued here that consumers have differing perceptions of newness and that asking how new and new to whom would be valid questions for marketers when introducing new products. If car manufacturers can categorise their products in terms of newness for specific consumers based on their levels of Expertise, Involvement and Familiarity with the product, manufacturers will be able to target appropriate markets more effectively. To explore this area a mixed methods research approach was applied. This research found that the level of Involvement with the product, from a motivational aspect, gave rise to different levels of interest and enthusiasm between consumers and has a direct impact on how different types of consumers view new products. In addition the differing levels of consumer knowledge highlights the need to improve targeting of marketing communications so that manufacturers provide a better understanding of complex new products to consumers. Current mass marketing methods based on consumer demographics are no longer sufficient. This research found that a consumer s level of Expertise, Involvement and Familiarity (EIF) with a specific product can be captured using a multi-dimensional scale to measure consumer product knowledge and provide an accurate consumer segmentation tool. By offering different explanations of product innovations to these consumer segments, according to a customer's EIF, marketers will achieve more effective targeting, reduce marketing costs and increase marketing campaign response.

In this thesis, I investigate permanence through exploring tattoo consumption in terms of the social-historical context of being tattooed. The analysis is based on four years of data collection adopting a grounded theory approach. I present an analysis of how permanence occurs in terms of tattoo consumption, with particular interest in the physical permanence in relation to identity creation. This is set within the framework of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT). The reason for this is twofold, firstly to illustrate the ability of using tattooing as an instrument to investigate permanence within CCT. Secondly, to show the lack of use of the socio-historical perspective within such an investigation, and to show that the use of such data is a valid strategy and which adds depth and context to such an investigation. Furthermore, I suggest that tattoo consumption has become a site of embodied expression that is bounded by physicality, and permanence. I present a typology of tattooed consumers based on levels of commitment and explore in depth two main categories, physicality, and, permanence. I find that the physical permanence is shown through the commitment to tattoo usage. Its permanent nature determines the tattoo as an act of consumption that is dualistic in nature; both accepted, and yet equally rejected, which is seen within the consumers‘ negotiation of its use, in terms of mimicry and placement. Being tattooed represents a form of consumption that contravenes certain rules and norms of society, and yet at the same time is the basis for community membership and adherence to a set of sub-cultural norms and values.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to see whether price endings affect people's perceptions of luxury and necessity goods. There is evidence that the rightmost digits, or endings, of retail prices can communicate meanings to consumers. Some researchers (Schindler and Kirby, 1997; Stiving and Winer, 1997; Thomas and Morwitz, 2005) argued that there are two price ending effects level effects (those effects in which consumers may underestimate the price); and image effects (those effects in which consumers may infer meaning from the right-hand digits). In the study, ninety-three participants were recruited from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. All participants were given questionnaires to rate the quality and necessity-luxury of the good first; then a distraction session which used for distracting participants' attention from memorizing the prices of the goods; then a recall-test was given. Participants gave significantly different ratings for luxuries and necessities according to the different price-endings. In addition, the idea that the prices ending in 9 tend to be underestimated was also found.