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The existence and extent of consumers' external search effort has been deliberated by consumer behaviour theorists for several decades. Research has largely focused on durable goods such as automobiles for which there is a high monetary risk. This study considers a non‐durable product, wine, where there are several hundred alternatives. Furthermore, knowledge of the product's attributes are difficult to assess by visual inspection of the product. Thus it is presumed that consumers would conduct a search for information prior to their purchase, in particular making use of expert opinion by reading wine reviews and books. Results show that there is very little external search effort undertaken prior to entering the store. Furthermore, the two highest ranked information sources, point of sale material and labels, are only rated somewhat important. Overall there is no one overriding information source but several sources cumulate to provide the information consumers require.

This paper aims to study the impact of manufacturer’s upgrading strategy of durable products on the retailer’s decision on trade-in program and her decision on the secondary market.

This paper develops a channel that consists of a manufacturer and a retailer, where the manufacturer releases an upgraded product, and the retailer introduces a trade-in program for consumers, simultaneously, decides whether to enter the secondary market. These approaches are modeled through Stackelberg game.

This paper reveals that the optimal conditions for manufacturer to release upgraded products and retailer to resell used products in the secondary market, and it reveals that under what conditions it is profitable for retailer to enter the secondary market under product upgrade levels.

If the manufacturer’s upgrade level is low, it is profitable for the retailer to enter the secondary market. However, if the manufacturer’s upgrade level is high, it is unprofitable for the retailer to enter the secondary market.

In this paper, the active secondary market, upgrading of new products, consumer market segmentation and especially, the upgrade degree of new products as a function of consumer demand are considered simultaneously.

This research examines factors that affect media selection decisions for foreign markets as perceived by advertising executives of U.S. multinational corporations. The main objective is to determine whether cultural factors play a significant role in the selection process. The study investigates the opinions of 84 advertising executives of U.S. consumer durable product manufacturers. Findings reveal that managers place more importance on general factors (type of product, target audience, budget size, cost efficiency, reach and frequency, and competition) than they place on specific non‐domestic factors (media availability, language diversity, legal constraints, level of economy, literacy, and cultural considerations). Findings also suggest that executives tend to be more involved in establishing objectives and budgets than in creative strategy and media selection.

Underlines that marketers are interested in how consumers evaluate products sourced from overseas. Observes that, along with the globalization of business, more developing countries have become feasible markets for a variety of consumer goods manufactured in industrialized countries, yet relatively little research has investigated how consumers in those emerging markets evaluate foreign‐sourced products. Focuses on Chinese consumers’ evaluation of products made in the USA, Japan and South Korea. Suggests that country‐of‐origin (COO) information significantly influences Chinese subjects’ evaluation of the products from these countries, with a hierarchy of country of origin effects existing among the sample of Chinese consumers. Determines that products from the USA and Japan received more favourable ratings than those from South Korea and, contrary to prior belief, cultural similarity did not seem to moderate the COO effect. However, finds that product type and how COO and other product information were communicated to the subjects did seem to influence the subjects’ product evaluation.

Flexible return policies are offered by the manufacturers to encourage the retailers announcing a lenient returns scheme to their customers.

This study considers the distribution of durable products in a supply chain where the demand is sensitive to sales effort and retail price. Using a game theoretic framework, the paper presents an assessment of the strategic effect of flexible returns policy announced by the manufacturer under retail competition and highlights its implications on profitability.

Comparative analysis of monopolistic and duopolistic competition provides a better understanding about the repercussions and related facts on offering a flexible returns policy in these environments. It is profitable for the manufacturer to offer a flexible returns policy when there is retail competition than under monopolistic condition.

Practitioners view returns policy offered as an insurance given to the buyers and they infer it to be a better mechanism for doing business. Lenient returns policy promotes the sales by increasing the trust on the retailer and boosts up the perception of quality about the product by lowering the perceived risk for customers.

Effective product return strategies such as being lenient in terms of time, money, effort, scope and exchange can result in increased revenues, lower cost and improved profitability to the manufacturer and retailer, at the same time offering an enhanced level of customer service.

