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In recent years, consumers are increasingly attracted to nutraceuticals, an important part of food considered propitious for human health. Therefore, consumers are willingly switching to nutraceuticals and are ready to pay the premium price. This review aims to identify various factors that govern consumer purchasing of nutraceutical products. The outcomes presented in the review provide a closer understanding of consumer attitudes toward buying behavior and their impact on the growth of the global nutraceutical market. The nutraceutical market has been identified depending on the type of nutraceuticals, forms, and regions governing the nutraceutical market. Factors such as health consciousness, knowledge about a product, product availability, price, marketing strategies, and social factors influence consumers' actual buying behavior toward nutraceutical products. A mini survey in Mumbai city of India was conducted to add practical data to the review, and factors affecting consumers' willingness to buy nutraceutical products were identified. It was observed that the decision‐making toward buying nutraceutical products was affected by gender, age, education level, and acculturation. It was also identified that the legislation governing nutraceuticals needs to be harmonized throughout many parts of the world, which restricts the growth of this sector to some extent. The findings elucidate that nutraceutical industries should overcome the regulatory barriers and focus on developing innovative products, which will keep current consumers intact and help increase the consumer base and thus expand the nutraceutical market globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally antitrust law is strongly tied to price theory economics so that prices, costs, profits, and profit sacrifice are typically examined in antitrust cases. This paper proposes broadening traditional antitrust analysis to also explicitly examine the likely effect of allegedly anticompetitive conduct on product options and consumer choice. In order to accomplish this task, this paper proposes that various aspects of marketing strategy should be considered when examining product strategies that are accused of being anticompetitive. This paper further suggests that the current list of inconsistently and poorly defined product strategies used by the courts be augmented by three more straight forward but overlapping categories based on impact on consumer choice: Lock‐Outs, Lock‐Ins, and Hold‐Ups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine price search in retail food markets. Previous studies have concentrated on one aspect of search, shopping at multiple stores. We expand this by examining several strategies used to find low prices, including buying on sale and concentrating purchases at a store with low average prices. Using scanner data from 38 markets, we find that the effect of factors motivating search vary by the type of search strategy considered. We also find evidence that financial savings is not the only motivation for search. In particular, transaction utility, in which the value of a purchase depends on price paid relative to a reference price, may also play a role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural lens through which an ad is viewed can affect the extent to which an endorser of the product in an ad and the message s(he) communicates are thought about in relation to one another. Consumers with a collectivist mindset tend to think about information relationally. Consequently, they consider the endorsement in relation to the endorser and this affects their memory for both. It also affects recipients' concern with the fit between the endorser's message and the endorser and consequently influences their judgments of both the ad and the product being advertised. When people have an individualist mindset, on the other hand, they appear to treat the endorser and the endorsement as independent pieces of information and are less sensitive to their fit. Four studies support these conclusions and provide insights into how endorser–message relatedness impacts persuasion under different cultural mindset conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spurred by rapid development of computers and Internet technology, online shopping is gradually overtaking in-store shopping, because of advantages such as convenience, more choice of products or services etc. Online stores must devote a great deal of time and resources to locating and attracting new customers. Growing a customer base requires first understanding customers and then providing the products or services they need, thus encouraging customers to purchase more. This paper develops a system to analyse customers' purchasing behaviour and track shifts in their interests. Customers' purchasing behaviour is measured using proposed standard product loyalty status and standard brand loyalty status. Using these metrics, together with the preference map established for each customer, a marketing specialist can easily locate potential customers to target when a company launches a new product. The new-product-launch strategy proposed in this paper can be used to create a list of potential customers for a product being launched under a variety of conditions. A prototype system has been built to test the feasibility of the proposed new-product-launch strategy. The result shows almost 40% of potential customers respond to the recommendation positively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report research results investigating microblogging as a form of electronic word-of-mouth for sharing consumer opinions concerning brands. We analyzed more than 150,000 microblog postings containing branding comments, sentiments, and opinions. We investigated the overall structure of these microblog postings, the types of expressions, and the movement in positive or negative sentiment. We compared automated methods of classifying sentiment in these microblogs with manual coding. Using a case study approach, we analyzed the range, frequency, timing, and content of tweets in a corporate account. Our research findings show that 19% of microblogs contain mention of a brand. Of the branding microblogs, nearly 20% contained some expression of brand sentiments. Of these, more than 50% were positive and 33% were critical of the company or product. Our comparison of automated and manual coding showed no significant differences between the two approaches. In analyzing microblogs for structure and composition, the linguistic structure of tweets approximate the linguistic patterns of natural language expressions. We find that microblogging is an online tool for customer word of mouth communications and discuss the implications for corporations using microblogging as part of their overall marketing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study addresses the advertising effectiveness of round and thin models. Integrating previous findings and theories, the authors predict and find that impulsive and reflective product evaluations as responses to thin and round advertisement models diverge. Specifically, four experiments indicate that impulsive product evaluations follow a priming logic, such that the beauty of the model spills over directly onto product evaluations; thin models thus produce more favorable implicit responses than do round models. For reflective product evaluations however, this pattern appears reversed. Moreover, these explicit product evaluations are mediated by campaign liking. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We review existing knowledge about older consumers and decision making. We develop a conceptual framework that incorporates the notion of fit between individual characteristics, task demands and the contextual environment. When the fit is high, older consumers use their considerable knowledge and experience to compensate for the impact of any age-related changes in abilities and resources. When the fit is relatively low, older consumers feel increased need to adapt their decision making processes. We discuss these consumer adaptations and propose a number of research questions related to the processes underlying them in order to contribute to a better understanding of how they can lead to more effective consumer decision making for older adults. We further consider some pragmatic implications of the adaptations for marketing management and public policy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Aims To assess the extent to which point-of purchase (POP) cigarette displays stimulate impulse purchases. Design Telephone-administered population survey. Setting Victoria, Australia. Participants A total of 2996 adults, among whom 526 smoked factory-made cigarettes and 67 were recent quitters (quit in the past 12 months). Measurements Reported cigarette purchase behaviour; perceived effect on smoking of removing cigarettes from view in retail outlets; reported urges to buy cigarettes as a result of seeing the cigarette display. Findings When shopping for items other than cigarettes, 25.2% of smokers purchased cigarettes at least sometimes on impulse as a result of seeing the cigarette display. Thirty-eight per cent of smokers who had tried to quit in the past 12 months and 33.9% of recent quitters experienced an urge to buy cigarettes as a result of seeing the retail cigarette display. One in five smokers trying to quit and one in eight recent quitters avoided stores where they usually bought cigarettes in case they might be tempted to purchase them. Many smokers (31.4%) thought the removal of cigarette displays from stores would make it easier for them to quit. Conclusions POP cigarette displays act as cues to smoke, even among those not explicitly intending to buy cigarettes, and those trying to avoid smoking. Effective POP marketing restrictions should encompass cigarette displays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practice of setting prices a few pennies or a few dollars below an even (whole) number is referred to as odd pricing. Most attempts to explain odd pricing use an argument that, in part, draws on varying degrees of consumer irrationality. In this note, a justification for odd pricing is provided that assumes rational and informed consumers and businesses. Empirical evidence is offered in support of this view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides a research study of the positive impact of celebrity endorsers in the society in advertising. The research is carried out in three phases including exploratory phase that qualitatively measures self-concept, brand image, and credibility. The article states that celebrities draw more attention to the advertisements they appear in and brands they are associated with and can create, enhance and change brand images. The article mentions that the celebrities who represent up-to-date and dominant values in a fragmented and diverse society might facilitate the existence and evolution of the cultural entity.

