The influence of consumers' goals on selective attention to product features.

Although attention is a key construct in models of marketing communications and consumer choice, its selective nature has rarely been examined in the time-pressured conditions that consumers face everyday. We investigate how consumers' goals influence selective attention to product features under such conditions. Specifically, we focus on the role of goal salience, that is, the readiness with which particular goals (e.g., personalized customer service) are brought to mind by consumers in relation to a given product category (e.g., banks). Study1 demonstrated that when product feature information was presented rapidly, individuals for whom the goal of personalized customer service had high chronic or habitual salience displayed selective attention in terms of their elevated recall of a target feature (a bank's 'friendly employees'). Also, as expected, individual differences in chronic goal salience affected judgments of the target product. Study2 showed that when subjects were additionally informed about a specific product usage situation (e.g., being new in town or experiencing difficulty in balancing a checkbook), selective attention was no longer affected by individuals' chronic tendencies. Instead, both feature recall and judgments were influenced by the relevance of the target feature to the goals made salient by the situational context. Discussion emphasizes the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings regarding the role of goal salience in selective attention to product features.Product;

Benefit salience and consumers' selective attention to product features.

Although attention is a key construct in models of marketing communication and consumer choice, its selective nature has rarely been examined in common time-pressured conditions. We focus on the role of benefit salience, that is, the readiness with which particular benefits are brought to mind by consumers in relation to a given product category. Study I demonstrated that when product feature information was presented rapidly, individuals for whom the benefit of personalised customer service had high habitual salience displayed selective attention as evidenced by elevated recall and recognition of a target feature (a bank's ''friendly employees''). Also, as expected, individual differences in habitual benefit salience affected judgements of the target product. Study 2 showed that when subjects were additionally informed about a specific product usage situation, selective attention was primarily influenced by the relevance of the target feature to benefits made salient by the usage situation; individual differences played a less important role. Discussion emphasises theoretical aspects of the findings as well as managerial implications with respect to person-situation approaches to benefit segmentation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.attention; benefit segmentation; individual construct accessibility; usage context; involvement; segmentation; substitution; experiences; memory; recall; choice; link;

Sustainability marketing myopia: the lack of sustainability communication persuasiveness

Sustainability communication in accommodation businesses tends to be factual and descriptive, as companies are concerned with product-based messages that focus on what they do; they appear not to understand the potential benefits of constructing messages that would influence consumers to behave more sustainably, which is effectively sustainability marketing myopia. An analysis of 1,835 sustainability messages from award-winning businesses shows that messages communicate facts not emotions, and benefits for society as a whole rather than for the individual customer. The messages are explicit, but passive and not experiential hence they positively affect the cognitive but not the affective image of the business. The lack of message normalization and customer focus reinforces the image of sustainability being a niche concern. We reflect on the reasons for these shortcomings and highlight opportunities to improve persuasive communication, which we have now applied commercially in more than 400 website analyses and 60 training courses

Proposal, project, practice, pause: developing a framework for evaluating smart domestic product engagement

Smart homes are fast becoming a reality, with smart TVs, smart meters and other such “smart” devices/systems already representing a substantial household presence. These, which we collectively term “smart domestic products” (SDPs), will need to be promoted, adopted, and normalized into daily routines. Despite this, the marketing canon lacks a substantive discourse on pertinent research. We look to help correct this by melding ideas from organizational sociology, innovation diffusion and appropriation studies, and service dominant logic. Consequently, we suggest a framework for research that responds directly to the specific characteristics of SDPs. Using the SDP eco-system as a context, our framework emphasizes the interplay of embeddedness, practice, value and engagement. It comprises a four-stage horizontal/ longitudinal axis we describe as proposal, project, practice and pause. Cross-sectionally we focus on value, and combine aspects of existing thought to suggest how this impacts each stage of our engagement continuum. We subsequently identify perceived personal advantage as the resultant of these two axes and propose this as the key for understanding consumer and SDP sociomaterial engagement. This article also advances a definition of SDPs and ends with an agenda for further research

Rational Diversification of a Promoter Providing Fine-Tuned Expression and Orthogonal Regulation for Synthetic Biology

