Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2011), "Editorial", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2011.07728aaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Consumer Marketing, Volume 28, Issue 1

I would like to welcome you to Volume 28 of the Journal of Consumer Marketing. It is always a pleasure to have successfully presented another volume of both interesting and enlightening manuscripts as we have done with Volume 27. I am most impressed with the quality and range of subject-matter that has been submitted to the Journal of Consumer Marketing, and encourage both academics and practitioners to continue considering the Journal of Consumer Marketing as their venue of choice when they would like their research to be published.

We live in a rapidly changing world, where the consumer is faced with so many alternatives that, at times, it becomes overpowering, and may cause confusion in terms of making what is perceived (by the consumer) to be the “right choice”. Because of global competition, there is a sense of urgency amongst marketers to invest both the time and money to better understand the consumer decision-making process. Lack of such effort may cause loss of market share and brand equity.

Bruwer, Saliba and Miller examined the differences in behavior dynamics and sensory preferences of consumer groups. The overall aim of the authors’ research was to gain some insights of the product style preferences of consumers and what this means in practical terms to wine product marketing. The authors report that it is possible to target wine consumers in accordance with their gender and lifecycle stage as far as the sensory and certain behavioral aspects of the product is concerned. This should, however, not be oversimplified and drive product-marketing strategies in the wrong direction.

Jean gauges the consequences of (brand) parody on attitudes towards the brand that is victim of the (brand) parody. The results of the research show that average level of attitude toward the brand parodied is significantly different after exposure to the advertisement that parodies it. Thus, the average level of attitude toward the brand parodied is significantly different in accordance with the degree to which those exposed to the parodies are subject to feelings of anti-commercial rebellion.

Sheikh and Beise-Zee engage in a study that compares the effects of corporate social responsibility and cause related marketing. The results of this research indicate that both CSR and CRM have similar positive effects on customer attitudes. A major finding of this study is that CRM can compensate for negative CSR to a high degree in the cause affinity segment of the market. Therefore, a high degree of cause specificity of CSR might only be preferable if the market is characterized by broad cause affinity, or if a firm is facing negative public sentiment caused, for instance, by a product harm crisis.

Kim and Chung use the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to further examine the moderating effect of perceived behavioral control on the attitude-intention relationship. This study suggests that retailers can develop effective marketing strategies emphasizing ecological beauty, product safety, and affordable prices to increase consumers’ intentions to buy organic personal care products.

Green and Peloza seek to understand how consumers define corporate social responsibility and how it can enhance the overall value proposition for consumers. The way in which CSR manifests itself determines consumer support. CSR can provide, according to the authors, three forms of value to the consumers: emotional, social and functional. Each of these enhances or diminishes the overall value proposition for consumers. Further, value created by one form of CSR can either enhance or diminish other product attributes.

Boisvert and Burton test and model the effect of parent brand salience, branding strategy and extension innovativeness positioning on the extent of transfer of associations from the parent brand to a brand extension. The findings of their efforts are important for line extension development since they suggest that the launch of an extension can be designed to maximize or minimize transfer of brand associations from the parent brand to a new line extension, depending on the specific marketing objectives for the parent brand and/or extension.

Arora uses a mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) approach to exploring the effectiveness of price bundling. The setting for this study is frequently purchased products, specifically teeth whitening products. This mixed method approach provides rich narrative that adds important insights about the decision process and offers suggestions for advertising development.

Borin, Cerf and Krishnan investigate the impact of different levels of environmental information on key consumer metrics. More specifically, environmental benign products are evaluated against those that have negative environmental impacts. Clearly presented information can make a difference in consumer evaluation of products. If “green” products highlighted the reasons why products free of harmful ingredients did not have a negative impact on the environment, and if “non-green” products were required to disclose the harmful impact of these ingredients, “green” products would be favorably perceived over the “non-green” products. Perhaps policy makers should require manufacturers to disclose key product ingredients and their environmental impact.

In this issue you will also find a most interesting case study, our internet currency section and book reviews.

Richard C. Leventhal