Victoria K. Wells

Consumer Brand Choice: Money Allocation as a Function of Brand Reinforcing Attributes

Previous applications of the matching law to the analysis of consumer brand choice have shown that the amount of money spent purchasing a favorite brand tends to match the quantity bought of the favorite brand divided by the quantity bought of all other brands. Although these results suggest matching between spending and purchased quantity, branded goods differ qualitatively among themselves, rendering previous matching analyses incomplete. Consumer panel data containing information about more than 1,500 British consumers purchasing four grocery product categories (baked beans, biscuits, fruit juice, and yellow fats) during 52 weeks were analyzed. All the brands purchased were classified according to the level of informational and utilitarian reinforcement they were programmed to offer. An adaptation of the generalized matching law was adopted, in which the amount of money spent was a power function of the quantity bought, informational level of the brand bought, utilitarian level of the brand bought, and a measure of price promotion.

Substitutability and independence: matching analyses of brands and products

This article presents a comprehensive examination of panel data for 1,847 consumers and 2,209 brands of “biscuits” (a total of 76,682 records) in which matching analysis is employed to define brand substitutability and potential product clusters within the overall category. The results indicate that, while brands performed as expected as perfect substitutes for one another, five subcategories of biscuits into which the brands were divided (chocolate biscuit countlines, chocolate-coated biscuits, filled biscuits, plain sweet biscuits, and savory biscuits) generally performed as separate products. Matching provided a graded measure of substitutability/nonsubstitutability of brands and products, and thereby contributed to their definition.

Market Segmentation From a Behavioral Perspective

A segmentation approach is presented using both traditional demographic segmentation bases (age, social class/occupation, and working status) and a segmentation by benefits sought. The benefits sought in this case are utilitarian and informational reinforcement, variables developed from the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM). Using data from 1,847 consumers and from a total of 76,682 individual purchases, brand choice and price and reinforcement responsiveness were assessed for each segment across the UK cookie (biscuits) market. Building on previous work, the results suggest that the segmentation of brand choice using benefits sought is useful. This is especially the case alongside demographic variables. This article provides a theoretical and practical segmentation approach to both the behavioral psychology literature and the wider marketing segmentation literature.

An environmental social marketing intervention among employees: assessing attitude and behaviour change

Abstract The paper examines the impact of individual and organisational factors on two simultaneous environmental social marketing interventions (SmartPrint and heating/cooling) and types of behaviours (recycling, printing and heating/cooling), among employees of a British City Council. Using a quantitative methodology, in the form of a situated experiment, self-reported attitudes, perceptions of organisational support, self-reported behaviours and actual behaviours were measured before and after the interventions. The interventions generated significant changes in employees’ overall environmental behaviour, heating/cooling behaviour and in some perceptions of organisational support (support and incentives/rewards). Findings are used to detail recommendations for future campaigns aiming to improve organisations’ environmental performance and to drive enduring employee behavioural change.

Contexts and Individual Differences as Influences on Consumers' Delay Discounting.

Delay discounting is often considered a universal feature of human choice behavior, but there is controversy over whether it is an individual difference that reflects an underlying psychological trait or a domain-specific behavior. Trait influence on discounting would manifest in (a) highly correlated discount rates for all decisions, regardless of context, and (b) the reflection of discounting behavior in psychometric measures of individual difference. We examined these propositions for consumers making hypothetical decisions with respect to financial returns, health outcomes, and vacation alternatives. Questionnaires were employed to assess discounting rates, and respondents’ (N = 74) cognitive styles were measured by the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI). Results suggested that discounting is a domain-specific behavior rather than a single trait. Individual discounting rates differed markedly among product contexts; moreover, individual differences in cognitive style were not related to discounting behavior.

Foraging: An ecology model of consumer behaviour?

Foraging theory is a well established set of models and ideas in ecology, anthropology and behavioural psychology. Two areas of research, the behavioural ecology of consumption and information foraging, have made strides in the application of foraging theories in relation to consumption and related behaviours. These focus on online situations and restrictions in methodologies utilized allows application to only a small range of marketing problems. This paper broadens the application of these notions and introduces foraging ideas/terminology to a wider business and marketing audience by contextualizing and comparing with current research in marketing and related areas. The paper makes a number of suggestions for use of the foraging model in both academic and practitioner based environments. The paper ends with discussion of future research on the assembly and wider application of a foraging ecology model of consumer behaviour.

Behavioural psychology, marketing and consumer behaviour: a literature review and future research agenda

Abstract Psychology, along with a wide range of other academic disciplines, has influenced research in both consumer behaviour and marketing. However, the influence of one area of psychology – namely, behaviourism – on research on consumers and marketing has been less prominent. Behaviourism has influenced consumer and marketing research through the application of classical and operant conditioning, matching and foraging theories, amongst other frameworks, during the past 50 years. This article provides a review of research and applications of behavioural psychology in the area, as well as a brief introduction of behavioural psychology for scholars unfamiliar with the area. The article also suggests avenues for further research examining the potential development of behavioural psychology approaches for both consumer and marketing researchers.

