Search results

Consumer-generated advertisements are advertisements made by consumers for brands they love and hate. This study considers why consumers create their own brand commercials and how to classify the types of commercials they make. The chapter also discusses the attitude of companies toward consumer-generated advertisements and the effect of companies’ attitudes on the commercials. The study compares two different brands with a different attitude toward consumer-generated advertisements – Starbucks and Chipotle. An active and positive attitude of the company toward consumer-generated advertisements results in more positive advertisements.

The policy of strategic diagnostics in the modern economy of Russia's regions is built in a contradiction. The expected growth of the share of material production in GRP was not confirmed. Analysis of economic indicators allows stating the expected tendency in dynamics of development of tertiary spheres. A dominating element of structural changes of economy is consumer market.

Several methodological approaches to defining the category “consumer market” are distinguished: marketing, institutional, reproduction, and economic.

For formation of methodological foundations of evaluation of consumer market, several methodologies are systematized. A methodology including two stages of evaluation of development of consumer market is offered: diagnostics (first stage) and forecasting (second stage) of the region's consumer market.

According to evaluations obtained by the authors, a strategic factor of structural changes in Russia's economy is regions' consumer market. Its well-balanced development ensures acceleration of progressive structural changes in economy. A dominating factor in the structure of consumer market is trading sphere, and a tool of structural changes is trading the goods of local and domestic manufacturers.

The chapter is prepared on the basis of previous scientific developments of the author, as well as the current legislation of the United States of America. The following laws were studied: Truth in Lending Act; Electronic Fund Transfers Act; Fair Credit Reporting Act; Consumer Leasing Act; Consumer Protection Act; Equal Credit Opportunity Act; Fair Debt Collection Practices Act; Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act; Privacy of Consumer Financial Information Act; Home Mortgage Disclosure Act; Alternative Mortgage Parity Act; Code of Arbitration Procedure for Customer Conflicts – Customer Code; and Code of Arbitration Procedure for Industry Conflicts. One of the new US laws was analyzed – Arbitration Fairness Act, 2017. Data was also used from the Final Report to Congress on the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer financial services contracts, 2015, and information resources available on the websites of financial regulators: the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Currency Comptroller, the National Administration of Credit Unions, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Agency for Housing Finance, the Financial Bureau Consumer Protection, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and American Arbitration Association.

Methodologically, the research is based on the author's materialistic worldview, which is implemented meaningfully in a positivist approach to the scientific article. In preparing the chapter, general scientific methods were applied: formal logic, system-functional, historical, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction; special methods: mathematical, and statistical. Also the author applied private scientific methods of jurisprudence: normative-dogmatic, method of legal and technical design, interpretation of law, and others.

This research uses the distinction between communal relationships (based on mutual care and concern) and exchange relationships (based on the principle of quid pro quo) to propose a framework that predicts differences in the shape of consumer response function to increasing levels of brand transgressions.

The paper proposes a conceptual model based on insights from prior research on brand relationships.

The premise being proposed in this paper is that exchange-oriented consumers, being focused on the balance of inputs and outcomes, base their evaluations on an objective assessment of the final outcome, such that their response function will be relatively proportional to increasing levels of brand transgression. On the other hand, communally oriented consumers are concerned with whether or not the relationship partner cares for them, such that up to a point brand transgressions are overlooked while beyond a threshold there is a sudden negative shift in brand evaluations. These consumers thus exhibit a step-function response to brand transgressions.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework and leaves it to future researchers to test it empirically.

Managers now have a toolkit to better manage instances of product and service failure.

Findings from this model can be applied to better manage interpersonal relationships too.

This paper proposes a model that shows how and why consumers might differ in their response to brand transgressions. Further, this is a dynamic model in that it traces the response function of the consumers at increasing levels of transgressions.

Purpose – A study of amateur gourmet chefs was conducted in order to expand our understanding of consumer resistance, and to theorize the relationship between culture, consumer culture, and material culture.

Methodology/approach – A semi-structured long interview approach was employed, so that the interviewees could relate their experience of cooking in their own terms. The methodology was inspired by the existential–phenomenological tradition in consumer research.

Findings – All eschewed participation in the market for cookware. They contend that “real” cooks value utility over all, and question the aestheticization, fetishization, and mass marketing of cookware to a general audience. Their responses reveal the role of culture, knowledge, information, socialization, and market structure on consumer values and beliefs, thereby bringing into question the concept of consumer agency.

Research limitations/implications – The interviews were conducted in only one geographic location and cultural milieu. Future research should examine these concepts in additional contexts.

Practical implications – The analysis reveals the basis of effective consumer resistance. In order to resist, consumers must reject citizenship in consumer culture and reconceive their political subjectivity. That said, such an approach only has emancipatory potential at the level of the individual. The interviews underscore the need for a continued critique of the operation of power in the market.

