Search

In this paper, we propose a new method for dynamic discrete choice logit models with panel data, which capture both unobserved individual heterogeneities and the state dependence on purchase behaviors. The consistency and asymptotic normality of this estimators are studied in detail. Comparing with the estimators developed by Honore and Kyriazidou (Econometrica 68:839–874, 2000), the pseudo conditional likelihood estimators proposed by Bartolucci and Nigro (J Econom 170:102–116, 2012) and the modified profile likelihood estimators given by Bartolucci et al. (Economet Rev 35:1271–1289, 2016), simulations show the proposed estimators have some advantages on the mean bias and root mean squared error. As a byproduct, another estimator for static logit models is given and comparable with that developed by Chamberlain (in: Griliches Z, Intrilligator MD (eds), Handbook of econometrics, vol 2. North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1984). Last, the proposed approach is applied to the panel data on household detergent purchases and concludes that there exists significant dynamic relationship on household detergent purchases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study details how marketing campaigns featuring event-typical ads adapted to sporting events (e.g., a car ad that displays its brand logo on an Olympic podium) affect brand attitudes and incentive-aligned brand choice in more positive ways than proven advertising strategies such as product category consistency. Presenting four field and lab experiments across a total of 3 events and 32 ads, we show that these effects are driven by the combination of 3 mechanisms: event-typical ads' capacity to trigger a sufficient feeling of knowing what the ad is about, provoke curiosity, and transfer attributes from the event to the brand, even with very short ad exposures. Advertisers, brand managers, or event organizers can thus exploit the creative potential around sporting events by using event-typical ads. Furthermore, when these stakeholders know the most typical elements of an event, they can either adapt their marketing activities or register them to avoid ambush marketing (i.e., advertisers willing to associate their brand with the event in the absence of any legitimate link with it). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a market, there are many groups caused by geographical location or other reasons, and consumers in groups have their own brand preferences for a type of products. The diversity of consumers' brand preferences will avoid the phenomenon of brand simplification and monopoly caused by consistent brand reference of consumers, and to some extent, promote the prosperity and development of various brands in each group. For brand diversification in a market, we hope the brand preferences of consumers in each groups are as equilibrious as possible, so Influence Maximization under Equilibrious Groups (IMEG) is proposed to select k nodes to maximize the number of equilibrious groups after information diffusion. This paper proves that the IMEG is NP-hard, and computing the objective function is #P-hard. It also proves that the objective function is neither submodular nor supermodular under Independent Cascade (IC) model and Linear Threshold (LT) model. Then, the Equilibrious Groups Maximization Solution (EGMS) algorithm is presented to solve our problem. And by comparing with baseline algorithms using different datasets (dolphins, wildbird, weaver and hamsterster), it can be found that the EGMS has obvious advantages in time complexity and spatial complexity. In particular, the running time of EGMS is about 3.7 × 10 - 2 , 2.4 × 10 - 2 , 1.1 × 10 - 1 and 1.8 × 10 - 3 times that of the fastest baseline algorithm in dolphins, wildbird, weaver and hamsterster respectively. And the experiments in small-world, scale-free, random and regular network verify the robustness of EGMS with the varying parameters, such as the number of nodes, the probability of adding edges and the number of adjacencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is of interest to examine how consumers perceive luxury brands with the different elements of authenticity, leading to brand image, for companies to create and build a brand that is conducive to influence purchase intention. Through a proposed conceptual research model, brand authenticity and brand image as the predictor variables, with brand preference as the outcome variable, the study investigates the causal relationship of these constructs, where eight (8) determinants of brand authenticity are assessed. Findings of the research support all nine proposed hypotheses, as a result, indicated that brand authenticity and brand image influence consumers' brand preference. The same model development for the current study can be applied in other geographical zones and in different contexts to prove its generalisability. This study assists fashion marketing practitioners and brand managers to remain sustainable and better identify the factors that influence brand authenticity and brand image on brand preference of luxury sneakers among young adults in South Africa. The rapid globalization and increase in competition has caused a shift in the luxury industry so marketers need to focus on the authenticity of a brand to influence consumers' brand preference. Theoretically, this study adds to the limited academic literature on the theory of reasoned action and the brand equity theory, with regard to branding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer behavior and brand preferences changed. However, surprisingly little is known about how or why corporate brand associations differ and change across countries during such black swan events, especially for multinationals with a specific expertise and ability, for example, to offer vaccines. The authors use institutional theory to fill this gap. They contribute to international business research by analyzing the roles of national institutions in consumers' corporate brand ability associations (CBAA) in 20 countries over time. They find generally different roles of regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive institutions in consumers' CBAA. Moreover, those roles changed and varied for Pfizer, as a multinational corporation that offered the first vaccine in Western countries, and its competitors before and during the pandemic. Institutional theory strongly complements signaling theory in cross-national studies on CBAA. This study shows, for the first time, which institutions drive CBAA cross-nationally and why the role of each institution changes during a black swan event, such as COVID-19. It has direct implications for managers interested in cross-national consumer responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much research has examined the influence of well-known brands on preferences, the current studies focus on the equally important but less-examined topic of brand-knowledge formation as brands are first encountered. Zeroing in on the process of learning and associating a brand's name and logo, the authors posit and demonstrate that consumers are more likely to accurately recall a newly-encountered brand's logo when cued by its name than the converse (recalling the name when cued with the logo). Importantly, this cued-recall asymmetry is shown to not be a mere artifact of logos being more easily recalled. The asymmetry holds