Many types of product meanings have been investigated in the consumer behavior literature, and these layers of meaning have been shown to influence consumer behavior. However, very little research has attempted to investigate product meanings having to do with provision networks, that is, the people, places, resources and processes involved in creating products and delivering them to the consumer. In addition, researchers in several fields have argued that consumers have lost an awareness of provision networks due to their increasing size and complexity in the modern economy. This research indicates that some consumers are indeed cognizant of the systems of provision for the products they consume. The results of this study indicate that some consumers expend effort to create and ascribe provision meanings for some products, and that these meanings in turn affect the consumer’s consumption decisions and experiences. In spite of the commodifying effects of modern market systems, these consumers exhibit an appreciation for products as the outcome of a complex system of relationships among people, places, resources and processes and have thus become reconnected to the provision of what they consume.

This research focuses on dining experience as an example of experience marketing. In this study, the qualitative research method has been used to derive particular concepts involved in the dining experience from the bodies of reviews. Similarly, quantitative content analysis method has been used to provide rich and valuable information about the concepts explored from the qualitative data. Inferential statistics has been used in the study to test hypotheses about the relationships between elements in the dining experience context. The results indicate that food quality is the most important predictor of the dining satisfaction while service quality may not be an effective factor to create satisfaction. Moreover, social needs in dining experience are more evident in dinners than in lunches. The results of the study reveal the effectiveness and applicability of the online review analysis in bringing new insights from dining experience to contribute to the field of experience economy. / viii, 127 leaves ; 29 cm

The African American consumer represents a valuable market segment in the United States. This target market possesses both substantial purchasing power and future growth potential. Yet, baseball marketers have failed to secure the African American target market as a viable consumer base. As such, marketers should understand what factors encourage African Americans to consume sport, and what factors deter African Americans from consuming baseball. Thus, the purpose of my study was to advance the literature by investigating the factors influencing African American baseball consumption. African American participants were surveyed in order to ascertain the motivational aspects they perceived to be present (or absent) in both a favorite sport and baseball. Results suggest that African American participants believed baseball failed to contain the following motivational factors: skill, drama, aesthetic value, group entertainment, family value, escape, and cultural affiliation. Still, of the factors measured, results suggest that the factors, ‘skill’ and ‘drama’ were the two most influential factors motivating participants to consume sport. The current study utilized a set of focus group interviews to identify what factors, if any, deterred baseball consumption amongst African Americans. Results suggest two broad categories best represent the reasoning for a lack of baseball consumption: perception of baseball and socio-cultural dynamics. Within these two categories, six general dimensions were found that best characterized the reasons for not consuming baseball: A perceived lack of excitement in baseball, a perceived lack of skill in baseball, a distaste towards baseball’s structure, a lack of access for young African Americans, African American player representation, and African American players in pop-culture. The current study examined African American attitudes towards baseball consumption by investigating the role of perceived fit and its association with the theory of reasoned action. The study utilized an experimental design to investigate if racial identification and identifiable motivational factors would influence perceived fit. Results from the study indicate that advertisement setting (i.e., advertisements containing identifiable motivational factors) was not influential upon perceived fit; yet, endorser race did moderate the relationship between advertisement setting and perceived fit. Subsequently, perceived fit was found to be influential upon attitudes and subjective norms. Furthermore, these factors – attitudes and subjective norms – were significantly related to intentions to consume baseball.

Neoclassical economics assumes that consumers have stable, well-defined preferences. However, only 16% of subjects selected a chocolate bar when given a choice between it and a coffee cup, while 43% kept a chocolate bar previously given to them when offered a trade for a coffee cup. Instructional wording had no effect. These results support the hypothesis that people value losses more than gains. / Subjects were asked their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for twelve goods classified as either public or private, or as environmental or nonenvironmental. WTP tended to be lower for public goods when subjects previously ranked the personal importance or benefit they placed on the good. Importance was a weaker bias than benefit. Benefit appeared to induce free rider behaviour for public goods. The only environmental good affected by reading about sustainable development was one specifically mentioned in the article. Biases affecting WTP did not generally affect attributes correlated to WTP.