With regular predictability, public opinion polls inform citizens that among the most admired Americans are celebrities in the music or film industry. According to those same polls, the least trusted, Americans are usually car salesmen. That is the commonly perceived dichotomy, celebrities as heroes, and salesmen as villains. Yet, one wonders how the public feels when their celebrities turn into salesmen. Ray Charles, Phil Collins, Elton John and Michael Jackson are some of America's superstars and heroes who, on the side, earn huge commissions selling beer and soft drinks in glitzy television ads. Bob Merlis, Vice-President/National Publicity Director for Warner Brothers Records, believes that although the recording industry is ambivalent regarding commercial endorsements, they do favor the "enhanced exposure" since the record buying public "doesn't seem to have a problem" with the practice. Salesmen perform an essential function in a competitor-oriented, free enterprise, market economy: the goods, once manufactured, must be sold. Successful salesmen are heroes to their companies; they are rewarded with bonuses, toasted at annual sales conventions, held up before their peers and associates as representatives worth emulating, model citizens in their community.

The article presents information on American shopping malls. Shopping centres provide cultural, recreational and amusement opportunities, besides being a marketing strategy. Mall developers seek to analyze the requirements of the community at the site, by market researches, before planning the mall. Shopping centres attract multitudes of people who do not indulge in community building social interactions or share common ties. Shopping centres are public spaces which are created for generating high commercial turnovers. The transiency, commercial turnover, and the bulk of people, thwart the development of communities among the shoppers.

The article examines what marketing strategy to employ to empowered consumers. Consumers enjoy more control over what media they receive and when and where they receive it. They can also leverage the opinions of millions of other consumers into more informed media and commerce decisions. The fearful conventional wisdom says that the advertising world cannot help but shrink in the era of the empowered consumer. This should motivate the marketer then to deliver one-way messages designed to build strong brands. Learning to sell to empowered consumers means moving from the brand is the product to the product is the brand strategy.