Different haemodynamic (24-h ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring) and rennin-inhibiting effect of a 1 week treatment with enalapril and lisinopril

Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate monitoring were used for comparing the antihypertensive effect of a 1-week treatment with enalapril and lisinopril 10 mg once daily (double-blind crossover placebo-controlled d y ). Twelve outpatients with mild to moderate hypertension were treated. Both drugs had a significant and identical hypotensive effect. Neither drug affected the diurnal rhythm of blood pressure or heart rate. Therefore the two drugs are equipotent antihypertensive agents. Both drugs inhibited ACE activity to a highly significant extent, but in this regard lisinopril was more effective than enalapril. However, lisinopril's greater ACE inhibition was not accompanied by a greater hypotensive effect. The clinical value of this difference is not yet established

We don't need no statusfaction?!

Non-conscious, automatic and unobserved processes in memory have a high impact in the field of the status and conspicuous consumption, especially in the prestige-seeking consumer behaviour. There is little willingness of the consumers to admit that their purchase is motivated by personal status considerations. This study demonstrates that implicit measures in the field of status consumption add incremental value beyond explicit measures. Our participants were selected for their presumed very strong need for status, or their strong rejection of status. The selection bias makes the explicit results much less useful and they only confirm the selection. The strong IAT effects make this study however interesting. In the present study the IAT scores have a mean of 0.49 ± 0.46 seconds. This is a surprisingly high level indicating a very strong preference for high status and prestige. It is not surprising that males in the financial service sector prefer status and prestige both implicitly and explicitly. And so do their female counterparts. But also females working in the social sector that explicitly rejected status symbols (such as expensive cars), implicitly preferred status and prestige (but not the males)

'I combined it myself'-effect : how to influence customers’ willingness to pay

People like to present themselves, even when buying products. Research showed consumers like self-designed products better than standardized ones and show a higher Willingness-To-Pay. Preference fit, feeling of accomplishment, perceived contribution, process enjoyment, process costs and time needed also influence those effects. To test if this effect also occurs when consumers are only able to combine – not to design – different products to an individual gift set, was the aim of this research. 100 participants took part in an online experiment, 50 of them had the possibility to combine their own gift sets. The results showed that participants who self-combined their gift set, were willing to pay almost 25% more than participants in the other group. In this experimental setting none of the other factors had an impact on the WTP and there was no effect on liking the product. Additionally an effect was found between preference-fit and liking the combined set

Storyselling : an experiment on storytelling at the product level

Telling of and listening to stories are evolutionary old forms of human social interaction. Stories transmit knowledge and values within society. Stories entertain and move people and they link the external world to the real life of the individual. This is primarily a sense-making task of stories. In the marketing field stories are used and researched mostly at the corporate level and in advertising clip. We report an experiment using a textual form of narration and demonstrate the potential power of stories in marketing at the product level. Our results demonstrate that a story high on transportation improves product evaluation. The story significantly increases the intention to buy the product. These effects persisted also after tasting the product. The attitude towards the product as well as the intention to buy were not significantly different before and after the taste test, but different between experimental and control group. Even the taste of the product was better with the story. Price evaluation was the only factor that was not significantly different between control and experimental group. This experiment shows that stories make products more interesting for consumer

Assessing the risk attitude of private investors using the implicit association test

The new European regulation on financial markets requires consultants to assess clients' risk attitudes before advising them on financial products. The aim of the study is to test an alternative measure to quantify the risk attitudes of private investors: the Implicit Association Test (IAT). This study examines differences in implicit, unconscious, automatic, and explicit cognitive attitude. The results of 66 IAT participants are compared with their answers from a risk tolerance questionnaire used by practitioners. Low correlation coefficients show that implicit attitude, and therefore unconscious and uncontrolled thinking, can differ from conscious processes (explicit attitude)

Consumers and eco-labelling : a repertory grid study

Purpose of the Paper: The first objective of this paper was to demonstrate the use of repertory grid technique (RGT), a well-established interview method that elicits consumer cognitions. The second objective was to explore consumer perceptions of Swiss food labels. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study explored the perception of selected labels. RGT was used to identify the constructs in a sample of 20 master students and 10 Swiss food labels supplemented with an «ideal label». Findings: The study identified two main clusters. One cluster represents two labels, closely related to the ideal label. The other group is comprised of the remaining labels. Content analysis and analysis of semantic corridor indicated constructs connoted negatively. What is Original/Value of Paper: This is one of the first research that explored cognitions regarding Swiss food labels and represented a rare application of the repertory grid technique (RGT) using a semi-quantitative approach by means of a software. Research/Limitations/Implications: The application of the grid software facilitated the analysis but did not overcome practical limitations e.g. mentioned by Rogers & Ryals (2007). Managerial implications for label organisations are discussed and various fields for further research identified

Emotio und Ratio in der Bankberatung : Risikoprofiling

Menschen sind vor allem in Geldfragen sehr emotional gesteuert. Die Kontrolle der Rationalität über die Emotionalität funktioniert eingeschränkt gut, was die Bankberatung mitunter vor Probleme stellt. Ein Fragebogen wird rational ausgefüllt (Risikoprofil), die Investitionsentscheide danach sind aber doch unterschiedlich stark impulsiv oder emotional geprägt

Measuring trust in financial services : a new way to gain useful insights

Trust in banking was a focus of international research long before the international financial crisis. This crisis made it clear that the collapse of the most basic trust mechanisms was capable of causing a fundamental crisis of trust across the entire financial system. This study shows that the Implicit Association Tests can be used to measure trust in the financial services sector and pinpoint the automatic, subconscious attitudes of financial service providers. In study 1 participants indicated an explicit and implicit preference for small, regional banks. This is in line with our expectation of mistrust towards the large international banks as portrayed in the media at the time of the study. We intended to replicate this finding two years later in study 2. The results indicate a preference for larger banks. Intuitively, one could claim that this is in line with expectations, since large banks are large, because people trust them more than their smaller counterparts. Indeed, the level of explicit trust towards larger banks seems to be greater than towards the smaller banks. Study 1 may have been contaminated with framing influences from general media