Household-level Canadian meat purchases from 2002-2008, a Food Opinions Survey conducted in 2008 at the national level and household-level egg purchases from 2002-2005 in Alberta and Ontario were used to explore consumer responses to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in Canada. The opinions survey focused on nutritional priorities, general and specific food safety concerns, and trust in government and food industry decision makers. The egg data set contained specific product information allowing us to distinguish purchases of conventional eggs from those of value-added eggs with perceived health attributes. Thus, the egg purchase data appeared to be an interesting proxy of revealed willingness-to-pay for health attributes and animal welfare attributes in products other than meat, and it served as a proxy of awareness and concern for farm-level production practices. Three measures of beef purchases were used to understand consumers‘ reaction to food risk. A random effects logit model was applied to test whether any beef was purchased during a given month. Consumption in terms of unit purchases was measured with a random effects negative binomial model, and consumption in terms of beef expenditure was measured with a standard random effects model. Regional differences appeared, with consumers in eastern Canada reacting most negatively to BSE. Consumers responded more to the perception that food decision makers are honest about food safety than to the perception that they are knowledgeable, in maintaining beef purchases during BSE events. Consumers who purchased value-added eggs reacted significantly more negatively to the second and third BSE events, as did those who reported increasing food safety concerns in the opinions survey. Their negative responses to BSE were stronger than those of consumers who purchased conventional products which indicated a relationship exists between concern for health and nutrition attributes and food safety. This study extends previous research by enlarging the time periods and more data sources which can be helpful to identify individual heterogeneity and the application of panel random effects models which also targets on controlling the unobserved and constant aspects of households.

Church of Kicks is an art installation that deals with product fetish, consumer behavior, and influential power of brands. Using the basketball sneaker consumer subculture as the main subject of focus the exhibit shows how excessive advertising and publication feeds into object idolization, which can lead to extreme, chaotic, and sometimes violent buying behavior. Given its almost identical characteristics with religion in terms of structure and the degree of influence on individuals, consumer culture is religion. By identifying the entities and methods that take part in raising hype and exploiting the extremes of a brand’s cult following, the exhibit makes an attempt to stimulate consumer self-reflection on their own product fetishes and the degree to which they are willing to go to satisfy the urge to fulfill a material obsession.

Wherever we go, marketing is all around us. Sport events are no exception. Sport events have during the last years become a platform and a communication tool for marketing companies. The major reason for the increasing attraction of sport games is because of its’ enormously attraction of audience. A company that uses sport games in order to market itself is usually a sponsor for a sport association or team. A sponsoring company is provided with the opportunity to associate itself with a team and/or a game. Sponsoring and non-sponsoring companies utilize the amount of audience to reach as many customers as possible. The sponsoring companies need to pay a sponsorship fee. The non-sponsoring companies free ride at the expense of the sponsors, by not paying any fees. The ambushing companies aim, is to draw the consumers’ attention away from the sponsors and onto themselves. The purpose of this research is to study the consumers’ acceptance regarding marketing from non-sponsoring companies in sport games. It is interesting to study a consumer perspective of ambush marketing since the research field is not very explored. A qualitative study with quantitative elements has been used in order to capture the consumers’ opinions. The method used resulted in comprehensive findings. The results show distinct differences within the quantitative and the qualitative findings. The conclusion of this research is that consumers somehow accept the free riding strategy. Consumers believe that they do not lack knowledge regarding sponsoring companies. However, the consumers may lack knowledge concerning the harm ambush marketing causes the sponsoring companies.

This study examined how various combinations of colors and fonts in email advertisements affect a consumer’s likelihood of purchasing a product and her judgment of appeal. It further examined overall perceptions of email advertisements. The study conducted a survey containing eighteen simulated emails that was distributed over Amazon MTurk. A total of 116 participants in the United States took the survey. Results showed that most participants preferred a yellow foreground to orange and purple, and a blue background to red and green. Findings also revealed that Georgia font style was consistently preferred over Onyx font style. Results showed that emails comprising of a blue background, yellow foreground and Georgia font style were especially significant in influencing consumers to purchase a product and were the most appealing.

