Marketing Commons^™

The Influence Of Social Networking Sites On Buying Behaviors Of Millennials, Sharon S. Pate, Melinda Adams

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Social media sites have become an important part of many individuals’ lives. According to the Pew Research Center (2010), Millennials, also known as Gen Y, are living their lives on the internet where 75% of them have a profile on a social networking site. When compared with only 50% of Gen Xers and 30% of Boomers, this gives them the distinct identity that they are more technologically advanced.

Brand Evaluations Across Age Cohorts And Ethnic Groups: Convergence In The Youth Segment?, Michael P. Levens

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Research indicates a general consensus that ethnicity does influence consumption behavior, consumer experience, marketing response and media selection. It is, however, unclear as to the extent of that influence and the nature of the difference from segmenting consumers on some other criteria such as needs. Businesses have approached ethnic marketing in different ways ranging from a targeted effort at distinct ethnic markets to a more multi-cultural theme that is shared across many different groups. Today’s youth are often considered to view the world from a diverse perspective such that youth and diversity are often considered synonymous. An assessment of brand …

Online Product Search And Purchase Behavior Of Generation Y, Dawn B. Valentine, Thomas L. Powers

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether gender differences exist in online product search and purchase behaviors. A survey of 116 undergraduate college students with questions regarding the types of products researched and purchased over the Internet, the type of information they looked for when researching the products, reasons for not purchasing products online, and reasons for returning products purchased over the Internet. While both male and female college students use the Internet to research and purchase products, the findings indicate that they differ significantly in the types of products they research and purchase online, the kinds of …

The Strategic Importance Of Customer Value, Donovan A. Mcfarlane

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This paper examines the importance of customer value as a strategic approach to doing business in the 21^st century hypercompetitive marketplace and marketspace. The author examines the customer value theory of Professor Art Weinstein as a valid and plausible conceptual framework for strategically positioning an organization through market orientation to design and deliver superior customer value as a competitive advantage. Citing examples of new economy companies that have effectively propelled themselves to the forefront of the competition through the delivery of superior customer value, the author argues that customers are not simply just consumers or buyers of goods and …

"Do You Know Me?" The 'Doodling' Of Iconic Mink, Milk, Booze, And Fruit Campaigns, Linda A. Ferguson

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Anyone who has paid attention to advertising for the past several decades is familiar with five iconic campaigns: Blackglama mink “What becomes a legend most?”; American Express “Do you know me?”; Absolut vodka “Bottle”; Fluid Milk Processor Board “Got Milk?”; and Apple computer “Think Different.” These smart, successful, and long-running campaigns share an important characteristic: they rely on the audience to have a certain level of cultural literacy in order to interpret them. However, an advertiser in today’s digital world can no longer take cultural literacy for granted. Yesterday’s common experiences in all facets of life are being replaced by …

Non-Verbal Customer-To-Customer Interaction In Retail Setting: An Investigation Of Indirect Effects Of Perceived Customer Similarity On Important Marketing Outcomes, Nusser Raajpoot, Anita Jackson, Jean Lefebvre

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the causal effects of similarity among customers in retail mall settings on four outcome variables: intent to stay, satisfaction, word-of-mouth generation and repurchase intention. Using structural equation modeling, we tested both direct and mediated effects. Results indicate significant direct influence in the direct model and significant indirect influence in the mediated model. The study suggests that similarity with other customers has a significant influence on outcome variables. Therefore, mall managers should measure and monitor consumers’ perceptions of similarity and enhance these similarities whenever appropriate and feasible. To our knowledge, this …

Revisiting Cognitive Dissonance Theory:Pre-Decisional Influences And The Relationship To The Consumer Decision-Making Model, Paul J. Costanzo Dr.

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This paper examines pre-decisional dissonance as a motivating factor in consumer decisional-making. A review of the marketing literature found the majority of research studies were limited to post-decisional influences. Several studies including measures of pre-decisional activity linked the construct to post-decision situations. The author provides evidence regarding the popularity and resurgence of research on cognitive dissonance theory and asserts that researchers in the field of consumer behavior may gain a better understanding of consumer decision-making when studying pre-decisional consonance and dissonance as separate entities and independent of post-decisions.

An Exploratory Investigation Into The Budget Allocation Of Mexican Male Sojourners In The U.S., Willie Nichols, Marko Grünhagen

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Mexican male sojourners make up a large, distinct consumer segment that has been present in the United States for decades, but have not been extensively studied from a business perspective with respect to their budget allocation decisions. The result is that this consumer segment may have been underserved due a lack of understanding and research. This paper examines the budget allocation process of these sojourners, exploring their patterns of sending remittances and the extent of their expenditures, providing grounds for future studies focusing on how to better serve this segment.