when the target logos and names are equally independently memorable, and logos are not more accurately recalled than names when both are cued by other associations (e.g., color). The concept-based theory of word meaning helps explain these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the significance of overcoming vaccine adoption resistance and addressing real and perceived barriers for efficient vaccination campaigns. One major problem faced by health systems around the world was that people's preferences for a specific brand of vaccine often delayed vaccination efforts as people canceled or delayed appointments to receive their preferred brand. Therefore, in the event of another pandemic, it is important to know which factors influence preferences for specific vaccine brands. Previous literature showed that consumers choose products that are congruent with their self-concept, which includes their political affiliation. Given that the discourse around vaccine brands has been strongly politicized during the pandemic, in our work, we test whether partisanship influences preferences for COVID-19 vaccine brands. To test this, we collected survey data from Argentina (N = 432), a country with a clear bi-partisan structure and where a variety of vaccine brands were administered, both from Western and Eastern laboratories. We found that supporters of the ruling party, which had strong ties with Eastern countries such as Russia and China, perceived Eastern vaccine brands (e.g., Sputnik V) to be more effective and safer than Western ones (e.g., Pfizer) whereas the contrary was true for supporters of the opposition. Our results also showed that supporters of the opposing party were more likely to wish to hypothetically switch vaccines, to delay their appointment in case of not receiving their preferred brand, and to disapprove of their local vaccination campaign. Our results demonstrate that political party affiliation biases perceptions of both vaccine brands' quality and vaccination campaign effectiveness. We anticipate that our results can inform public policy strategies when it comes to an efficient vaccine supply allocation, as political affiliation is a measurable and predictable consumer trait. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A majority of consumers resist switching brands when exposed to competitor sales promotions. Yet, in an effort to entice consumers to switch brands, firms spend more on sales promotions, in the form of price promotions such as discounts and coupons, than any other advertising and marketing expense. Interestingly, marketing research devotes much attention to understanding how the small subset of consumers who switch are impacted by a firm's promotional efforts, yet little attention is focused on how forgoing a competitive promotion alters a consumer's loyalty to an incumbent brand. The present research focuses on the potential unintended consequences of price promotions and demonstrates when a competitor brand's offer fails to motivate consumers to switch brands, a consumer's resistance to the promotion subsequently increases loyalty to- and spending with- their incumbent brand. Across seven studies, this research demonstrates how a competing firm's attempt to lure consumers away from a competitor's brand can strengthen loyalty for the incumbent brand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the consumer's cultural landscape everything is gendered, including publishers. Some publishers lean into the gendered elements of their brand personality and make active choices to design their brand, and the books they publish, to engage with gendering elements of design, fonts, colours, and text. The consumer can utilise publishers as landmarks to understand which spaces are safe for them to perform their chosen self- and projected-identities, and form relationships based on these considerations. Ultimately, the consumer enacts a gendered performance of self in their cultural landscape and in doing so, they can choose to interact with publishers that embody different gendered elements within a complex discourse of consumerism, societal norms and expectations, and perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Income inequality is a growing social issue in the United States, yet little research has examined whether and how it affects consumers' everyday purchasing decisions. To address this gap, we analyze the role of income inequality in shopper behavior, namely grocery shoppers' preference for private labels versus national brands. Since income inequality increases people's interest in brands that are associated with higher status than others, we predict that shoppers facing higher inequality have a stronger preference for national brands rather than private labels. The results support our thesis: Americans living in places with high versus low income inequality include fewer private label items in their shopping baskets and are willing to pay a higher premium for national brands. Further, consistent with social comparison theory, we find that the link between income inequality and preference for private labels versus national brands is stronger when people have higher social comparison orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding customer behavior is necessary to develop efficient marketing strategies or launch tailored programs with social value for the public. Customer segmentation is a critical task for understanding diverse and dynamic customer behavior. However, as the popularity of different products varies, building dynamic customer behavior models for products with few customers may overfit the data. In this paper, we propose a new Bayesian nonparametric model for dynamic customer segmentation—Hierarchical Fragmentation-Coagulation Processes (HFCP), which allows sharing behavior patterns across multiple products. We conduct comprehensive empirical evaluations using two real-world purchase datasets. Our results show that HFCP can: (i) determine the number of groups required to model diverse customer behavior automatically; (ii) capture the changes such as split and merge of customer groups over time; (iii) discover behavior patterns shared among products and identify products with similar or different purchase behavior impacted by promotion, brand choice and change of seasons; and (iv) overcome overfitting problems and outperform previous customer segmentation models on estimating behavior for unseen customers. Hence, HFCP is a flexible and accurate segmentation model that can be used by stakeholders to understand dynamic customer behavior and compare the purchase behavior for different products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates price patterns of off-patent pharmaceuticals in Sweden. I show that price dynamics are dependent on the number of competitors in the market. The price patterns follow predictions from a model of dynamic price competition in which the demand for pharmaceuticals incorporates the known biases of consumers: habit persistence and brand preferences. Using the regulated market of Swedish pharmaceuticals, I show that price dynamics may help in identifying possible tacit collusion by manufacturers in markets where consumers experience behavioral frictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketers frequently use individual names as part of their brand-naming strategy. This research investigates how the use of a