Yeast is an ideal organism for the development and application of synthetic biology, yet there remain relatively few well-characterised biological parts suitable for precise engineering of this chassis. In order to address this current need, we present here a strategy that takes a single biological part, a promoter, and re-engineers it to produce a fine-graded output range promoter library and new regulated promoters desirable for orthogonal synthetic biology applications. A highly constitutive Saccharomyces cerevisiae promoter, PFY1p, was identified by bioinformatic approaches, characterised in vivo and diversified at its core sequence to create a 36-member promoter library. TetR regulation was introduced into PFY1p to create a synthetic inducible promoter (iPFY1p) that functions in an inverter device. Orthogonal and scalable regulation of synthetic promoters was then demonstrated for the first time using customisable Transcription Activator-Like Effectors (TALEs) modified and designed to act as orthogonal repressors for specific PFY1-based promoters. The ability to diversify a promoter at its core sequences and then independently target Transcription Activator-Like Orthogonal Repressors (TALORs) to virtually any of these sequences shows great promise toward the design and construction of future synthetic gene networks that encode complex “multi-wire” logic functions

Longitudinal analyses of the DNA methylome in deployed military servicemen identify susceptibility loci for post-traumatic stress disorder

In order to determine the impact of the epigenetic response to traumatic stress on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this study examined longitudinal changes of genome-wide blood DNA methylation profiles in relation to the development of PTSD symptoms in two prospective military cohorts (one discovery and one replication data set). In the first cohort consisting of male Dutch military servicemen (n=93), the emergence of PTSD symptoms over a deployment period to a combat zone was significantly associated with alterations in DNA methylation levels at 17 genomic positions and 12 genomic regions. Evidence for mediation of the relation between combat trauma and PTSD symptoms by longitudinal changes in DNA methylation was observed at several positions and regions. Bioinformatic analyses of the reported associations identified significant enrichment in several pathways relevant for symptoms of PTSD. Targeted analyses of the significant findings from the discovery sample in an independent prospective cohort of male US marines (n=98) replicated the observed relation between decreases in DNA methylation levels and PTSD symptoms at genomic regions in ZFP57, RNF39 and HIST1H2APS2. Together, our study pinpoints three novel genomic regions where longitudinal decreases in DNA methylation across the period of exposure to combat trauma marks susceptibility for PTSD

The validation of a new measure quantifying the social quality of life of ethnically diverse older women: two cross-sectional studies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To our knowledge, the available psychometric literature does not include an instrument for the quantification of social quality of life among older women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. To address the need for a tool of this kind, we conducted two studies to assess the initial reliability and validity of a new instrument. The latter was created specifically to quantify the contribution of a) social networks and resources (e.g., family, friends, and community) as well as b) one's perceived power and respect within family and community to subjective well-being in non-clinical, ethnically diverse populations of older women.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In Study 1, we recruited a cross-sectional sample of primarily non-European-American older women (<it>N </it>= 220) at a variety of community locations. Participants were administered the following: a short screener for dementia; a demographic list; an initial pool of 50 items from which the final items of the new Older Women's Social Quality of Life Inventory (OWSQLI) were to be chosen (based on a statistical criterion to apply to the factor analysis findings); the Single Item Measure of Social Support (SIMSS); and the Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (MOS SF-36). Study 2 was conducted on a second independent sample of ethnically diverse older women. The same recruitment strategies, procedures, and instruments as those of Study 1 were utilized in Study 2, whose sample was comprised of 241 older women with mostly non-European-American ethnic status.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis of the OWSQLI obtained robust findings: the total variance explained by one single factor with the final selection of 22 items was over 44%. The OWSQLI demonstrated strong internal consistency (<it>α </it>= .92, <it>p </it>< .001), adequate criterion validity with the SIMSS (<it>r </it>= .33; <it>p </it>< .01), and (as expected) moderate concurrent validity with the MOS SF-36 for both physical (<it>r </it>= .21; <it>p </it>< .01) and mental (<it>r </it>= .26; <it>p </it>< .01) quality of life. In order to confirm the validity of the 22-item OWSQLI scale that emerged from Study 1 analyses, we replicated those analyses in Study 2, although using confirmatory factor analysis. The total variance accounted for by one factor was about 42%, again quite high and indicative of a strong single-factor solution. Study 2 data analyses yielded the same strong reliability findings (i.e., <it>α </it>= .92, <it>p </it>< .001). The 22-item OWSQLI was correlated with the SIMSS (<it>r </it>= .27, <it>p </it>< .001) in the expected direction. Finally, correlations with the MOS SF- 36 demonstrated moderate concurrent validity for physical (<it>r </it>= .14; <it>p </it>< .01) and mental (<it>r </it>= .18; <it>p </it>< .01) quality of life, as expected.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The findings of these two studies highlight the potential for our new tool to provide a valid measure of older women's social quality of life, yet they require duplication in longitudinal research. Interested clinicians should consider using the OWSQLI in their assessment battery to identify older women's areas of lower versus higher social quality of life, and should establish the maximization of patients' social quality of life as an important therapeutic goal, as this variable is significantly related to both physical and mental health.</p