Despite the extensive use of the term “engagement” in the context of brand communities, the theoretical meaning and foundations underlying this term remain underexplored in the literature to-date. ...Drawing on a literature review, this study adopts netnographic methodology to explore the nature and scope of consumer engagement in an online brand community environment. The study reveals the complex multidimensional and dynamic nature of consumer engagement, which may emerge at different levels of intensity over time, thus reflecting distinct engagement states. Further, the consumer engagement process comprises a range of sub-processes reflecting consumers' interactive experience within online brand communities, and value co-creation among community participants. Engaged consumers exhibit enhanced consumer loyalty, satisfaction, empowerment, connection, emotional bonding, trust and commitment. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for practice and further research.
► Customer engagement (CE) is an important concept in online brand communities. ► CE has behavioral, cognitive and emotional dimensions. ► CE sub-processes include sharing, co-developing, learning, advocating & socializing. ► CE leads to satisfaction, empowerment, connection, bonding, trust and commitment. ► Engaged customers exhibit enhanced loyalty.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Consumers’ interactions with smart objects have a relational nature, and extensive research has supported the “relationship metaphor” as a fruitful way to understand consumer responses to consumption ...objects. But, smart objects pose unique challenges for considering the emergence of consumer–object relationships, because their degrees of agency, autonomy, and authority lend them their
own
unique capacities for interaction. We present a new framework for consumer–object relationships based on the circumplex model of interpersonal complementarity and situated in assemblage theory and object-oriented ontology. Consumer–object relationship styles are defined in terms of two foundational dimensions of behavior, agency, and communion, based on the expressive roles played by consumer and object. The overlay of assemblage theory provides a conceptually rich understanding of the space of master–servant, partner, and unstable relationship styles, along with their concomitant positive (enabling) versus negative (constraining) consumer experiences. The model’s underlying geometry supports extensive empirical work and provides a powerful managerial framework for measuring and tracking consumer–object relationships and the journeys they take over time.
Research in marketing often begins with two assumptions: that consumers are able to choose among desirable products, and that they have sufficient resources to buy them. However, many consumer ...decision journeys are constrained by a scarcity of products and/or a scarcity of resources. We review research in marketing, psychology, economics and sociology to construct an integrative framework outlining how these different types of scarcity individually and jointly influence consumers at various stages of their decision journeys. We outline avenues for future research and discuss implications for developing consumer-based marketing strategies.
When a product of uncertain quality is first introduced, consumers may choose to strategically delay their purchasing decisions in anticipation of the product reviews of their peers. This paper ...investigates how the presence of social learning affects the strategic interaction between a dynamic-pricing monopolist and a forward-looking consumer population, within a simple two-period model. Our analysis yields three main insights. First, we find that the presence of social learning has significant structural implications for optimal pricing policies: In the absence of social learning, decreasing price plans are always preferred by the firm; by contrast, in the presence of social learning we find that (i) if the firm commits to a price path ex ante (preannounced pricing), an increasing price plan is typically announced, whereas (ii) if the firm adjusts price dynamically (responsive pricing), prices are initially low and may either rise or decline over time. Second, we establish that under both preannounced and responsive pricing, even though the social learning process exacerbates strategic consumer behavior (i.e., increases strategic purchasing delays), its presence results in an increase in expected firm profit. Third, we illustrate that, contrary to results reported in existing literature on strategic consumer behavior, in settings where social learning is significantly influential, preannounced pricing policies are generally not beneficial for the firm.
This paper was accepted by Yossi Aviv, operations management
.
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BFBNIB, CEKLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Best Customers Editors, The New Strategist
2014, 2018
eBook
Find out how the American marketplace has been transformed by the Great Recession in the new 10th edition of Best Customers: Demographics of Consumer Demand, with all-important 2012 spending data. ...Best Customers is a unique look at who the best and biggest customers are for hundreds of individual products and services. The new edition of Best Customers includes analyses of spending trends before (2000 to 2006) and after (2006 to 2012) the Great Recession, product by product.
