Consumer Culture and Purchase Intentions towards Fashion Apparel

This study examines the effectiveness of different fashion marketing strategies and analyzes of the consumer behavior in a cross-section of demographic settings in reference to fashion apparel retailing. This paper also discusses the marketing competencies of fashion apparel brands and retailers in reference to brand image, promotions, and externalmarket knowledge. The study examines the determinants of consumer behavior and their impact on purchase intentions towards fashion apparel. The results reveal that sociocultural and personality related factors induce the purchase intentions among consumers. One of the contributions that this research extends is the debate about the converging economic, cognitive and brand related factors to induce purchase intentions. Fashion loving consumers typically patronage multi-channel retail outlets, designer brands, and invest time and cost towards an advantageous product search. The results of the study show a positive effect of store and brand preferences on developing purchase intentions for fashion apparel among consumers.Consumer behavior, purchase intention, socio-cultural values, designer brands, store brands, fashion apparel, brand promotion, personalization, fashion retailing, psychographic drivers

Uber’s rebranding : the effects on Generation Y’s brand perception : case study

Nowadays, time scarcity affects all consumers. In fact, time is one of the most important commodities and brands have come across with a generation with unique traits: Generation Y. Brands were forced to adapt to the current landscape shaped by this generation: higher levels of impatience, more intricate consumption patterns and higher skepticism towards traditional marketing strategies than previous generations. Furthermore, brands had to reconsider their strategies to efficiently communicate and influence consumers, keeping in mind that any subtle change can generate a positive or negative response from consumers. But what happens when a company proceeds with a rebranding process? What will be the effect of this change in the consumers’ perception over the brand? In this master thesis, the literature review was focused on three key areas: brand, particularly in the identity mix; rebranding including advantages, risks and impact and lastly, in Generation Y. Regarding methodology, the object of analysis was Uber since it met the criteria defined. To evaluate Uber’s rebranding effect on the overall brand perception, the author followed a single-case study method complemented with two independent sample surveys. In conclusion, Uber’s new visual identity was not well-received by the sample analyzed with the previous logo scoring better results in most of the attributes under study when compared to the recent logo. Actually, these attributes provided interesting insights that could justify this preference. The company failed to communicate their brand repositioning to consumers in a meaningful way and, therefore Uber’s rebranding had a negative effect on Generation Y perception over the brand

Влияние характеристик социокультурных групп на формирование SMM-модели фирмы

Выстраивание компанией коммуникации с потенциальными потребителями через маркетинг социальных медиа может стать одним из основных путей поддерживания двухсторонней коммуникации в интернете. В нашей работе мы сфокусировались на формировании модели коммуникации компании с учетом характеристик социокультурных групп, а именно поколений. Работа посвящена изучению психологических, демографических и культурных особенностей поколений, а также особенностей их поведения в социальных сетях. Мы предложили SMM-модель, а также матрицу, которые могут упростить выбор основных элементов коммуникации в социальных сетях. Проведенная на основании сформулированной модели SMM-кампания показала высокие результаты и перспективность учета характеристик социокультурных групп для ведения коммуникации.The company's building of communication with potential consumers through the marketing of social media can become one of the main ways to support two-way communication on the Internet. In our work we focused on the formation of the company's communication model, taking into account the characteristics of sociocultural groups, namely generations. The work is devoted to the study of psychological, demographic and cultural features of generations, as well as features of their behavior in social networks. We proposed an SMM-model, as well as a matrix, that can simplify the choice of the basic elements of communication in social networks. Based on the formulated model SMM-campaign showed high results and the prospect of taking into account the characteristics of sociocultural groups for communication

Evolution in the usage of localised appeals in Japanese and American print advertising

Based on global consumer culture theory, this empirical investigation examines how the usage of local appeals in Japanese and American advertising content has shifted over a period of nearly three decades. It replicates and improves upon Mueller’s investigation (Journal of Advertising Research, 1987, 27(3)). Content analysis determined the existence or absence of five traditionally Japanese appeals vs five traditionally Western appeals in 2005 issues of women’s, general interest, business and sports magazines published in each country. A total of 899 US ads and 853 Japanese ads were collected. Japanese advertisers appear to have turned to a rather more direct and persuasive selling approach, but continue to maintain a tradition of Japanese subtlety. American ads have shifted from a hard-hitting and aggressive strategy to a more benefit-orientated strategy with a distinctly softer touch. Appeals employed, however, were found to vary with the product category promoted. Overall, findings suggest that while Japanese advertising may have become somewhat more ‘American’, American advertising appears to have become significantly more ‘Japanese’. Possible future convergence between Eastern and Western advertising has implications for international marketers as they craft messages to appeal to these audiences.This research is supported by a grant provided by the Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation (Tokyo, Japan)

