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Article
Publication date: 10 July 2019

Meihua Zuo, Hongwei Liu, Hui Zhu and Hongming Gao

The purpose of this paper is to identify potential competitive relationships among brands by analyzing the dynamic clicking behavior of consumers.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify potential competitive relationships among brands by analyzing the dynamic clicking behavior of consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

Consumer sequential online click data, collected from JD.com, is used to analyze the dynamic competitive relationship between brands. It is found that the competition intensity across categories of products can differ considerably. Consumers exhibit big differences in purchasing time of durable-like goods, that is, the purchasing probability of such products changes considerably over time. The local polynomial regression model (LPRM) is used to analyze the relationship between brand competition of durable-like goods and the purchasing probability of a particular brand.

Findings

The statistical results of collective behaviors show that there is a 90/10 rule for the category durable-like goods, implying that ten percent of the brands account for 90 percent market share in terms of both clicking and purchasing behavior. The dynamic brand cognitive process of impulsive consumers displays an inverted V shape, while cautious consumers display a double V shaped cognitive process. The dynamic consumers’ cognition illustrates that when the brands capture a half of the click volume, the brands’ competitiveness reaches to its peak and makes no significant different from brands accounting for 100 percent of the click volume in terms of the purchasing probability.

Research limitations/implications

There are some limitations to the research, including the limitations imposed by the data set. One of the most serious problems in the data set is that the collected click-stream is desensitized severely, restricting the richness of the conclusions of this study. Second, the data set consists of many other consumer behavioral data, but only the consumer’s clicking behavior is analyzed in this study. Therefore, in future research, the parameters brand browsing by consumers and the time of browsing in each brand should be added as indicators of brand competitive intensity.

Practical implications

The authors study brand competitiveness by analyzing the relationship between the click rate and the purchase likelihood of individual brands for durable-like products. When the brand competitiveness is less than 50 percent, consumers tend to seek a variety of new brands, and their purchase likelihood is positively correlated with the brand competitiveness. Once consumers learn about a particular brand excessively among all other brands at a period of time, the purchase likelihood of its products decreases due to the thinner consumer’s short-term loyalty the brand. Till the brand competitiveness runs up to 100 percent, consumers are most likely to purchase a brand and its product. That indicates brand competitiveness maintain 50 percent of the whole market is most efficient to be profitable, and the performance of costing more to improve the brand competitiveness might make no difference.

Originality/value

There are many studies on brand competition, but most of these research works analyze the brand’s marketing strategy from the perspective of the company. The limitation of this research is that the data are historical and failure to reflect time-variant competition. Some researchers have studied brand competition through consumer behavior, but the shortcoming of these studies is that it does not consider sequentiality of consumer behavior as this study does. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature by using consumers’ sequential clicking behavior and expands the perspective of brand competition research from the angle of consumers. Simultaneously, this paper uses the LPRM to analyze the relationship between consumer clicking behavior and brand competition for the first time, and expands the methodology accordingly.

Details

Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 119 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-5577

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 December 2006

Jean-Pascal Daloz

All sorts of distinctions can be made concerning prestige goods: for instance, between the most durable like precious stones passed down from generation to generation and the…

Abstract

All sorts of distinctions can be made concerning prestige goods: for instance, between the most durable like precious stones passed down from generation to generation and the ephemeral ones, or between those which seem to exert a universal fascination, like gold and others valued only in some places. The question of borrowings and possible syncretism is also most appealing for the comparatist and countless illustrations could be given here. In many cases, prestigious goods must be studied by taking both their symbolic and practical value into consideration. What I mean is that a ‘Veblenesque’ approach only paying attention to them as status symbols tends to underestimate their functional dimension. For example, limousines or jets must certainly be analyzed in terms of attributes of power and status enhancement. However, one cannot deny that they also have concrete functions of ‘comfortableness’ and rapidity for ubiquitous elites bound to do extensive traveling. Normally, in modern democracies, top political actors inherit or acquire all kinds of prestigious public assets, but these must be returned at the end of their mandate. Even presents officially given to them are supposed to be surrendered to a public museum. The famous affair of Emperor Bokassa's diamonds offered to Valéry Giscard d’Estaing no doubt discredited the French President and contributed to his defeat in the 1981 elections.

