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An experiment conducted evaluates changes in attitude for both the cause and the brand as a consequence of the cause-brand alliance (CBA) using familiarity of the cause as a moderator. The results suggest that managers of unfamiliar causes rather than familiar causes might have a greater vested interest in forming a CBA, and brand managers are beneficiaries of the partnership.

The rapidly changing consumer demands and trends in the marketplace call for relevant theories of marketing management strategies. Customer relationships of marketing managers have been based on the principle of personalization in which products or services are provided based on the particular need of an individual customer. Personalization must be considered one of the vital elements of marketing.

Endorser credibility and corporate credibility were compared to evaluate their effect on attitude-toward-the-advertisement, attitude-toward-the-brand and purchase intentions using a sample of one hundred women students. Findings showed that both credibility types affect attitude-toward-the-advertisement and attitude-toward-the-brand. Corporate credibility alone had a significant influence on purchase intentions.

The German and French version of the domain specific innovativeness scale (DSI) proved to be reliable in assessing transnational consumer reaction to newly created products. The reliability of the German and French versions of DSI was established since they are found to be free from social desirability and acquiescence response bias. They are also internally consistent and undimensional.

The authors describe the development and validation of multiple-item self-report scales to measure opinion leadership and opinion seeking for specific product or service domains. The concepts of opinion leadership and opinion seeking are defined, previous attempts to measure them are critiqued, and the scale development process is described. Five separate studies using data from 1,128 student and adult respondents provide ample evidence for the unidimensionality, the reliability, and the construct and criterion-related validity of the resulting scales. Finally, implications for consumer theory and marketing practice are discussed. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Opinion leadership among consumers is often measured with the self-report scale constructed by King and Summers (1970). A psychometric examination of this seven-item opinion leadership scale reveals that it does not possess a unidimensional structure. Instead, it is shown through factor analysis that the King and Summers scale has a two-factor structure. An upgraded, unidimensional version of the scale is proposed and tested with regard to the clarity of theoretical interpretation. This revised six-item version is shown to have superior psychometric attributes.

The development of a self-report scale to measure domain specific consumer innovativeness is described. A major problem faced by researchers interested in the diffusion of innovations has been the difficulty in measuring the innovativeness construct in a reliable and valid way. Several operationalizations have been proposed and are commonly used, yet none has received substantial evidence supporting its reliability and validity. A series of six studies describes the development and evaluation of a six-item, self-report scale to measure innovativeness within a specific domain of interest familiar to the consumer. The scale is shown to be easy to administer, highly reliable and valid, and adaptable across domains. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Research shows that perceptions of mass customization are generally positive among American consumers. Most respondents preferring personalized products tend to be well educated, younger, and have incomes higher than the average. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Research is presented concerning the development of a reliable, short, and valid self-report scale for the measurement of the credibility of business enterprises with their customers. Five studies from 864 subjects are discussed.

A novel approach to evaluating consumer knowledge was developed to provide an alternative means of assessing the subjective knowledge aspect of the marketing practice. The proposed method, which can be applied in a variety of data collection processes, has been proven efficient in analyzing both theoretical and practical applications involving consumer behavior. This unidimensional scheme has also been found to be internally consistent and easy to use.

This essay offers views on some current and future trends in marketing. The content is based on recent literature and on what is happening in the business world. Four major topics are described: globalization, technology, personalization, and integration. How these forces are influencing three areas in marketing, marketing management, marketing research, and marketing theory, is discussed. A major argument is that the effects of globalization, technology, arid personalization are not independent, but that they interact to influence the way marketing will be practiced and taught in coming decades. The essay concludes that the impacts of these changes increase the speed and scope of marketing decision making as well as the amount of information used. It argues that academic marketers should incorporate knowledge of these trends into their teaching and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spurious response occurs when survey respondents claim to recognize or remember advertisements, names, institutions, or other stimuli that do not exist. Researchers fear that these same respondents may give invalid responses to genuine survey items as well, thereby distorting the findings and conclusions of survey research. In a field experiment to reduce spurious recall of bogus brand names without also reducing recall of genuine brand names, 300 grocery shoppers in a southern city were provided with a warning or disclaimer that some questionnaire items were fictitious along with a “don't-know” response option. The results showed that only the don't-know option reduced spurious response, and this by very little. Genuine brand response, however, was unaffected. The data also suggested that spurious response could bias the findings of a survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes two studies of the revised, 10-item Zaichkowsky Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) that illustrate the use of the scale to identify involved consumers for managerial purposes. The first study used data from 185 men and women consumers for the topic of travel services. Study two obtained data from 135 adult women and covered the topic of fashionable clothing. The findings of both studies revealed a wide variety of differences in managerially relevant behaviors between low and high involvement consumers. The implications of these findings for travel service and fashion managers are discussed to illustrate how the PII can help in marketing decision making. ©1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]