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The response to mail questionnaires is of vital concern to researchers in all disciplines, yet no sure way has been uncovered to increase it without diminishing significantly the associated cost advantages. This paper presents an empirical investigation of the use of color and the resulting effects on response rate and response bias.

Both intensified competition and greater consumer participation in the choice process for healthcare has increased the importance of advertising for health care providers and seriously challenged many of the preconceptions regarding advertising. This study investigates the effectiveness of advertising under conditions of high and low involvement using the Elaboration Likelihood Model to develop hypotheses that are tested in a 2 x 2 x 2 experimental design. The study findings provide insights into the influence of message content and message source on consumers categorized as high or low involvement. It was found that consumers classified as high-involvement are more influenced by a core service-relevant message than those consumers classified as low-involvement. Moreover, a non-physician spokesperson was found to have as much or more influence as a physician spokesperson regardless of the consumers' involvement level.

The need to innovate is both obvious and necessary to accommodate the changes needed by our economic and social systems. Innovation demands risk-taking and in-turn effective strategic planning. Three dimensions would seem useful in developing a frame of reference for planning. These are the ratio of change and the component structure of the usage gap for the type of innovation that can be superimposed on the third dimension — a consumer-industrial dichotomy.

This article explores three key questions regarding the “new-old.” concept of relationship marketing. The question of “what.” is answered by recognizing a firm’s need to keep rather than simply acquire customers through mutually beneficial, interactive networks. The question “why.” focuses on the bottom line and, again, the mutually beneficial character of relationships. The question of “how.” identifies three key components for implementation: selective acquisition of customers, designing value propositions, and individualized or customized attention. Thus, the focus should not be on the exchange process, rather it must be on developing and perpetuating relationships. As a consequence, marketing practitioners and theorists must reevaluate the strategies used in the attempt to secure a successful presence in the marketplace.

A national sample of 532 consumers was assessed on 15 different scenarios that reflect questionable behaviors by consumers. The results indicate that consumers are ethically predisposed as they generally express little tolerance for behavioral transgressions on the part of the customer. Factor analysis identified two latent dimensions for the scenarios: direct economic consequences and indirect economic consequences. Respondents expressed greater intolerance of those actions that comprise the indirect economic consequences factor. One-way analysis of variance identified several instances where age, gender, education, and income were related to specific responses. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

A national sample of 362 respondents assessed the ethical predisposition of the American marketplace by calculating a consumer ethics index. The results indicate that the population is quite intolerant of perceived ethical abuses. The situations where consumers are ambivalent tend to be those where the seller suffers little or no economic harm from the consumer's action. Younger, more educated, and higher income consumers appear more accepting of these transgressions. The results provided the basis for developing a four-group taxonomy of consumers which retailers should find insightful in assessing potential consumer actions in a variety of situations.

An empirical study based upon a sample of 645 small businesses assesses the relationship that life cycle stage and level of competition exhibit with the problems perceived to constrain small business strategic planning. Problems have been identified as either internal (cash flow) or external (competition); they have further been classified as either situational or core problems. Among the most prevalent problems reported by decision makers are customer contact, market knowledge, marketing planning, location, and adequacy of capital. A total of 16 problem areas were identified. Traditional wisdom offers the scenario where problems faced will vary as the organization progresses through the life cycle. Much of this research refutes conventional wisdom in that level of competition was determined to have more of an impact on problem perception.

Businesses worldwide operate within systems of laws in setting prices for products and services. These legal frameworks, made up of laws, court decisions, and administrative regulations, are focused on preserving competition and preventing restraints of trade, as well as regulating competitive actions that may result in unfairness and deception on the part of the seller. In England, for example, the common-law rule is that all interference with individual liberty in trading and all restraints in and of themselves are contrary to public opinion and therefore void unless justified by special circumstances. From the passage of the original statutes such as the Sherman Antitrust Act in the USA a century ago the scope and interpretation of these legal frameworks have been expanded and redefined to include much of what businesses view today as the essence of competition. It should come as no surprise that much of the legal attention has been and continues to be on pricing, the setting of prices, and the uses of prices in competitive actions. For example, the practice of price fixing is prohibited outright by Sweden’s Competition Act 1982. In the United Kingdom, the Restrictive Trade Practices Acts 1976 and 1977 make compulsory the registration of agreements between two or more manufacturers or suppliers doing business that impose any restriction on two or more parties to the agreement as to prices.