Details

Comparative Studies of Social and Political Elites
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-466-9

Article
Publication date: 21 June 2013

Gerard Prendergast and Choi Ching Lam

The purpose of this study is to describe the shopping experiences of males and females. The central research question is: what does shopping mean for males and females? The…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to describe the shopping experiences of males and females. The central research question is: what does shopping mean for males and females? The sub‐question related to this central research question is: what are the differences in male and female experiences of shopping?

Design/methodology/approach

Using a phenomenological method, a study was conducted of the shopping experiences of males and females. This involved in‐depth interviews, an analysis of significant statements, and generation of core themes.

Findings

The analysis revealed six core themes that highlight the differences in how males and females experience shopping. Categorizing these six themes into textural and structural descriptions of the phenomenon culminates in an essence that depicts shopping as being a pleasurable experience for females but not so pleasurable for males. Through an inductive process, the authors argue that these findings are most suitably explained within an evolutionary psychology framework.

Research limitations/implications

First, the sample consists solely of Hong Kong shoppers. Second, although every effort was made to validate the findings, with an interpretivist study of this nature, the interpretations can be challenged.

Practical implications

Based on the evolutionary instincts of consumers, retailing tactics can be developed to cater for the needs of males, females, and couples.

Originality/value

While many quantitative studies have been conducted of the shopping behavior of males and females, none have deeply probed the shopping experiences using a qualitative line of inquiry. By seeking to discover the essence of the experience of male and female shoppers, this phenomenological research fills the gap in the existing literature.

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 20 January 2017

Anne T. Coughlan and Benjamin Neuwirth

This case looks at a new start-up company, d.light Design, as it was seeking to go to market in India with its solar-powered LED lamps in 2009. Sam Goldman, founder and chief…

Abstract

This case looks at a new start-up company, d.light Design, as it was seeking to go to market in India with its solar-powered LED lamps in 2009. Sam Goldman, founder and chief customer officer of d.light, was in New Delhi, India; his business-school friend and co-founder Ned Tozun was in China, the site of the company's manufacturing plant.

One of the key decisions Goldman and Tozun needed to make was whether d.light should focus on just one distribution channel in India, or multiple channels. The startup had limited capital, so it needed to get the distribution question right to generate revenue quickly.

The case thus combines an entrepreneurial problem with an emerging-market, or bottom-of-the-pyramid, channel design challenge. This case does not focus on product design or manufacturing challenges but rather on questions of:

  • The constraints d.light faced in creating an aligned distribution channel. These constraints can have legal, environmental, and/or managerial foundations

  • Demand-side misalignments in the channel structure that will occur if d.light chooses one or another of the considered channels in the case, namely, (a) the RE (rural entrepreneur) channel, (b) the village retailer channel, or (c) the centralized shops channel

  • • What mix of channels—or what single channel—d.light should focus on in the Indian market

  • • The financial return possible based on d.light's current cost structure and overhead expenditures in India

The constraints d.light faced in creating an aligned distribution channel. These constraints can have legal, environmental, and/or managerial foundations

Demand-side misalignments in the channel structure that will occur if d.light chooses one or another of the considered channels in the case, namely, (a) the RE (rural entrepreneur) channel, (b) the village retailer channel, or (c) the centralized shops channel

• What mix of channels—or what single channel—d.light should focus on in the Indian market

• The financial return possible based on d.light's current cost structure and overhead expenditures in India

  • Assess channel benefit demand intensities for chosen target market segments

  • Assess channel alignment constraints that can limit the channel designer's ability to optimize the channel to meet identified end-user demands for channel benefits

  • Use these ideas to defend a choice of one or more possible channel structures as appropriate parts of a company's overall channel system

  • Analyze financial opportunity in this situation, given cost parameters and possible market penetration estimates

Assess channel benefit demand intensities for chosen target market segments

Assess channel alignment constraints that can limit the channel designer's ability to optimize the channel to meet identified end-user demands for channel benefits

Use these ideas to defend a choice of one or more possible channel structures as appropriate parts of a company's overall channel system

Analyze financial opportunity in this situation, given cost parameters and possible market penetration estimates

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