Online Social Presence (Osp) In E-Tailing: Construct Development And Testing, Russell Reams

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects

This research proposes and validates the Online Social Presence (OSP) scale and framework as an effective means of addressing the struggle e-tailers have encountered in attempting to create persuasive and effective online retailing experiences, which persuade customers to purchase their products and services. Online Social Presence (OSP) reexamines and extends the original social presence theory to the complex and dynamic e-tailing environment to address research that indicates that the typical online shopping experience lacks warmth and sociability.

A robust mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed to validate the Online Social Presence (OSP) as containing three reflectively measured …

News - Don't Hang Up! Learn How To Better Serve Customers With Hearing Or Speech Loss With Georgia Relay Partner, Ellen Rolader, Lindsay Hebert

Georgia Library Quarterly

Georgia Relay, the free public service provided by the State of Georgia that makes communicating by telephone easy, accessible and reliable for everyone, wants to make Georgia’s libraries friendlier for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, late-deafened or who have difficulty speaking. This article provides an overview of Georgia Relay Partner, a free program that provides local businesses with online educational and training materials about Relay services so that employees will be able to easily accept and place calls to customers who have hearing loss or speech difficulties.

Sales Manager Support: Fostering Emotional Health, Motivation And Customer-Orientation In Salespeople, Elyria Kemp, Aberdeen Leila Borders, Joe M. Ricks

Faculty Articles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of sales manager support in promoting the subjective well-being of salespeople as well as the function of the sales manager in cultivating positive, motivating and productive environments. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory assessment of the relationship between sales manager support and emotional health in salespeople was conducted by interviewing sales professionals from diverse industries. The insight offered from these individuals, in conjunction with prior literature, provided the basis for the development of a conceptual model that elucidates the impact of sales manager support on the emotional well-being of salespeople …

Social Media And Negative Word Of Mouth: Strategies For Handing Unexpecting Comments, Jane B. Thomas, Cara O. Peters, Emelia G. Howell, Keith Robbins

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Increased usage of social media by consumers impacts businesses that find it necessary to participate to connect with customers. Because social media is conversational in nature, marketers have little control over the message, unlike more traditional forms of marketing communication. The purpose of this paper is to flesh out the tensions that exist as marketers deal with consumer-generated negative social media messages and present possible responses for marketers dealing with this form of negative word of mouth (WOM). Its contribution lies in unpacking options for companies dealing with such negative social media. Case studies and a conceptual model identifying possible …

Smokers’ Vs. Non-Smokers’ Attitudes Toward Tobacco Usage, Jeff W. Totten, Betty J. Cayton

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The purpose of the study was to collect attitudinal and behavioral data on a sample of college students from a Southern state university regarding tobacco usage. The sample was designed to include both smokers and non-smokers. A non-probability sample of 508 college students was collected by handing out surveys in classes and in campus buildings. The questionnaire was designed by the students and the authors and included half of Pechmann and Shih’s (1999) smoking perceptions scale items. Users made up 36.6% of the sample. The average length of time reported using tobacco products was five years, with 78.3% stating they …

Cleaning Up Dirty Politics: A Social Marketing Perspective On New Jersey's Clean Elections Program, Amy H. Handlin

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This paper reviews the outcome of a state electoral reform initiative in terms of the four-stage behavior change process used by social marketers to gauge the effectiveness of their techniques. While the Clean Elections initiative was moderately successful in its Action and Contemplation stages, the author argues that realization of its full potential could be significantly hastened by utilizing the social marketing tools of segmentation, communications research and pretesting.

Reflections On The Market-Oriented Theory In The Behaviour Of Real Organization, Michal Felcman

Atlantic Marketing Journal

This paper presents market-oriented marketing concept which is reflected in the case study describing the behaviour of existing organization. An initial theoretical section of the paper introduces the reader to the market-oriented theory throughout the literature review, which provides different scholastic approaches to this theory. The practical section focuses on the qualitative assessment of the real organization and its behaviour. It starts with the description of the organization itself and it is subsequently expanded into the assessment of the organization´s behaviour in the light of the market-oriented theory. The goal of this assessment is to present benefits and challenges which …

An Empirical Analysis: Wine And The Consumer Price-Perceived Quality Heuristic, Freddy S Lee

