The superior financial performance of retailers who utilise Fast Fashion strategies have focussed attention on these methods while simultaneously pressurising other retailers to follow suit. Fast Fashion refers to strategies employed by retailers to meet frequently changing consumer tastes and demands by optimising their design and production processes. This study aimed to determine the applicability of Fast Fashion in South Africa by conducting a study of consumers who frequent fashion retail stores. The literature review indicated that there were four key Fast Fashion variables that were related to consumer behaviour: Renewal Cycles, Supply, Quality and Price. The findings showed that Renewal Cycles and Price are key variables for consumers in fashion retail, affecting the frequency of purchases and store visits. The implication of this result is that retailers who implement Fast Fashion strategies would do best by selecting strategies that directly impact these key variables. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

No abstract available Copyright / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

South Africa is ranked 44th place out of 53 countries (IMD 2011). It would seem imperative for the South African Government and the private sector to pay close attention to studies of this nature that indicate the importance of certain factors on the motivation of employees. In essence this study could assist Government and the private sector in understanding the importance of different factors that influence motivation of employees and the profitability of organisations. Should organisations re-align their focus on motivation of employees by taking cognisance of the elements addressed in this study, it could have a positive effect on the productivity of individual firms as well as on national productivity. The purpose of this study was to establish which motivational factors have an effect on the motivation of employees that would affect their individual, the organisational performance and customer satisfaction. The study aimed at firstly identifying motivational factors that has an influence on organisational performance. Secondly, investigating the effect of employee performance on organisational performance and thirdly investigating the impact of employee performance on customer satisfaction. The primary objective of this study was to establish which motivational factors have an effect on the motivation of employees thus affecting their individual and organisational performance and customer satisfaction. The relationship between work motivation, performance and productivity is complex. Although work motivation seems to have a significant impact on performance and productivity, it is certainly not the only influencing factor (Fisher, Katz, Miller & Thatcher 2003:82). Research has indicated that besides motivation, productivity is influenced by a variety of factors which could include the employee’s ability, skills, training, and availability of resources, management practices and economic conditions. In the light of the above, this study endeavoured to establish which dominant motivational factors have an influence on employee, corporate performance and customer satisfaction. Different motivational factors including hygiene factors, such as attitude, job satisfaction, rewards, leadership styles and communication were discussed as well as their influence on employee and organisational performance Information was gathered through secondary research. The investigation also included an exploration of different research methodologies, methods of data collection and analysis for this specific study. The main empirical research findings indicated that there is a positive relationship between motivator factors and employee performance as well as between management communication and employee performance. It is recommended that a policy and control manual should be compiled and distributed to new employees as part of their induction programme. The policies should be updated annually to incorporate changes in the organisation and to indicate to employees that management is serious about creating positive relationships between employees and employers. There is also a positive relationship between employee performance and organisational performance. It is recommended that organisations implement employee performance management systems that link to organisational performance goals in order to be able to critically access the performance of the employee in relation to the broader goals and results of an organisation. The relationship between motivational factors and customer satisfaction should however be investigated further. There seems to be different views in the literature on whether customer satisfaction surveys (or other measurements) should be used to support this relationship.

Online purchasing is becoming increasingly common as a purchasing mode. At the onset of e-commerce it was thought that success was guaranteed merely by being present on the internet and offering low prices. Currently customer service has proved itself to be a key element for achieving good results in a website (Zeithaml, Parasuraman & Malhotra, 2002b). In this context, the study of commercial website quality has emerged as an area of strategic importance. As in traditional stores, service quality and customer satisfaction seem to play vital roles in the success and survival of Internet sites.

No description available.

The smartphones’ market is characterized by its fast evolving environment. In such an environment, the key concern for each company is how to continually encourage consumers to upgrade to the latest version before their existing model expires, which also highlights the importance of continual product enhancement. Consumers choose high-tech products not only for their functional values, but also for their symbolic values. This phenomenon is even more prevalent among products that tend to be conspicuously consumed. The high portability and multi-functional capabilities of smartphones make their use highly visible to users’ social surroundings, and consumers may choose to upgrade their existing smartphones for the perceived symbolic values provided by newer and enhanced models. The great success of the iPhone inspired the current research to further investigate the antecedents of upgrade intention and to uncover the symbolic value that smartphones provide to consumers. Reference group conformity is not the only way to fulfill symbolic values of selected products. Consumers also have the tendency to actively express their ideal self-image through acquiring and displaying material symbols and an ideal self-image sometimes also refers to a self-image with higher social status. Building upon the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), the proposed research model also explores the possible moderating effect of status consumption on the TPB model. A survey will be administered to university students (smartphone users) to collect primary data to measure the effectiveness of the new proposed research model. The results of this study provided a better understanding of consumers’ upgrading purchase intentions toward smartphones. Additionally, this study finds that status consumption is partially related to smartphone purchases, which could also be extended to other technological products categories.