Entropy-Based Dynamic Ad Placement Algorithms for In-Video Advertising

With the evolution of the Internet and the increasing number of users over last years, online advertising has become one of the pillars models that sustains many of the Internet businesses. In this dissertation, we review the history of online advertising, will be made, as well as the state-of-the-art of the major scientific contributions in online advertising,in particularly in respect to in-video advertising. In in-video advertising, one of the major issues is to identify the best places for insertion of ads. In the literature, this problem is addressed in different ways. Some methods are designed for a specific genres of video, e.g., football or tennis, while others are independent of genre, trying to identify the meaningful video scenes (a set of continuous and related frames) where ads will be displayed. However, the vast majority of online videos in the Internet are not long enough to identify large scenes. So, in this dissertation we will address a new solution for advertisement insertion in online videos, a solution that can be utilized independently of the duration and genre of the video in question. When developing a solution for in-video advertising, a major challenge rests on the intrusiveness that the ad inserted will take upon the viewer. The intrusiveness is related to the place and timing used by the advertising to be inserted. For these reasons, the algorithm has to take in consideration the "where", "when" and "how" the advertisement should be inserted in the video, so that it is possible to reduce the intrusiveness of the ads to the viewer. In short, in addition to besides being independent of duration and genre, the proposed method for ad placement in video was developed taking in consideration the ad intrusiveness to the user.Com a evolução da Internet e o número crescente de utilizadores ao longo destes últimos anos, a publicidade on-line tornou-se um dos modelos base que tem sustentado muitos negócios na Internet. Da mesma forma, vídeos on-line constituem uma parte significativa do tráfego na Internet. É por isso possível entender desta forma, o potencial que ferramentas que possão explorar eficientemente ambas estas áreas possuem no mercado. Nesta dissertação será feita uma revisão da história da publicidade online, mas também será apresentado ao leitor uma revisão sobre o estado da arte das principais contribuições científicas para a publicidade on-line, em especial para a publicidade em video. Na publicidade em vídeo, uma das principais preocupações é identificar os melhores locais para a inserir os anúncios. Na literatura, este problema é abordado de diferentes maneiras, alguns criaram métodos para gêneros específicos de vídeo, por exemplo, futebol ou ténis, outros métodos são independentes do gênero, mas tentam identificar as cenas de vídeo (um conjunto contínuo de frames relacionadas) e apenas exibir anúncios neles. No entanto, a grande maioria dos vídeos on-line na Internet não são suficiente longos para serem identificadas cenas suficientemente longas para inserir os anúncios. Assim, nesta dissertação iremos abordar uma nova solução para a inserção de anúnicios em vídeos, uma solução que pode ser utilizada de forma independente da duração e gênero do vídeo em questão. Ao desenvolver uma solução para inserir anúncos em vídeos a grande preocupação recai sobre a intromissão que o anúncio inserido poderá ter sobre o utilizador. A intrusão está relacionada com o local e tempo utilizado pela publicidade quando é inserida. Por estas razões, o algoritmo tem que levar em consideração "onde", "quando" e "como" o anúncio deve ser inserido no vídeo, de modo que seja possível reduzir a intromissão dos anúncios para o utilizador. Em suma, para além de ser independente da duração e gênero do vídeo, o método proposto será também desenvolvido tendo em consideração a intromissáo do anúncio para o utilizador. Por fim, o método proposto será testado e comparado com outros métodos, de modo a que seja possivel perceber as suas capacidades

