Richard Mizerski

The Effects of Cultural Values in Word-of-Mouth Communication

When new products and brands are introduced into other cultures, the speed and extent of the products acceptance are important concerns for marketers. The spread of positive word of mouth (WOM) and the lack of negative WOM about the product or brand by early adopter groups are critical to the products successful diffusion in a population. This is the first study to investigate the effects of consumers’ cultural values on their WOM behavior. Data analysis from two samples indicates that the pattern, type, and target receivers of consumers’ WOM activity depend on their cultural values. The authors use Hofstedes four cultural dimensions to test the effects of cultural values on WOM behavior to social in- and out-groups. They find that all four dimensions have significant effects on WOM engagement to those groups. Although the authors could not determine the causal nature of the relationships because of the sample design used, they argue that marketers should monitor the cultural values of their market to anticipate in- and out-group discussions and the choice of appropriate brand communication strategies in other countries.

Primacy and Recency Effects on Clicking Behavior

As consumers and business increasingly use the Internet, understanding how and why users choose website links or email links becomes correspondingly important. Two recent articles report a monotonic effect of link order and clicking on a link; this means that the higher a links position in a list of links, the greater the probability that visitors will click on that link. The difference in probability of clicking has important implications for designing webpage navigation for visitors. Here we report on two field experiments that confirm and extend these studies, showing the efficacy of the first link, a primacy effect. Visitors to a site, however, also show an increased tendency to click on links at the end of the list, a recency effect that previous studies failed to note. This article discusses the potential reasons for recency effects, and the implications of serial position effects more generally.

The Use of Domain Names in e-branding by the World's Top Brands

This research links branding literature and domain names to explore electronic, or e‐Branding, strategies. It focuses on how the worlds top brands use domain names to extend their brand online and protect its associated reputation against competitors and imitators. Two hypotheses explore and benchmark domain name use by the worlds top 75 brands. The results show that most companies register their brand name both globally in the.com suffix and locally, for example, with Frances.fr and Australias.au. These top brands had less presence in the.net and.org global domains, as well as in typographical variations of their.com name. The findings support past diffusion research in that size and industry relate to organizational adoption of technology. Larger brands (in total brand value) and technology‐based brands had a greater adoption of domain names for e‐branding.

Predictability in Pathological Gambling? Applying the Duplication of Purchase Law to the Understanding of Cross-Purchases Between Regular and Pathological Gamblers.

The objective of this study is to explore the gambling participations and game purchase duplication of light regular, heavy regular and pathological gamblers by applying the Duplication of Purchase Law. Current study uses data collected by the Australian Productivity Commission for eight different types of games. Key behavioral statistics on light regular, heavy regular, and pathological gamblers were computed and compared. The key finding is that pathological gambling, just like regular gambling, follows the Duplication of Purchase Law, which states that the dominant factor of purchase duplication between two brands is their market shares. This means that gambling between any two games at pathological level, like any regular consumer purchases, exhibits “law-like” regularity based on the pathological gamblers’ participation rate of each game. Additionally, pathological gamblers tend to gamble more frequently across all games except lotteries and instant as well as make greater cross-purchases compared to heavy regular gamblers. A better understanding of the behavioral traits between regular (particularly heavy regular) and pathological gamblers can be useful to public policy makers and social marketers in order to more accurately identify such gamblers and better manage the negative impacts of gambling.

The strategy of global branding and brand equity

This book offers a way to predict which brand a buyer will purchase. It looks at brandperformance within a product category and tests it in different countries with verydifferent cultures. Following the Predictive Brand Choice (PBC) model, this book seeks to predict a consumer’s loyalty and choice. Results have shown that PBC can achieve a high level of predictive accuracy, in excess of 70% in mature markets. This accuracy holds even in the face of price competition from a less preferred brand.PBC uses a prospective predicting method which does not have to rely on a brand’spast performance or a customer’s purchase history for prediction. Choice data isgathered in the retail setting – at the point of sale. The Strategy of Global Brandingand Brand Equity presents survey data and quantitative analyses that prove themethod described to be practical, useful and implementable for both researchers and practitioners of commercial brand strategies.