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on Marketing |
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Issue of 2017‒02‒05
fifteen papers chosen by João Carlos Correia Leitão Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Niros, Meletios; Pollalis, Yannis; Niros, Angelica |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this research is to explore any relationship between brand personality and brand image in mobile telecom branded offerings. Furthermore, this paper explores brand image as an antecedent of both perceived quality and consumer behavior. A survey conducted using a “positivism” approach, in which 318 consumers participated through a face to face handing over. Sincerity, competence and sophistication proved to be dominant precursors of brand image. On the other hand, brand image suggests a basic aspect of perceived quality in intangible telecom branded offerings. Moreover, customer satisfaction concerns a mediating factor impacting the relationship between perceived quality and brand attachment. Thus, perceived quality does not guarantee brand attachment and customer satisfaction is the key to achieve that. Hence, fair pricing, low service access costs and consistent IMC are necessary tactics to build brand attachment. The latter, along with customer inertia lead to favorable WoM and customer loyalty. This project provides telecom brand managers with valuable know-how in order to design “out of the box” strategies and tactics. |
| Keywords: | Marketing & Advertising, Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, brand |
| JEL: | M31 |
| Date: | 2017–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:76477&r=mkt |
| By: | Ratliff, English; Vassalos, Michael; Hu, Wuyang |
| Abstract: | Seafood consumption in U.S. is expected to grow over the next years for various reasons. First,as supply increases, due mostly to imports and aquaculture, seafood becomes a more affordable diet alternative. Furthermore because of its’ purported health benefits increasingly recognized by consumers, seafood demand is expected to increase. Concurrently, consumers increasingly care about a range of seafood characteristics beyond tangible attributes such as packaging (i.e. fresh or frozen) and price. Sustainability and the environmental impacts of aquaculture are important also. Understanding which attributes consumers prefer can provide valuable insights for the U.S. seafood industry. However, research on this topic is limited. This study’s dataset is obtained from an online survey administered to Kentucky and South Carolina consumers. An ordered probit model is utilized to analyze consumer importance ratings of various seafood attributes. The present study utilizes an ordered probit formulation to examine the effect of various consumer characteristics on their seafood preferences. The results indicate that, demographic characteristics and supporting local foods have a significant effect on consumer preferences for fresh and wild-caught seafood products. However, they had a smaller effect on increasing the probability that environmental statements influence purchasing decisions. |
| Keywords: | Seafood Consumption, Ordered Probit, South Carolina, Kentucky, Consumer/Household Economics, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252848&r=mkt |
| By: | Arcan Nalca, (Smith School of Business, Queen's University); Tamer Boyaci, (ESMT European School of Management and Technology); Saibal Ray (Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we focus on the uncertainty in consumer taste and study how a retailer can benefit from acquiring that taste information in the presence of competition between the retailer's store brand and a manufacturer's national brand. In this context, we also identify the optimal information sharing strategy of the retailer with the manufacturer as well as the equilibrium product positioning and pricing of the two brands. We model a competitive setting in which there is ex-ante uncertainty about consumer preferences for different product features and the retailer has a distinct advantage in terms of resolving this uncertainty, given his close proximity to the consumers. We identify two important effects of retailer's information acquisition and sharing decisions about consumer taste. The direct effect is that having taste information allows the retailer to make better SB introduction and positioning decisions. The indirect effect is that information sharing enables the manufacturer to make better NB positioning decisions - which in return may benefit or hurt the retailer. Furthermore, we show that these effects interact with each other and the nature of their interaction depends on three external factors: relative popularity of different product features, the vertical differentiation between the two brands, and the cost of store brand introduction. This interaction is most striking when the store brand introduction is not very costly. In this case, if one of the features is quite popular, then the retailer voluntarily shares information with the manufacturer because the indirect effect augments the value of the direct effect - even though this increases the competition between the brands. Otherwise, the retailer refrains from information sharing because the indirect effect then diminishes the value of the direct effect. We also generate managerial insights as to when it is most valuable for the retailer to acquire taste information as well its worth for the manufacturer. |
| Keywords: | uncertain consumer taste, product introduction, store brands, national brands, information acquisition, information sharing, vertical differentiation, horizontal differentiation |
| Date: | 2017–01–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esm:wpaper:esmt-17-01&r=mkt |