The objectives of this study are to contribute to the understanding of consumer behaviour, and to investigate the existence of brand loyalty in the less developed countries. The study attempts to fill the gap in literature on consumer behaviour and consumer characteristics in the less developed countries. The significance of the study is that while the existing studies focus on Latin American markets, it investigates consumer behaviour in Africa: Zambia. A further contribution lies in its attempts to understand consumer behaviour in markets where there is a common notion that marketing is not important because the existence of shortages creates demand. This study regards such attitudes as myopic because marketing should be understood as more than a demand creating tool. It should be viewed as a discpline that can enable a manager to match organizational capabilities and resources to the needs of a society. Moreover, at the micro level, companies are in competition for the occupation of the largest segment in the consumers mind. The need for marketing during shortages is in conformity with Kotlers argument that: 'Marketing is as critical a strategic concept and an operating philosophy during shortages as it is during surpluses. The seller (Marketer) who abandons the marketing mode of thinking during shortages is playing Russian roulette with his market franchise. He is risking long-term marriage to a set of customers for the temporary charms of a seductress.' (Quoted in Nekvasil, 1975, p.57). Hence, studying brand loyalty and the factors related to it has particular relevance in the less developed countries. The results of a consumer survey conducted among 1289 respondents in Zambia reveals that women, who were mostly involved in the purchase of the products, were very aware of brands on the market, used informal (personal sources) of information, identified brands by name and as expected, the frequency of purchases were low and quantities bought quite large, reflecting the product shortage situation. The cross-tabulations and log-linear analysis further indicated that brand loyal consumers tended to be mostly men, educated, from middle and high income classes, store loyal, heavy users, not price sensitive, influenced by family and friends, who lived in urban areas where distribution is extensive and many brands available. However, some interbrand differences were evident. These results suggest a profile of brand loyal consumers, and this can be used to segment the market for frequently purchased products. More significantly, the possibility of market segmentation would indicate appropriate marketing and advertising strategies for companies selling these products in the less developed countries.

This thesis is concerned with the motivation of shopping behaviour. The main aim of the research is to examine internal factors that influence a person's motivation, with specific focus on how consumers' shopping goals and mood states prior to a retail encounter affect their in-store behaviour and the outcomes of the activity in terms of goal attainment and evaluations of the retail outlet. The conceptual basis for the research is provided by theories of goal-directed behaviour, which assume that people are purposive in their behaviour and that there is a synergistic relationship between cognition and motivation (Ratneshwar, 1995; Pervin, 1989). Two complementary perspectives on the motivational role of mood are linked into this conceptualisation: one that emphasises the role of associative cognitive networks and proposes that mood serves to regulate goal-directed behaviour by altering goal-relevant thought and perception (Gardner, 1985; Isen, 1984); the other that postulates that mood is a biopsychological phenomenon that registers the availability of personal resources given near-term demands and alters goal-relevant thought, perception, and motivation in accordance with this (Morris, forthcoming; Batson et al., 1992; Thayer, 1989). In order to examine the motivation of shopping behaviour, an investigation was carried out amongst visitors to craft fairs in Scotland. The research adopted a quantitative approach. The data collection was driven by five main research hypotheses and involved asking consumers to complete two parts of a questionnaire: the first part was filled in upon their arrival at the craft fair and the second part was completed just before their departure. In this way, data on the progression of goal-directed behaviour over the course of a shopping episode was captured. The main findings of the research were that: a) individuals' mood states prior to the retail encounter influenced consumers' levels of commitment to shopping goals, although the importance of mood state varied depending on the type of shopping goal in question; b) types of behaviour exhibited in the course of shopping were influenced by the types of goals that consumers identified to be important to them upon arriving at the craft fair and there was some evidence that individuals' mood states moderated the effects of their goals on their in-store behaviour; c) attainment of shopping goals was dependent on whether the relevant goals were specified as important prior to the retail encounter and in-store behaviour. Mixed evidence was obtained on the role of mood as a factor that moderates the effects of commitment to goals on attainment of goals. d) attainment of shopping goals was partly responsible for the change in a person's mood state between entering and leaving the craft fair; e) retail outcomes in terms of consumers' enjoyment of the retail encounter, their preference for and intentions to patronise the retail outlet in the future were influenced by consumers' evaluations of the extent to which they had attained their shopping goals and their mood state following the shopping episode. One of the main implications of the research is that a view of consumers as purposive in their shopping activities makes a useful contribution to the understanding of shopping behaviour and how repeat patronage can be encouraged. As far as retailers are concerned, there is a need to understand what goals consumers have in mind when they visit a store and how to facilitate behaviour directed towards the attainment of those goals in order that consumers evaluate the shopping activity as successful and leave with favourable impressions of the store. In addition, attempts to locate in an environment that helps to boost the resources that contribute to mood, rather than draining them, and to smooth the way for goal-directed shopping activities may also increase repeat patronage and ultimately customer loyalty to retailers.