This thesis helps to address the gap in literature relating to the study of the provision of information to consumers, consumer information search behaviour and consumer information processing and choice behaviour relating to information-intensive products. Throughout the thesis, wine is taken as an example of an information-intensive product. Through a series of four published papers in peer reviewed journals, the thesis examines how firms can control and manipulate the provision of information to consumers and that by restricting the availability of information, the firm can make its target consumers want the product even more. Although secrecy has existed for centuries, as a marketing tool it is relatively new and little is understood about its power or purpose in marketing strategy. The thesis also analyses how consumers process information relating to information-intensive products using mental shortcuts, or heuristics, to substitute price for product quality at increasing rates of product consumption. Finally, the thesis provides a new way in which to segment the luxury wine market based on consumer knowledge together with the timing of consumption. The thesis provides a number of interesting advancements in marketing and consumer behaviour research. The first advancement examines whether secret wine societies are actually that secret at all and finds that they are not; however this finding does not absolve the need for marketers to use secrecy as a marketing tool. The second advancement provides insight into advertising, blogs and consumer innovativeness and finds a positive relationship between attitude toward advertising and consumer innovativeness. The third advancement finds evidence that consumers’ process information by using the price-quality heuristic, for both sighted and blind tasting experiments. Furthermore, the study finds that blind tasting (deliberate thinking) reinforces sighted tasting (automatic thinking) which contributes to judgement errors about product quality. The fourth advancement is to provide a new way to segment the luxury wine market based on consumer objective knowledge, frequency of consumption and timing of consumption. / <p>QC 20160518</p>

The study addresses the limited and fragmented approaches of consumer behaviour studies in the existing literature and a lack of comprehensive integrated theoretical models of online consumer behaviour. The aim of the study is to propose a conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour which suggests a deviation from the existing purchasing approaches to consumer behaviour - hence a move towards an understanding of consumer behaviour in terms of two new approaches, namely the web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches, is proposed. The study addresses two main research problems, namely that inadequate knowledge and information exist on online consumers’ behavioural processes, especially their internal psychological behavioural processes during their exposure to web-based communication messages and their progression through the complete web-based communication experience; and that there is no conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour in the literature. This study, firstly, allows for systematic theoretical exploration, description, interpretation and integration of existing literature and theory on offline and online consumer behaviour including the following: theoretical perspectives and approaches; determinants; decision making; consumer information processing and response; and theoretical foundations. This systematic theoretical exploration and description of consumer behaviour literature and theory commences with the contextualisation and proposal of a new definition, perspective and theoretical approaches to online consumer behaviour; the discussion and analysis of the theory of the determinants of consumer behaviour; the discussion and analysis of decision-making theory; the proposition of a new online information decision-making perspective and model; the discussion and analysis of consumer information-processing and response theory and models; the discussion and analysis of the theoretical foundations of consumer behaviour; and the identification of theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour. Declaration – acknowledgements - abstract Secondly, the study develops a conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour, thereby theoretically grounding online consumer behavioural processes in the context of internal psychological behavioural processes and exposure to web-based communication messages. It is hence posited that the study provides a more precise understanding of online consumers’ complicated internal cognitive and psychological behavioural processes in their interactive search for and experience of online web-based communication and information, which can be seen as a major contribution to the field of study. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

The study addresses the limited and fragmented approaches of consumer behaviour studies in the existing literature and a lack of comprehensive integrated theoretical models of online consumer behaviour. The aim of the study is to propose a conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour which suggests a deviation from the existing purchasing approaches to consumer behaviour - hence a move towards an understanding of consumer behaviour in terms of two new approaches, namely the web-based communication exposure and internal psychological behavioural processes approaches, is proposed. The study addresses two main research problems, namely that inadequate knowledge and information exist on online consumers’ behavioural processes, especially their internal psychological behavioural processes during their exposure to web-based communication messages and their progression through the complete web-based communication experience; and that there is no conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour in the literature. This study, firstly, allows for systematic theoretical exploration, description, interpretation and integration of existing literature and theory on offline and online consumer behaviour including the following: theoretical perspectives and approaches; determinants; decision making; consumer information processing and response; and theoretical foundations. This systematic theoretical exploration and description of consumer behaviour literature and theory commences with the contextualisation and proposal of a new definition, perspective and theoretical approaches to online consumer behaviour; the discussion and analysis of the theory of the determinants of consumer behaviour; the discussion and analysis of decision-making theory; the proposition of a new online information decision-making perspective and model; the discussion and analysis of consumer information-processing and response theory and models; the discussion and analysis of the theoretical foundations of consumer behaviour; and the identification of theoretical criteria for online consumer behaviour. Declaration – acknowledgements - abstract Secondly, the study develops a conceptual integrated theoretical model for online consumer behaviour, thereby theoretically grounding online consumer behavioural processes in the context of internal psychological behavioural processes and exposure to web-based communication messages. It is hence posited that the study provides a more precise understanding of online consumers’ complicated internal cognitive and psychological behavioural processes in their interactive search for and experience of online web-based communication and information, which can be seen as a major contribution to the field of study. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)