Title: What does money smell like? – A mixed method study ofscents affect on consumer purchase of high-involvementproducts Keywords: Scent, congruency, consumer purchase behavior, consumerbehavior, high-involvement products, sensory marketing,marketing, causality, focus group, observation, mixedmethod, experiment, embedded design Background: To offer an experience means to activate the consumers’senses, and sensory cues in store atmospherics tend to catchcostumers’ interest and affect their retail experience(Sprangenberg 2006). These cues can be affected and calledsensory marketing, which by involving and stimulating all orparts of the senses, creates a more rich experience for the consumer (Hultén 2012). A more specific sense; the sense ofsmell, is connected to risk taking, variety seeking andstronger curiosity (Orth & Bourrain 2008) and also nostalgia(Lindstrom 2005). This depends on that these parts of thehumans’ brain is closely located to each other, and byunderstanding which scents that effects consumers and how,marketers can create favorable outcomes such as increased sales (Herrmann et al. 2013). Purpose: Explain how scent affects consumers’ in-store purchasebehavior of high-involvement products Methodology: A mixed method embedded design was preformed involvinga focus group, structured observation and secondary data Results: There were no statistical significance on consumers’purchase behavior when exposed to scent, and H1 wastherefore rejected Main implications: Suggestions for further research would be to try out otherscents that were not studied in this thesis, e.g. green apple. Also to have more variables in the secondary data, whentesting for the statistical significance

The need for giving all stakeholders a greater voice in schools is well documented in the school reform and change literature of the eighties and nineties. Many schools across the United States have attempted to implement numerous plans to increase involvement with varying degrees of success. This case study describes how involvement has developed for administrators, teachers, staff, families, students, and community members in one high involvement elementary school. A list of characteristics of high involvement was developed from the current literature to aid in the identification and selection of a high involvement school site for the study. Potential sites were nominated by the Virginia Department of Education Field Representative serving Southwest Virginia. Directors of instruction or elementary supervisors in the nominated districts were contacted and asked to name high involvement schools in their divisions. Three schools were selected for site visits based on the convergence of the nominations. The school having the highest number of characteristics observed or mentioned during the site visits was selected for the study. Interviews were conducted with administrators, teachers, parents, students, and community members to gain an understanding of how involvement developed at the school. One week was spent interviewing, observing involvement activities, and studying available documents on site. Data from the study were used to describe how involvement developed at the school. Ten themes relevant to the development of high involvement at the school are identified and discussed. Findings are examined in relation to school culture, leadership, and schools as organizations. Implications for practice and further research are suggested. / Ed. D.

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Today's society is characterized by consumption and consumers are offered endless amount of choices. This has developed thanks to society's susceptibility to consumption. Market competition is increasing constantly, which forces companies to evolve more and more in order to get a good knowledge of the consumer. A committed company can adapt and develop different marketing strategies using the knowledge of consumer behavior, thereby acting as a competitive tool that strengthens their market position. Products that brings forth a certain behavior of the consumer, such that the consumer will be prone to spend more time in searching information, refers to as high involvement products. During the decision making process, the consumer can be influenced by everything from past experience to perception of personality. The study is designed using only primary data and the survey is based on open interviews with five consumers who have made a purchase of a high involvement product within the last month. With the help of theories and previous research, the collected data analyses some of the different factors that can influence the consumers during the consumer buying decision process of a high involvement product. A clear connection can be found between consumer buying decision process and the different characteristics which are reflected in the study's theory chapter. The most recurrent attributes that the consumers have been affected by the purchase decision process first step, appear to be also upcoming in the following stages. The most frequent factor, as consumers proved most affected by are groups. Primary groups, in the form of parents, family members and friends, returning several times at all of those asked consumers purchase decision process. The reason can be that the feeling of trust from the costumer’s side is higher in the primary groups, while there may exist lack of trust for retailers as they may seem to act for company or personal gain.

