Understanding Consumer Attitudes Toward Food Technologies in Canada

This article reports a study on consumer attitudes to 21 food and nonfood technologies in Canada. The study involves repertory grid interviews with 36 food consumers, the data from which are analyzed using generalized Procrustes analysis. Results highlight the role of perceived risk and perceived benefit in determining the acceptability of the technologies, with individual technologies lying along a continuum between the two. For technology as a whole and the 21 specific technologies, the perceived risk and perceived benefit constructs were the dominant determinants of consumer acceptability. While perceptions of perceived risk and perceived benefit differed between individual respondents, there were very limited consistent relations with a range of sociodemographic variables.     

基于消费者隐性需求的营销模式研究策略

消费者隐性需求的相关理论和实践研究逐渐受到国内外学者的重视,这对于营销理论的再造和营销学的演进具有一定的理论价值。本文从营销范式的演进规律归纳得出,营销范式的转换归根结底源于隐性需求的开发。在此基础上,对传统营销模式及营销组合对隐性需求研究的普适性进行了检验,并探讨了基于隐性需求的4Vs营销模式及其现实意义。     

Multi-category purchase incidences with marketing cross effects

We focus on cross effects of marketing variables and cross category dependences for multi-category decisions which households take during a shopping trip to a retail store. A cross effect is defined as the effect which a marketing variable used for a certain product category exerts on purchases of another category. Using Dirichlet process mixture models with multivariate probit components we analyze purchase incidences of 24,047 shopping visits of a random sample of 1500 households. Independent variables of these models encompass marketing variables for 25 product categories and household attributes. We discuss differences between the two best performing models, a full model which includes both cross effects and cross category dependences, and a related restricted model which ignores cross effects. We obtain several high and significant differences with respect to category constants and cross category dependences between these two models. We also present explanations for the larger (in absolute terms) cross effects of features or displays. We demonstrate that by ignoring cross effects management runs the risk to obtain in many product categories too optimistic forecasts of sales revenue changes due to promotions. In contrast to previous related work suggesting not to use promotions which are not tailored to individual households in any of the investigated categories, we obtain support for such promotions in at least 48 % of the 25 product categories. In addition, based on the full model we demonstrate that often different categories are appropriate for promotions which are targeted at household clusters.     

A LOGIT-MARKOVIAN MODEL OF CONSUMER PURCHASE BEHAVIOR BASED ON EXPLANATORY VARIABLES: EMPIRICAL EVALUATION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DECISION MAKING*

This study describes and empirically evaluates an approach to modeling purchase behavior that integrates a Logit-Markov-based multivariate brand-choice model structure with stochastic components. Using actual market data for a frequently purchased consumer product obtained from a consumer purchase panel survey, the paper highlights some marketing applications of the model. Given its general structure, the model can aid marketing managers in defining and evaluating target market segments and in assessing the impact of alternative marketing strategies.     

Communicating Food Risks in an Era of Growing Public Distrust: Three Case Studies

The communication and regulation of risk has changed significantly over the past 30 years in Europe and to a noticeable but lesser extent in the United States. In Europe, this is partly due to a series of regulatory mishaps, ranging from mad cow disease in the United Kingdom to contamination of the blood supply in France. In the United States, general public confidence in the American government has been gradually declining for more than three decades, driven by a mix of cultural and political conflicts like negative political advertising, a corrosive news media, and cuts in regulatory budgets. While the former approach is based on an objective assessment of the risk, the latter is driven more by the perception of the risk, consumer sentiment, political will, and sectoral advocacy. In this article, the author examines three U.S.‐based food case studies (acrylamide, bisphenol A, and artificial food colorings) where regulations at the local and state levels are increasingly being based on perceived risk advocacy rather than on the most effective response to the risk, be it to food safety or public health, as defined by regulatory interpretation of existing data. In the final section, the author puts forward a series of recommendations for how U.S.‐based regulators can best handle those situations where the perceived risk is markedly different from the fact‐based risk, such as strengthening the communication departments of food regulatory agencies, training officials in risk communication, and working more proactively with neutral third‐party experts.     

Judgments of Personal and Environmental Risks of Consumer Products—Do they Differ?

