James L. Ginter

Corporate Social Responsiveness: Management Attitudes and Economic Performance

The policies and practices of corporations are shaped by their top management groups. The attitudes and values of these executives influence significantly whether or not those policies and practices are responsive to the expectations of the broader society. This article demonstrates not only a relationship between management values and corporate social responsiveness, but also that companies with strong social responsiveness generally enjoy better financial performance than their less responsive industry counterparts.

The effects of in-store displays and feature advertising on consideration sets

Abstract A heteroscedastic random utility model which allows for a flexible pattern of cross elasticities at the household level is explored. This flexibility enables the model to describe patterns of price sensitivity among competing brands which correspond to the competitive structure reflected in consideration sets. The effects of displays and features on these price sensitivities and the consideration sets are examined. The model is applied to scanner panel data of tuna purchases, where in-store displays and feature advertisements are found to increase product net utility and decrease price sensitivity for the promoted item.

Analysis of brand preference segments

Abstract Market segments are defined in this article on the basis of a vector of preference levels for alternative brands. The proposed analytical procedure does not require the usual assumption of homogenous perceptions. The resulting segments are shown to differ in perceptions of the brands, correlations of attribute-specific perceptions with preference, and product-oriented AIO measures. A common joint space developed from a common discriminanr configuration of brand perceptions is compared with separate joint spaces for two of the segments. The results reveal unique brand configurations and attribute orientations for these segments, and the fit of preference vectors in these unique spaces is superior to that in the common joint space. These findings lead to the conclusion that the commonly made assumption of homogenous preceptions is unwarranted and can lead to erroneous managerial implications.

Applying the marketing concept to design new products

Abstract This article is an empirical application of the marketing concept in the design of new product offerings in the area of religious instructional materials. The general approach and methodology of this research should be appropriate for many types of consumer products and organizations. The marketing concept was applied to the design of religious instructional materials in this study through an empirical investigation of the values, attitudes, and perceived needs of key market populations. The study consisted of determination of perceived needs for alternative topics, identification of educational themes around which specific topics could be integrated into instructional packages, and assessment of the importance of these themes across alternative market segments. A total of 1161 respondents (464 pastors and 697 lay members) completed a mail questionnaire which solicited their perceptions of themselves and the domain of the church in their lives. Respondents also indicated the level of importance they placed on alternative instructional topics. The data were analyzed through the use of multivariate techniques to provide understanding and interpretation of the perceived needs of alternative market segments. Results of the analyses were very useful in determining which instructional packages to develop and the target markets for each package.