Robert E. Hite

Increasing Contributions in Solicitation Campaigns: The Use of Large and Small Anchorpoints

Charitable contribution requests including legitimization of paltry contributions or a large anchorpoint are examined. Results show that a large anchorpoint increases average contributions, legitimization of paltry contributions enhances compliance rates, and the combined use of a large anchorpoint and legitimization of paltry contributions does not significantly alter compliance or contribution sizes.

Student Expectations Regarding Collegiate Internship Programs in Marketing

The importance of collegiate internship programs for students, business firms, and universities has been well documented. This study examined student expectations with regard to internship programs in marketing. The results may aid marketing faculty in the development and management of a marketing internship program.

A content analysis of ethical policy statements regarding marketing activities

Many large corporations now have written codes of ethics to guide the business/marketing activities of employees. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and types of topics which are covered in the ethics policy statements of large U.S. corporations. The results indicated that the topics covered most often (respectively) were: misuse of funds/improper accounting, conflicts of interest, political contributions, and confidential information. It is concluded that in addition to written ethics policy statements, top management should communicate ethical values and demonstrate by example.

Impact of international marketing strategies on performance in diverse global markets

Abstract In the United States and Europe, market share has been related consistently to the profitability of large corporations. The generalizability of this relationship among intermediate-size manufacturing businesses selling in diverse global regions is examined here. The associations between international marketing strategy variables and performance are examined by global region. The relationship between market share and profitability holds only weakly in the global regions examined. While each major marketing mix component appears to affect performance in one or more regions, the nature and degrees of association vary considerably across global regions.

Retailers' offerings and elderly consumers' needs: Do retailers understand the elderly?

Abstract Elderly consumers are becoming an important segment for retailers to consider, due to growth in numbers and purchasing power. Research has found the elderly to have special needs in the marketplace. However, no research has established whether retailers understand those needs and whether they are providing them. This study uses nationally distributed samples of elderly consumers (1,482) and retail store managers (161) for such a comparison. Retailers were found to place a greater emphasis on profit-related factors, while convenience and product-related aspects were desired by the elderly consumer. The findings suggest a number of steps that retailers can take to more effectively meet the needs of the elderly.

Convenience Consumption and Role Overload Convenience

This study expanded the operational definition of convenience consumption to include not only convenience product use but also convenient shopping style. This study has also linked more convenient consumption and less convenient consumption to price trade-offs. Two dependent variables were produced via a factor analysis of various convenient and less convenient consumption behaviors. Factor one represents a less convenient shopping style, while factor two represents convenience product usage. Seven independent variables were tested in an analysis of covariance model. The results indicate that role-overloaded consumers are convenience product users, but may also engage in less convenient styles of shopping. Additional factors are identified as mediator variables to help explain why role overload may encourage one aspect of convenience consumption but not another. A profile of the convenience-oriented and less convenience-oriented shopper is attempted. A description of the role-overloaded shopper is also provided.

Participation in the International Marketplace by US Manufacturing Firms

The international marketing practices and foreign sales of US manufacturing firms are examined in order to identify those marketing variables which are most closely tied to international sales. Survey results suggest that few firms advertise internationally, although advertising is an important determinant of foreign sales, even if that advertising in non‐English‐speaking markets is in English and regardless of its level of standardisation. Results suggest further that manufacture abroad is a powerful stimulus to foreign sales, which is not matched by the presence of sales offices abroad.

Quality uncertainty, brand reliance, and dissipative advertising

Consumers may have learned to generalize from usage experiences that nationally advertised, name-brand items tend to be higher in quality than unadvertised brands. Such generalization may have prompted the substitution of brand-name evaluations for search in quality assessments of nondurable experience goods. This paper offers theoretical arguments which suggest that if some consumers do not search, all firms in nondurable, experience goods markets can increase their profits if some substitute dissipative advertising (i.e., advertising which ignores information about product performance characteristics) of brand names for product quality enhancements. Undersearching by consumers invites firms to downgrade value in nondurable, experience goods markets. In support of the hypothesized substitution by consumers of brand-name evaluations for search in nondurable, experience goods markets, this paper reports results of a field experiment in which the influences on quality assessments of brand name and product composition were studied in two categories where dissipative advertising is heavily relied upon. Results suggest that branding is relied upon more heavily than search to assess quality, even when brand cues are inconsistent with actual quality levels and search is costless, suggesting that dissipative advertising can be extremely effective.

A Content Analysis of CPA Advertising in National Print Media From 1979 to 1984

Certified Public Accountants were not allowed to advertise from 1922 to 1977. Even though the AICPA Code was changed in 1978, there has been continued discussion and disagreement among practitioners about whether accountants should advertise. A content analysis of 38 publications (over a six year period) from industry/trade, accounting, and general business was performed in order to determine where advertisments appeared, timing, frequency and to whom CPAs were advertising as well as the message content, components, and objectives of the advertisements. Of 812 advertisements, 71% were from Big Eight firms. The advertisements promoting services not requiring CPA certification and were found mostly in industry/trade publications. The number of advertisements increased through the years except for 1982. Advertising by CPA firms still appears to be conservative in numbers; however, the trend indicates that such advertising will increase in the future.

Reliance on Brands by Young Children

The bases upon which consumers form preferences and make brand choices are of considerable interest to consumer researchers. While much is known about preference formation and choice processes of adults, little is known about the development of those processes in children. At what age do children make consistent choices? When do children learn to rely upon brand names and packages as indicators of product information? How important are brand names and packaging, relative to functional (i.e. performance) characteristics, in childrens preference formations and choices? Understanding which types of attributes children first come to rely upon may provide the foundation needed better to predict the evaluative judgments and purchase decisions made or influenced by children, as well as the decisions made by those children when they become adults.