| By: | Dharmasena, Senarath; Yang, Tingyi; Capps, Oral Jr. |
| Abstract: | Consumption of dairy alternative beverages in the United States has been growing in the light of decreasing consumption of dairy milk. Although almond milk and soymilk are the fastest growing categories in the U.S. dairy alternative marketplace, there exist numerous other products such as coconut milk, rice milk, cashew nut milk, and hazelnut milk. These plant-based products claim to have more protein and calcium, and less in fat and calories compared to conventional dairy milk, hence perceived growth in consumer preference. Using market level weekly purchase data from 2015 Nielsen scanner panel and attribute space distance and hedonic matric approaches within Barten synthetic model, own-price, cross-price and expenditure elasticities for aforementioned beverage products were estimated. Distance and hedonic variables with regards to product attributes such as calorie, fat, protein, calcium and other nutrients (vitamins and minerals such as iron, vitamin B) are used to estimate, first an n-dimensional distance (hedonic) space based on above qualitative information available to consumers and then this information is allocated to Barten synthetic model to generate demand elasticities using qualitative factor distances. Preliminary analysis revealed following own-price demand elasticities: Soymilk -1.13, almond milk -0.5, and coconut milk -0.46. |
| Keywords: | Dairy alternative beverages, Nielsen data, Distance matric, Hedonic matric, product attributes, Barten synthetic model, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, G11, G12, |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252742&r=mkt |
| By: | Chen, Bo; Saghaian, Sayed |
| Abstract: | The U.S. organic food sector is rapidly increasing in the past decades and the organic food marketing has thus draw substantial research interests. However, the retailing sector, despite its key role in organic food marketing, is largely left out of current discussion. In this article, we aim to bring the retailing context back in organic food marketing research by examining whether consumer preference for organic food can affect choice of retailing format with Nielsen Homescan data in California. Our main findings are that regular organic user households are more likely to patronage organic specialty store and discount store whereas less likely to shop in warehouse club and the residual formats comprised of convenience store, dollar store and drugstore. Price, consumer loyalty and household shopping behavior also have the expected effects on household retail format choice. This finding has strong managerial implication for retailers and farmers. The current USDA programs in promoting organic agriculture can also be improved by accounting for organic retailing. |
| Keywords: | organic, preference, retailing, store format, scanner data, Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252827&r=mkt |
| By: | Yang, Ruoye; Raper, Kellie Curry; Lusk, Jayson L. |
| Abstract: | Consumers see retail beef products labeled as produced with no added hormones (NAH), but also see similar labels on pork and chicken products on market shelves despite the fact that added hormones are not used in production. This may mislead consumers to think hormones are used in meat production as a whole. This research examines the impact of hormone use perception on consumer preference for meat products. Specifically, we assess consumer perception of hormone use in different livestock species as compared to actual use in production. We then assess whether hormone use perception affects consumer choice for unlabeled meat products. Finally, we identify whether consumer perception of hormone use affects willingness to pay (WTP) premiums for meat products labeled as produced with NAH. Choice experiment data was collected using Oklahoma State University monthly Food Demand Survey. Results indicate that consumers underestimate the rate of hormone use in cattle production, but overestimate the rate of hormone use in pork and chicken production. Results from a conditional logit model suggest that consumer perception of hormone use can affect food preferences for unlabeled meat products. Using a Tobit model, we also found WTP premiums for the NAH label are affected by consumer perception of hormone use and by demographic characteristics. |
| Keywords: | meat demand, hormone use, choice experiment, Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries, Q13, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252772&r=mkt |
| By: | Johansen, Bjørn Olav (Department of Economics, University of Bergen, Norway); Vergé, Thibaud (CREST, ENSAE, Université Paris-Saclay and Norwegian School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | In the context of vertical contractual relationships, where competing sellers distribute their products directly as well as through competing intermediation platforms, we analyze the welfare effects of price parity clauses. These contractual clauses prevent a seller from offering its product at a lower price on other platforms or through its own direct sales channel. Recently, they have been the subject of several antitrust investigations. Contrary to the theories of harm developed by competition agencies and in some of the recent literature, we show that when we account for the sellers’ participation constraints, price parity clauses do not always lead to higher commissions and final prices. Instead, we find that they may simultaneously bene.t all the actors (platforms, sellers and consumers), even in the absence of traditional efficiency arguments. |
| Keywords: | Vertical contracts; price parity clauses; platforms; endogenous participation |
| JEL: | L13 L42 |
