Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2008), "Editorial", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 25 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2008.07725faa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Consumer Marketing, Volume 25, Issue 6

To succeed in the global marketplace today, it is necessary that a marketing strategist understand that culture is not something that is easily understood, but rather consists of many dimensions that must be examined in light of a particular society. A strategy created for a national level entry might not necessarily work for a specific consumer segment. This is a most perplexing problem as it relates to market segmentation. The challenge is that you are trying to capture the essence of how consumers think, feel, and behave. Where does family decision-making fit into the consumption pattern? Why do consumption patterns among younger and older age groups vary from country to country? Does “nationalistic pride” in locally manufactured products affect purchase behavior? Does advertising affect a consumer’s decision to purchase/use a product or service? Such is the global marketplace that exists today.

Fitzmaurice investigates the consumer splurge purchase and compares characteristics about the splurge purchase for both high-materialism and low-materialism consumers. The author also examines the concept of a consumer splurge and further helps to define how consumers define such purchases. The author found that consumers do identify some of their past purchases as splurge and that typically consumers splurge on things that they say that they do not need but feel they have a strong desire to have.

Blodgett, Bakir and Rose examine the reliability and validity of Hofstede’s cultural framework when applied at the individual level. This study presents evidence that Hofstede’s cultural instrument lacks sufficient construct validity when applied at an individual level of analysis. Overall, a majority of the items in Hofstede’s analysis were lacking in face validity, the reliabilities of the four dimensions were low, and the factor analysis did not result in a coherent structure. To effectively understand why consumers from diverse regions and culture react differently to various marketing tactics, the authors believe that a reliable and valid measure that captures the richness of various cultural dimensions, and which can be deployed at the individual and sub-group level of analysis, must be developed.

Clarke relates that an important part of the Christmas ritual is the request tradition. Parents ask their children what they would like for Christmas, respond to a child’s request or often initiate such Christmas communication exchanges. These styles of family communication relates to the socialization of children into consumption and Christmas. The author studies aspects of parental approaches to their children’s request behavior within family communication patterns typology. His study found that parents encourage a positive exchange of desire and opinion from children and he also questions the sources of information and suitability of the gift. By doing this, parents appear to condone, if not generate, an atmosphere of open request behavior because the limiting of gift requests through direct parental instruction is minimal.

Taylor-West, Fulford, Reed, Story and Saker examine the concept that modern segmentation strategies aligning products with lifecycle typologies do not work. It is no longer possible to align consumers and products into neat and stable lifecycle segments. More importance should be attached to products having a familiarity fit with consumers, that is what (consumers) know and expect from a particular product. The authors suggest that a customer’s expertise, product involvement and familiarity with the product are more likely to provide more appropriate market segmentation tools.

Hobbs and Rowley explore the extent to which pub or bar discount cards distributed to students function as loyalty cards, or make a contribution to relationship building, In and of themselves, pub discount cards do not generate either behavioral or attitudinal loyalty directly. It is necessary for a customer interaction to occur before a relationship can be developed. Thus, the discount cards “add value” for both the customer and the business to help foster this relationship.

In this issue, you will also find our Misplaced marketing section, book reviews and computer currency.

Richard C. Leventhal