<p>In today’s world, consumerism is dominating all the aspects of our life. In society, life follows the pattern of the capitalist culture where the human values have a different measure. We do live in a branded world. There is no doubt about it. We all make product decisions every day. We probably all have certain types of products of which we like only one or two brands, while we buy other things based on what is on sale on a given day. This inclination to buy branded products is rooted in two basic things: recollection and satisfaction. We remember which one we like by brand name.</p><p>A survey by the Henley Centre revealed that the public trust brand names such as Kellogg’s, Heinz and Marks & Spencer more than Parliament, the police and the legal system (Sunday Times, “A can of worms is a bad diet”, 5 April 1998). This research highlights the importance of the relationship between consumers and key brands; and shows that it has strengthened to such an extent that it is now healthier than the relationship with our social structures. This is evidence of the power of consumer culture and the liberal free market economics of the westernized world. The Brands not just represent the symbol of the company but also to a greater extant defines lives people in the society. What a person uses can reflect his taste, his or her status in the society, his / her economic background as well. This makes a deep connection between the company and its brand, with the consumer. In this two way relation both the company and consumers are dependent on each other.</p><p>The salient of purpose of our study was to find out to what extent brand names influence the consumers’ purchase decisions with regard to high-involvement products. We conducted this study based on theories and survey. We reviewed a good number of relevant theories of brand and consumer decision making process. We also conducted a survey among the students. The respondents of our survey were those students who own a notebook PC, a high involvement product. We used convenience sampling for our survey. We analyzed the data of the survey in order to be able to draw conclusions and find answers to our questions.</p><p>On analysis of the collected data, we came to a conclusion that brand names have an influence on the consumer decision not only in case of notebook PC, but also in other product categories. The overall means of brand equity for male and female student are 3.64 and 3.66 respectively. Both the means are considerably higher than the average of 2.5 on the Likert Scale. So, it is reasonable to say that both male and female students’ purchase decisions are influenced by the brand equity to an extent. The consumers are very conscious about branded products because they have the view that well-known brands are more reliable. This study also explains that customers trust the branded products. Before purchasing a notebook PC people do not consider the lesser known brands. Our survey results show that the respondents previously automatically knew which brand of Notebook PC to buy. The mean of the statement “I automatically knew which brands of this product to buy” was much higher than average indicating that respondents had only a few brands in their evoked set and they ended up buying their top-of-the-mind brand. Consumers opined that well-known brand companies maintain quality of their product. Which is why, brand name affects the customer choice while making a purchase decision. Moreover, consumers also tend to trust well-known branded products. The mean of the statement “When I see an advertisement of this brand I believe the information in it is accurate” was much higher than the average which testifies to the fact that consumers usually trust the brands.</p>

Problem: The complexity of high-involvement products, especially when bought online needs further studying so that a merchant-consumer dialogue and information exchange is initiated. The opportunity for both merchants and consumers lies in the profits from these dia-logues and exchanges. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what specific features buy-ers in the traditional market believe are unsatisfactory or missing in the online market. Our findings will help us give suggestions on what actions online merchants might take in order to redistribute high-involvement purchases from the traditional market to the online mar-ket. Method: The data collection involves both a survey and interviews in order to assemble appropriate, justifiable and relevant data. In total, 150 peo-ple responded to the survey, and six of them were later objects to the in-depth interviews. To ensure that the collection of data was re-trieved consistently and reliably, and to avoid miss-interpretations, is-sues such as significance and reliability have been considered. Result: Almost twice as many respondents bought their laptop in the tradi-tional market. It is preferred due to; a rooted habit of making pur-chases traditionally, the tangibility of the product, more apparent communication with salespeople, stronger purchase sensations and instant transactions. Conclusion: The major features missing in the online market are; 1) the experien-tial sources and 2) the enjoyable sensations of a purchase found in a traditional purchase. The major unsatisfactory features include cus-tomer service, delivery and the complexity still adhered to online pur-chasing. The features have led consumers to hesitate and mistrust the online market in high-involvement purchases. In order to attain a re-distribution; buyers‟ hesitation has to be overcome and subsequently trust must be built in the capabilities of the online market.

In today’s world, consumerism is dominating all the aspects of our life. In society, life follows the pattern of the capitalist culture where the human values have a different measure. We do live in a branded world. There is no doubt about it. We all make product decisions every day. We probably all have certain types of products of which we like only one or two brands, while we buy other things based on what is on sale on a given day. This inclination to buy branded products is rooted in two basic things: recollection and satisfaction. We remember which one we like by brand name. A survey by the Henley Centre revealed that the public trust brand names such as Kellogg’s, Heinz and Marks &amp; Spencer more than Parliament, the police and the legal system (Sunday Times, “A can of worms is a bad diet”, 5 April 1998). This research highlights the importance of the relationship between consumers and key brands; and shows that it has strengthened to such an extent that it is now healthier than the relationship with our social structures. This is evidence of the power of consumer culture and the liberal free market economics of the westernized world. The Brands not just represent the symbol of the company but also to a greater extant defines lives people in the society. What a person uses can reflect his taste, his or her status in the society, his / her economic background as well. This makes a deep connection between the company and its brand, with the consumer. In this two way relation both the company and consumers are dependent on each other. The salient of purpose of our study was to find out to what extent brand names influence the consumers’ purchase decisions with regard to high-involvement products. We conducted this study based on theories and survey. We reviewed a good number of relevant theories of brand and consumer decision making process. We also conducted a survey among the students. The respondents of our survey were those students who own a notebook PC, a high involvement product. We used convenience sampling for our survey. We analyzed the data of the survey in order to be able to draw conclusions and find answers to our questions. On analysis of the collected data, we came to a conclusion that brand names have an influence on the consumer decision not only in case of notebook PC, but also in other product categories. The overall means of brand equity for male and female student are 3.64 and 3.66 respectively. Both the means are considerably higher than the average of 2.5 on the Likert Scale. So, it is reasonable to say that both male and female students’ purchase decisions are influenced by the brand equity to an extent. The consumers are very conscious about branded products because they have the view that well-known brands are more reliable. This study also explains that customers trust the branded products. Before purchasing a notebook PC people do not consider the lesser known brands. Our survey results show that the respondents previously automatically knew which brand of Notebook PC to buy. The mean of the statement “I automatically knew which brands of this product to buy” was much higher than average indicating that respondents had only a few brands in their evoked set and they ended up buying their top-of-the-mind brand. Consumers opined that well-known brand companies maintain quality of their product. Which is why, brand name affects the customer choice while making a purchase decision. Moreover, consumers also tend to trust well-known branded products. The mean of the statement “When I see an advertisement of this brand I believe the information in it is accurate” was much higher than the average which testifies to the fact that consumers usually trust the brands.

