Roger Marshall

Measuring brand power: validating a model for optimizing brand equity

Rather than taking the more traditional approach of measuring brand equity for accounting or strategic reasons, the approach taken here is concerned with optimizing brand equity through parsimonious manipulation of the marketing mix. To this end a macro‐model is first developed; this model is then operationalized and tested (in terms of predicted versus actual brand share) in three Korean markets. The contribution of the paper lies in the development of a methodology through which management can efficiently build brand power in their markets. The statistical methods (factor analysis and preference regression) are commonly used in commercial research and the research requirements to build such a model are quite modest – the proposed model makes a theoretical contribution but can also be used as a practical managerial tool.

The interaction of message framing and felt involvement in the context of cell phone commercials

Investigates the relationship between print advertisement wording and consumer interest in relation to cell phone promotion. Reports on an experiment involving two independent variables: message framing and felt involvement levels. Shows how these variables interact regarding attitudes towards cell phones for a New Zealand sample. These findings provide new insights as well as support for previous empirical research. Discusses theoretical and managerial implications and directions for future research.

Variances in Levels of Individualism Across Two Cultures and Three Social Classes

This article reports an investigation of the orientation toward individualism or collectivism of groups of people from high, middle, and low socioeconomic classes in Indonesia and New Zealand. Analysis reveals that social class has a stronger effect on individualism than does culture.

Measuring influence in the family decision making process using an observational method

Many consumer behaviour researchers have concluded that using self reports in the measurement of influence in family decision making may provide data which is not reflective of actual influence among family members. This suggests the need for different methods of obtaining influence data. This paper reports the development and preliminary application of an observed influence scale; a scale developed to measure actual influence using content analysis of videotaped family interactions. This observational method determines the relative influence of family members over three stages of the decision making process. The scale is tested on nuclear families with two adolescents, 89 from New Zealand and 24 from Singapore. The analysis indicates the scale has strong predictive and face validity.

Price threshold and discount saturation point in Singapore

A study is reported, which investigated Singapore consumers’ price thresholds and saturation points for price discounts. The study shows that consumers discount the offered price discount, i.e. they lower the dollar gain value. This discounting of discounts increases significantly with the increase in advertised discounts. Very similar patterns of responses are obtained for products and services. The study also indicates that the saturation point for price discounts of 20 to 30 percent is found to be the same in Singapore and the USA. However, a price threshold of less than 10 percent is found for Singapore consumers, compared to 15 percent in the USA. Frequent price promotions in Singapore may have lowered the products’ expected price and appear to lead consumers to defer purchases when regular prices are offered.

Brand power revisited: measuring brand equity in cyber‐space

Purpose – Cyber‐brands are regularly valued but, to date, there has been no reported research designed to understand the derivation of cyber brands’ equity, so that attempts can be made to increase their brands’ equity efficiently. This research aims to address the issue.Design/methodology/approach – To measure the strength of cyber brands, prior off‐line research is replicated, taking a customer focus to identify determinate variables. These customer‐focused variables are tested against cyber consumers’ stated satisfaction and site‐visit intention behavior, using regression analysis.Findings – The results satisfactorily justify the suggested model, which has a predictive power ranging from 62 to 72 per cent.Practical implications – The study shows that practitioners intent on raising the power of their cyber brand can be guided by the same model as used off‐line.Originality/value – The major theoretical contribution of the study is to show that there is little difference between measuring and increasing ...

How Businesses Buy Advertising Agency Services: A Way to Segment Advertising Agencies' Markets?

ABSTRACT It is clear from the literature that clients the world over expect much the same services of their advertising agency, regardless of industry type or company size - thus it is very difficult for agencies to segment their markets in a meaningful way. This research describes a field test of the idea that clients market orientation provides such a segmentation base. When selecting an advertising agency, market-driven companies exhibit quite different organizational behavior and hold different evaluative criteria than do less market-driven companies.

Involvement as a Mediator in Consumer Judgements

An experimental investigation designed to ascertain the dominant mode of information integration used by respondents when making judgments under different levels of involvement is described. Consumer judgements were elicited in the presence of an involvement manipulation using a 2×3 fully crossed factorial with two levels of purity and three levels of brand as well as three branded only stimuli. The pattern that emerged suggested that respondents were more likely to add items of information under low involvement, and to use an averaging paradigm under high involvement judgment situations.

Making Sense of Marketing Decision Systems through Pictorial Representation: Decision System Analysis

Abstract nDecision system analysis is a conceptually simple technique that maps the process of group decisions over time. The data is gathered in a variety of ways, but most often some form of protocol analysis is the foremost tool. The data is then condensed and depicted as a flowchart for a specific decision. If several such flowcharts can be assembled within an industry, they can be melded together to form a generic guide that is very useful to practitioners and very interesting to theorists. Here, a brief history of the development of the technique leads to a description of the process. This is followed by a comparison to cognitive mapping (a similar technique applied to mapping thought processes rather than physical processes), and an illustrative longitudinal example of DSA.