An exploratory investigation of barriers and enablers affecting investment in renewable companies and technologies in the UK.

The last few years have seen considerable research expenditure on renewable fuel technologies. However, in many cases, the necessary sustained and long-term funding from the investment community has not been realized at a level needed to allow technologies to become reality. According to global consulting firm Deloittes recent renewable energy report (http://www.deloitte.com/energypredictions2012), many renewable energy projects stalled or were not completed because of issues including the global economy, the state of government finances, difficulties in funding and regulatory uncertainty. This investigation concentrates on the funding aspect and explores the perceived barriers and enablers to renewable technologies within the investment and renewables community. Thematic analysis of 14 in-depth interviews with representatives from renewable energy producers, banks and investment companies identified key factors affecting the psychology of investor behaviour in renewables. Eight key issues are highlighted, including a range of barriers and enablers, the role of the government, balance between cost/risk, value/return on investment, investment time scales, personality/individual differences of investors and the level of innovation in the renewable technology. It was particularly notable that in the findings the role of the government was discussed more than other themes and generally in quite critical terms, highlighting the need to ensure consistency in government funding and policy and a greater understanding of how government decision-making happens. Specific findings such as these illustrate the value of crossing disciplinary boundaries and highlight potential further research. Behavioural science and economic psychology in particular have much to offer at the interface of other disciplines such as political science and financial economics.

Special issue: Consumer behaviour analysis and services

Consumer behaviour analysis is a synthesis of behavioural economics with the real-world complexities of consumer choice in a marketing-oriented economy (Foxall, 2001). Behavioural economics, based on the integration of operant behaviour theory and experimental economics, has made enormous strides in the explanation of choice behaviour in terms of its environmental consequences. Much of the earlier work involved non-human subjects but there is now a well-established volume of research findings on human choice in economic situations. Consumer behaviour analysis adds a further dimension to this work by combining it with marketing science, the empirical study of patterns of consumer choice in affluent, marketing-oriented economies. The foundations of consumer behaviour analysis were set out in an inaugural essay at the beginning of the millennium (Foxall, 2001) and research to that point was extensively reviewed in the three volumes of Consumer behaviour analysis: Critical perspectives in business and management (Foxall, 2001). Theoretical and empirical research, which has proceeded apace during the last decade, has recently been reviewed (Foxall, 2007, 2009a, 2009b, 2011; Foxall, Oliveira-Castro, James, & Schrezenmaier, 2007; Hantula & Wells, 2010) and will not be rehearsed here. Rather, this special issue reports on current work on consumer behaviour analysis that was presented at the 2nd International Symposium on Consumer Behaviour Analysis held in Cardiff in April 2010 in order to provide a flavour of current thinking and empirical investigation in the area. Consumer behaviour analysis developed largely in response to the cognitive domination of consumer behaviour research and the need to explore alternative accounts of consumer choice (Foxall, 2010). Concurrently with the development of consumer behaviour analysis, the core of behaviour analysis was also developing and breaking new ground in the application of behavioural concepts and theories to the empirical understanding of a diverse range of psychological phenomena in what Roche (1999) called a ‘new wave’ of behavioural psychology. However, while behaviour principles are central to consumer behaviour analysis’s theoretical and empirical research programme, the philosophical and methodological influences go beyond the academic disciplines known as ‘experimental analysis of behaviour’ or ‘behaviour analysis’ (Foxall, 2001) and the papers included here reflect this. The basic paradigm of behaviour analysis, the ‘three-term contingency’ or S R S, where S is a cue or ‘discriminative stimulus’, R is a ‘response’ and S is a reward or

An environmental social marketing intervention in cultural heritage tourism: a realist evaluation

ABSTRACT Following Pawson and Tilleys principles of realist evaluation and the context–mechanism–outcome (CMO) framework, this paper conducts a process evaluation of an environmental social marketing intervention in a heritage tourism organisation. Social marketing and employee environmental interventions have received relatively scant attention in tourism. Additionally, prior literature mostly focused on the evaluation of intervention outcomes (i.e. how far the intervention produces precise targeted outcomes) and ignores the importance of process evaluation (i.e. identifying what works, for whom, under which circumstances and how, plus issues of intervention maintenance). This paper fills this literature gap using realist evaluation theory and academic perspectives, as well as via the reflections of practitioners involved in intervention design and delivery. Findings suggest that a good understanding of the tourism and organisational context (regarding the dimensions of structure, culture, agency and relations) and the use of tailored, action-focused mechanisms (for each context dimension) are critical to achieving transformational outcomes in environmental interventions in cultural heritage organisations. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the CMO is a useful framework for assessing environmental social marketing interventions in tourism (both for heritage and other tourism organisations). Implications for tourism practice and further research directions are also discussed.