Eva M. Hyatt

Major influence factors in children's consumer socialization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to first provide an overview of childrens spending power, media exposure, and identification with brand names in the usa along with an updated overview of the major findings in the consumer socialization literature, and to then provide an empirical explanation of how the consumer socialization process works with todays children.Design/methodology/approach – Based on a survey administered to 663 children, a factor analysis was performed on items designed to measure young peoples attitudes toward, and interaction with, the various consumer socialization agents and marketplace factors, including shopping and media usage behavior.Findings – Five major consumer socialization influence factors emerged: irrational social influence, importance of television, familial influence, shopping importance, and brand importance; and were used as dependent variables in subsequent analyses looking at the effects of a number of independent variables. Results indicate that the relativ...

The Effects of Food Color on Perceived Flavor

This research investigates the role that food color plays in conferring identity, meaning and liking to those foods and beverages that assume many flavor varieties. In a taste test experiment manipulating food color and label information, 389 undergraduates at a public university (53% male and 47% female; 79% between 18 and 21 years of age) were assigned the task of evaluating a successful brand of powdered fruit drink. Results from this study indicate that food color affects the consumer’s ability to correctly identify flavor, to form distinct flavor profiles and preferences, and dominates other flavor information sources, including labeling and taste. Strategic alternatives for the effective deployment of food color for promotional purposes at the point of purchase are recommended.

Measuring consumer response to food products

The failure of taste tests to predict the market performance of new food products (cf. Burger Kings new french fries, New Coke) illustrate the inability of marketing researchers to perform such tests effectively. Food scientists, with their expertise at testing the sensory effects of foods, can make an important contribution to the ability of food producers to predict consumer preference and choice. However, for their experiments to have the needed external validity to achieve such marketing objectives, food scientists must incorporate into their experiments certain elements of consumer purchase behavior and the marketing context in which food products are considered for purchase. In this paper, we discuss those aspects of consumer choice behavior and the marketplace that are pertinent to accurately predicting consumer food purchase behavior, and how they may be incorporated into experimental studies aimed at predicting food preference and choice.

A comparison of parents' and children's knowledge of brands and advertising slogans in the United States: implications for consumer socialization

Research in the area of consumer socialization suggests that parents act in an agent–learner relationship with their preadolescent children and have the greatest influence on their young childrens purchase behaviour. The present study examines this assumption in light of changes in family roles and composition, media exposure and marketing efforts aimed at children. A cognitive recognition test of advertising slogans drawn from recent television commercials is used to determine knowledge levels of a sample of preadolescent children and their parents. Results suggest that children, beginning at age nine, have as much knowledge of advertising slogans as do their parents, even in product categories targeted at adults.

Placing Food Color Experimentation into a Valid Consumer Context

Abstract Empirical research examining the effects of food color on food acceptability comes from the food science literature, but its applicability for predicting consumer purchase decisions is limited. By design or intent, that research does not consider that food choice is typically made from a consideration set filled with food brand alternatives that are close to parity, and that product and flavor information come in modes in addition to food color. We review the existing food color literature, recount its limitations for consumer behavior research, and provide a conceptual framework to guide the future empiricist in conducting externally valid food color research. Further, whereas in most prior research the food color manipulation includes a novel level merely to contrast with expected color, we consider novel food color directly, for its potential as an attention-getting and differentiating brand communications tool, and present strategies for its effective presentation despite food colors strong link to expected flavor.

Gender Differences in College of Business Educational Experiences

In this article, the authors examine the effect of gender on the learning experiences of students majoring in business. The development of behaviors and attitudes, which will affect the professional practices of graduates, is crucial in the education of business majors. Given that the use of group work and other forms of innovative learning is increasing in business classes, the growing acceptance of group work raises the question of whether men and women experience these assignments differently. From focus-group and survey data, the authors found that the attitudes and experiences of male and female business students were significantly different.

THE MEDIATING EFFECTS OF THE APPEARANCE OF NONDURABLE CONSUMER GOODS AND THEIR PACKAGING ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Publisher Summary Vision has primacy in our sensory world such that information to our brains mediated by the visual sense comes to have a particularly powerful impact on, for example, consumers’ experience of nondurables. In a retail frame, this means that visual information and processes play a key role in the impact of nondurable products and packages on the consumer at the point of purchase. Moreover, the nature of typical food and convenience store layouts, and how consumers are caused to move through and shop them, elevates the impact of visuals by dictating to consumers the physical spaces they must cross, the paths they must follow, and the spaces they must occupy to browse product categories and consider brands for purchase. This chapter reviews the literature on product and package appearance, looking specifically at the effects of the main visual elements that comprise appearance—color, shape, and size. Research into these effects has received spotty attention at best, though it is generally understood that appearance is a strong mediator of attention, consideration, and choice. A primary reason for this lack of attention may be because these visual elements and appearance in general are both hard to conceptualize in concrete terms and to test in empirical terms. A primary reason for both these inabilities is that these visual elements are strongly interacting, both with each other and their environment, making them hard to think about, because they are so hard to isolate, and their effects hard to test, because there are so many confounds to account for experimentally. This chapter discusses those many important aspects of the effects of product and package appearance, which forms a rich field for future visual researchers. Given that much research interest was being retarded by the fact that many marketing researchers simply do not know how to approach experimental visual problems, it proposes a visual research methodology that may have general application to many visual problems.

The Effect of Package Shape on Apparent Volume: An Exploratory Study with Implications for Package Design

We examine a range of standard package shape types and test their effects on volume perception. Results show that consumers group most existing standard packages into four distinct shape categories, including cylinders, kegs, bottles, and spatulates. Each shape type has characteristic effects on volume appearance. Geometrically complex forms appear smaller than simple forms, suggesting that containers displaying different levels of geometric complexity evoke different consumer estimation strategies. For compound complex forms, composed of the conspicuous joining of two or more simple parts, including necks, shoulders, bodies, and feet, consumers key on the body as a sole indicator of volume.

The Association between Learning and Learning Style in Instructional Marketing Games.

To understand how learners of respective types respond to marketing games, a joint space generated by canonical correlation analysis is used to recreate Kolbs learning style-type plot and locate business students as points within it according to their learning style types. Two hundred twenty-three undergraduate students played The Marketing Game! and completed exit surveys soliciting their attitude toward the game experience and Kolbs learning styles inventory. Results indicate that marketing games offer all learners a positive experience. Such inclusiveness is achieved because students can frame the game experience to match their preferred learning styles. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

The Effects of Food Color on Perceived Flavor: A Factorial Investigation in India

ABSTRACT We extend research testing the effects of food color on flavor to a new cultural setting—India. We test color’s effect at three levels: flavor identification, perception, and preference. One hundred twenty-two graduate students at an Indian business school enrolling students from all parts of India were assigned the task of tasting and evaluating an orange-flavored carbonated water. Color at two levels (purple and orange) and label information at two levels (told orange flavor, told grape) were manipulated in a full factorial, between-subjects design. Results confirm that food color affects the consumer’s ability to correctly identify flavor as well as to form distinct flavor profiles and preferences. Food color dominates other flavor information including labeling and taste, though the strength of the effect is less pronounced in this setting. Strategic alternatives for the effective deployment of food color for promotional purposes are recommended.