| Date: | 2017–01–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bergec:2017_001&r=mkt |
| By: | Ben Shiller; Joel Waldfogel; Johnny Ryan |
| Abstract: | Ad blockers allow Internet users to obtain information without generating ad revenue for site owners; and by 2016 they were used by roughly a quarter of site visitors. Given the ad-supported nature of much of the web, ad blocking poses a threat to site revenue and, if revenue losses undermine investment, a possible threat to consumers' access to appealing content. Using unique, proprietary, and site-specific data on the share of site visitors using ad blockers at a few thousand sites, along with Alexa traffic data, we explore the impact of ad blocker usage on site quality, as inferred from traffic ranks, 2013-2016. We find that each additional percentage point of site visitors using ad blockers raises (worsens) its traffic rank by about 0.6 percent over a 35 month period, with stronger effects at initially worse-ranked sites. We provide additional evidence of causality by showing that the relationship between traffic trends and eventual ad blocking does not predate ad blocking. Plausible instruments for ad blocking also deliver consistent results. Effects of ad blocking on revenue are compounded by the fact that ad blocking reduces visits, while also generating less revenue from remaining visitors employing ad blockers. We conclude that ad blocking poses a substantial threat to the ad-supported web. |
| JEL: | L81 L82 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23058&r=mkt |
| By: | Chen, Xuan; Liu, Yizao; Rabinowitz, Adam N. |
| Abstract: | This article focus on the question that whether private labels are competing along with their retailers’ characteristics and its impacts on retailers’ pricing strategies as well as bargaining power. We differentiate private labels with different retailers and estimate consumer demand and the supply of private labels using BLP (Berry, Levinsohn, and Pakes, 1995) model with monthly-county level data of fluid milk market data in Connecticut. We classify the retailers into regional retailers and national retailers and conduct counterfactual exercises showing retailers pricing strategies to private labels and national brands. Preliminary results indicate consumers like to substitute national retailers’ private labels with regional retailers’ private labels, reflecting the existence of competition. Moreover, with estimated supply model, national retailers have less wholesale prices while regional retailers have potential bargaining power to manufactures when they adjust their private label prices. |
| Keywords: | Private Label, Competition, Retail Pricing, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization, Marketing, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252823&r=mkt |
| By: | Dharmasena, Senarath; Capps, Oral Jr |
| Abstract: | The United States is a dominant player in the world tree nut production with the value of nuts produced exceeded $10 billion by 2015. Annual per capita consumption of nuts in the United States has been growing during past 25 years due to increase in nutrition and health benefits of nuts. Few studies that looked at the economics of nuts in the United States come short in examining demand interrelationships between various tree nut products and peanuts to uncover complex substitutability/complementarity patterns through derivation of own-price, cross-price and income/expenditure elasticities. Demographic factors affecting the consumer demand for nut products is yet to be investigated as well. Quantity, expenditure and household demographic characteristics with respect to purchase of almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, cashew nuts and peanuts obtained from 2014 Nielsen Homescan scanner panel for 65,000 U.S. households was used in estimating censored quadratic almost ideal demand system using semiparametric estimation procedure suggested by Sam and Zheng (2010). Preliminary results show that the own-price elasticity of demand for almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, cashew nuts and peanuts is -0.75, -0.98, -1.05, -0.53, -0.56, and -0.17. Income, age, region and presence of children are significant drivers of demand for these nut products. |
| Keywords: | Consumer demand, nut products, censored demand, semi-parametric estimation, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, D11, D12, |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252682&r=mkt |
| By: | Hiep-Hung Pham; Kelly Farrell; Huyen-Minh Vu; Quan-Hoang Vuong; Nancy K. Napier |
| Abstract: | In today’s global higher education environment, international students represent not only an important source of external income for universities: the degree of cross-border student mobility also reflects the internationalization of higher education sector. Universities have engaged in efforts to sell themselves to prospective students and promotional videos are among the most widely used marketing tools for this purpose. This article reports the results of a study analyzing the content of 140 higher education promotional videos from 14 countries available on YouTube. The results reveal that while the pattern of use of YouTube for two-way communication with viewers, information contents and appeal messages among sampled universities is fairly homogenous, some marked differences emerge when cultural background and global position ranking of the university are taken into account. The implications of these findings are that, although transnational higher education has been profoundly globalized, culture still plays a significant role in marketing practice for the recruitment of mobile students. In addition, different universities have various student-targeted segments. These findings provide the basis of a series of recommendations for universities looking to optimize their use of YouTube and promotional video design to market to international students. |
