This study examines the effects of two types of consumer knowledge, product and brand knowledge, on consumer fit perceptions between an extension and its parent brand, so as to further investigate the role of consumer knowledge in brand extension evaluations. Based on the reviewed literature four hypotheses were proposed. The first two hypotheses predicted that both product and brand knowledge has an impact of consumer perceived fit between an extension and its parent brand. The other two hypotheses proposed that product knowledge affect more on the fit perceptions between a functional brand and its extension, while brand knowledge affect more on the fit perceptions between a prestige brand and its extension. An experiment was performed to examine these hypothesized relationships. Two hypotheses related to brand knowledge are supported, while the other two hypotheses related to product knowledge are not supported statistically. The results reveal that product and brand knowledge have different effects on consumer fit perceptions between an extension and its parent brand in terms of different brand types, functional vs. prestige brand. The experimental findings demonstrate that brand knowledge has an impact on consumer fit perceptions between an extension and its parent brand, and its effect dominant in prestige brand extension evaluations.

Everything manufactured has an impact on the environment, either by consuming unrenewable resources as raw materials, or consuming energy, or adding excess nutrients to soils and waterways, or generating greenhouse gasses, wastes or pollutants. Many environmental critics believe that the most effective way to reduce this damage is to regulate to force manufacturers to produce and distribute goods with lower environmental impacts. Others believe that consumers should be educated to demand these improvements from manufacturers. The author of this thesis believes the most effective way to persuade the private sector to reduce the environmental impacts of its products would be to convince them that this would be profitable. At this point in time, most Australian manufacturers do not believe this to be the case, otherwise there would be many more green products in the marketplace. Many marketers have a negative attitude to green marketing, while others who would like to investigate the potential of the green market lack the data to do so. The original research for this thesis takes the form of a commercial market segmentation study designed to analyse the green market and provide answers to the following questions : Which segment or segments of the Australian population are actual or potential green consumers? What are their motivations, attitudes and buying habits? What new products would they welcome in the future? The findings of the research are that at least 50 percent of the Australian market has made considerable behavioural adjustments for environmental reasons and would welcome greener products. Marketers can therefore only ignore the green market at the risk of ignoring the needs and wants of 50 percent of the population. Thus, the original research provides a map of the Australian Green Market which will legitimise the corporate decision, develop and promote greener products / Master of Science (Hons) (Social Ecology)

Cause-related marketing is an emerging area within the marketing discipline, originating in the United States in the 1980s. This thesis defines the term cause-related marketing as a marketing strategy whereby the firm makes a contribution, financial or otherwise, to a nonprofit organisation(s) contingent upon the customer engaging in a revenue providing exchange that satisfies business and individual objectives. This strategy may include additional elements such as sponsorship, sales promotion, co-branding and employee involvement. -- In examining the literature relating to cause-related marketing, a need for further research was identified for a number of reasons. First, there is considerable investment and growth in this strategy both in Australia and overseas. Second, academic and practitioner research have indicated strong consumer support for the concept of cause-related marketing, yet there has been limited evidence to date regarding the effectiveness of this strategy, especially in comparison to other marketing strategies. Finally, in an increasingly challenging business environment, marketing practitioners are seeking to explore new strategies and the efficacy of traditional forms of marketing communications is subject to debate. As such, this thesis explored the following research questions: What is the impact of cause-related marketing on the consumer's response in terms of attitude to the strategy, attitude toward the brand and purchase intention? Do consumers respond more positively toward cause-related marketing than toward sponsorship or sales promotion? To address these questions, an experimental research design incorporating self-administered questionnaires was used. The major finding of this research is that consumers may have a more favourable attitude to cause-related marketing than to either sponsorship or sales promotion, however the brand must be perceived to have a natural association or fit with the cause. Further, cause-related marketing has the ability to engender a more favourable change in attitude to the brand than does sales promotion. This change in attitude is affected by the consumer's attitude to the strategy itself. This study did not, however, demonstrate that exposure to cause-related marketing, sponsorship or sales promotion had a significant effect on purchase intention. Finally, neither gender nor personal values have been shown to influence the above outcomes. The findings of this research have a number of practical implications for the effective use of cause-related marketing.