Many psychometric studies have investigated judgments concerning personal risks from technologies, activities or consumer products, but only a few studies have included judgments of risk to the environment. Thus, little is known about this aspect of environmental risk perception, and whether it differs from personal risk perception. This study investigates risk judgments for 30 consumer products of various types such as herbal remedies, mobile telephones, genetically engineered drugs, or garden pesticides. A survey was conducted in two German cities: Leipzig and West Berlin. In total, 408 subjects evaluated the consumer products with regard to personal and environmental risk (and other risk-related aspects) and whether they would recommend the product to others. The findings show statistically significant differences between the mean values of perceived personal risk and environmental risk for most products. Despite these differences, the rank order of mean personal risk and environmental risk judgments for the products is quite similar. However, separate analyses for each product reveal that correlations between perceived personal and environmental risk vary strongly across products. Multiple regression analyses with personal and environmental risk judgments as predictors and product recommendation as criterion, run separately for each consumer product, show that it is mainly the judgment of perceived personal risk that explains product recommendation. Perceived risk to the environment adds little explanatory power. The study also explores differences in judgments of personal and environmental risk with regard to two sociodemographic variables: location (former East Germany vs. West Germany) and gender. Differences in both types of risk judgments are found with regard to location but not for gender.     

O2O模式下消费者购买决策影响因素社群关系研究

O2O是对传统电子商务的颠覆和创新，近年来发展迅速，但缺乏理论支持。为此，以消费者购买评价为视角，通过对O2O模式下影响消费者购买意愿因素的实证分析，论文提出了影响消费者购买决策的多构面要素体系。然后，采用社会网络分析法，构建了O2O模式下消费者购买决策影响因素社群关系模型。通过对社群关系模型的挖掘与提炼，提取了构面要素社群关系的子图与O2O模式下消费者决策行为模式。研究表明，与其他变量相比，电商知名度、感知商品质量、商品品牌在影响消费者购买决策的构面要素体系中处于支配地位，消费者在购买决策时，既协同考虑电商知名度与感知商品质量、商品品牌与感知商品质量、商品线上价格与感知商品质量，又统筹权衡电商知名度与商品品牌、商品品牌与商品线上价格。最后，依据研究结果，论文为电商O2O模式营销策略提出了建议。     

Diagnosing Customer Value: Integrating the Value Process and Relationship Marketing

The concept of value and, more specifically, customer value is of increasing interest to both academics and practitioners. This paper undertakes a substantial review of past and current literature on value and categorizes this considerable body of research into nine streams of literature. Building on the emerging relationship marketing paradigm, it then proposes a framework for relationship value management. Nine core streams of value literature are identified and discussed: consumer values and consumer value; the augmented product concept; customer satisfaction and service quality; the value chain; creating and delivering superior customer value; the customer's value to the firm; customer‐perceived value; customer value and shareholder value; and relationship value. To date, the core focus of most of this literature has been on the nature of value from the perspective of the organization and its customers – the customer–supplier relationship. However, it is argued that the emergence of the relationship marketing paradigm has emphasized the role of other stakeholders in building relationships. An existing multiple stakeholder model of relationship marketing, the six markets model, is introduced and is integrated with key concepts from the value literature to produce a conceptual framework for relationship value management.     

The Service Brand as Relationships Builder

This article examines the appropriateness of the notion and application of relationship marketing in various contexts. Theoretical and conceptual similarities between the broad notions of ‘the brand’ and of relationship marketing as risk reducers, simplifiers of choice and guarantee of quality are uncovered. We put forward a notion of relationship marketing as a further step in the branding process, whereby whenever perceived risk and consumer involvement are high, relationship marketing acts as a supplementary tool enabling consumers to maintain cognitive consistency and psychological comfort. Experts' opinions regarding branding in a service context expanded on these concepts. Especially for more intangible offerings, such as financial services, the experts stressed the use of corporate brand identity as the basis of relationship building both inside and outside the organization and as a means to achieve differentiation and provide the focus for homogeneous and consistent service delivery. Finally, we suggest the concept of the service brand as a holistic process beginning with the relationship between the firm and its staff and coming alive during the interactions between staff and customers.     

