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On the motivating impact of price and online recommendations at the point of online purchase

Do online recommendations have the same motivating impact as price at the point of online purchase? The results (n=268) of an conjoint study show that: (1) when the price is low or high relatively to market price, it has the strongest impact (positive and negative) on the likelihood of an online purchase of an mp3 player, (2) when the price is average to market price, online recommendation and price are equal in their impact at the point of online purchase, and, (3) the relative impact from price increases when online shopping frequencies increases. The implications these results give are that online retailers should be aware that online recommendations are not as influential as a good offer when consumers purchase electronics online. However, other customer recommendations have a stronger impact on novice online shoppers than towards those consumers that shop more frequently online.

Implications of Motivating Operations for the Functional Analysis of Consumer Choice

The present article introduces the concept of Motivating Operation (MO) to the context of consumer choice and discusses the function of the concept of MO in the context of the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM). Including MO as part of the consumer behavior setting leads to a more comprehensive analysis and, as a result, improves our understanding of the complex world of contingencies operating within consumer situations. First, the concept of MO helps to distinguish between discriminative and motivational functions of antecedents in the consumer behavior setting. Second, the MO concept includes both unlearned and learned motivating effects. Third, we will argue that some types of rules could also be MOs. A functional analysis of consumer choice should take into consideration the concept of MO because it is a contribution to the ongoing discussion to describe and classify antecedent variables that influence consumer behavior.

The Motivating Effect of Antecedent Stimuli on the Web Shop: A Conjoint Analysis of the Impact of Antecedent Stimuli at the Point of Online Purchase

This article introduces the concept motivating operation (MO) to the field of online consumer research. A conjoint analysis was conducted to assess the motivating impact of antecedent stimuli on online purchasing. Stimuli tested were in-stock status, price, other customers reviews, order confirmation procedures, and donation to charity. The results indicate that the concept of MO is applicable to the analysis of the motivating impact of antecedent stimuli on consumer purchase behavior. The advantage of the concept of MO is, first, that it leads to greater understanding of the complex world of contingencies operating within the consumer behavior setting online. Second, the MO account is designed specifically to facilitate intervention as it is formulated in terms of environmental stimuli that can be manipulated directly. This is important for online companies that strive to increase economic earnings from their Web shops by means of increasing customers conversion rates.

Co-creation of value in higher education: using social network marketing in the recruitment of students

A social network recruitment campaign was prepared where applicants for information technology bachelor studies at a Norwegian university college were invited to join a Facebook group related to the subject of interest. Each Facebook group was assigned a contact person who received training to facilitate activities and in answering questions from the applicants. Analysis of the dialogues on the Facebook groups indicates value creation between the applicant and the university college, and between applicants. Furthermore, results from the campaign showed that the conversion rate for applicants who apply for a Facebook group was 88.8 per cent, which is significant higher than for those who did not apply for a Facebook group (43.3 per cent). We will argue that social network marketing in higher education gives a great opportunity to replace the passive view of customers with an active view in which applicants are invited to use their own initiatives rather than simply react to predetermined marketing activities.

Web 2.0’s Marketing Impact on Low-Involvement Consumers

ABSTRACT What happens if you create a campaign based on the target segment’s dreams of being a designer, in combination with a recognized brand and medium that have the same target segment? For SCA Libresse, the relationship with its consumers is a vital competitive factor. From dialogues with the target segment, the company’s marketing managers recognized that many young girls have an interest in fashion and design. Therefore, SCA Libresse developed its campaign: Libresse, Let’s Design. The winning contribution was to be sold in 180 stores in Nordic countries. The result was overwhelming: 90,000 designs were submitted, and the number of Web site visitors doubled. Most important, SCA Libresse witnessed an increase in sales during the campaign period. Using the Libresse, Let’s Design campaign, this article discusses how brand awareness and positive attitude toward a brand can be created by use of the Internet in an interactive and social way.

Use of MediaLab TM in experimental behavioral research: The case of consumer decision making

MediaLab™ is a software package developed by Empirisoft™ for the administration of psychological experiments in a computer lab which allows the creation of randomized experiments and the recording of data for each individual participant. This demonstrates how MediaLab™ can be used to arrange and record data to study individual choice behavior based on Herrnstein’s (1961, 1970) behavioral model. The design and composition of the experiment in MediaLab™, the running of the experiment, and example of output data are all described. The use of Medialab™ for setting up experiments for research on consumer behavior is emphasized.

A study of preferences in a simulated online shopping experiment

The current study seeks to expand understanding of how brand loyalty develops by arranging environmental contingencies in online stores. A simulated online shopping experiment was prepared where participants purchase products (116 in all) from two different online stores. A concurrent reinforcement schedule was arranged for two groups of 20 participants. Free shipment was presumed to reinforce purchase behaviour. For the first group, the concurrent schedule was a VR4/VR8 arrangement for choices between two online stores. The researchers wanted to replicate this with different VR values and the second group was exposed to a VR4/VR16 arrangement for choice between two online stores. The results showed that the preference of 13 out of the 40 participants was not under the control of the experimenter-defined contingencies. For the remaining 27 participants, it was found that 18 showed preferences according to the experimenter-defined contingencies. In the first phase of the experiment, there was more variability, switching between the alternatives, than in the maintenance phase. In addition, average choice time decreased as a function of number of trials.

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Activities on the Consumer Purchasing Situation

To explore the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on the consumer purchasing situation, we arranged a scenario where participants (n = 451) purchased workout clothes. The results (r = 0.996, p = 0.000) show that (1) relative to other relevant marketing activities, CSR activity was not the most salient antecedent stimulus, (2) general CSR activities may have a lower impact on purchasing behavior than more specific CSR activities, (3) some CSR activities may have a negative impact on purchasing behavior, and (4) CSR activities may have a different impact on different segments. We propose that the impact of CSR can be understood as rule-governed behavior situated in the consumer’s situation. A functional understanding of the impact of CSR on the purchasing situation could help companies to develop more effective marketing campaigns and, in addition, maintain activities that benefit not only the company but also society as a whole.

Co-creation of value through social network marketing: a field experiment using a facebook campaign to increase conversion rate

The concept of social network marketing has gained much interest in both applied and academic marketing. While several studies have demonstrated the use of social network marketing, research on the actual effect on business value is scarce. A field experiment was prepared where applicants for IT bachelor studies were invited to join a Facebook group related to the subject of interest. Each Facebook group was assigned a contact person who received training in answering questions from the applicants and to create activities on the social network site. The results showed that the conversion rate for applicants who apply for a Facebook group was 88.8 %, which is significant higher than for those who did not apply for a Facebook group (43.3 %). We suggest that social network sites, such as Facebook, can be used as an arena for co-creation of value.

The Relative Impact of Wi-Fi Service on Young Consumers’ Hotel Booking Online:

This study aims to investigate the relative impact of Wi-Fi on consumers’ hotel bookings. It investigates two dimensions of Wi-Fi (price and reviews) in relation to overall hotel ratings, brand, and price per night. A scenario was arranged whereby participants (n = 120) booked a hotel room online. The results (r = .991, p = .000) of a conjoint analysis show that Wi-Fi price and Wi-Fi reviews affect the consumers’ booking, but not as much as hotel ratings and price per night. When looking only at Wi-Fi, results show that previous guests’ Wi-Fi reviews have a higher impact on booking than Wi-Fi price. Further analysis shows that Wi-Fi can be a “deal breaker” in a competitive and/or undifferentiated market. We propose that the impact of Wi-Fi can be understood as rule-governed behavior. Consequently, behavioral understanding of the impact of Wi-Fi could aid hotel managers in developing more effective marketing strategies.