This paper studies the potential benefits of responsive pricing and demand learning to sellers of seasonal fashion goods. As typical in such markets, demand uncertainty is high at the beginning of a ...season, but there is a potential opportunity to learn about demand via early sales observations. Additionally, although the consumers have general preference for purchasing a fashion product earlier rather than later in the season, they may exhibit strategic behavior—contemplating the benefits of postponing their purchase in anticipation of end-of-season discounts. Our results demonstrate that the benefits of responsive pricing, in comparison with a benchmark case of a fixed-price policy, depend sharply on the nature of the consumers’ behavior. Interestingly, in stark contrast to markets of myopic consumers, when the consumers are all strategic, the benefits of responsive pricing tend to worsen when there is a higher potential for learning. We explain this counterintuitive outcome by pointing to two phenomena: the spread effect and information shaping. For example, sellers of fashion products that consider upgrading their pricing systems to incorporate “
accurate response
” strategies (i.e., integrating learning and responsive pricing) should be aware of the possibility that such action might lead them to a new and potentially worse equilibrium, particularly when there is a higher opportunity to learn. Despite the fact that price commitment completely eliminates the seller’s ability to learn, it appears to increasingly dominate responsive pricing as the portion of strategic consumers in the market increases. But, although performing better than responsive pricing, a price-commitment policy is typically limited in performing effective discrimination. Finally, we studied the potential benefits of quick response strategies—ones that embed both dynamic pricing and quick inventory replenishment during the sales season—and found that they are particularly significant under strategic consumer behavior. We explain this result by arguing that quick response provides the seller with a real option that serves as an effective implicit threat to the consumers: encouraging them to buy earlier at premium prices rather than wait for discounts at the end of the season.
The online appendix is available at
https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2018.3114
.
This paper was accepted by Martin Lariviere, operations management.
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China's super consumers Chan, Savio; Zakkour, Michael
2014., 2014, 2014-09-22T00:00:00, 2014-09-03, 2014, ♭2014
eBook
Chinese Consumers are Changing The World – Understand Them and Sell To Them China has transformed itself from a feudal economy in the 19 th century, to Mao and Communism in the 20 th century, to the ...largest consumer market in the world by the early 21 st century. China's Super Consumers explores the extraordinary birth of consumerism in China and explains who these super consumers are. China's Super Consumers offers an in-depth explanation of what's inside the minds of Chinese consumers and explores what they buy, where they buy, how they buy, and most importantly why they buy. The book is filled with real-world stories of the foreign and domestic companies, leading brands, and top executives who have succeeded in selling to this burgeoning marketplace. This remarkable book also takes you inside the boardrooms of the people who understand Chinese consumers and have had success in the Chinese market. * A hands-on resource for succeeding in the Chinese marketplace * Filled with real-world stories of companies who have made an impact in China * Discover what the Chinese consumer wants and how to deliver the goods * Written by Savio Chan and Michael Zakkour, two leading experts on the Chinese market This book is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants a clear understanding of how China's Super Consumers are changing the world and how to sell to them.
Functional Food—Consumer Motivations and Expectations Topolska, Kinga; Florkiewicz, Adam; Filipiak-Florkiewicz, Agnieszka
International journal of environmental research and public health,
05/2021, Volume:
18, Issue:
10
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This review provides insight into consumer attitudes toward functional food (FF), with the purpose of better understanding the needs and behavior regarding this kind of product. A total of 47 ...articles were selected for this paper. The available studies from last 20 years differ according to the focus (awareness, attitudes, motivations, willingness, acceptance by consumers) and methodologies used. Several factors, including socio-demographic, cognitive and attitudinal ones, seem to be serve as the basis for the acceptance of functional products. The research papers showed that nutritional knowledge is the most important of these. Older people are more interested in functional products than younger consumers, because of their stronger belief in the health benefits of FF. Moreover, women are more open to compromise between taste and health properties. Claims concerning the disease preventative properties of FF are the most attractive for consumers. This review focuses also on future perspectives for the functional food market. Adequate knowledge and evidence-based communication seem to be the most promising ways to increase consumers’ interest in these kinds of products.
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