possessive (indicated by an apostrophe s) versus non-possessive form in a brand name (Mrs. Smith's vs. Mrs. Smith) affects consumer brand preferences and choice for less familiar brands. Building on the theory of possessions, this work demonstrates that consumers infer a brand as being under control of an owner implied in a possessive brand name. Eight studies using real-world data and field and lab experiments show that this inference results in enhanced brand purchase intentions and money spent on a brand's product. This research also establishes that the focal effect occurs for consumers less familiar with the brand and for those with high desire to relinquish control. The core effect reverses in co-creation contexts because this process enhances consumers' own desire for control and thus conflicts with the inferred sense of an owner's control over the brand. Additionally, the current work shows that the positive effect of brand-name possessiveness applies only when no brand longevity information is mentioned; the effect is attenuated when brand longevity is communicated, because older brands are generally seen as largely in control of their performance. Beyond informing theory on the effects of a possessive form in brand names, the findings aid marketers in identifying specific marketplace outcomes for possessive-form brand-naming strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal control systems are a common instrument to align employees' interests with those of managers and companies. However, research shows that employees perceive formal controls as a sign of distrust and restraint, which can lead to costs of control in the form of lower employee cooperation and effort (e.g., Falk and Kosfeld 2006; Christ 2013). We propose that charitable giving reduces these costs of control. We draw on the halo effect and propose that corporate charitable giving alters employees' perception of and reaction to formal controls. In a laboratory experiment, we find that charitable giving by a company creates a higher level of employee trust in a manager who decides to implement a control and a more positive assessment of formal control. These positive effects of charitable giving lead to lower costs of control compared to the absence of charitable giving. We thereby provide an example of how charitable giving as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity yields positive benefits by altering the behavior of internal company stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous cars are considered to be the next disruptive innovation that will affect consumers. It can be expected that not only traditional automakers will enter this market (e.g., Ford) but also technology companies (e.g., Google) and newer companies dedicated to self-driving cars (e.g., Tesla). We take a brand extension perspective and analyze to what extent consumers prefer autonomous cars from these brand categories. Our empirical study is based on discrete choice experiments about adopting autonomous vehicles in a purchase scenario and in a renting context. Our findings show that brands play a central role when making autonomous driving decisions. Brand preferences differ systematically when buying versus renting a self-driving car. While technology brands are most preferred overall, consumers favor automaker brands over new brands only when purchasing, not when renting. We further disentangle the brand strength into the marginal effects of image associations. For example, Google's strong brand positioning can be explained by experiences with the parent brand, but it could still improve brand strength by highlighting the relevance of the associated brand portfolio for self-driving cars. The effect of these brand extension success factors differs between parent-brand categories and also between the renting and purchasing scenarios, which requires a dedicated brand management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some companies use image-based logos (e.g., Pepsi and Apple), while others use text-based logos (e.g., GameStop and Kohl's). This research examines the influence of brand familiarity on consumers' responses to these distinct logo formats. Four studies show that when consumers are familiar with a brand, they respond more favorably to image-based logos than to text-based logos. However, when less familiar, consumers prefer text-based logos over image-based logos. Studies include secondary data analysis on the real-world performance of several hundred global brands with logos of varying image-to-text design ratios. Three controlled experiments then identify processing fluency as the mechanism underlying the observed effects. Together, results provide insights for logo design optimization across companies and over a brand's lifetime, identify brand familiarity as a key consumer-based determinant of logo design effectiveness, and reveal a novel moderator to the common empirical finding that images are favorable to text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: No previous study has identified the specific brands of guns owned by gun owners. This study aimed to: (1) ascertain and describe patterns of brand- and model-specific gun ownership among US gun owners; and (2) investigate the relationship between gun owners' brand and model preferences and their attitudes towards common firearm violence prevention policies. Methods: Using a national, pre-recruited internet panel of US adults in 2019, we surveyed gun owners (N = 2086) to ascertain their opinions regarding firearm violence prevention policies and to assess the brands and models of guns that they owned. Results: Brand-specific gun ownership was highly concentrated and was dominated by three pistol brands, two revolver brands, three rifle brands, and three shotgun brands. There was wide variation in policy attitudes among owners of different gun brands, but little variation across owners of different gun types (i.e., pistols, rifles, revolvers, shotguns). We were able to identify the specific gun models owned by 1218 (59.4%) of the gun owners. Based on the classification of these gun models into three types we categorized the gun ownership pattern of the sample as 33.4% recreational, 45.5% self-defense, and 21.1% tactical. There were marked differences in support for firearm-related policies among the three groups, with support generally highest among the Recreation group and lowest among the Tactical group. Conclusion: We conclude that gun brands and models are strong predictors of a gun owner's attitudes regarding firearm-related policies. This information could help public health practitioners develop segment-specific communications that will appeal to each group in order to more effectively engage gun owners in firearm violence prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: As prescription drug costs rise, it is important to understand attitudes among primary care physicians and nurse practitioners (NPs) towards generic drugs. Objective: We aimed to examine the generic skepticism index (GSI) among primary care clinicians, and their willingness to discuss and prescribe generic antidepressants (ADs) and generic oral contraceptives (OCPs). Design: We used a factorial vignette design survey to test 4 factors: message source, message, brand preference, and drug class. Participants were randomized to different combinations of factors. Setting: This was a cross-sectional