Editorial

Citation

Leventhal, R.C. (2013), "Editorial", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2013.07730baa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Consumer Marketing, Volume 30, Issue 2

Many companies have a deep sense of trying to understand how their consumers act in the marketplace, especially when it comes to consumer’s attitudes and/or beliefs as it concerns the various products and service that are in the global marketplace. But perhaps how consumers interact amongst themselves as it pertains to the acceptance of said products/services might also be considered as an important piece of the consumer puzzle. The ability of consumers to engage in face-to-face communication, as well as the use of the Internet, has created situations where companies have had to learn to adjust their marketing strategies in response to the consumer’ changing attitudes. It is not good enough just to measure marketing activity in terms of market share or sales, but perhaps just as important is to better understand how the global consumer perceives both a company and its products/services in the context of their own marketplace.

Feldman and Vasquez-Parraga examine the key antecedents to consumer social responsibility, in particular the comparative effects of consumer social responsibility initiatives and corporate abilities in the consumer purchasing behavior. Two distant consumer populations, one in the USA and the other one in Peru were studied. The study involved seven factors (three CSR initiatives, three CA attributes and price) and two choice levels per factor, forcing respondents to make trade-offs, and allowing for measurement of the trade-offs that they made. Using the results obtained in this research, marketing managers should supply the criteria needed for bundling and launching products with social attributes, managing corporate social initiatives, and contrasting the merits of using social attributes with the economic attributes in line the CA of the company.

Haas-Kotzegger and Schlegelmich provide us with a holistic picture on consumers’ experience of product-harm-crisis (p-h-c). The study investigates under which conditions consumers are impacted by a crisis in the marketplace and how they experience product-harm-crisis in real life. The authors found that impact consists of personal relevance and perceived severity of the crisis and are a prerequisite for consumer’s response. The authors also find evidence that the personal impact and the consumer response to crisis situations are influenced by the crisis context, the consumer context and the company context. The authors find that a positive company reputation can act as an important buffer against negative consumer response in product-harm-crisis situations. Also, proactive and open response in crisis situations can moderate consumer response. Finally, the personal impact of consumers increases if the harmful products belong to the food category.

Johnson, Masssiah and Allen investigate relationships between social identification and helping behavior intentions within consumption community and its subgroups. Voluntary helping between consumers provides value to consumers and contributes to the firm’s value-creation process. This study helps marketing managers understand how consumption community development simultaneously encourages and discourages consumer value-creation through helping behaviors.

Prendergast and Maggie engage in a phenomenological study to discover the essence of a donor’s experience of joining a child sponsorship program. The author’s central research question was “what does it mean to be a child sponsor?” Charities should take a proactive role in managing communications between beneficiaries and sponsors. Charities could encourage their current sponsors to actively share their happiness and satisfaction with their friends. Testimonials and referral programs wherein happy sponsors share their experiences with potential sponsors would probably be productive. And charities should aim to match sponsors and beneficiaries at least in terns of nationality.

Mayer and Vambery provide insights and guidelines that will give marketing managers tools to deal with variables that impact consumer decisions on whether to buy a national brand or a store brand product. The findings of this study imply that in branded product premium, image must be maintained and enhanced, otherwise it will be lost. In addition, the trend of band value loss referred to as unbranding will vary significantly by and within a product category.

In this issue you will also find our Book Review section as well as our Internet Currency section.

Richard C. Leventhal