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The purpose of this study is to illustrate how means‐end chain theory can inform communications that effectively convey the health messages of vegetable consumption to various publics.

Laddering interviews were conducted with 61 participants who consumed at least two serves of vegetables a day and were responsible in part or whole for shopping in their household. A means‐end chain value map was then constructed using mecanalyst software.

Using means‐end theory, an example communications strategy was developed from the dominant chain. The health and wellness features that respondents associated with vegetables were “freshness”, a “source of vitamins and minerals”, and “high nutritional value”. In the mind of the consumer, these features were linked to the benefit concept “maintain energy and vitality”, which in turn was connected to the consequence “maintain an active life”. The end‐states or goals participants ultimately connected to the health and wellness features of vegetables were that of “enjoy life” and “achieve goals”.

The research is limited in so far as subjects who consume less than two serves of vegetables are not recruited for this study.

It is suggested that social marketing initiatives designed to increase vegetable consumption may base messages on health‐related values or end‐states of being to resonate more effectively with consumers.

High vegetable consumption is associated with a reduced risk of chronic disease. Effective strategies designed to increase vegetable consumption amongst populations may reduce the burden on health systems.

This study illustrates how consumers' cognitive processes can inform social marketing communications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of price attribute framing and factors such as urgency and perceived price fairness on customer willingness to pay (WTP) in automated retail settings.

The authors conducted two sets of quasi-experimental scenarios surrounding vending-machine purchase decisions. The first set was analyzed with MANOVA, the second set with choice-based conjoint (CBC) analysis.

When prices are framed positively (as a discount), customer WTP is higher at high published price levels than it is for unframed or negatively framed prices. The effect on WTP holds whether the reference price range is broad (few large increments) or narrow (numerous small increments). In the CBC scenarios, immediate availability of the product was most influential on choice, followed by price and brand effects. These findings held under conditions invoking both urgency and price fairness. Providing an explanation for higher prices increases perceived price fairness.

Further study might assess the presence or absence of interaction effects in the conjoint scenarios.

Managers should consider transparency in dynamic pricing, particularly when the price change is outside the control of the firm. The conjoint scenario results also offer evidence that dynamic pricing will not impact other marketing-mix decisions for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) dramatically (availability at point of purchase and presence in the consumer consideration set remain strong influences on choice).

Understanding these effects on WTP could help managers manage perceptions of unfairness and optimize WTP.

A theoretical contribution from this study is that the immediate loss/gain consideration under theories of decision making under uncertainty outweigh considerations such as scarcity urgency or perceived unfairness. Use of conjoint analysis in WTP research, study of dynamic pricing in FMCG setting.