• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.247-269
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• 2007

In recent years, one of the major reasons for the fierce competition amongst firms is that they strive to increase their own market shares and customer acquisition rate in the same market with similar and apparently undifferentiated products in terms of quality and perceived benefit. Because of this change in recent marketing environment, the differentiated after-sales service and diversified promotion strategies have become more important to gain competitive advantage. Price promotion is the favorite strategy that most retailers use to achieve short-term sales increase, induce consumer's brand switch, in troduce new product into market, and so forth. However, if marketers apply or copy an identical price promotion strategy without considering the characteristic differences in product and consumer preference, it will cause serious problems because discounted price itself could make people skeptical about product quality, and the changes of perceived value might appear differently depending on other factors such as consumer involvement or brand attitude. Previous studies showed that price promotion would certainly increase sales, and the discounted price compared to regular price would enhance the consumer's perceived values. On the other hand, discounted price itself could make people depreciate or skeptical about product quality, and reduce the consumers' positivity bias because consumers might be unsure whether the current price promotion is the retailer's best price offer. Moreover, we cannot say that discounted price absolutely enhances the consumer's perceived values regardless of product category and purchase situations. That is, the factors that affect consumers' value perceptions and buying behavior are so diverse in reality that the results of studies on the same dependent variable come out differently depending on what variable was used or how experiment conditions were designed. Majority of previous researches on the effect of price-comparison advertising have used consumers' buying behavior as dependent variable. In order to figure out consumers' buying behavior theoretically, analysis of value perceptions which influence buying intentions is needed. In addition, they did not combined the independent variables such as brand loyalty and price discount rate together. For this reason, this paper tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception. And we provided with theoretical and managerial implications that marketers need to consider such variables as product attributes, brand loyalty, and consumer involvement at the same time, and then establish a differentiated pricing strategy case by case in order to enhance consumer's perceived values properl. Three research concepts were used in our study and each concept based on past researches was defined. The perceived acquisition value in this study was defined as the perceived net gains associated with the products or services acquired. That is, the perceived acquisition value of the product will be positively influenced by the benefits buyers believe they are getting by acquiring and using the product, and negatively influenced by the money given up to acquire the product. And the perceived transaction value was defined as the perception of psychological satisfaction or pleasure obtained from taking advantage of the financial terms of the price deal. Lastly, the brand loyalty was defined as favorable attitude towards a purchased product. Thus, a consumer loyal to a brand has an emotional attachment to the brand or firm. Repeat purchasers continue to buy the same brand even though they do not have an emotional attachment to it. We assumed that if the degree of brand loyalty is high, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value will increase when higher discount rate is provided. But we found that there are no significant differences in values between two different discount rates as a result of empirical analysis. It means that price reduction did not affect consumer's brand choice significantly because the perceived sacrifice decreased only a little, and customers are satisfied with product's benefits when brand loyalty is high. From the result, we confirmed that consumers with high degree of brand loyalty to a specific product are less sensitive to price change. Thus, using price promotion strategy to merely expect sale increase is not recommendable. Instead of discounting price, marketers need to strengthen consumers' brand loyalty and maintain the skimming strategy. On the contrary, when the degree of brand loyalty is low, the perceived acquisition value and the perceived transaction value decreased significantly when higher discount rate is provided. Generally brands that are considered inferior might be able to draw attention away from the quality of the product by making consumers focus more on the sacrifice component of price. But considering the fact that consumers with low degree of brand loyalty are known to be unsatisfied with product's benefits and have relatively negative brand attitude, bigger price reduction offered in experiment condition of this paper made consumers depreciate product's quality and benefit more and more, and consumer's psychological perceived sacrifice increased while perceived values decreased accordingly. We infer that, in the case of inferior brand, a drastic price-cut or frequent price promotion may increase consumers' uncertainty about overall components of product. Therefore, it appears that reinforcing the augmented product such as after-sale service, delivery and giving credit which is one of the levels consisting of product would be more effective in reality. This will be better rather than competing with product that holds high brand loyalty by reducing sale price. Although this study tried to examine the moderating effect of brand loyalty on relationship between the different levels of discounting rate and buyers' value perception, there are several limitations. This study was conducted in controlled conditions where the high involvement product and two different levels of discount rate were applied. Given the presence of low involvement product, when both pieces of information are available, it is likely that the results we have reported here may have been different. Thus, this research results explain only the specific situation. Second, the sample selected in this study was university students in their twenties, so we cannot say that the results are firmly effective to all generations. Future research that manipulates the level of discount along with the consumer involvement might lead to a more robust understanding of the effects various discount rate. And, we used a cellular phone as a product stimulus, so it would be very interesting to analyze the result when the product stimulus is an intangible product such as service. It could be also valuable to analyze whether the change of perceived value affects consumers' final buying behavior positively or negatively.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.85-115
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• 2013