study. Participants: Physicians registered with the American College of Physicians (ACP) and NPs registered with the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) participated in the study. Main Measures: The primary outcomes were generic skepticism as measured using the generic skepticism index (GSI), and clinician willingness to discuss and prescribe generics. Results: Surveys were completed by 56% of physicians (n = 369/661) and 60% of NPs (n = 493/819). Compared with physicians, NPs were younger (p < 0.001), predominantly female (p < 0.001), and differed in the race (p < 0.001). According to the GSI, 16% (n = 138/862) were identified as generic skeptics (18.5% of NPs and 12.7% of physicians, p = 0.023). Generic skeptics had lower odds of willingness to discuss switching (OR 0.22, 95% CI (0.14–0.35), p < 0.001) or prescribe (OR 0.18, 95% CI (0.11–0.28), p < 0.001) generic OCPs. Participants had lower odds of willingness to prescribe generic drugs to patients with brand preference compared with brand-neutral patients (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.50–0.82, p < 0.001). Conclusions and Relevance: Generic skepticism was associated with lower willingness to discuss or prescribe generic drugs. Clinicians reported lower willingness to discuss switching or prescribe generics for OCPs than for ADs. Patient brand preference hindered generic prescribing. Message source and message type were not significantly associated with outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To measure the extent of incomplete information about brand qualities faced by consumers, recent research in marketing and economics has extended traditional static choice models to explicitly allow for consumer learning. These models tend to be complicated and make stringent assumptions such as Bayesian updating. In this paper, we provide a simpler alternative method to measure how much consumers know about the quality of quasi-durable products. Our key insight is that for products that depreciate over time and require repeated purchases, individuals' observed inter-purchase spells provide another measure of brand qualities in terms of durability. This is simply because the higher the durability, the longer a product can last in general, and hence its observed inter-purchase spells should also be longer. Based on this argument, we propose an empirical framework to estimate both the perceived brand quality (based on revealed preference data) and brand durability (based on brand-specific inter-purchase spells) and apply it to a scanner panel dataset for diapers. Our estimates allow us to compare these two measures of qualities and infer the extent of incomplete information faced by parents. With our results, we can address questions such as: Do parents make the right choice in the diapers category? Can they save some money by switching from a national brand to a store brand or the other way around? How much savings can they get? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to calls for further research on ethical issues in advertising. The study examines whether advertising strategies which use female-disparaging themes are perceived as ethical, and what effect this has on ad and brand attitudes. It also examines whether or not humour assuages ethical evaluations of female-disparaging ads. The findings from an experimental research design, which included 336 British respondents, show that non-disparaging and non-humorous ads are considered to be the most ethical, while disparaging ads (regardless of the level of humour) are considered the least ethical. Across the board, female-disparaging ads are not perceived as ethical; however, high benevolent sexists appear to favour them most. Finally, an ad's perceived ethicality mediates the relationship between ad disparagement and ad attitudes; likewise, an ad's perceived ethicality and ad attitudes mediate the relationship between an ad's female disparagement and brand attitudes. Female-disparaging ads should be avoided given that they are perceived as less ethical and given the impact that advertising has on behaviour, as well as on societal and moral values. Advertisers should also avoid using female-disparaging advertising themes, even light-hearted ones, since they constitute a risky strategy for the ad and the brand as they can backfire and alienate consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New national survey evidence on electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) risk beliefs indicates that people substantially overestimate the health risks posed by e-cigarettes, both in absolute terms and relative to conventional cigarette risk beliefs. Perceptions of the lung cancer risks and total mortality risks of conventional cigarettes function as prior risk beliefs for e-cigarettes. People believe e-cigarettes are at least 60% as risky as conventional cigarettes. Whether respondents have seen reports of vaping-related illnesses has no significant effect on risk beliefs, but there has been a modest increase in the percentage who believe that e-cigarettes are riskier than cigarettes. Accurate e-cigarette beliefs would significantly increase whether people try, currently use, or exclusively use e-cigarettes. Whereas price and taste are the principal drivers of brand choice for conventional cigarettes, use of e-cigarettes is more closely linked to smoking cessation and concern with environmental tobacco smoke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As negative information about companies becomes widely available and spreads rapidly through digital communications, understanding consumer reactions to these events and how human perceptions are shaped becomes increasingly important. In this paper, we investigate how consumers' identification with brands and their love for them affect their support for the brand during extremely unethical (negative) situations. The results indicate that brand identification both decreases (direct effect) and increases (indirect effect through brand love) consumers' ethical judgment following extremely unethical events. Moreover, we find that consumers who are in a love type relationship with the brand proactively shield the brand from other consumers by employing two brand supportive behaviors; sin of omission and brand defense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results of previous studies that modeled the influence of transfer of functions over preference for brands showed that adults and children choose more frequently a container labeled with symbols equivalent to stimuli with positive valence when containers had the same food or drink in them. The present study was conducted to verify whether such preferences involved transfer both of positive and negative valences. Fourteen children formed three equivalence classes containing a liked cartoon character, a neutral picture, and a disliked character, respectively. The other class members were geometrical forms and arbitrary stimuli. Three preference tests followed class formation: children chose between two pieces of the same snack, differing by the label on the container—C1 (equivalent to the liked character), C2 (equivalent to the neutral picture), and C3 (equivalent to the disliked character). Choices in Tests 1, 2, and 3 were between, respectively, C1 and C3; C2 and C3; and C1 and C2. In Test 1, all children preferred the snack labeled with C1, and most children also preferred, in Test 3, the snack labeled with C1 over the one labeled with C2. It is surprising that in Test 2 there was more preference for the snack labeled with C3, equivalent to the disliked character. Results confirmed the preference for the brand equivalent to the liked character, but suggested that children may prefer brands equivalent to a cartoon character over neutral ones, even when the character is disliked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the guest editors discuss the theme of the issue, developing consumer-based marketing strategy that anticipate consumption experiences such as when consumers take steps to choose products, brands, or technologies, engage in online or offline retail experiences, and use products and services.