Originality/value of paper – Most of the extant literature focuses on cultural practices that have formed in response to practices within mainstream consumer culture. The cooks interviewed argued that their practice is rooted in traditions that precede consumer culture.

This research aims to explore the impact of augmented reality (AR), the digital technology that superimposes virtual elements in a real environment, on consumers in the context of experiential marketing. Specifically, this study proposes a research model based on the stimulus-organism-response model, which considers AR media characteristics as external stimuli, consumers’ value perceptions as the organisms, and purchase intentions as the responses. The research model was tested with 248 consumers using structural equation modelling. The results show that informativeness, ease of use, and telepresence have positive effects on consumers’ utilitarian value perception and that telepresence and interactivity have positive effects on hedonic value perception. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on AR and provides actionable insights for managers implementing digital transformation strategies and AR applications in marketing practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which academic researchers frame and conduct sustainability research and to ask to what extent we are limited by these frames.

Our approach is based on an epistemological critique. We begin with a discussion of the ways in which sustainable consumption has been conceptualised within marketing; we question the influence of positivist social science research traditions and examine how research on sustainability is impacted by the structure of academia.

Our critical reflection leads us to suggest three ways in which sustainability research might be re-framed: a reconsideration of language, a shift in the locus of responsibility and the adoption of a holistic approach.

We propose that in order to make progress in sustainability research, alternative frames, terms, units of analysis, method(ologies) and research ambitions are needed.

By making visible our collective, unexamined assumptions, we can now move forward with new questions and agendas for sustainability research.

Beginning from the 1990s, the concept of sustainable development has been purposefully implemented by the most advanced economic actors including separate regions, countries, companies, and individuals. Consumer behaviour is also changing: the most advanced consumers who care about their own health and are aware of the environmental issues, change their behaviour to the conscious consumption patterns. However, most do so under the influence of companies promoting sustainable value propositions, or under the influence of government policy that encourages sustainable behaviour. Within the chapter ‘Dimensions of conscious consumption’, the authors consider consumption patterns evolution from traditional (patriarchal) consumption pattern through hedonic consumption to sustainable and conscious consumption patterns. The authors analyse transformation mechanisms of consumption patterns and how they affect changing consumer behaviour from traditional to conscious behaviour. As a result, a typology of sustainable value propositions for conscious consumers was formed, with the comparative analysis of four sustainable value proposition models: Driven by humanistic philosophy, Unique market position, Driven by government policy, and Leadership in sustainable innovations. Cases of Bouchee (Russian coffee shop and bakery chain) and Enjoy the Run (sport club for recreational running lovers) were analysed as the examples of companies implementing the considered models.

Data has become one of the most significant instruments in e-commerce innovation. Benefits to the entire society can be summarized as following: from the government’s perspective - to assess the impact of e-commerce to the economy; for merchants - to understand consumers’ needs; and for consumers - to be offered with the right product he/she is looking for. The digital revolution in the past five years has shown the need to offer more differentiated services than the physical stores, when consumers are not able to try and touch products. It is for this reason that e-commerce has continuously developed and transformed Research Online, Purchase Offline into a true experience. Considering the future of e-commerce is to enhance economic development and growth, this research will discuss the disruption of Research and Development through big data. The core objective of this research is to propose a predictive model to deeply understand consumer behavior by analyzing new regulations and transaction records.

Purpose – The marketing literature does not provide a satisfactory explanation for the role of consumer's attention in the process of how Country-of-Manufacture (COM) information influences consumer product evaluations. The research contributes to an improved understanding of this process by integrating the construct of “attention to Country-of-Manufacture” into the model and examining its relationship with the influence of COM.

Design/methodology/approach – Survey data are collected from American consumers aged 18 years and above. To test the research hypotheses, MANOVA and canonical correlation analysis are performed in analyzing the data.

Findings – COM has more influence on the attentive group (consumers consciously paying attention to the COM information on a product label), on their evaluations of abstract product attributes such as durability and reliability than it does on the inattentive group (consumers not paying conscious attention to such information). In contrast, COM's influences on evaluating concrete product attributes such as style, model, availability, and quality are all significantly related to involvement with COM, but not to attention.

Research limitations/implications – The product assessments sought from respondents are generally on “foreign” products. Future research needs to obtain product-specific evaluations within each product category in testing the model and see how the results may differ or not differ across product categories.

Practical implications – Marketers selling products with high performance in abstract attributes such as durability and reliability should increase consumers’ attention to the COM through effective product labeling.

Originality/value – This research identifies and empirically investigates the difference of COM effects on consumers’ product judgment between consumers who are attentive and the ones who are inattentive to COM information.