|
| Int'l Symposium - Developments in Consumer Behavior Analysis |
| Monday, May 31, 2004 |
| 3:00 PM–4:20 PM |
| Fairfax B |
| Area: EAB; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Diane F. DiClemente Brockman (US Army War College) |
| Abstract: . |
| |
| Decomposing Product Price Elasticity: Effects of Programmed Utilitarian, Informational and Negative Reinforcement |
| GORDON R. FOXALL (Cardiff University), Jorge Oliveira-Castro (University of Brazil), Teresa C. Schrezenmaier (Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: Several marketing strategies depend upon knowledge concerning consumers’ responsiveness to changes in price. Studies that have decomposed price elasticity suggest that the major impact of promotions is on brand switching rather than increased consumption. Some of these results also indicate that consumers tend to buy smaller quantities of more expensive brands when compared to cheaper ones (i.e., inter-brand elasticity). The present research attempted to verify whether such inter-brand elasticities occur and to measure the relative importance of intra- and inter-brand elasticities in determining overall category elasticity. Panel data containing information about the purchases of 80 consumers buying nine product categories during a 16-week period were used. Brands were classified according to the level of programmed informational (i.e., socially mediated) and utilitarian (i.e., mediated by the product) reinforcement, proposed by the Behavioural Perspective Model. This classification was used to calculate inter-brand elasticities. Regression analyses indicated that, for most product categories, intra-brand elasticity was higher than utilitarian inter-brand elasticity, which, in turn, was higher than informational inter-brand elasticity. These results suggest that overall category elasticity observed for supermarket products reflects different choice patterns: buying larger quantities of a promoted brand and buying smaller quantities of more differentiated, usually more expensive, brands. |
| |
| Effects of Promotions on Brand Choice: Separating Intra- and Inter-consumer Price Elasticities |
| JORGE OLIVEIRA-CASTRO (University of Brazil), Gordon R. Foxall (Cardiff University), Teresa C. Schrezenmaier (Cardiff University) |
| Abstract: Elasticity coefficients have been frequently used to measure consumers’ responsiveness to price in the marketing literature. When elasticity coefficients are calculated on the basis of disaggregate panel data, where each consumer purchase is included in the analysis and there are several data points for each consumer, overall coefficients at the product category level may be a resulting combination of intra- and inter-consumer elasticities. Intra-consumer elasticity would occur if the same consumers tended to buy larger quantities when prices are lower (i.e., price promotions and/or cheaper brands). Inter-consumer elasticity would occur if consumers that buy smaller quantities, in average, also bought more expensive brands, in average. The present paper attempted to separate these possible choice patterns by analyzing inter- and intra-consumer elasticity coefficients for nine different product categories. Panel data from 80 consumers during a 16-week period were used. Inter-consumer elasticity coefficients were negative for all product categories. Intra-consumer elasticity coefficients, calculated for each consumer across all nine product-categories, were negative for 93.4% of consumers. Moreover, within-consumer analyses across product categories yielded results similar to those obtained from aggregate analyses. The impacts of price promotions may be overestimated if researchers and managers do not consider the possible effects of inter-consumer elasticity. |
| |
| Patterns of Consumer Brand Choice and Store Loyalty |
| TERESA C. SCHREZENMAIER (Cardiff University), Gordon R. Foxall (Cardiff University), Jorge Oliveira-Castro (University of Brazil) |
| Abstract: This paper follows up previous research on consumer brand choice and presents the results of the analysis of store choice behaviour of 80 consumers drawn from the British TNS “Superpanel”. The study draws upon work on brand and store loyalty. Brand loyalty versus store loyalty, store penetration, frequency distribution and the duplication of purchase between supermarket chains are examined for nine product categories. Consumers’ store loyalty generally has been found to be larger than brand loyalty: our study points out that the incidence of 100% brand and store loyal buyers is slightly, but consistently higher than earlier work suggests. The classification of brands into groups offering utilitarian and informational reinforcement serves as a basis for a new approach: different degrees of correlation between brand loyalty and the preferred level of reinforcement bought were found. |
| |
| Exploiting the Patch: Progress in Human Foraging Research |
| DONALD A. HANTULA (Temple University), Carter L. Smith (Temple University) |
| Abstract: Foraging research, which was developed in the study of non-human animals, is now also being applied to understanding and predicting the behavior of humans in both field and laboratory settings. Field research includes anthropological studies of indigenous people and psychological studies of shoppers in modern grocery stores and of people searching for information. Laboratory research has focused on shopping for music CDs in a simulated online mall. Thus far, data from human foraging studies have yielded both qualitative and quantitative fits to the predictions from foraging theory, which is entirely consistent with predictions from the matching law and the delay reduction hypothesis. Of particular interests in this literature are the effects of pricing. While probability and delay are most often studied in animal foraging research (because price is confounded with delay in these studies), human studies allow for a cleaner manipulation of pricing. This presentation summarizes the progress thus far in human foraging research and presents some new data extending current pricing findings. |
|
| |