Edwin Love

Regulatory focus as a determinant of brand value

Purpose – This research aims to investigate the relationship between consumer regulatory focus and brand value.Design/methodology/approach – Three studies were conducted using both student subject pools and a broader sample from the US population. The relative chronic promotion or prevention orientation of each participant was measured, as was response to brand and pricing stimuli.Findings – Promotion‐oriented individuals are more sensitive to differences in established brands than prevention‐oriented individuals (studies 1 and 2), and promotion‐oriented individuals have a greater preference for new brands than prevention‐oriented individuals (study 2). Also, an individuals degree of chronic promotion orientation is an important driver of this relationship (study 3).Research limitations/implications – Brand quality is considered as a general concept rather than a multidimensional construct. Although brand is a largely affective and emotional product attribute, brand trust is a dimension of quality that h...

Divide and prosper? When partitioned prices make sense

Purpose – This research seeks to investigate the relationship between product bundling strategies and brand value.Design/methodology/approach – Three studies were conducted, two using student subject pools and another using data collected from online auctions. The impacts of brand and bundling strategy stimuli on the dependent variables product choice and price paid were measured.Findings – Bundles offered by low‐tier brands are more attractive when they are offered in a combined price format than in a partitioned price format. Bundles offered by high‐tier brands are more attractive when they are offered in a partitioned price format than in a combined price format.Research limitations/implications – The cost of bundle elements to the firm, which may influence consumer reference prices, is not considered in this research. Also, the impacts of bundle pricing strategies are evaluated on the bundles only; the influence of a given strategy on a product portfolio is left for future research.Practical implicati...

Marketing Education For Sustainability

Marketers are increasingly adopting sustainable business practices as the evidence mounts linking sustainability with market share, brand equity and long run profitability. While business coursework is following practice in some disciplines (e.g., environmental accounting/economics), attention to sustainability issues in marketing curricula is limited, for the most part, to discussions of “green” customers, environmental considerations in product development and packaging, and social/ethical issues in non-profit marketing (Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2009). Marketing courses wholly devoted to sustainable business strategy are rare, particularly at the undergraduate level. Thus, there appears to be an increasing discrepancy between the importance placed on a triple bottom line approach to setting marketing objectives by practitioners and its importance to marketing educators. Status quo marketing curricula fail to give students the knowledge and skills they need to be sustainability advocates and experts in their places of employment. This places them at a competitive disadvantage as they seek fulfilling careers in the field.

Quantitative Early-Phase User Research Methods: Hard Data for Initial Product Design

We describe questions that commonly arise in early-phase user research for new technology products concerning customer needs, priorities, and market definition. We suggest that methods adopted from marketing research, statistics, and game theory may be helpful for user researchers to answer those questions. We show how these methods have been applied to real problems and decisions for a new product line at Microsoft. These methods are especially appropriate for HCI professionals because they require solid experience with experimental research and statistical methodology and complement other user research tools. The methods may be most effective when combined with detailed research on user tasks, goals, and interaction models. When research is synthesized in this way, it can make a strong contribution to product definition and business strategy.

Construal based marketing tactics for high quality versus low price market segments

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to propose differential marketing tactics for high-quality products versus low-price products by building on construal level theory. Design/methodology/approach – Two studies were conducted, one using students and another using data collected from more than 7,000 online auctions. Findings – When consumers consider high-quality products, they use more abstract mental models, and when they consider low-price products, they use more concrete mental models. Differentiation based on primary features product is more effective for products that are positioned on quality, while differentiation based on the secondary features is more effective for products that are positioned on price. Also, marketing efforts to attract attention are more effective for products positioned on quality than those positioned on price. Research limitations/implications – This research focused on how consumers use different mental models for considering high-quality versus low-price product offerin...

Volcanic Experimentation: Using Mentos and Soda to Teach Causal Research in a Marketing Research Class.

The reaction that occurs when Mentos are added to bottled soft drinks has become a staple demonstration in earth science courses to explain how volcanoes erupt. This paper presents how this engaging exercise can be used in a marketing research course to provide hands-on experience with problem formation, hypothesis testing, and causal research. A detailed description of the process is provided, including a preliminary think-pair-share activity, hypothesis development, experimental design, and execution. Postmortem discussion guidelines that reinforce the linkage between the activity and course learning objectives are included.

Consumer Usage of a Digital Memory Device Prototype

We report qualitative consumer field trials of a prototype digital memory device known as SenseCam. We presented SenseCam to 25 consumers in the US (N=9), Japan (N=8), and South Korea (N=8) to determine initial interest and expected use cases. This was followed by respondents using an actual prototype camera for approximately one week and reporting on their experience. Actual use cases differed substantially from those initially expected by respondents. The results suggest that successful usage may emphasize stationary capture relatively more than moving scenes, and may emphasize recording of full scenes rather than recording outwardly from the body of what one has seen. We discuss implications for concepts of digital memory and suggest that general consumer interest in such a device may be related to construction of interesting narratives rather than the capture and review of factual data. We suggest future directions for device design and related interaction research.

Product interest and engagement scale, beta (pies-beta): initial development

We report a work in progress: development and initial validation of the Product Interest and Engagement Scale (PIES), a short assessment instrument measuring consumer interest in technology products. PIES reflects an explicitly multidimensional, hierarchical, and extensible model of product interest. It assesses consumer product interest in terms of an overall interest scale plus three subscales assessing interest in features and choices, personal image as affected by a product, and interest in optimizing ones choice with regards to a product. We report factor structure in a sample of N=225 US consumers and replication with N=180 US consumers. The results establish reliability of the overall 12-item scale and subscales in a broad consumer sample (Cronbachs alpha = 0.89 overall, 0.82-0.88 for subscales). Validity measures in the validation sample demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity with product ownership and product involvement measures. We regard PIES as currently being in beta form (PIES-beta). It is suitable for usage now but will undergo further revision in 2009.