Generating and maintaining consumers' engagement in online brand communities is critical for marketing managers to enhance relationships and gain customer loyalty. In this research, we investigate how the type of signal used to indicate user reputation can enhance (or diminish) consumers' community engagement. Specifically, we explore differences in perceptions of points (i.e., point accrual systems), labels (i.e., descriptive, hierarchical identification systems), and badges (i.e., descriptive, horizontally-ordered identification systems). We argue that reputation signals vary in the degree to which they can provide role clarity—the presence of user roles that deliver information about expected behaviors within a group. Across several studies, including a natural experiment using panel data, a survey of community members, and two controlled experiments, we show that signals that evoke a positive social role have the ability to drive greater engagement (i.e., creating discussions, posting comments, and future engagement intentions) than signals that do not provide role clarity. The effect is moderated by user tenure, such that new consumers' engagement is particularly influenced by signal type. These findings have important implications for marketers as they use reputation signals as a strategic tool when managing online communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most previous applications of brand choice models, possible time-varying effects in consumer behavior are ignored by merely imposing constant parameters. However, it is very likely that trends or short-term variations in consumers’ intrinsic brand utilities or sensitivities to marketing instruments occur. For example, preferences for specific brands or price elasticities in product categories such as coffee or chocolate may vary in the run-up to festive occasions like Easter or Christmas. In this paper, we employ flexible multinomial logit models for estimating time-varying effects in brand choice behavior. Time-varying brand intercepts and time-varying effects of covariates are modeled using penalized splines, a flexible, yet parsimonious, nonparametric smoothing technique. The estimation is data driven; the flexible functions, as well as the corresponding degrees of smoothness, are determined simultaneously in a unified approach. Our model further allows for alternative-specific time-varying effects of covariates and can mimic state-space approaches with random walk parameter dynamics. In an empirical application for ground coffee, we compare the performance of the proposed approach to a number of benchmark models regarding in-sample fit, information criteria, and in particular out-of-sample fit. Interestingly, the most complex P-spline model with time-varying brand intercepts and brand-specific time-varying covariate effects outperforms all other specifications both in- and out-of-sample. We further present results from a sensitivity analysis on how the number of knots and other P-spline settings affect the model performance, and we provide guidelines for the model building process about the many options for model specification using P-splines. Finally, the resulting parameter paths provide valuable insights for marketing managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online product ratings, as a type of electronic word-of-mouth, play an important role for helping consumers select desirable products, but it is difficult for consumers to read a large number of online ratings on e-commerce Web site. To support consumer’s purchase decision, how to rank the candidate products based on online product ratings and consumer’s preferences is a noteworthy research topic, while the existing studies concerning this issue are still relatively scarce. This paper proposes a method for ranking products based on online multi-attribute product ratings. In the method, a discrete percentage distribution of the evaluation of each candidate product with respect to each attribute based on online ratings is first constructed, and the 3σ criterion is used to eliminate the anomalous ratings. Then, by defining of the stochastic dominance rules and the stochastic dominance degrees on comparing two discrete percentage distributions, the stochastic dominance relation between each pair of products is determined, and the corresponding stochastic dominance degree is calculated. Further, according to the obtained stochastic dominance degrees, the ranking of candidate products can be determined using the PROMETHEE-II method. A case study on selecting the automobile is given to illustrate the use of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tests and extends the evolutionary theory of household consumption behavior, which is an alternative to neoclassical theory. Evolutionary economists offer novel approaches to the analysis of consumption behavior that emphasize the major role of learning in the evolution of consumer preferences and wants. As a possible inspiration for further progress in evolutionary thought, this paper examines the idea of consumer learning by studying the nature of what consumers should learn in the context of ‘novelty’. Our empirical results regarding novelty during the learning process show that consumers learn the ‘new characteristics’ of consumer goods, contrary to the Lancasterian approach, which suggests that the characteristics space of goods is fixed. We show that during the process of consumption, ‘consumer learning’ extends the characteristics space of consumer goods; this phenomenon is far from negligible and differs across product types. Moreover, our results show that the emergence of new characteristics cannot be modeled as a Poisson process because these new characteristics exhibit clear interdependence over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although energy efficiency of many products has been improving constantly, residential energy consumption is not decreasing as much as desired. Therefore, the goal of the European Union (EU) and many other countries is to promote energy-friendly product choices (i.e., choice of products with low energy consumption). In a purchase situation, consumers are confronted with a wide range of energy-related information that can influence the decision-making process. Understanding how consumers reach a decision based on the information provided and identifying decision-making strategies that are beneficial or destructive in terms of energy friendliness is crucial for the improvement of existing energy-policy measures and, consequently, for the successful achievement of target energy saving goals. This paper provides insights from an