Digital knowledge and information goods as experience goods have some unique characteristics such as close to zero reproduction and distribution cost, high price volatility, and low price acceptability. For the reasons, the pricing policies of digital knowledge goods are very difficult and complicate. Also, most consumers of digital goods have experienced cognitive dissonance after buying decision. The purpose of this paper is to investigate what factors affect the price acceptability level and cognitive dissonance of digital knowledge goods buyers. This paper suggest a structural model that was established by the cognitive dissonance theory and S-O-R(Stimulus-Organization-Response) model. The model is consisted of four exogenous variables and three endogenous variables. The empirical test and statistical analysis suggest following results and practical implications. The variables such as product involvement and perception of price fairness that have positive roles to price acceptability have strong influence on the all the three endogenous variables. But the variables such as sale proneness and price mavenism that have negative roles to price acceptability have little influence on the all the three endogenous variables. In the model, the payment intention was very important mediating variable between exogenous variables and two dependent variables, ie. price acceptability and cognitive dissonance. These results imply that the digital knowledge portals must have some differentiated pricing policies to the customers who have price consciousness and price mavenism. Also, they need some special promotions to whom have positive attitude to the value of digital goods.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.107-118
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• 2016

This study examined differences in consumers' images of short-term income forest products, preference, willingness to pay prices and purchase behavior according to dietary lifestyle as well as investigated what factors influence the degree of satisfaction when purchasing short-term income forest products and willingness to repurchase. According to dietary lifestyle, the results classified consumers as 'frugal housewife type,' 'convenience-seeking type,' and 'food high-involvement type.' A 'food high-involvement group' is defined as a group that wants high quality products regardless of price. In the 'frugal housewife type,' country of origin and hygiene/safety (considered when purchasing food) had positive influences on the degree of satisfaction. In the 'convenience-seeking type,' country of origin (considered when purchasing food) had a positive influence on the degree of satisfaction while country of origin (checked when purchasing food) had a negative influence on degree of satisfaction. Consumers had a lack of perception for short-term income forest products; subsequently, short-term income forest products had a weakness of low access to consumers. Therefore, farms for short-term income forest products need to divide products into 'high-priced' luxury products and 'low-priced' frugal products according to dietary lifestyle characteristics, improve packaging status to enable consumers to check quality certificates, and clearly indicate country of origin as well as improve distribution processes and increase consumer access to products.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.123-134
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• 2010