A significant portion of academic research on marketing strategy focuses on how national brands of repeat-purchase goods are managed or should be managed. Surprisingly little consideration is given in this tradition to the extended role of geography, i.e. distance and space. For instance, manufacturers of brands in non-durable product categories are well aware of the fact that their national brands perform very different across domestic U.S. markets. This holds even for product categories with limited product differentiation. In this chapter, we outline various processes through which the influence of geography on performance of national brands materializes. We discuss a number of alternative explanations for the emergence and sustenance of spatial concentration of market shares. Several of these explanations are modeled empirically using data from the United States packaged goods industry. This chapter closes with avenues for further academic research on spatial aspects of the growth of new products.

Taking a mental accounting theory perspective, this study explores how pricing strategy (all-inclusive vs partitioned) influences consumers' perceived residual value of a product and their subsequent intentions to upgrade to a newer model.

A pilot study and two formal experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses.

A partitioned (vs all-inclusive) price causes consumers to later recall a lower total cost and perceive lower residual value for the existing product, thereby increasing upgrade intentions. This finding holds for both utilitarian and hedonic products. Perceived residual value mediates the impact of the pricing strategy on upgrade intentions. The pricing strategy effect is stronger for state-oriented individuals than for action-oriented individuals.

This study extends understanding of the impact of pricing strategies from consumers' short-term immediate demand to long-term upgrade intentions. It also identifies a previously uninvestigated moderator (action-state orientation), clarifying the boundary conditions of pricing strategy effects. The study's conceptual framework links pricing strategy, sunk costs, perceived residual value and upgrade intentions, providing rich insights and potential research paths. These findings further enhance understanding of upgrade intentions.

The evidence for the reciprocal effects of a brand extension on its parent brand is unclear. An experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of an extension's quality, its fit with the parent brand, and parent brand dominance, on parent brand evaluation. The paper finds that extension quality and fit did not dilute parent brand attitude; in other words, an extension either left parent brand attitude unchanged or enhanced it moderately. The only effect of brand dominance was that it enhanced parent brand attitude when the extension was a good fit. Further, the introduction of an extension, regardless of its fit or quality, enhanced parent brand attitude for a durable product relative to a control group. It seems that parent brand attitudes are held strongly enough to resist the new information that is associated with a newly introduced brand extension.

The purpose of this paper is to address consumers’ post-purchase perceptions toward the brand when it adopts price reduction strategy. The study specifically conceptualizes the effect of consumers’ price unfairness perceptions of past purchase (PUPoPP) on customer-based brand equity (CBBE) with a moderating effects of elapsed time since purchase (ETSP) and magnitude of price reduction (MPR) in situations where consumers were aware of the reduction in price of the product that they had purchased earlier.

A survey was conducted among consumers who were aware of the reduction in the price of the computer laptop which they had purchased earlier. A sample size of 214 respondents was utilized for the study. The hypotheses were tested by using partial least squares-structural equations modeling.

The results of the study show that there is a significant negative impact of PUPoPP on CBBE and the ETSP was found to enhance CBBE and also weaken the negative effect of PUPoPP on CBBE. Furthermore, the MPR was found to strengthen the negative effect of PUPoPP on CBBE.

The findings of this study are unique and contribute to both pricing and branding areas of research. While extant research in these areas has focused on price fairness perceptions in situations where the price of future purchase increases, particularly for frequently purchased non-durable goods, this study explored PUPoPP in situations where the firm reduces the price of a durable good such as a computer laptop.

The paper seeks to investigate the applicability of strategic supply chain management (SCM) models in one-off luxury contexts such as the yacht industry, where durable products are manufactured with project configuration.

A literature review was assessed in order to identify contingency-based SCM models. Then, multiple case-study analysis was performed to explore how these models are adopted in practice for drawing strategic SCM directions. Data arose from a number of interviews to the top-management of four world-leading yacht-building companies.

The findings of explorative case studies suggest the implementation of various strategic SCM strategies in order to fit the requirements of the market (e.g. protect critical resources, implement a customized leagile production strategy, enhance SC flexibility). In this direction, specific SCM practices are already adopted by investigated firms.

A call to develop specific strategic directions for project-based luxury business is suggested, as the SC contingencies of this context have not been properly caught by extant literature.

A set of practical indications are offered in order to support managers in the choice of an appropriate SCM approach and related operational practices. Identified techniques and tools aim to achieve high customisation while reducing changes in specification.

This article represents a first attempt to investigate the SCM issue for durable luxury products in the project context.