Jesse E. Teel

Measurement of Consumer Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence

The development of a scale for measuring consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence is described. Consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence is hypothesized as a general trait that varies across individuals and is related to other individual traits and characteristics (McGuire 1968). The construct is defined as the need to identify with or enhance ones image in the opinion of significant others through the acquisition and use of products and brands, the willingness to conform to the expectations of others regarding purchase decisions, and/or the tendency to learn about products and services by observing others or seeking information from others. A series of studies provides evidence to support the convergent and discriminant validity of a two-dimensional scale.

Selected determinants of consumer satisfaction and complaint reports.

Data obtained from 375 members of a consumer panel in a two-phase study of consumer experiences with automobile repairs and services were used to examine the antecedents and consequences of consume...

Sample Size Effects on Chi Square and Other Statistics Used in Evaluating Causal Models

A simulation study of the effects of sample size on the overall fit statistic provided by the LISREL program indicates the statistic is well behaved over a wide range of sample sizes for simple mod...

Correlates of Consumer Susceptibility to Coupons in New Grocery Product Introductions

Abstract This paper presents the results of an exploratory study of female shoppers influenced to try new grocery products by sales promotions coupons. The findings indicate that this consumer group represents a sizable market segment with many unique characteristics. Knowledge of the unique demographic and psychographic characteristics of this segment should facilitate development of promotional strategies to elicit early trial of new products.

Advertising Regulation's Effect upon Demand for Cigarettes

Abstract Additional advertising regulation is being proposed for both tobacco and alcoholic beverage products. The possible outcome of these proposed regulations is examined based on the effect that advertising regulation has had on tobacco consumption in the past.

An Analysis of the Dimensionality and Reliability of the Lennox and Wolfe Revised Self-Monitoring Scale

The Lennox and Wolfe (1984) Revised Self-Monitoring Scale (RSMS) was analyzed, using confirmatory factor analysis procedures, to investigate the scales dimensionality and reliability. The results revealed that the predicted two-factor correlated structure was the best representation of the four models examined. Coefficient alpha estimates of internal consistency and construct reliability estimates also revealed a reasonable pattern of reliability. However, a number of the factor loadings were low, which may account for the low shared variance estimates for the two factors. Additional correlational tests revealed only minimal overlap between the RSMS and the 25-item original (Snyder, 1974) and 18-item revised version of Snyder and Gangestads (1986) Self-Monitoring Scale (SMS).

Family Income Effects on Measurement of Children's Attitudes toward Television Commercials

any interpretation is only speculative. It does seem safe to say that the study offers no evidence that a conventional message is less effective than an unconventional one. Overall, the effectiveness of telephone calls simply substantiates the conventional marketing wisdom that it pays to make something easy to buy. Such new developments as dental offices in Sears stores and shopping malls represent further moves in this direction and, to the extent that they prove successful, add another dimension to theory about the purchase of preventive health care.

Family Income, TV Viewing and Children's Cereal Ratings

30.194 column inches devoted to heads and illustrations, the news items occupied 39,543 or 1.4% of the papers. I f one removes the 69.737 column inches devoted to aging and the aged in the two newspapers in the geographical areas noted for large numbers of retirees, then the column inches of newshole in the remaining eight papers is reduced to 47,609 (68% of the total news) or 2.2% of the 2,144.501 inches in those eight papers. Thus there was a difference in news space on aging of . 3 of 1 % between the eight (2.2%) and all papers (2.5%) and the other two. The St. Petersburg Times and the Los Angeles Times contained 662,854 inches, and 22,128 were devoted to aging or the aged or 31.7% of the space in all 10. News in those two newspapers related to aging consumed 3.5% of their total space. A very significant relationship existed between the total length in a story and the day of its publication. The greatest contribution to this relationship resulted from the 56.8% of the weeks space on aging devoted to short stories ( I I inches or less). Thursdays and Sundays accounted for 39.8% of the weeks total while Saturdays offered 9. I %, the least space by day. Head widths were categorized into three groups: small o r one column, medium or two-to-three, and wide or four or more. Head width in relation to day was significant a t .Owl. Again, Sundays and Thursdays had the most space in all three categories. Thursday had the most small heads, and Sunday led in medium and long heads. Illustrations were one column or two-ormore. The relationship of illustrations space to day was significant at .OOOI. Sundays led in both categories. Eighty-eight percent were one column wide. The geographical site of news items was: local, state, national, and international. Site was not significant b;r dav. Forty-two percent of the items were local, and 36% were national. The items were categorized as straight news, feature or human interest, editorial, columns, ads, or illustrations. photos, o r erauhics. Their relationshiu to dav of the week was significant at .OOOl. Page location of items was recorded as pages 1-28 or first section and 29-or-more. The relationship of page location and day was significant a t .0001. Although 50% of the items were in the first section, only 3% were Page I . The news items were classified as general information and special interest. General information items were legislative, service, research, agency or organization reports and other related information. Special interest items were on aged individuals or couples, activities, organizations, education, sexuality or other. The type of item in relation to day was not significant. Seventy percent of the items were special interest and 30 general information. Sunday led in both categories. The tone of articles was positive, neutral and negative. Thirty-one percent were positive, 65 neutral and four negative. When tone was considered by total column length, news length, head width, illustration space, class of item, content classification, page location, presence of byline, and geography, the results were similar and significant a t .0001. Conclusions 1) The length, number of items and space occupied by news concerned directly with aging and the aged appeared to be disproportionate to the number of persons over 60 years in age. 2) The tone of newspaper stories was positive or neutral and did not support often heard, intuitive assumptions indicting newspapers for creating or perpetuating myths or negative images concerning the aged.

Weekly Variation in Audience Delivery of TV Advertising Schedules.

Abstract Individual TV advertising spots may vary as much as five rating points from one week to the next which implies that summary measures of audience delivery of TV advertising schedules composed of multiple spots could vary quite drastically. Obviously this would have a marked effect of cost per thousand calculations which is a common criterion for choosing between alternate TV advertising schedules. Based upon examination on a large number of TV advertising schedules, however, this study reports that weekly changes in audience ratings of individual spots comprising an advertising schedule tend to cancel out so that total schedule audience delivery and cost per thousand estimates are not greatly affected over a two week period.

Consumer Magazines—An Efficient Medium for Reaching Organizational Buyers

Network television and consumer magazines were compared with trade publications for cost efficiency in delivering individuals who influence organizational purchase decisions of