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Does price have anything to do with Wine? The consumer price-perceived quality has always been used by consumers when they gauge the quality of a product or service. Three propositions are developed which show how the consumer uses the price-perceived quality in the wine industry. For all types of wines, there will be attributes like ratings, brand name and word of mouth that will affect the purchase. The goal in this paper is to empirically validate propositions pertaining to the factors that influence how consumers use the price-perceived quality heuristic to determine which wine is worth the money that they …

Second Life In The Classroom: Interacting With The Modern College Student, Stef Nicovich

Atlantic Marketing Journal

How do we engage our students to actively learn? That is a question that educators are asking more and more often. New techniques and philosophies are constantly being developed and tried in the classroom yet we still come back to the same observations. Students are generally unprepared for college level studies and often seem unwilling to put in the required effort needed to succeed. Perhaps one reason students seem disengaged is because they may not see the value of what they are learning. The connections between their studies and how they will benefit them later in life may not be …

Use Of Counterfactual Thinking For Understanding The Impact Of Personal Value Orientation On Blame Assignment And Customer Complaint Behavior, Nusser Raajpoot, Arun Sharma, Jean Lefebvre

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Counterfactual thought processes are being increasingly studied in the context of consumer experiences. For example, recent research demonstrated that have used counterfactual thought process to understand the composition of comparison standards and related feature mutability to identify the factors thought to be responsible for negative experiences (McGill 2000). We extend this of research by examining the impact of personal value system on blame assignment, and subsequent post-experience consumer behavior. Our study in the context of a service experience demonstrates that personal values affect counterfactual thinking. Specific marketing implications are discussed.

Customer Dissatisfaction And Complaining Responses Towards Mobile Telephony Services, Simon Gyasi Nimako Mr

The African Journal of Information Systems

The paper examines customer satisfaction and complaint responses towards Mobile telephony services. The study was a cross-sectional survey involving customers from two mobile telephony companies. Data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS (version 16.0). The study found that customer satisfaction rating differed according to the mobile networks, and previous dissatisfaction significantly influences complaining response. Again, dissatisfied customers tend to complain more than satisfied ones. Moreover, dissatisfaction may not necessarily induce complaining and some satisfied customers may still complain. Furthermore, previous dissatisfaction may not always negatively affect overall satisfaction if it is effectively managed. Finally, the …

The Story Of Taste: Using Eegs And Self-Reports To Understand Consumer Choice, Charnetta Brown, Adriane B. Randolph, Janée N. Burkhalter

The Kennesaw Journal of Undergraduate Research

The authors investigate consumers’ willingness to switch from a preferred manufacturer brand to an unfamiliar private-label brand if taste is perceived as identical. Consumer decisions are examined through recordings of electrical brain activity in the form of electroencephalograms (EEGs) and self-reported data captured in surveys. Results reveal a willingness of consumers to switch to a less-expensive brand when the quality is perceived to be the same as the more expensive counterpart. Cost saving options for consumers and advertising considerations for managers are discussed.

Institutional Theory And Cross-National Differences In International Market Selection For Direct Selling, Charles B. Ragland

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects

This study extends international market selection (IMS) literature by using institutional theory to develop conceptual links between country level factors of market attractiveness and IMS. More specifically, this study examines the extent to which institutional theory and cross national differences can predict attractive markets for direct selling. The hypotheses were tested over a sample of 51 countries from developed, developing, and emerging economies that comprise 91 percent of the worldwide GDP. The use of a marketing channel, in this case direct selling, is unique to IMS empirical analysis as it represents multiple products and services from multiple industries. The analysis …

The Drivers Of Future Generosity Behavioral Intentions Of College Service-Learning Experience Participants, Jeananne Nicholls

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects

This research provides insight into the drivers of generosity behavioral intentions. Behavioral reasoning theory (BRT) is used as the framework for this investigation. First, in BRT, attitudes directly predict behavior and behavioral intentions (Ajzen, 2008; Ranganathan & Henley, 2008; Webb, Green, & Brashear, 2000; Westaby, 2005a, 2005b, 2006). Second, attitudes influence the relationship between "reasons" and behavioral intentions as demonstrated in several studies by Westaby (2005a, 2005b, 2006). Third, the reasons construct has two components: reasons for and reasons against a behavior (Westaby, 2006). Westaby (2005a,2005b) and Briggs. Peterson, and Gregory (2010) empirically explore this construct and demonstrate that it …

A Lesson Plan For Communicating The Sustainability Of An Enterprise, Clare L. Comm, Dennis F. X. Mathaisel

