Summaries 1 Modelling market response: trends and developments Market response models may improve (1) the accountability of marketing expenditures, (2) the understanding of consumer/customer behavior, and (3) approaches to generate customer insights. This article highlights trends and developments in applications and methodologies, as based on a study of papers that have been presented at Marketing Science Conferences in the past decade. Keywords: market response, applications, techniques, trends and developments 2 Decision processes of movie theater attendees This paper analyzes the decision processes of a sample of 248 attendees of film theaters in The Netherlands. The respondents are relatively young, highly educated, and belong to the heavy users among the customers of movie theaters. We find two main patterns in the decision process of movie theater customers. In the first case (61%), people want to go to the movie theater to watch a specific movie that has been decided already. In the second case (39%), one just wants to go to a movie theatre, and the choice of the movie comes later in the decision process. We can speak of a more deliberate versus a more opportunistic decision process. In the latter case, the movie attendees are more impulsive, more often male, they live closer to the cinema and more often are in a steady relationship. The more deliberate decision makers go relatively more often to the cinema on weekdays, the opportunists go more often during the weekends. The paper also deals with the information sources that movie theater attendees use, and discusses the marketing implications of the results for the suppliers of movies. Keywords: filmtheaters, consumer behaviour, decision processes, ‘movie first’ versus ‘theater first’, marketing of films 3 In stories we trust: how to react on negative customer blogs Consumers’ confidence in companies has fallen. More and more consumers voice their discontent in (we)blogs. Current research on trust restoration offers little guidance regarding appropriate responses. We posit that not only what (with which content) but also how (in which format) the company responds, contributes to an effective restoration of trust and a reduction of consumers’ intentions to switch. The results of Study 1 show that the combination of denial content and analytical format as well as apologetic content and narrative format works better than combinations of opposing response content and format. Comparing narrative apologies and denials in two consecutive studies, we demonstrate that the concept of “transportation”—the engrossing effect of a narrative—is the mechanism underlying narrative-based trust restoration. We further assess in Study 2 how the use of empathy accounts for higher levels of transportation and perceived trust. In Study 3, we establish that a personal response by the involved employee is more effective than a response issued by the company’s spokesperson. Consumers trust in stories from the involved employee. Keywords: empathy, trust, transportation, imagery
249
4 The effectiveness of crossmedia campaigns Despite the popularity of crossmedia campaigns, research on crossmedia effects remains scarce. This article answers the question why crossmedia campaigns are more successful than single medium campaigns. The results of the first experiment (N = 219) show that this can be explained by two psychological processes. First, the ad in the first medium primes interest in the ad in the second medium. Second, consumers believe a brand is good and popular because of the amount of advertising in seemingly independent sources. The second experiment (N = 115) investigates the role of media sequence and product involvement on consumers’ responses to crossmedia campaigns. The results indicate a consistent interaction effect of media sequence and product involvement on two campaign targets: attitudes toward the ads and message evaluation. These interaction effects show that while a TV commercial-website sequence is effective for informing consumers about both high and low involvement products, the website-TV commercial sequence is only suitable for informing consumers about high involvement products. Keywords: crossmedia, advertising effectiveness, internet, involvement, psychological processes, sequence of media use 5 Do charities get more when they ask more often? Insights from a field experiment Charitable organizations send out large volumes of direct mailings, soliciting for money in support of many good causes. Without such requests, donations are rarely made, and it is well known that each request for money by a charity likely generates at least some revenues. Whether a single request from a charity increases the total amount donated by an individual is however unknown. Indeed, a response to one request can hurt responses to others. The net effect is therefore not easily observable, certainly not when multiple charities address the same individuals. In this paper we alleviate these observational difficulties by carrying out a field experiment in which five large charities cooperate. With the unique data that we collected, we study the impact of sending more requests on total donations. The results indicate that there is a negative competitive effect on requests from other charities, but this effect dies out rapidly. Soon after the mailing has been sent, it is only a strong cannibalization of the charity’s own revenues that prevails. This empirical finding suggests that not much coordination across charities is needed to increase revenues. We also demonstrate that charities need sophisticated evaluation tools that take the effects of cannibalization into account. Keywords: fundraising, competition, direct mailing, field experiment
250
6 Birds of a feather flock together: how to target your customers with geo-psychographics? Psychographic segmentation uses the knowledge of consumer’s fears, beliefs and values in order to identify homogeneous groups of customers. This type of segmentation has been one of the most popular and most effective forms of segmentation. Despite the popularity, psychographic segmentation has one major drawback, that is, the accessibility of customers. This paper presents how psychographical data are merged with a geographical database. The merging algorithm is based on the old adage “birds of a feather flock together”, assuming that, people who are more or less similar to each other, often spend time together. The use of the geo-psychographical database is illustrated using several applications in marketing. Key words: segmentation, brand strategy research, geo-psychographics, GIS mapping, geomarketing 7 Values of the elderly In the Jaarboek van de MarktOnderzoekAssociate 2009 we suggested a new typology of the elderly. The market of the elderly has been segmented along an economic dimension (privileged or underprivileged) and a health dimension (vital or not-vital). This article shows it is relevant to add a third dimension, namely a dimension referring to the values of the elderly. These values indicate what elderly deem important in life. The Schwartz’ theory on values reveals ten value dimensions can be distinguished. The four segments of elderly in our typology clearly differentiate on four out of ten of these dimensions: security/safety, universalism, conformity, and tradition. These results provide important insights into the understanding of the elderly’s consumer behavior and marketing policy. Keywords: segmentation, elderly, values 8 