Recruiting, advertising and marketing strategies in all-volunteer force nations case studies of Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States

http://archive.org/details/recruitingdverti109452442

Patriotic Philanthropy? Financing the State with Gifts to Government

Federal and state law prohibit government officials from accepting gifts or “emoluments” from outside sources. The purpose of gift bans, like restrictions on more explicit forms of bribery, is to protect the integrity of political processes and to ensure that decisions about public policy are made in the public interest — not to advance a private agenda. Similar considerations animate regulations on campaign funding and lobbying. Yet private entities remain free to offer gifts to government itself, to foot the bill for particular public projects they would like to see government pursue. Such gifts — dubbed “patriotic philanthropy” by one prominent donor — raise fundamental questions about the private role in public policymaking, questions that are central to debates over campaign finance, private philanthropy, and the privatization of government functions. Nevertheless, they have received virtually no attention in the legal literature. This Article offers a positive and normative account of gifts to government. Although we do not question the enormous good that patriotic philanthropy can do, we argue that gifts raise significant concerns about democratic process, equality, and state capacity

Designing an e-philanthropic website for the Saudi user

Philanthropy is an important part of Saudi Arabia’s identity as it is linked to the country’s religion and culture. Even though nobody can deny how crucial philanthropy is for Saudis, it is not reflected virtually on the Internet. This PhD aims to enhance philanthropy by putting it in a virtual context. Online philanthropy is known as e-philanthropy and this research documents the design of an e-philanthropic tool that is appealing to users in Saudi Arabia. Its aim is to design an interactive website where users can communicate with each other to meet their specific needs. It explores the nature of philanthropy in the Saudi context and employs human-centred design and user-centred design approaches to create a website in support of this. It is based on qualitative and quantitative data collection from recipients of philanthropy and those who take an interest in the topic. This resulted in the design brief for a new ephilanthropic tool based on time giving, a concept closely related to time banking and something that, to date, has not been launched in Saudi Arabia. As time banking is the closest concept to that of time giving, this project investigated time banking as a philanthropic tool in other contexts. The design of the website for the Fair Shares time bank in the UK was analysed as a source in order to benefit the new project. This was achieved by using Agarwal and Venkatesh’s (2002) Microsoft Usability Guideline, which was reformed by Pallud (2002). After investigating Saudi culture, the concept of time banking and the design features of a website in the field, the researcher-designer then created a time giving website named “Joud”, a word which means liberality and generosity in Arabic. The process of creating this website was influenced by Schön’s (1983) account of the reflective practitioner, where the designer looks for ways to order, resolve and improve their practice. After the design of the website was finished it was launched online at www.joudtime.org. The website was then evaluated using the same technique used to analyse the Fair Shares site; namely the modified Microsoft Usability Guideline. This was to improve the design and get a sense of whether the idea would work in Saudi Arabia or not. This study shows that time giving can be a philanthropic tool in Saudi Arabia. It also shows that using a human-centred design and a user-centred design method in order to investigate specific target users is a practical and useful approach. The outcome shows how the design would take the user into consideration especially in a philanthropic context. Moreover, the resulting design is the first that brings time giving to the Saudi user. As a result, the project met its aim to replicate the philanthropic culture of Saudi Arabia virtually by creating an ephilanthropic tool for their context

The impact of culture on advertising appeals in mobile phone industry: a study of social video advertising in UK, Brasil, India and Poland

International social media advertising research in emerging markets is called for investigation. Thus, this study explores the impact of culture on advertising appeals in mobile phone industry via social video channel in UK, Poland, Brazil and India. Hofstede model (1980, 2001), Pollay model (1983) and social video users & gratifications are used as primary theoretical frameworks. The exploratory research approach is utilized. More particularly, semiology and content analysis research methodology are employed. The empirical data is based on advertisements of the main channels of Samsung and Nokia in YouTube. The findings indicate that culture does influence on advertising appeals in social video channels. However, the results do not support Hofstede cultural framework assumptions. It shows more correlation with Okazaki’s view about desired and desirable value paradox. This requires further research. Moreover, social video channel plays significant role because the most frequent appeals in four countries are linked with this channel. The study also sheds light to managerial implications for international social video advertising. It suggests that advertiser should establish contingency between emotion and brands. Advertisers should highlight emotional appeals but also nourish brand memory. Information is integrated to describe product functions and benefits in mobile phone industry and in emerging markets where consumers are still unfamiliar with new mobile phone characteristics and advantages.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format