In today's era of intense competition for acquiring and retaining customers, customer retention has become a major issue and a key objective in modern retailing. With the emergence of new information technologies, the Internet offers new possibilities for customer retention through the management of relationships between marketers and consumers. Little empirical research has addressed the role of Internet websites in retaining customers for particular brands or at particular stores. The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of the attitudes of a sample of young consumers aged 18 to 22 toward their favorite websites on intentions to purchase through the Internet and channels other than Internet clothing websites. The data were collected using an online survey with a structured questionnaire. The subjects of the study were 414 male and female undergraduate and graduate students at Virginia Tech and The Ohio State University, who were aged 18 to 22 and non-married. Several hypotheses were put forward and results except for one hypothesis were supported. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, factorial MANOVA, canonical correlation analysis, multiple regression, path analysis, and t-tests were employed to test the research hypotheses on the relationships among the variables. The factorial MANOVA results showed that shopping orientation and previous online shopping experience affected the evaluation of general clothing website characteristics, as well as the evaluation of favorite clothing websites. The canonical correlation results revealed that the product information, customer service, and navigation factors represented the favorite clothing website characteristics and were well predicted by the same constructs of the general clothing website characteristics. The path analysis revealed that attitudes toward favorite clothing websites were positively related to intentions to search for information at favorite clothing websites, and that intentions to search for information at those websites were positively related to intentions to purchase from those websites as well as from channels other than Internet clothing websites. Attitudes toward favorite clothing websites were directly and positively related to intentions to purchase clothing items from favorite clothing websites, and were not directly related to intentions to purchase clothing items from channels other than Internet clothing websites. The results also showed that shopping orientation affected intentions to search for information on one hand, and intentions to purchase clothing items from favorite clothing websites on the other. The online information search and purchase groups were significantly different in their intentions to purchase clothing items from their favorite clothing websites. From the results of the present research, it is concluded that Internet websites play a pivotal role in forming consumers� attitude toward the websites, which eventually lead to their information search and purchase intention from the websites. In addition, consumers' online information search intentions influence their purchase intention at channels other than Internet. Thus, by establishing effective websites, marketers can retain their customers through multiple channels including the Internet, brick-and-mortar stores, and catalogs. / Ph. D.

Through the collaboration between internet and conventional media, Power Keyword has become a new fashion in advertising industry last year, which appears at newspaper ads, magazine ads, TV commercials, or even outdoors. Among all mediums, TV has the strongest impact on consumers. More than 40 TV commercials inserted power keyword. Therefore, this research focuses on exploring how marketing specialists should bring the best advertising effectiveness out of power keyword. The purpose of this study is to verify the advertising impact of power keyword through keyword type and advertising type. A 2(Sales promotional advertising and non- sales promotional advertising) x 2(Power keyword Ads with large space and small space) x2(Power keyword Ads with audio and no audio) x2(Power keyword Ads with Yahoo! logo and no Yahoo! logo) between ¡Vsubject factorial design is employed in the research. Advertising communication effectiveness, on the other hand, is measured based on recall effects and search intention. An online quasi-experiment is conducted and data gathered randomly from 436 participants on their perceptions towards power keyword advertisements. Moreover, product involvement is brought into the experiment as moderating variable. The findings of the research indicate that: (1) Promotional advertising has significant influence on advertising communication effectiveness. Promotional advertising results in higher recall effects and search intention than non-promotional advertising. (2) Ads space and position has significant influence on advertising communication effectiveness. Large space of search bar results in higher recall effects and search intention than that with small one. (3) Search intention of promotional advertising does vary based on audio type of search bar on the ads. (4) Recall effect of promotional advertising does vary based on space and position of search bar on the ads. (5) Consumers with different ages, gender, and education result differently in their search intentions.

The main aim of this study was to investigate current search behaviour among Saudi consumers of travel services, to establish their attitudes towards, and adoption of online search and booking processes. It also aimed to explore current experiences within travel agencies of the adoption of online booking systems in the Saudi Arabian market. The study relied on a multi-method research design, with a focus on using both qualitative and quantitative data across three sequentially organised phases of data collection. Phase one centred on in-depth interviews with Saudi travel agents; phase two adopted a combined approach, using observation and semi-structured interviews, with a focus on getting a comprehensive insight into Saudi consumer search behaviour. In phase three, the researcher undertook a survey of internet adoption and search behaviour with a cross-section of Saudi consumers, located in the UK (N=481). Findings from the first phase demonstrated that Saudi Arabian travel firms continue to rely on offline booking methods and have been relatively slow to adopt online systems. Key factors influencing the adoption of online travel booking technology included attitudinal and cultural factors and an absence of customer trust, security and privacy. The second phase results indicated that information search and evaluation emerged as a single highly integrated process, however behavioural elements within the process varied across individuals, according to their search strategy and level of prior experience. In phase three, the key relationships in the conceptual model were examined, notably the relationship between search constructs and purchase intention. Only a few past studies have examined information search and evaluation in relation to purchase in emerging markets. This study offers a more in-depth perspective on search intention and information search and evaluation in the pre-purchase stage for online travel products. Key insights have emerged on the nature of the relationship between search intention, information search and evaluation and purchase intention through the development of a more comprehensive conceptual framework than in prior studies. The qualitative research demonstrated a) how search ability and search strategies were reflective of confident and well-established search behaviour on the part of Saudi consumers and b) gender and regional variations c) that the nature of information search and evaluation is shaped by behavioural differences at an individual consumer level. The study also offers a deeper understanding of the challenging perceptions that exist with regards to the slow adoption of online travel processes among Saudi Arabian travel firms.