There was growing concern in New Zealand in the 1990�s that Food Security: access by all people at all times to enough food for an active healthy life, was not being achieved, despite an abundant food supply. A study of a convenience sample of 40 families with children (58 adults and 92 children) whose sole income was a government welfare benefit was undertaken. Two-thirds of these households regularly relied on a limited variety of food; one-half did not have a sufficient amount of food because of lack of money and outstanding debts. Over the previous year two-thirds had sourced food from a food bank and one-third had been gifted food from friends or relatives. Women�s intakes were compromised regularly but not children�s. All of the women experienced worry about feeding their household. One-fifth were overweight and over 40% obese despite low reported daily energy intakes (median (SE) 5.7 (0.5) MJ) compared to national data. Six repeated 24-hour diet recalls collected randomly over a two-week period enabled calculation of usual daily intake and the prevalence of inadequate intake for eight micronutrients which were disturbingly high. The children�s growth patterns compared favourably with US population percentiles. The National Nutrition Survey (NNS97) allowed the adaption of eight questions--developed by Reid using qualitative methods--to eight indicator statements about food security to be addressed by each participant on behalf of them or their household. Prevalence was significantly higher (p<0.05) for females compared to males for the majority of indicator statements among New Zealand European and Others (NZEO) and Maori. NZEO reported the most food security; Pacific people reported the least and Maori fell between the two. There was a significant increasing linear trend of food security with age (p<0.001) after adjusting for gender. Rasch analysis was performed on 1868 households where participants reported some food insecurity. The responses were ranked according to the proportion and ordering of their positive responses to eight indices of food security, achieving reliability (Cronbach�s Alpha) close to the conventionally accepted level of 0.7. The eight indices were ranked on the same scale; the minimum score -1.66 was achieved by the index �use special food grants/banks� (the index least reported and most severe) and the maximum score 1.86 was achieved by the index �variety of foods eaten limited� (the index most reported and least severe). Categories of food security were assigned using scale cut points: �fully/almost fully food secure�; �moderate food security�; �low food security�. Category status was associated with consumption of recommended number of daily serves of fruit, vegetables, fruits and vegetables, consumption of leaner meats, fatty meats and daily serves of bread. By ANOVA and controlling for sex, ethnicity, Index of Deprivation, urban/rural location, age, level of education, income, and household size, category of household food security was associated with the level of daily intake of total fat, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat, cholesterol, glucose, fructose, lactose, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and vitamin C. Dietary data were from the primary 24-hour diet recall of respondents. Participants in the fully/almost fully food secure category of households had a mean BMI of 28.7 compared to those moderately secure (29.2) and of low food security (29.5) (p=0.015 for difference among categories). In the Children�s Nutrition Survey 2002 (CNS02) data set, the same eight indices were used and food insecurity was experienced significantly more often by children in the largest households, those in the most deprived areas of residence (NZDep01 Quintile) and those of Pacific and Maori ethnicity compared to NZEO children. Rasch analysis was performed on responses for 1561 households with children which reported some food insecurity. Subject reliability was close to 0.7 (the conventionally acceptable level). The distribution of the eight indices on the Rasch scale was similar to that observed among the NNS97 households and almost identical to the sub-set of households with children, from that dataset. Categories of food security status were assigned as in the NN5S97 and they predicted daily nutrient intake levels of children: total sugars, lactose, vitamm A, β-carotene, vitamin B12 and calcium. A more rigorous assigning of categories at the low/moderate scale cut-off, resulted in a further association with level of intake of glucose, fructose and folate. Mean BMI across categories of food security did not differ. Collectively these data provide unequivocal evidence that food insecurity exists in New Zealand, that it can be quantified and associated with nutrition outcomes. It has a negative impact on the nutrient intakes of both adults and children and a negative impact on the body weight status of adults. These data have implications for nutrition and health professionals and policy makers in New Zealand. They also add to the world-wide body of knowledge of the experience of, and the measurement and predictive potential of food security in populations where the food supply appears plentiful.