exploratory eye-tracking study ( N = 59) investigating consumers' decision-making process. Participants were required to identify the most energy-friendly television (i.e., the television with lowest energy consumption). Cluster analysis revealed three consumer segments with different decision-making strategies: the energy-directed lexicographic, unsystematic lexicographic, and unsystematic exhaustive strategies. The energy-directed lexicographic strategy resulted in 60% optimal choices in terms of energy friendliness, unsystematic lexicographic in 33%, and unsystematic exhaustive in 38%. No decision-making strategy resulted in 100% optimal choices in terms of energy friendliness. Findings emphasize that lexicographic strategies can successfully identify energy-friendly products when the correct information (i.e., actual energy consumption) is used. However, a lexicographic strategy can be very misleading and result in non-optimal choices in terms of energy friendliness when it is based on ambiguous information (i.e., energy efficiency information) that does not enable a conclusive decision. Further, this paper discusses implications for policy-makers and marketers for the promotion of energy-friendly consumer behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates the differential effect of price promotions on brand choice across the offline and online channels of a grocery retailer. We use scanner data to analyze the purchasing behavior of orange juice of a sample of multichannel customers of a large European grocery chain selling across offline and online stores. We find that promotions have a higher impact on offline than in online purchases. In fact we don't find a significant effect of promotions in the online channel. We also find a moderating effect of purchase frequency in the category, in the sense that frequent customers are more influenced by promotions than infrequent customers. While this effect is clear in the offline channel, it is not found in the online channel. There is also a high degree of heterogeneity in the effect of promotions among consumers, specially in the offline channel. It is important to remark that these differential effects across channels have been found for the same sample of multichannel customers, meaning that the same consumers are more affected by promotions offline than online. Potential causes and consequences of these results, as well as implications for management, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, we explore the negative consequences of engaging customer participation through voting mechanisms. Specifically, we draw attention to the double risk of customer voting, first by identifying the adverse effects of losing, and then by revealing the potential of turning an already engaged set of customers over to underdog competitors. We first establish that the losing effect is distinct from that of a voting (empowerment) effect (Pilot Study). We then replicate the losing effect and show that losing (as opposed to winning) voters tend to experience stronger levels of disempowerment and identify more with the underdog (Study 1). Finally, we demonstrate that losing voters are more likely to choose a competitor brand over the incumbent brand, particularly when the competitor is perceived to be an underdog (Study 2). Our findings caution brand managers to reconsider their customer engagement strategy when it involves customer voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research shows that consumers' intra-brand choices (e.g., Mercedes C330 vs. C340) can be affected by exposure to a competitor alphanumeric brand name that forms an incidental trend with the numbers in the focal brand names (e.g., BMW320i or BMW350i). We propose and test two mechanisms. First, when no attribute information is available, the competitor brand can make the numerical trends formed by brand names salient and meaningful, and increase the preference for higher brands (e.g., Mercedes C340). Second, when attribute values are negatively correlated with brands, exposure to the competitor brand name can trigger brand-attribute magnitude tradeoffs. In five experiments, we demonstrate that our predictions hold when there are no intrinsic brand-attribute associations, and even when the competitor brand is not available for choice. We identify competitive categorization as a boundary condition and demonstrate that the effect diminishes when consumers do not categorize the nonfocal option as a competitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research links brand avoidance behaviors to attention to social comparison information (ATSCI). We posit that high (vs low) ATSCI consumers will suffer from more social-evaluative uncertainty, i.e., more uncertainty regarding others' reactions to their brand choices. To alleviate this problem, high ATSCI consumers will avoid distinctive or conspicuous brands and brand icons that might draw the attention of others, playing safe in their brand choices, rather than risking social disapproval. Two preliminary studies provide support for the theoretical assumptions, confirming that ATSCI is positively associated with brand consciousness, brand social-evaluative uncertainty, and brand avoidance motivated by social-evaluative concerns. Study 1 examines brand identification and shows that although high and low ATSCI consumers identify themselves with equally prestigious brands, the former avoid identifying with distinctive brands. Study 2 demonstrates that unlike their low ATSCI counterparts, high ATSCI consumers avoid conspicuous brand logos even in the case of highly prestigious brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the impact of social media conversations on consumer valuation of brand characteristics and demand for carbonated soft drinks (CSDs). We formulate a random coefficient, discrete choice model of consumer demand that includes social media conversations, and estimate it matching Nielsen sales data on carbonated soft drinks to social media conversations on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Empirical results indicate that consumers' conversations about brands and nutritional aspects of CSDs have a significant impact on their valuation of brand characteristics and ultimately on their choices of CSDs. These findings have important implications not only for firms using social media as a strategic tool for effective brand promotion and product design but also for public health policies aimed at reducing the consumption of sugary beverages and high-calorie foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study designed to investigate and map the trajectories of brand love. Consumers described experiences related to the initiation and evolution of their relationships with their most loved brand. Participants were asked to graphically trace the course of their feelings toward their currently most loved brand and to recall the events that influenced those feelings. The paths toward brand love followed five distinct trajectories, labeled as 'slow development,' 'liking becomes love,' 'love all the way,' 'bumpy road,' and 'turnabout.' The formative experiences shaping these trajectories often include individual, personal, and private experiences that are largely outside any marketer's control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas past research has focused on negative outcomes that can transfer from one firm to