Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2010), "Editorial", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 27 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2010.07727caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Consumer Marketing, Volume 27, Issue 3

The twenty-first century has allowed us to gain a lot of information about consumers and how they behave in the marketplace. We have been able to leverage these insights into marketing strategies that many corporations hope will allow them to improve their share of the global marketplace, or even gain a competitive advantage. It is helpful to better understand [consumer] purchasing behavior, [consumer] lifestyles and product/brand relationships, but is this enough? What causes a consumer to change the way that they perceive a particular product/service, and how will this action affect their overall purchasing behavior? Better understanding these actions may prove of great value to a company as they battle for their overall success in the marketplace.

Laroche, Nepomuceno and Richard examine the tangibility of products (goods and services) in light of the rapidly changing developments in terms of communication technologies. The authors used a three dimensional approach of intangibility and explore its relationships with evaluation difficulty and perceived risk. These relationships were tested in two different perspectives brands and product categories. Three interesting relationships between the variables were found, which could prove of value to marketing managers.

Gabay, Flores, Moskowitz and Maler present an approach for the development of ideas for the merchandising of hair coloring. Their overall research yielded a segmentation approach, which would allow a company to interact with the customer so as to identify the segment to which the customer belongs and in turn this would allow a company to create a more effective marketing campaign/

Atintzoglou, Birch-Hansen, Valsdottir, Odland, Martinsdóttir, Brunsø and Luten explore potential barriers to seafood consumption by young adults and the parents of young children. They determined that seafood products need to be attractive, palatable, healthy and convenient. The authors also determined that marketing at the point-of-purchase and habitual consumer behavior were found to implicitly skew planned behavior.

Seitz, Razzouk and Wells show that manufacturers and dealers of residential air conditioning system need to be concerned with bring able to raise their brand equity which would allow them to sell more premium systems thus allowing them to increase their overall revenue and profit margins. To achieve such success, manufacturers could communicate the positive attributes of their systems versus their competitors allowing for greater [brand] differentiation and better top-of-the-mind consumer awareness.

Unni, Tseng and Pillai examine if there are differences in use of price sources in online and offline shopping contexts, and the effect of time spent online on these potential differences. Prices previously seen in traditional media are more likely to be used while shopping offline, while prices previously seen on the internet are more likely to be used while shopping online. The authors posit that retailers should base pricing on channel characteristics. Online channel marketing should be considered more often as it allows a marketer to become more competitive.

Fugate and Phillips examine the concept of product gender perceptions. The authors findings indicate that product gendering is still present and indicate that it is important to better understand if social change during this past decade has altered product gender perceptions and explore the degree to which consumers seek congruence between their own gender orientations and perceived product gender. This information could be of great value to a marketer as it concerns both product design and promotional decisions.

Yang examines critical determinants of US consumers’ intentions to use mobile shopping services. The author found that utilitarian and hedonic performance expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions are critical determinants of the US consumers’ intention to use mobile shopping services. The author points out that it is of great importance for both retailers and those engaged in the marketing of mobile shopping services to better understand the consumers’ perceptions of the new shopping capabilities.

Mugge, Schifferstein and Schoormans examine the concept of post-purchase behavior from the point of the emotional based bond consumers experience with their durable products during ownership. The authors found that the product’s utility and its appearance positively affect both product attachment and satisfaction. If a company wants to stimulate the attachment that consumers experience to their products, the authors suggest that the marketer should introduce products with superior utility or appearance. Furthermore, marketing managers may stimulate the formation of product related memories through their marketing efforts.

The case study presented in this issue deals with the increasing usage of cause related marketing. It will give you excellent insight into what this concept is all about and the pitfalls of a poor marketing effort. You will also be presented with a meaningful Marketing Observation section as well as our timely Book Reviews and a final “Misplaced Marketing” piece.

Richard C. Leventhal