This thesis aims to identify the motivating factors driving consumers home purchase decisions from the consumer's point of view. Although there is an abundance of past real estate research, dating back as far as the 1920's, the factors shaping consumers home choice have not been fully explored. Past research has tended to assume that homebuyers arrive at a decision following a logical and rational decision making process. These studies have also tended to focus on utilitarian or economic factors shaping home choice. Although past research has unquestionably added to the understanding of home purchase behaviour, the focus on utilitarian and economic factors does not explain decisions that are underpinned by deep-seated motives. The present thesis extends past research by exploring the less tangible, non-economic aspects of home choice in order to provide a fuller story of why and how people consume homes. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the unsolicited motives underlying consumers' home choices, therefore, a qualitative technique known as ZMET was employed. Based on the notion of unconscious thoughts, ZMET uses visual images gathered and/or generated by consumers to elicit and probe the metaphors that represent their thoughts and feelings. For the present study, 14 consumers who had recently placed an offer on a home took part in the ZMET interview. The present methodology extends past property research which has predominantly taken a quantitative approach. The findings of the study provide a rich insight into the motivations behind consumer home choice. Firstly, it reveals that the pre-purchase checklists used by many homebuyers and real estate agents are inaccurate representation of consumer home choice, and explains why this is so. Secondly, it demonstrates the influence of twenty four motives, including three central constructs (space, nature and views) on consumer home choice and highlights the fact that autobiographical memories underpins many of the motives to impact on choice. Thirdly, it provides a model mapping out the interaction between utilitarian and hedonic motives, which evokes a network of feelings, sensations and emotions that shape consumer home choice. In doing so, the research provides theoretical insight into the link between the rational information-processing model and the experiential view of hedonic consumption in home purchases. This study has shown that a specific set of utilitarian and deep-seated hedonic factors interrelate to culminate upon one's home choice. The findings in this study maintain that while utilitarian factors are significant determinants of home choice, in themselves, they do not always tell the whole story. This new knowledge of how and why homebuyers chose what they did is valuable to practitioners in predicting accurate property demands and value. Real estate agents can-sell more effectively by matching a property to a homebuyer's hedonic needs. The information in this study also helps homebuyers understand that their home choice is guided by internal images and deep-seated motives derived from many years of past experience but more importantly, they can decide if these motives justify the price they pay for the property. Finally, the model gives future researchers a new framework to access meanings necessary for understanding homebuyer choice and allows a closer examination of the mechanics of these influences on the housing market and its demands.

Our research proposes a new, multi-attribute, parameterisation of Tversky’s Elimination- By-Aspects (EBA) model. The EBA model conceptualises choice as a covert sequential elimination process with choice probabilities formulated over all consideration sets of the choice set. This specification attempts to capture the effect of context on choice behaviour. However, the EBA model has seen limited usage due to the large number of required parameters given the set of items under study. For a set of items T, it has 2|T| - 3 free parameters, which is infeasible for all but the simplest of contexts. To provide a practical operationalisation, we impose a set of a priori constraints on the parameter space. We define a generic multi-attribute structure to the set of aspects. This restricts the cardinality of the set of unknown scale values while retaining the functional (recursive) form of the model. The EBA hypothesis of a population of lexicographic decision-makers can therefore be tested in more market-realistic contexts, and inferences made over a large universal set of items described by the complete factorial. We call this model the Multi-attribute Elimination-By-Aspects (MEBA) model. The MEBA model reduces the set of unknown free parameters to a maximum of |T|-1. We develop a general algebraic expression for the MEBA choice probabilities as a function of the attributes of the options in the choice set. This enables the derivation of a likelihood function, and consequently maximum likelihood estimation. We also consider the form of optimal MEBA paired comparison designs. Using Monte Carlo simulation and a discrete choice experiment with consumers, we conduct an initial empirical test of the model against the special case of the MNL model (that assumes no context effects) and find the MEBA model to be a better approximation of observed choice behaviour. This is achieved on a common set of parameters, and so it is due solely to the difference in functional form of the two models. We conclude with a discussion on future research directions, in particular the introduction of heterogeneity into the model, and the description of optimal choice experiments for larger choice set sizes.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005. / "December 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-31). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