another, this paper examines conditions under which a service failure by one firm creates an opportunity to enhance customer evaluations of a different firm in a contiguous service experience. Thus, a new external service recovery phenomenon is demonstrated in which consumers have more favorable perceptions of a firm when there was a previous failure with a different firm compared with no previous service failure. Study 1 tests hypotheses related to consumers' perceptions of a hotel's external service recovery after an airline's service failure. Study 2 examines an external recovery effort in the hotel industry that follows a service failure from an unrelated hotel, an affiliated hotel, and the same hotel. Study 3 utilizes a laboratory experiment to assess the effects of external recovery in a restaurant setting. Results from all three studies suggest external recovery leads to appreciable gains for the recovering firm but only when it is not affiliated with the failing firm. Implications for service managers suggest several simple and relatively low cost tactics can be implemented to capitalize on other firms' failures. In particular, this research highlights strategies that encourage frontline employees to listen to customers and, if a prior failure is detected, make simple gestures of goodwill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows that commitment-based interventions are among the most effective strategies to encourage pro-environmental behaviors, but methods to elicit commitments from a large number of individuals (i.e., door-to-door or phone campaigns) are often costly and unrealistic. Predictions requests-a commitment-type strategy-are an effective mass-communication strategy and have the potential to influence pro-environmental behavior among large audiences. This research is the first to demonstrate that prediction requests in a consumer behavior context influence preference for environmentally friendly products. In addition, this research examines the role of individual and contextual factors in influencing the efficacy of prediction requests. Study 1 shows that exposure to an advertisement with a prediction request leads to increased preferences for environmentally sustainable (vs. traditional) household cleaning products, compared to a control advertisement, and that this effect is greater when the prediction request is paired with an audience cue (vs. prediction request only). Study 2 indicates that the effect of prediction requests on preference for sustainable products is greater for individuals with interdependent (vs. independent) self-construal. Substantive implications and directions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a framework for the joint study of the consumer's decision of where to buy and what to buy. The framework is rooted in utility theory where the utility is for a particular channel/brand combination. The framework contains firm actions, the consumer search process, the choice process, and consumer learning. We develop research questions within each of these areas. We then discuss methodological issues pertaining to the use of experimentation and econometrics. Our framework suggests that brand and channel choices are closely intertwined, and therefore studying them jointly will reveal a deeper understanding of consumer decision making in the modern marketing environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an integrated purchase model of household category purchase incidence, brand choice, and purchase quantity choice using the Gaussian copula. In contrast to the existing model, we assume the general form of the dependence parameter matrix for Gaussian copula. The proposed approach allows us to decompose the joint probability of the purchase outcomes into the conditional probability of one decision given the others. The price elasticities derived based on these conditional probabilities can fully reflect the underlying dependence among the decisions. The conditional probabilities are also utilized to predict future responses mimicking the sequence of the purchase decisions. The proposed model is applied to scanner panel data for the dishwashing soap category. We find that there exists a very strong positive dependence between incidence and brand choice, while dependence between incidence and quantity choice, and between brand choice and quantity choice is negative. The main sources of the overall behavioral response to price are found to be the incidence and brand choice decisions, while the quantity choice decision is hardly influenced by price change after decisions are made on the category of purchase and brand choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We assess attenuating and augmenting effects of brand commitment on consumer responses when product recalls occur. Consistent with our theorization, results from a laboratory experiment and an event study show that high levels of brand commitment attenuate negative consumer responses in low-severity product recalls but augment them in high-severity product recalls. Thus, while brand commitment seems to provide a reservoir of goodwill in the former case, it acts as a liability in the latter. These findings add to the extant brand and product recall literature by demonstrating that brand commitment has a complex effect on consumer responses when product recalls occur. Because product recalls are widespread, these findings also have managerial relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not much is known about the interaction effects between current and past contingencies. At the brand level, consumers may or may not buy exactly what they bought or intended to buy on their last shopping trip, and this could be due to differences in the behavioral contingencies. The main purpose of this article was to examine possible relations between what consumers say about the brands they bought last and what they intend to buy, which is a way of measuring part of their learning history with brands, and their actual purchases, taking into account the programmed reinforcement contingencies (marketing strategies) at the point of sale. With a quasiexperimental procedure at a typical retail store, results showed, in general, that current and past contingencies interact and have different impacts on say--do correspondence, which can be explained by the behavioral perspective model of consumer behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers increasingly seek to develop brand loyalty through sponsorship activities, though this relationship has not been solidly established. This article models and demonstrates the impact of sponsorship on brand loyalty. The studied concepts and relationships emerge from both the sponsorship and consumer-brand relationship literature. The experimental design relies on before and after measurements and multiple exposures to the sponsorship. Thus this study demonstrates that sponsorship exposure has a positive impact on brand affect, brand trust, and brand loyalty. The change in brand loyalty from before to after sponsorship exposure reflects two persuasion processes. First, self-congruity with an event enhances brand loyalty through event and brand affect. Second, perceived fit between the event and the brand has a positive effect on brand affect, through attitude toward the sponsorship, and on brand trust, such that it ultimately influences brand loyalty. Brand affect is