How do loyalty programs affect loyalty? Many companies spent huge amounts of money on operating loyalty programs. But do these loyalty programs really increase customer loyalty, and if so, through which mechanism? The results of this study show that these programs indeed increase both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. We find direct as well as indirect effects, through relational switching costs, of participation in a loyalty program on loyalty. However, we do not find mediating effects of procedural and financial switching costs. Hereby, this study seems to reveals part of the underlying mechanism of loyalty programs. Not the ‘hard’ aspects (such as points that can be redeemed for gifts), but rather the ‘soft’ aspects (the relationship that is built with the customer) of these programs seem to create switching costs, which in turn lead to loyalty. Besides these indirect effects, the direct effects of participation in a loyalty program on loyalty suggest that by simply rewarding behavior customers can be directly stimulated to keep showing the behavior and increase their attitudinal loyalty as well (operant conditioning). Keywords: loyalty program, attitude, behavior, switching costs
251
9 In search for the ideal mix: How to stimulate participation in market research online communities? By adopting the concept of customer communities and facilitating market research online communities, market researchers can create more opportunities for respondents to actively voice their opinions. Recently it was proposed to revamp market research by adapting traditional survey methods to more appropriate interactive research community settings. Drawing on customer community research findings, the epitome of success for such communities appears to lie in motivating a "critical mass" of engaged contributors to initiate and continuously create meaningful community content. This study considers members’ long term participation behavior within a marketing research community setting. Drawing on extant marketing community literature, we test a whole range of proposed community participation drivers and demonstrate that members’ likelihood to actively contribute to on-topic content creation depends upon their relationship with the facilitator and with other community members, the perceived benefits and costs derived from actively participating and the participants’ personal characteristics. Facilitators of research communities are advised to balance the on-topic, co-creational interaction with the offtopic more social interaction. The key to success lies within finding the right balance to stimulate ongoing on-topic participation. Keywords: research community, on-topic participation, relational drivers, value-based drivers, personality traits 10 Consequences of forcing consumers to use technology-based self-service Today, traditional full service is increasingly replaced with technology-based self-service (TBSS), sometimes with no other option for service delivery. This study develops a conceptual model to investigate the impact of forcing consumers to use TBSS. The model is tested using an experimental design within railway (ticketing and travel information) contexts. The results show that forced use leads to negative attitudes toward using the TBSS as well as toward the service provider, and it indirectly leads to adverse effects on behavioral intentions. The findings also show that offering interaction with an employee as a fall-back option partly offsets the negative consequences of forced use, and that previous experience with TBSS (in general) leads to more positive attitudes toward the offered self-service, which can offset the negative effects of forced use to some extent. Keywords: technology-based self-service (TBSS); forced use of self-service; perceived freedom of choice; fall-back option; experience with TBSS
252
11 Sleepers and inactives in online panels Selective drop-out among panel members is a threat to implementing representative online panel surveys. Similarly, it also puts the continuity of longitudinal online studies under pressure. Panel members who register but who do not respond or respond insufficiently to the questionnaires that are prepared for them, are called sleepers or inactives. Sleepers or inactives on panels can arise in different ways. A study of sleepers on the LISS panel, managed by CentERdata, and of inactives in the TNS NIPObase, managed by TNS NIPO, revealed the reasons why respondents do not respond or respond insufficiently, and what is needed to get them to participate again. The study shows that personal and technical reasons are the primary causes of ‘sleep behaviour’ and, to a lesser degree, aspects of the questionnaire. Essential in preventing long term sleeping is to maintain contact with panel members who show signs of longer term inactivity. One form of contact is a follow-up telephone call. Follow-ups can also help keep an eye on the panel members’ personal situations and digital contact details. This will help smooth any misunderstandings between respondents and the research bureau. Keywords: online panels, sleeping panel members, panel management 12 Public perceptions of nuclear energy Global warming has resulted in the need to re-assess the viability of nuclear energy for the production of electricity. We present a number of perspectives to assess risks and benefits of nuclear energy. Next we discuss shifts in public opinion in The Netherland between 1977 and 2010. Next we introduce three determinants of public reactions that recently received more research attention and might help to understand public opinion about issues such as nuclear energy. First, people tend to rely more on the extent to which they trust relevant authorities when dealing with complex issues such as nuclear energy. Next, there is more attention for less reasoned, intuitive judgments about risks, and finally, we address moral aspects of new technologies. Implications are briefly described, and we end with stressing that knowledge about the perspectives of different actors and group is essential in finding acceptable solutions to these complex problems. Keywords: nuclear energy, public opinion, framing, risk perception, energy debate
253
13 Monitoral citizens or civic omnivores? Repertoires of participation among university students in the Netherlands and Flanders In present-day societies, the extent to which young people still participate in civic life is an important matter of concern. The claim of a generational ‘decline’ in civic engagement has been contested, and interchanged with the notion of a ‘replacement’ of traditional engagement by new types of participation, and the emergence of the ‘monitorial citizen’ who participates in more individualized ways. Concurrently, this study explored the assumption of a ‘pluralization’ of involvement, advancing a new concept: the ‘civic omnivore’, characterized by an expanded civic repertoire. Drawing data from a sample of 1493 Belgian and Dutch university students, we identify five repertoires of participation: disengaged students, classical volunteers, humanitarian citizens, monitorial citizens, and civic omnivores. Our findings support the pluralization thesis, by showing that young citizens are not exclusively engaged in new monitorial ways, yet also expand their civic repertoire by combining traditional and new forms in more complex ways. Keywords: citizenship, political participation, volunteering, donating money, latent class analysis
254