The concept of price is exceedingly complex, and the roles it can play are numerous. Two basic roles for price are allocation and information. The price of a product as an allocative mechanism determines who can buy the product, and how much can be purchased, or the total demand for the product. In an allocative role, prices can have a divisive impact in splitting a society into ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. Effective pricing by increasing the total size of the potential market enables more consumers to be able to reap the benefits of society’s organizational resources. Conversely, ineffective pricing may polarize the social classes and alienate the poor from the rest of society.1 At the same time, price provides signals, and in effect positions a product as to its quality and the acquired social status in owning the product. Price is often a clear indicator of what the consumer may desire or want to be recognized for in a purchasing or use situation. Price, therefore, along with deals and promotional levels, can be a potent marketing stimulus in eliciting the response of purchasing behaviour.

The structure of industry has changed dramatically in the last decade. The major forces of change are the global impact, changing competitive conditions calling for a sharper focus on customers, greater operational effectiveness and flexibility, and critical changes in customers and market structures.

It is fairly obvious that a high price for a product tends to discourage a large portion of the market. Likewise, a low price typically encourages a large portion of the market to buy more of the product. It follows then that a high price tends to limit the potential market for a product, while a low price tends to expand the market. The quantity of any commodity that is produced and exchanged, and the price at which it sells, are determined primarily by conditions in the particular market for a product/service, given minimum quality differentiation between competing brands. In a competitive market, the principal forces that determine the price charged and the quantity produced and sold are contained in the prevailing conditions of supply and demand. The less competitive the market, the less the interaction of supply and demand.

Inflationary and scarcity conditions will continue to be an integral part of present-day business environment. The intensity of such conditions may vary from time to time, but the main trend will persist as inflationary pressures strengthen and weaken, and the world’s consumption of certain materials outstrips the rate of replacement.

The above comments from the Advertising Age shed some light on the problems attendant on pricing in today’s business world. Costs are important, and so too are the consumer and product variables present in a given market.

To keep an established brand healthy and growing over the long term, the successful marketer must continually improve the product and develop marketing plans to capitalize on these changes. In any business it is necessary to study the ever-changing consumer and to try to identify new trends in tastes, needs, environment, and living habits.

Of all the decisions made by management, pricing is undoubtedly the most visible because of its direct impact on a firm’s performance in the marketplace and overall level of profitablity. Whatever the nature of the business, success is measured by the extent revenues from sales exceed the costs of committed resources. Ideally, the price or prices set for a product or service will ensure the highest margin consistent with volume considerations, recognize customer evaluations of products/services, be responsive to competitive threats, and forestall competitive inroads.

The above passage from ICC shows that utility rates are a product of cost, with costs allocation a major determinant in arriving at a particular rate. However, even in such rate-setting procedure cost allocation is not done equally across the board, but rather is based on the type of electric user. Rates are reached by dividing customers into classes on the basis of related use.

Transportation costs are an important consideration in the pricing of most products. The basic question is whether to absorb the costs of getting the product to the customer or to pass the cost along to the customer as a noted extra to the price of the product. Transportation costs and how they are treated relative to pricing also affect the extent of the geographical market served by the seller, the ability to compete beyond the local market on a price basis, as well as the ability to adopt and promote a specific resale price. Thus the policy a manufacturer adopts is an important one. Pricing practices regarding the aspects of transportation can be categorized as geographical or delivered.

The above passage from Henry Ford’s autobiography portrays his basic philosophy in regard to pricing. This was to cut prices below the point warranted by existing costs so as to provide an incentive to expand production and sales, which, in turn, forced costs down. He contends that manufacturing improvements, forced by the low price, came about faster than if the normal practice of cost cutting were attempted prior to price cutting. What actually happened was that price cuts did lead to better sales, which, in turn, acted to force costs down and bring about manufacturing improvements, resulting in yet lower costs and prices — a vivid demonstration of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

For most firms the potential rewards of doing business in international markets are overwhelming. The most compelling reasons for entering the global marketplace are the sheer size of the marketplace and the limitless opportunities present. One of these opportunities is the leveraging of R&D investment. The global marketplace provides opportunities to obtain a full return on investment that is not possible if technology serves only the home market. Expanding internationally also provides the opportunity to improve products and processes by drawing on the resources of many companies and organizations in different parts of the world. Finally, global expansion allows a firm to remain competitive.1

Companies rarely produce and market just one product for which a single price and a specific marketing strategy is developed. Rather, they produce a line or several lines of products with a multiplicity of options that are marketed to defined customer segments. No longer is it possible or for that matter plausible to make pricing decisions with respect to a single product in isolation.

Life-cycle stages require changes in both operations and management styles. Different personnel sales skills, qualities, and motivation are optimum for the various phases of industrial product life cycles. Early phases require creativity and informality. Growth phases require emphasis on operational planning, staging, training, optimism, problem solving, and stamina. Mature phases demand emphasis on efficiency, administration, judgement, and conservatism. Cutback phases place a premium on “hard-nosed” decisiveness, objectivity, judgement, and courage.