| Keywords: | international student; promote; YouTube; content analysis; cross-culture; ranking |
| JEL: | A29 I21 P46 Z13 |
| Date: | 2017–01–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/245595&r=mkt |
| By: | Mohammed, Rezgar; Murova, Olga; Chidmi, Benaissa |
| Abstract: | The random coefficients multinomial logit model was used to study the demand for yogurt which is differentiated by manufacturer brands and organic information. For this purpose, we used the scanner-level data set collected by the Information Resource Incorporated at the chain level. General Mills and Danone are the two brands with the highest market shares. In general, demand for yogurt has found to be elastic for all brands. On average, consumers are more price-sensitive to non-organic brands than organic brands. Results revealed some degree of brand loyalty and the switching behavior among yogurt consumers. |
| Keywords: | demand, elasticity, yogurt, BLP, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, C25, C26, Q11, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252728&r=mkt |
| By: | Dant, Madeline; Burdine, Kenneth; Mark, Tyler |
| Abstract: | The price of hay at auction markets reflects the various qualities that differentiate each lot of hay sold. This study is aimed at analyzing the determinants of Central Kentucky hay prices. A hedonic price model is estimated using data collected for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 from a Central Kentucky hay auction with a total of 206 observations. Known hay attributes include, forage species, form (square vs. round), bale weight (pounds), and quality measures (crude protein, TDN and RFV). An important aspect of this analysis is to determine whether the quality measures of the hay are significant factors in determining hay prices in this auction setting. Preliminary results suggest that quality measures have significant influence on auction prices, and provide value beyond forage species. Form is also found to be very significant as square bales were associated with considerable price premiums over round bales. |
| Keywords: | hay prices, forage, auctions, hedonic, Demand and Price Analysis, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252762&r=mkt |
| By: | Liu, Yizao; Rabinowitz, Adam; Xuan, Chen |
| Abstract: | The asymmetric farm-retail transmission has been well documented in the general fluid milk market. However, little attention has been given to the possible heterogeneous cost pass-through process of private labels. Given the leading role of private labels in the fluid milk market, it is of special interest to focus on its possible different effect on farm-retail price transmission. In this paper, we examine the heterogeneous effects of private label and branded products on price transmission in the fluid milk market. We incorporate and extend the Error Correction Model (ECM) approach to specify and estimate the farm-retail pass-through using panel data. To capture the heterogeneous effects of brand types on price transmission, we include interaction terms of brand type dummies with increasing and decreasing phases of farm price and then test the asymmetry in farm-retail pass-through for different brand types. Our results indicate that private label and branded milk all show asymmetry in price transmission. However, brand types affect the magnitudes of the asymmetry and private label milk presents the lowest asymmetry in price transmission, compared with national and regional branded milk. One possible explanation is that retail chains have a greater ability to affect prices of their own private label products through integrated distribution channels and thus impose a strong lessening power of the asymmetry in farm-retail price transmission. |
| Keywords: | price transmission, cost pass-through, retail pricing, private label, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea17:252725&r=mkt |
| By: | Lorenza Rossi (Department of Economics and Management, University of Pavia) |
| Abstract: | Culture is commonly used as the principal explanation for consumer differences across countries, so research on its differential impact on consumer preferences and motives is fundamentally important. This study examines the role of cultural and sociodemographic influences in determining the differences between drinking cultures and drinking motives in Europe. Comparing eight countries (Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, Finland, United Kingdom, Turkey and Poland) through a one-way ANOVA and a two-way ANOVA, the author analyse and compare the roles of sociodemographic variables and national culture have on several drinking motives (social and enhancement) and on consumer preferences (alcohol consumption and type of beverage). The type of drinker (moderate or heavy) is also taken into consideration. Results show significant differences between gender, age, type of drinker and countries for most motives. Moreover, although some results confirm the traditional or “stereotype” countries drinking profiles, other results also suggest some insights to certain country profiles changing in unexpected ways. The paper outlines theoretical implications in cross-cultural research and alcoholic drinking motives. It also explores a further understanding on the motives behind alcohol consumption of European consumers, which could usefully inform policy that aims to promote a sensible drinking behaviour among its population. |
| Keywords: | drinking motives, cross-cultural, alcohol consumption, consumer preferences. |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pav:demwpp:demwp0132&r=mkt |