Considering the benefits for both consumers and suppliers, firms are taking advantage of the Internet as a medium to communicate with and sell products to their consumers. This trend makes the online shopping environment a growing field for both researchers and practitioners. This paper contributes by testing a model of online consumer behavior with websites varying in levels of hedonism. Unlike past studies, we included all three types of emotions (arousal, pleasure, and dominance) and flow into the model. In this study, we assumed that website interfaces, such as background colors, music, and fonts impact the three types of emotions at the initial exposure to the site (Mazaheri, Richard, and Laroche, 2011). In turn, these emotions influence flow and consumers' perceptions of the site atmospherics-perception of site informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment. This assumption is consistent with Zajonc (1980) who argued that affective reactions are independent of perceptual and cognitive operations and can influence responses. We, then, propose that the perceptions of site atmospherics along with flow, influence customers' attitudes toward the website and toward the product, site involvement, and purchase intentions. In addition, we studied the moderating impact of the level of hedonism of websites on all the relationship in the model. Thus, the path coefficients were compared between "high" and "low" hedonic websites. We used 39 real websites from 12 product categories (8 services and 4 physical goods) to test the model. Among them, 20 were perceived as high hedonic and 19 as low hedonic by the respondents. The result of EQS 6.1 support the overall model: $\chi^2$=1787 (df=504), CFI=.994; RMSEA=.031. All the hypotheses were significant. In addition, the results of multi-groups analyses reveal several non-invariant structural paths between high and low hedonic website groups. The findings supported the model regarding the influence of the three types of emotions on customers' perceptions of site atmospherics, flow, and other customer behavior variables. It was found that pleasure strongly influenced site attitudes and perceptions of site entertainment. Arousal positively impacted the other two types of emotions, perceptions of site informativeness, and site involvement. Additionally, the influence of arousal on flow was found to be highly significant. The results suggested a strong association between dominance and customers' perceptions of site effectiveness. Dominance was also found to be associated with site attitudes and flow. Moreover, the findings suggested that site involvement and attitudes toward the product are the most important antecedents of purchase intentions. Site informativeness and flow also significantly influenced purchase intentions. The results of multi-group analysis supported the moderating impacts of hedonism of the websites. Compared to low (high) hedonic sites, the impacts of utilitarian (hedonic) attributes on other variables were stronger in high (low) hedonic websites. Among the three types of emotions, dominance (controlling feelings) effects were stronger in high hedonic sites and pleasure effects were stronger in low hedonic sites. Moreover, the impact of site informativeness was stronger for high hedonic websites compared to their low-hedonic counterparts. On the other hand, the influence of effectiveness of information on perceptions of site informativeness and the impact of site involvement on product attitudes were stronger for low hedonic websites than for high hedonic ones.

• The Journal of Society for e-Business Studies
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.31-51
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• 2014

This study examined the effect of product presentation on consumers' affective/cognitive states and purchase intention. The design of the study was a one factor(product presentation: garment presented flat vs. garment presented on models without faces vs. garment presented on models with faces) between-subject design with a moderator (involvement: high vs. low). A sample of 429 female college students participated in this online experiment. The results show the effectiveness of using a realistic human model on apparel websites. Also, consumers who are highly involved with clothing generally exhibit more positive responses than those who are less involved. Overall, these findings provide empirical support for the Stimulus-Organism-Response model and the Elaboration Likelihood Model, and contribute useful knowledge regarding website design for online apparel retailers.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.151-162
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• 2019

This study identifies influential factors in regards to the purchase of celebrity fashion hot items and compares these factors in the age groups of teens and twenties. This study surveyed male and female consumers aged 10-20 years old for empirical analysis in July 2018. The study surveyed 322 consumers selected through online convenience sampling. Data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows 19.0, descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, ${\chi}^2$ analysis, regression analysis, ANOVA analysis, Duncan test, and t-test. The results were as follows. First, 87.6% of consumer have purchased celebrity fashion hot items more than once. In particular, female consumers in their 20s with a high fashion product expenditure tend to purchase more celebrity fashion hot items. Clothes and shoes were purchased more by 10-year-old males, shoes for males in their 20s, accessories for 10-year-old females female, and bags and accessories for female in their 20s. Second, there were no significant differences for those aged 10-20 years old in purchase satisfaction for celebrity fashion hot items according to age, gender, income, and fashion product expenditure. Consumers' awareness on corporate marketing intention to celebrity fashion hot items was higher among women in their 20s than men in their teens and twenties; in addition, the expenditure on fashion products also increased. Third, factors affecting the purchase of celebrity fashion hot items among teens and twenties were different according to age and gender. A higher need for identification for teenage male resulted in: lower media dependency, higher product involvement, fashion conformity, fashion innovativeness for 20s males, higher product involvement for 10s and 20s females, increased intention to purchase tended. This study provides consumer information and fashion item information that can be utilized in advertisement and promotion strategies for fashion companies that seek to perform celebrity marketing strategies that target consumers aged 10-20 years old.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.139-156
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• 1996