Marketing mix standardization in multinational corporations: A review of the evidence

This paper reports the findings of a systematic review of literature on marketing mix standardization in multinational corporations. The objective is to extract and synthesize ‘best evidence’ regarding marketing mix standardization practices in multinational corporations and to identify evidence regarding the performance impact of marketing mix standardization. Beyond relevance to an academic audience, this review could be useful for management practitioners in multinationals seeking to integrate operations across borders. In this context, the paper seeks to make a contribution to evidence based policy and practice.     

网络视角的风险与时尚对消费者信息搜索行为影响研究

消费者决策一直是消费者行为研究的核心,信息搜索作为消费者决策的第一步受到理论和实践界的普遍关注。互联网时代,消费环境快速变化呈现出网络化特点,消费者追求时尚与个性化,产品技术复杂化增加了消费者购买的风险,这些因素使得消费行为越发嵌入于网络当中。基于此,文章从网络视角出发,以感知风险和时尚为切入点研究社会网络对消费者信息搜索行为的影响。在网络构建上,与通常直接建立网络的方法不同,作者将网络结构指标与回归分析相结合,通过对以往文献的梳理,构建了以网络规模、网络结构洞、网络凝聚子群和关系强度为指标的社会网络结构量表,采用回归的方法揭示社会网络对消费者信息搜索的作用。通过对样本消费者调查研究发现,时尚和社会网络影响消费者信息搜索行为。其中,时尚敏感度与消费者信息搜索行为之间存在正向关联。社会网络中的网络规模和关系强度会分别发挥正向和负向的调节作用,调节时尚敏感度与信息搜索行为之间的关系。该研究在一方面为今后网络角度的消费者行为研究在网络构建上提供帮助,另一方面验证了企业在进行产品设计、品牌营销时,可以借助社会网络,提高战略的针对性和有效性。     

基于RFM分析的促销组合策略优化模型

促销在企业的营销战略中占有重要地位,但企业在制定促销策略时,往往只是孤立的考虑单个促销活动,并且在选择促销目标群体时也常带有一定的盲目性。针对上述问题本文提出了基于RFM分析的促销组合策略优化模型,该模型综合考虑计划期内的多个待选促销方案,在满足相应约束的前提下,合理的进行促销活动和促销目标群体的选择,以保证促销组合的整体响应率和预期收益的最大化。     

SIMPLE MODELS FOR MONITORING NEW PRODUCT PERFORMANCE

Several studies have shown that consumers trying a new brand of frequently purchased consumer goods behave differently from repeat buyers. The “customer mix” for a new brand changes over time. Early in a new brand's life, most of the buyers are triers, while later in its life, a significant portion of the buyers are repeaters. The study presented here tests the hypothesis that an aggregate sales forecast, “averaging” the behaviors of triers and repeaters, would be outperformed by a model that treats them separately. A new product model, giving separate consideration to triers and repeaters, is developed. This model is tested on predictive ability against a widely used single-equation aggregate model. Consumer panel purchase diaries and data on advertising in measured media, covering a period of 42 months following introduction of a major brand of cold tablets, serve as the proving grounds. Data for the early part of this period serve as the data base for both models, while data for the rest of the period serve to test the predictive ability of both models. The disaggregate model is shown to perform significantly better than the aggregate model in terms of predictive accuracy. It also offers several other advantages in use as a decision aid, both for GO-NO decisions and for marketing mix decisions. Finally, several problems in the implementation of the proposed model and implications for research strategy are discussed.     

To market, to market: the changing face of grocery retailing

Over the past few years, grocery retailing has undergone a tremendous transformation which was driven mainly by changing consumer characteristics. In order to accommodate these changes, the industry has responded in three ways. The most important of these is the introduction of new technology, particularly efficient consumer response (ECR). The second change has to do with innovations in product and/or service offerings. The final transformation is the organisational restructuring and the increasing number of mergers and acquisitions in the industry at both the manufacturer and retailer levels. The implications of these transformations on the marketing mix, productivity and manufacturer-retailer relationships are discussed.     