How does design influence the whole marketing and consumer. Confrontation opinions about design experts and design users - consumers

This thesis includes several studies on the use of fear appeals in social marketing advertising. The first study uses a content analysis to examine the use of fear appeals in a sample of 589 social marketing television ads. The social marketing ads represented five health-related behaviors (smoking, drinking, driving while impaired, drug abuse, unsafe sex) in five countries (Canada, United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand), covering the period from 1980 through to 1994. The sample was content analyzed to examine the incidence of fear appeals, the adherence to the prescriptions of the Ordered Protection Motivation (OPM) model (Tanner, Hunt, and Eppright 1991), and whether fear appeals vary by country-of-origin, the types of behavior being targeted by social marketing advertising (smoking, drinking, driving while impaired, drug abuse, unsafe sex), and the choice of an intended target group (by age and/or sex). Findings suggest that ads generally adhere to the major tenets of the OPM model. In terms of incidence, the use of fear appeals is less common when the sponsor is a for-profit corporation, when the ads are targeted at a youthful target group, and when the behaviors being targeted are perceived to be less serious. Fear appeals appear to be more common in ads from Australia, as compared to the United States or Canada. To examine the idea that different target groups may respond differently to fear appeal ads, two experiments and a focus group were conducted. First, an exploratory experiment used drinking and driving (DUI) ads as a stimulus to examine the differential effectiveness of two different types of ads against different behavioral risk groups. This study compared an "OPM" social marketing print ad (i.e., one using fear appeals of the format prescribed by the OPM model), to a "MALADAPT" social marketing print ad (i.e., one which simply presents counter-arguments against maladaptive responses, beliefs, and behaviors). Individuals who differed in the extent to which they engaged in the targeted risky behavior (i.e., those who do engage in DUI versus those who do not engage in DUI) were exposed to either the "OPM" or "MALADAPT" social marketing ads, or to a control condition. It was expected that the non-DUI group would experience the greatest change in attitudes and behavioral intentions when exposed to the traditional "OPM" social marketing ad, while the DUI group would experience the greatest attitudinal/behavioral change when exposed to the "MALADAPT" social marketing ad. However, the results of the initial exploratory experiment were inconclusive, and further study of the DUI target group was warranted. Therefore, a focus group was conducted which examined the attitudes and beliefs of the DUI group. A key finding from this qualitative research was that DUI individuals are unconcerned about getting into an accident, but are instead primarily concerned with getting caught by the police. This suggests that some of the traditional high-fear appeals which feature bloody accidents may not be effective with this high-risk target group, and reinforces the idea that the MALADAPT ad which tries to attack maladaptive beliefs may be the most effective means of influencing this DUI target group. Insights from the focus group provided the means for improving the ad stimuli and questionnaire for a replication of the experiment. Pretests for the ad stimuli helped in developing ads which were compelling and interesting for all experimental conditions. Based on these inputs, the experiment was refined and replicated. Findings indicated that the "MALADAPT" ad (which attacked maladaptive coping responses) was actually more effective with the high risk DUI group than the traditional OPM fear-appeal type of ad. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The issue of requiring marketers to disclose objective product performance information to their customers has presented a problem to both policymakers and researchers. A major concern is that the potential usefulness of such information will be negated if consumers, trying to evaluate alternative products at the points of sale, are hindered by large amounts of such comparative data. Decision-making experiments in cognitive psychology indicate that, because of the capacity limitations of short-term memory, people provided with high input rates of information can experience "information overload," which reduces the quality of their decisions. However, consumer research performed, to date, in the laboratory has failed to resolve whether consumers in a naturalistic brand-choice making situation would also experience "information overload," if confronted with large amounts of product data on which to base their choices. A field experiment was performed to extend the findings of this laboratory research stream and to help resolve the controversy regarding consumer "information overload." A second objective of this experiment was to contribute to policy-oriented research on information-provision formats. The study examined the behavioural effects of displaying objective product performance cues at the point of purchase, easily accessible to consumers and organized in a format allowing direct comparisons of alternative brands. An input-output experimental design used point-of-sale signs to provide different amounts (loads) of nutritional information on the brands of several food products in two co-operating supermarkets. The outputs, or information effects, were measured by collecting brand-sales data via electronic checkout facilities to determine whether the information treatments were having the hypothesized effects on the shape of the brand-sales distribution. The findings do not appear to support the "information overload" hypothesis. In fact, information load did not emerge as an explanatory variable. With certain products, there is evidence that providing nutritional information, in an organized format at the point of sale, will lead to brand choices being made on the basis of such data. Also, the overall response to this data was significantly weaker in the second of two weeks during which they were made available to shoppers. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Mr. H.B. Klopper