<p>In what atmosphere do people feel welcomed and comfortable? What are their needs, preferences, expectations and how do these affect their shopping behaviour? The proportion of older persons in the population is constantly growing so in the new future there will be more and more older shoppers in the stores. This study has from a management perspective tried to find a suitable store design and atmosphere that would be appreciated by the older shoppers segment.</p><p>The research question of the study was: What store atmosphere and store design lead the growing target group - the elderly towards a sales increasing shopping behaviour? In attempt of answering the research question the main purpose was to understand the needs and preferences of older consumers and their shopping behaviour related to the issues of food shopping in a supermarket and to be able to discover underlying mechanisms in order to suggest a store atmosphere and store design adapted to the older consumers; and thus an increasing sales strategy for the store.</p><p>In order to form a theoretical frame various secondary sources have been used that were found to be suitable for the research area. The retail anthropologist Paco Underhill has been a great inspiration for many theories in the study. Two qualitative methods have been used: structural observations and semi-structural interviews. The qualitative method is well chosen and makes it possible to fulfil the purpose of the study. Seven individuals were first observed in a store while shopping and later interviewed about their shopping experience.</p><p>In the analysis the empirical data was analysed with some references drawn to the theoretical frame. Similar behavioural patterns were identified among the participants that formed the concepts: morning shoppers, one stop store, personal atmosphere, brand unawareness and finally service access. In conclusions a store strategy, based on older consumers needs and preferences, was proposed that would make the older consumers of the study feel more welcomed in the store and hence hopefully shop more. The strategy contained features like: more staff members in the morning, more efficient use of the in-store kitchen, development of “We Care” strategy and others. Researcher’s own reflections and suggestions as well as the veracity conclude this bachelor thesis.</p>

<p>Date: 2008‐05‐26</p><p>Program: International Marketing Course: Master Thesis</p><p>Authors: Qian Chen & Lanjunzi Chen</p><p>Title: What is wrong with Motorola?</p><p>Problem: What are the shortcomings of its mobile phones of Motorola from</p><p>consumers’ perspectives in Chinese market?</p><p>Purpose: This study aims to find out different factors of Motorola’s mobile phone</p><p>which may hamper consumers’ interest and possibility of purchasing when Motorola</p><p>experience the declining sales of mobile phone in Chinese market.</p><p>Method: The researchers apply marketing mix to investigate the shortcoming of</p><p>Motorola’s handset to achieve the research purpose. The researchers choose</p><p>questionnaires and interviews to collect information from consumers in order to</p><p>gather information for this research.</p><p>Target Group: This paper might be useful for Motorola Company to find their</p><p>problems and some companies also produce cellphone avoid coming out similar</p><p>problems.</p><p>Conclusions: Based on our research Motorola’s handsets certainly have many</p><p>shortcomings in marketing mix that is product, price, place and promotion from</p><p>consumers’ point view</p><p>Recommendations: There are a lot of aspects for Motorola to improve from product,</p><p>price, place and promotion in the long run in order to recover its reputation in</p><p>consumers’ mind.</p><p>Key Words: Motorola handset, consumers’ point of view, shortcomings, China,</p><p>product, price, place, promotion</p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to investigate the consumers’ behaviours towards the</p><p>distributors’ brands. The aim was to find out what were the most important criteria of the</p><p>marketing mix for a consumer in his buying process that make him choose between a</p><p>distributor’s brand and a leader’s brand.</p><p>In order to achieve that, a theoretical framework has been established about the distributors’</p><p>brands, their different types, their management compared to the one of the leaders’ brands,</p><p>then about the consumers, their relation towards the distributors’ brands, their personal</p><p>implication in the brand, and their role, and also the theory of the marketing mix has been</p><p>exposed.</p><p>A quantitative research was applied. The questionnaire focused on every customer leaving,</p><p>after purchases, from Carrefour and Casino in Montpellier. All economic and social status and</p><p>lifestyles were interesting to study.</p><p>12 questions were asked to each customer, and 100 of them fully answered.</p><p>The results of the study were that the price still is the most important criterion for the</p><p>consumers in their buying decisions. The attractive price is the reason.</p><p>But it was discovered that the quality became a real significant element for the consumers.</p><p>The principal conclusion was that consumers still didn’t trust enough the products from the</p><p>distributors’ brands, and that the price wasn’t anymore the only criterion to take into account.</p><p>It was suggested that the distributors’ brands could reinforce their performances if they give</p><p>more priority to the quality.</p>