Thomas J. Reynolds

A means-end analysis of brand persuasion through advertising

Abstract This study examines the explanation of brand persuasion through communicating means-end levels on information (attributes, consequences and values) in commercials. It is argued that consumers perceive the personal relevance and desirability of product attributes in terms of their association with personal consequences of product usage. Similarly, the relevance and desirability of personal consequences are derived from their association with a consumers personal values. It is predicted and supported that the strength of association between means-end information communicated by an ad will contribute to the explanation of brand persuasion. Support is also obtained for the prediction that the effect on brand persuasion of communicating means-end associations will be stronger for those who are not loyal users of the brand, since those persons have more to learn about the personal relevance and desirability of the means-end information provided by the associations betwwen levels.

A hard look at hard laddering

Purpose – This paper aims to outline the fundamental assumptions regarding the laddering methodology (Reynolds and Gutman), examine how some “hard” laddering approaches meet or violate these assumptions, provide a review and comparison of a series of studies using “soft” and “hard” laddering approaches to examine the hierarchical structure of means‐end theory, and assess if the discrepant conclusions from this series of studies may be attributed to violations of the fundamental assumptions of the laddering methodology.Design/methodology/approach – A series of published empirical works using “hard” and “soft” laddering approaches, which aim to examine the hierarchical structure of means‐end theory (Gutman), are reviewed and compared to integrate research findings and to examine discrepancies. Discrepant conclusions, which appear to be attributable to violations of the assumptions underlying the laddering methodology, are explored through a reanalysis and reclassification of the content codes.Findings – The...

Application of the means-end theoretic for understanding the cognitive bases of performance appraisal

Abstract Applicability of means-end theory to the area of performance appraisal was tested in a sample of 22 nurse supervisors. Individual interviews were conducted which employed triadic sorting and laddering procedures in order to identify cognitive concepts most salient to performance rating. These concepts were classified according to level of abstraction—attribute, consequence, or value. This classification served as the basis for construction of a summary cognitive map of the performance appraisal process for this sample. Cognitive differentiation analysis revealed that, on average, value level concepts accounted for significant variance in performance judgments over and above that which was accounted for by attributes and consequences. Conclusions include an argument for further investigaton of personal values and their effects on the performance appraisal process.

Means-End Based Advertising Research: Copy Testing Is Not Strategy Assessment

This paper applies a means-end methodology to the development of advertising strategy. A procedure including message elements, consumer benefits and driving force (Meccas), and the use of leverage points developed form the means-end analysis to activate values through advertising is presented. Examples of the use of Meccas methodology are discussed. Results are presented for the analysis of an advertisement for Miller Lite beer, using a sample of 42 subjects.

In Search of True Brand Equity Metrics: All Market Share Ain't Created Equal

ABSTRACT The elusive notion of brand equity is operationalized in a “share tiering” framework with a combination of multiple constructs: (1) relative barrier or brand price, (2) brand quality perceptions, (3) brand purchase loyalty, and (4) self-report future brand purchase trend. This general measurement framework for “true” brand equity when applied longitudinally permits the evaluation of markerting ROI. Recommended measures for the “share tiering” approach to brand equity measurement are illustrated using the cola category as an example.

Assessing the correspondence of one or more vectors to a symmetric matrix using ordinal regression

A statistical model for interpreting psychological scaling research, based on the heuristic work of Reynolds (1983), is developed. This new approach has certain advantages over the standard property fitting approach (Chang and Carroll, 1969) currently used to interpret multidimensional scaling spaces (Shepard, 1962; Torgerson, 1965). These advantages are (a) the ability to directly assess the correspondence of a descriptor vector(s) to a symmetric matrix, and (b) to provide a method in which only ordinal properties of such descriptors are required: thus standard rating, ranking, or sorting data collection methods can be used as the basis to interpret the multidimensional space resulting from the distance data.

A Review and Comparative Analysis of Laddering Research Methods

Laddering has been used extensively within marketing to uncover the drivers of consumer decision making. Obstacles confronting laddering researchers include the time and costs of this qualitative technique as well as the lack of standard statistical measures to assess data and solution quality. In this chapter we assess the laddering research practices of both professional and academic researchers, propose a set of quality metrics, and demonstrate the use of these measures to empirically compare the traditional face-to-face interviewing method to an online one-on-one interviewing approach.

ERGO: A New Approach to Multidimensional Item Analysis.

Cliff (1977) suggests a series of indices, intended for a testing context, that establish a relation between dominance matrices and classical measurement. Cliffs index c derived from an item dominance matrix is utilized in a clustering approach (termed ERGO) to isolate Guttman-type item hierarchies. A comparison of factor analysis to the ERGO is made on social distance data involving multiple ethnic groups. The ERGO procedure surpassed the factor analysis by satisfactorily identifying both the number of hypothetical item hierarchies as well as the developmental order within each hierarchy.

CDAscal: An algorithm for assessing the correspondence of one or more vectors to a symmetric matrix using ordinal regression

AbstractAn algorithm for assessing the correspondence of one or more attribute rating variables to a symmetric matrix of dissimilarities is presented. The algorithm is useful as an alternative to fitting property variables into a multidimensional scaling space. Rather than requiring a two step process of first deriving a multidimensional space and then fitting variables individually into the space, the algorithm directly assesses the correspondence of each variable to the symmetric matrix and permits a regression extension such that a set of variables can be considered simultaneously. The relation between the matrix and the variables is determined by evaluating pairs of pairs relations,