identified as an important mediator of sponsorship effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a study of the prescribing physician's influence on consumers' choice between medically equivalent pharmaceuticals. The study was performed using a dataset of 666,000 observations in which consumers were asked whether they were prepared to pay the price difference in order to obtain the prescribed pharmaceutical instead of the cheapest available substitute. The main results support the hypothesis that prescribing physicians have an impact on consumers' choice between medically equivalent pharmaceutical products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of their corporate social responsibility, many organizations practice cause-related marketing, in which organizations donate to a chosen cause with every consumer purchase. The extant literature has identified the importance of the fit between the organization and the nature of the cause in influencing corporate image, as well as the influence of a connection between the cause and consumer preferences on brand attitudes and brand choice. However, prior research has not addressed which cause composition most appeals to consumers or the impact of cause choice on corporate image. A between-subjects field experiment in the Netherlands examines the influence of three core cause attributes-cause type, cause scope, and cause acuteness-on consumers' perceptions of corporate image. Furthermore, this experiment examines the extent to which consumer identification with the cause mediates the influence of the cause attributes on corporate image. The findings indicate that identification with the cause leads to more positive evaluations of marketing campaigns for cause type and cause scope. Also, however, our results uncover a negative direct relationship between cause scope and corporate image. Cause acuteness is only marginally influential in corporate image perceptions. By proposing and testing a comprehensive model of the influence of cause attributes on corporate image in cause-related marketing, this article provides important implications and suggests avenues for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaining customer loyalty is an important goal of marketing, and loyalty programs are intended to help in reaching it. Research on loyalty programs suggests that customers differentiate between loyalty to a company and loyalty to a loyalty program, yet little is known about the consequences of these two types of loyalty. Therefore, our study intends to make two main contributions: (1) improving our understanding of the constructs 'program loyalty' and 'company loyalty', (2) investigating the relative impact of the two types of loyalty on preference, intention, and purchase behavior for the case of a multi-firm loyalty program. Results indicate that company loyalty influences a customer's choice to visit a particular provider and to prefer it over competitors, but it is not a strong predictor of purchase behavior. Conversely, program loyalty is a far more important driver of purchase behavior. This implies that company loyalty primarily attracts customers to a particular provider and program loyalty ensures that once inside the store, more money is spent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a unique dataset on U.S. beer consumption, we investigate brand preferences of consumers across various social group and context related consumption scenarios ('scenarios'). As sufficient data are not available for each scenario, understanding these preferences requires us to share information across scenarios. Our proposed modeling framework has two main building blocks. The first is a standard continuous random coefficients logit model that the framework reduces to in the absence of information on social groups and consumption contexts. The second component captures variations in mean preferences across scenarios in a parsimonious fashion by decomposing the deviations in preferences from a base scenario into a low dimensional brand map in which the brand locations are fixed across scenarios but the importance weights vary by scenario. In addition to heterogeneity in brand preferences that is reflected in the random coefficients, heterogeneity in preferences across scenarios is accounted for by allowing the brand map itself to have a discrete heterogeneity distribution across consumers. Finally, heterogeneity in preferences within a scenario is accounted for by allowing the importance weights to vary across consumers. Together, these factors allow us to parsimoniously account for preference heterogeneity across brands, consumers and scenarios. We conduct a simulation study to reassure ourselves that using the kind of data that is available to us, our proposed estimator can recover the true model parameters from those data. We find that brand preferences vary considerably across the different social groups and consumption contexts as well as across different consumer segments. Despite the sparse data on specific brand-scenario combinations, our approach facilitates such an analysis and assessment of the relative strengths of brands in each of these scenarios. This could provide useful guidance to the brand managers of the smaller brands whose overall preference level might be low but which enjoy a customer franchise in a particular segment or in a particular context or a social group setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors propose a symbolic-instrumental interactive framework of consumer-brand identification (CBI) and explore its predictiveness across 15 countries. Using multinational data, they show that the negative impact of the misalignment between self-brand congruity and perceived quality on CBI is universal. The interaction among CBI, perceived quality, and uncertainty avoidance orientation in motivating consumers' identity-sustaining behavior is weak. However, the synergy between CBI and perceived quality in motivating consumers' identity-promoting behavior is stronger among collectivist consumers. The authors derive a typology of symbolic-instrumental misalignments to help international marketing managers motivate consumers to identify with and promote brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ingredient branding, or the use of two or more brand names on a single product, is widely seen as providing significant benefits in terms of increased product differentiation and greater market share. The association between two brand names can both enhance and dilute the brand equity of the host brand name and the ingredient brand name. This research examines the behavioral spillover effects associated with cobranded strategies across segments of consumers that vary in their prior brand commitment or loyalty. Different from previous research, this paper uses A.C. Nielsen scanner panel data to investigate the behavioral spillover effects of ingredient branded products on choice of the host and ingredient brands in a field setting. The results suggest that there is a significant behavioral spillover impact of trial of the cobranded product on the purchase probability of both the host and ingredient brands. This effect is greater among prior non-loyal users and prior non-users of the host and ingredient brands and when there is a higher degree of perceived fit between the host and ingredient brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]