<p>Problem: The complexity of high-involvement products, especially when bought online needs further studying so that a merchant-consumer dialogue and information exchange is initiated. The opportunity for both merchants and consumers lies in the profits from these dia-logues and exchanges.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what specific features buy-ers in the traditional market believe are unsatisfactory or missing in the online market. Our findings will help us give suggestions on what actions online merchants might take in order to redistribute high-involvement purchases from the traditional market to the online mar-ket.</p><p>Method: The data collection involves both a survey and interviews in order to assemble appropriate, justifiable and relevant data. In total, 150 peo-ple responded to the survey, and six of them were later objects to the in-depth interviews. To ensure that the collection of data was re-trieved consistently and reliably, and to avoid miss-interpretations, is-sues such as significance and reliability have been considered.</p><p>Result: Almost twice as many respondents bought their laptop in the tradi-tional market. It is preferred due to; a rooted habit of making pur-chases traditionally, the tangibility of the product, more apparent communication with salespeople, stronger purchase sensations and instant transactions.</p><p>Conclusion: The major features missing in the online market are; 1) the experien-tial sources and 2) the enjoyable sensations of a purchase found in a traditional purchase. The major unsatisfactory features include cus-tomer service, delivery and the complexity still adhered to online pur-chasing. The features have led consumers to hesitate and mistrust the online market in high-involvement purchases. In order to attain a re-distribution; buyers‟ hesitation has to be overcome and subsequently trust must be built in the capabilities of the online market.</p>

Advertising has been around for thousands of years and has proven to be a valuable asset to company revenue. The methods used in advertising have been examined closely more recently, specifically from a psychological standpoint. The human brain reacts to advertisements in different ways. Low and high involvement advertisements stimulate the brain in the subconscious and conscious state effectively. While each of these advertising methods are useful, complex messaging techniques seem to stimulate recall more effectively than simple messaging. In the age of digital advertising, sponsors look to put new resources to use to ensure paid advertisements are doing their job. With data mining and location based services available, advertisers are getting more in touch with the consumer than ever before. The bombardment of advertising is changing the consumer’s eye for low and high involvement and the advertising industry will be forced to adjust yet again.

Background Country of origin (COO) has developed over the years and so has the definition, from the manufacturing COO and has now developed more into the COO of the brand. This development has led to a gap in research surrounding COO effects in combination with the decision-making process. Purpose The purpose of this study was to understand and explore which product information cues COO effects, along with how these cues influence the consumer's cognitive decision-making process. Leading to recommendations for companies, of how they can then use these effects in their favour. Method An interpretivism philosophy was used as part of this study, along with an inductive approach. Exploratory research was conducted to analyse the qualitative data during the experimental setting within three focus groups to gather in-depth views and opinions of participants. The research was gathered using convenience sampling, with limitations including the pre-bias participants had surrounding a COO. Findings The three most important information cues were quality, price and brand when it comes to what information consumers need to make a purchase. There is a difference in willingness to pay, perceived brand image and value surrounding COO from the COO experiment conducted between Germany and Poland. Research participants would pay on average 104 Euros more for the same product if it was a German brand over a Polish one. COO effects consumers in both a direct and indirect way, the subliminal use of COO, suggesting that the decision-making process is not completely cognitive. Similarly, consumers do not initially perceive COO as an important factor until it is brought up. However it can be said to be at the back of their minds at all times. It was also suggested that consumers have a ranking of countries within their minds and use it to aid their decision-making process. Consumers want to use the rational (intrinsic) cues (quality, design), however the extrinsic cues (brand, price) were identified as being more important. Conclusion In conclusion it can be said that COO is an important influencing factor on the consumers' decision-making process. COO is a factor effecting and influencing the different information cues which consumers identify as being important to their purchase. COO is seen as an influencing factor continuously effecting information cues, but more specifically price, brand and quality. Brands with 'higher' perceived COO's can thrive under their competitive advantage, whilst brands with a 'lower' perceived COO do not do as well.