重大灾害情境下感知风险对消费者信心的影响研究

以汶川地震的调研数据为基础,构建了重大灾害情境下的感知风险与消费者信心关系的理论模型。分析发现消费者信心各维度之间蕴含的相互关联,即重建和房地产发展信心对经济发展信心起显著正向影响,经济发展信心对生活质量信心具有正向影响。同时,发现地震感知风险对消费者信心、对经济发展信心具有直接负向影响,对重建和房地产发展信心没有产生显著影响,对生活质量信心的负向影响是通过经济发展信心间接实现的。     

Patterns of Information Source Use Across Industrial Purchase Situations*

An empirical taxonomy of industrial customers' information source use is developed based on a survey of 636 industrial customers across a wide range of different purchase situations. The taxonomy reveals five distinct information source mixes. Each mix consists of the combination of individual information sources used in a purchase situation. The five information source mixes are related to select underlying characteristics of purchase situations. The results indicate that the multivariate dimensions of purchase involvement, purchase complexity, and multiple influence are all significantly related to customers' choice of an information source mix. Implications of the taxonomy for marketing management and research are discussed.     

网络环境下消费者感知效用模型的构建与研究

商品效用的大小是消费者购买决策的出发点,论文以感知效用为视角,分析了网络消费者的非补偿性决策和补偿性决策,构建了网络消费者感知效用模型,并以此为基础,深入分析了信息收集成本、质量评估成本、商品价格以及购物风险等成本变量对网络购物环境下消费者感知效用的影响。研究结果表明,无论是风险规避型网络消费者,还是风险型网络消费者,商品质量的提高均可以增大消费者感知效用,而商品价格、购物风险的增大将导致消费者感知效用减小,但对于风险型网络消费者,由于承受风险能力强,商品价格的升高并没有增大消费者心理风险成本,而对于风险规避型网络消费者,随着商品价格的升高,消费者心理风险成本相应增大。     

移动电子商务下交易成本影响消费者感知价值的实证研究

在分析了移动电子商务下交易成本的主要构成后,论文提出了搜寻成本、评价成本、支付成本、风险成本对消费者感知价值影响的假设,构建了移动电子商务下交易成本对消费者感知价值影响的假设模型,采用结构方程模型方法利用样本数据对假设模型进行了拟合检验。研究结果表明,风险成本、支付成本、评价成本是移动电子商务下消费者网上购买商品的主要成本,均与消费者感知价值显著负相关,其中,风险成本与消费者感知价值相关程度最高,而搜寻成本对消费者感知价值的影响并不显著。此外,购物者的风险态度与其风险成本、评价成本显著正相关,通过对评价成本、风险成本的作用间接影响消费者感知价值。最后,依据研究结果,论文提出了促进我国移动电子商务发展的建议。     

A Latent Class Binomial Logit Methodology for the Analysis of Paired Comparison Choice Data

A latent class model for identifying classes of subjects in paired comparison choice experiments is developed. The model simultaneously estimates a probabilistic classification of subjects and the logit models' coefficients relating characteristics of objects to choices for each respective group among two alternatives in paired comparison experiments. A modest Monte Carlo analysis of algorithm performance is presented. The proposed model is illustrated with empirical data from a consumer psychology experiment that examines the determinants of perceived consumer risk. The predictive validity of the method is assessed and compared to that of several other procedures. The sensitivity of the method to (randomly) eliminate comparisons, which is important in view of reducing respondent fatigue in the task, is investigated.     

消费者决策关联关系及个体网络研究

消费者决策的网络效应使消费者决策时"嵌入"到由特定因素限定的决策网络中,且网络结构会影响消费者的决策行为以及消费系统状态。消费者决策网络的分析方法,是通过网络和图来抽象和拓扑消费者决策网络,进而研究不同拓扑性质的差异及其对消费者决策的影响,为系统的研究消费者决策网络效应提供了一种新的技术框架和分析方法。本文对消费者决策网络形成的关键和基础——消费者决策关联关系进行了分析和研究,只有洞悉消费者决策时如何关联,才能进一步的研究消费者决策网络的结构和影响。进一步提出了消费者决策个体网络来描述个体消费者决策关联关系,并对其内涵和描述指标进行了研究,对消费者决策个体网络规模及其对消费者决策以及市场影响进行了模拟。对于后续研究整体的消费者决策网络提供了前提、理论基础和验证方法。