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Sustainability is the ability to endure. For any organization or any enterprise, sustainability is the ability to remain productive long term while minimizing waste and creating value. An organization can achieve sustainability if it aligns itself with the product and service needs of its customers and wants and interests of its multiple stakeholders. The enterprise, whether it is an ecological, environmental, human, or service enterprise, must possess five “abilities” to be sustainable: availability; dependability; capability; affordability; and marketability. This paper presents a lesson plan or strategy for how an enterprise should communicate/promote sustainability to its stakeholders based on these five …

Marketing Mavens’ Fusion With Social Media, Deborah Lester, R. Keith Tudor, Dolly D. Loyd, Tyra Mitchell

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Maven behavior and its fusion with social media was a natural progression from an auspicious beginning. The acknowledgement of market influencers and their impact on consumer behavior emerged in the discipline literature during the 70’s with a study by Sheth (1971) who recognized the marketing opportunity of information disseminators. The potential publicizing influence of these brokers was investigated by Kotler and Zaltman (1976) whose findings advocated for their inclusion within a communication stratagem. Further examination produced precise demographic variables and personality traits along with the more accurate terminology of market mavens (Feick and Price, 1987) to delineate their unique dispositions. …

Delivering Preventive Health Care Information To More Versus Less Health-Oriented Consumers: A Comparative Demographic Analysis, Joseph D. Cangelosi, Edward Ranelli, David Kim

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Preventive health care (PHC) is the awareness and efforts a person undertakes to enhance and preserve physical, mental, and emotional health for today and future. Although PHC information is widely available, people are not utilizing the information to improve their health. We examine PHC information sources utilized by persons who are more health-oriented vs. less health-oriented. The less health-oriented individuals were identified as: low educational attainment, low income, men, younger age, unmarried, and non-White. A factor analysis produced three primary sources of PHC information sources: print, institutional, and electronic and audio-visual delivery systems. An ANOVA compared how more health-oriented individuals …

A Comparison Of State And Local Welcome Center Visitors: Issues Regarding Sampling Frame Generalizability, James E. Stoddard, Stephen W. Clopton

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Tourism is an important industry in the United States and for more regional economies, motivating research exploring characteristics of tourist consumers and their travel behavior. This paper deals with the issue of sampling frame generalizability for tourism research. Visitors to state and local welcome centers were compared in terms of their area awareness, respondent and travel party demographics, and expenditures. Significant differences were found between the groups, questioning the generalizability of data collected at state welcome centers.

Exploring The Strategic Use Of Platform-Based Planning, Ellen Thomas

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Platform planning is a strategy that can be effectively used to manage today’s rapidly changing environment. It is the process by which core elements are identified and used as a foundation for future growth. Although platform planning is most often associated with product design, its value is now being acknowledged along other dimensions of marketing strategy such as brands, target markets, geographical markets, and business processes. This paper summarizes literature introducing different dimensions of marketing strategy that platform planning can be applied to. Next it introduces findings from engineering literature regarding the benefits and risks associated with this type of …

Shopping Cart Abandonment In Online Shopping, Laura S. Egeln, Julie A. Joseph

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Shopping cart abandonment in online shopping is a growing concern for retailers because it represents lost sales. This study looks at perceived risk and perceived ownership in relation to shopping cart abandonment. It is hypothesized that perceived risk in intended behavior will affect actual purchase behavior and perceived ownership in intended behavior will positively affect perceived ownership in actual behavior. It is believed that decreasing risk will also decrease cart abandonment and increasing ownership will increase transaction completion therefore decreasing cart abandonment. A survey was administered and results showed that the most common perceived risk in abandoning the cart was …

An Exploratory Model Of The Antecedent Factors Contributing To Fan Support/Attendance At Hbcu Basketball Games, George W. Stone, Kathryn T. Cort, Japhet Nkonge

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The factors that impact attendance at sporting events in general and at small college sporting events in particular have been widely examined by sports marketing academicians. Among the various factors emerging over two decades has been attendance based on identity with individual teams and players, to idiosyncratic factors such as the environment and the entertainment value of the sporting event itself. Less is known, however, about what creates and promotes the desire to attend sporting events associated with historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s). HBCU’s, like their other small college athletic departments, are now facing financial difficulties because of dwindling …

Perceptions From Academia On The Use Of Current Marketing Metric, Shane Smith

Faculty Articles

As a great source of generating revenue to the organization, it is agreed that marketing not only drives customer's actions but also can be measured in terms of financial equity. Yet, many often view marketing as an expense rather than that of an investment. This paper looks to evaluate the common methods of measuring marketing's role within the firm. A study was performed to investigate the perceptions of marketing metrics from faculties in four major business degree disciplines. These beliefs in use today demonstrate the difficulty that marketing managers have in building credibility within their departments.