This study attempts to explore urban married women's consumer information needs through assessing their demand level for information. In addition the causality of consumer information needs and related variables is investigated, Major findings are the following: (1) Respondent's needs for consumer information on the color television set and the tryply-pan are in very high level. (2) Among several relevant characteristics respondents' product involvement and perception on the quality differences is strongly related to information needs, (3) Respondents' self-confidence in the product evaluation respondents' perception of the price dispersion and product complexity show a positive effects on the level of information needs. (4) Respondents' age educational level purchasing experience show a negative effects on the level of information needs.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.789-799
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to find out clothing evaluation criteria and purchase intention according to consumers' shopping orientation and demographic factors when they shop online. The subjects were 240 men and women living in the metropolitan area. For data analysis, factor analysis, cluster analysis, ANOVA, t-test, Duncan test and descriptive statistics were conducted. The results are as follows: 1. Important clothing evaluation criteria were considered in order of price, style, fit, size and product guarantee etc. Purchase intention was showed more highly when products are related to low involvement than high involvement. 2. Consumers with high hedonic and utilitarian shopping orientation considered clothing evaluation criteria more importantly but showed low level of purchase intention in cyber shopping. And consumers with low hedonic and utilitarian shopping orientation considered clothing evaluation criteria less importantly but showed high level of purchase intention in cyber shopping. 3. There were significant differences in evaluation criteria and purchase intention according to demographic variables. Especially women considered evaluation criteria more importantly and had higher level of purchase intention than men.

• Archives of design research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.73-82
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• 2002

This research suggests relative perspective against to the existing researches which consider balance as mere one of aesthetic elements that balance could lead different consumer aesthetic response according to product characteristics. From the results of this study, we can suggest that higher level of balance encourage positive consumer aesthetic response in high involvement products and contrary, lower level of balance encourage positive consumer aesthetic response. It's expected for the results of this study to suggest more useful design approach in theoretical and practitional fields. In the future researches, more profound studies with more number of stimuli, more levels of balance distortion and more number of moderating variables should be peformed to withdraw more useful results.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.129-145
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• 2010

In this study, when buying fashion products through internet shopping malls, it is researched about the buying behavior, the awareness of customer review, the use and posting of customer review and the accompanying awareness. The difference of awareness on the customer review according to their involvement of clothes, are examined from high school students in Seoul. And it is examined if they experienced any dissatisfaction after their purchase and what their behavior were. The questionnaire survey was taken by 508 students from 6 high schools in Seoul. The average, the standard deviation, the frequency, the t-test, the One way ANOVA and Duncan's Multiple Test were conducted for data analysis using SPSS 17.0. In the fashion products purchase behavior of the students, The reasons of buying were mainly because of the diversity and the convenience. Some students don't shop online because screen product and actual product are not the same. The awareness of the customer review represented high in the reliability and usefulness. The awareness on the influence of the customer review represented high in the contents direction and the numbers of the customer reviews but represented low in the timeliness. As to the awareness of the customer review, the student using it represented higher in all elements such as the usefulness, the reliability, and the influence than students who not use customer review. The students posting customer review recognized higher on the usefulness and the reliability of the customer review than those who did not post it, and were highly influenced by the numbers of customer reviews. The awareness of the customer review according to the involvement of clothes was the difference only in the usefulness. As to coping actions of students experiencing dissatisfaction, the proportion of the students coping with the public action and those who do not perform any action represented high.