Social Character and the New Automobile Industry

Riesman David Glazer Nathan Denny Reuel , The Lonely Crowd (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1950).

Kassarjian Waltraud , “A Study of Riesman's Theory of Social Character,” Sociometry, Vol. 25 (September 1962), pp. 213–30.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Richard Centers, “An Examination of the Riesman Social Character Typology: A Metropolitan Survey,” Sociometry, Vol. 25 (September 1962), pp. 231–40.

Richard Centers and Horowitz Miriam , “Social Character and Conformity: A Differential Susceptibility to Social Influence,” Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 60 (July 1963), pp. 343–49.

Kassarjian Harold Kassarjian Waltraud , “Occupational Interests, Social Values, and Social Character,” Journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol. 12 (Spring 1965), pp. 48–54.

Kassarjian Harold H. , “Social Character and Differential Preference for Mass Communication,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 2 (May 1965), pp. 146–53.

Donnelly James H. Jr. , “Social Character and Acceptance of New Products,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 7 (February 1970), pp. 111–13.

Donnelly James H. Jr. Ivancevich John M. , “A Methodology for Identifying Innovative Characteristics of New Brand Purchasers,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 9 (August 1974) pp. 331–34.

Mizerski Richard W. Settle Robert B. , “The Influence of Social Character on Preference for Social Versus Objective Information in Advertising,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 16 (November 1979), pp. 552–58.

Evans F.B. , “Ford Versus Chevrolet: Park Forest Revisited,” Journal of Business, Vol. 41 (October 1968), pp. 445–59; idem, “Psychological and Objective Factors in the Prediction of Brand Choice: Ford Versus Chevrolet,” Journal of Business, Vol. 32 (October 1956), pp. 340–69; Ito Rikuma , “Differential Attitudes of New Car Buyers,” Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 7 (March 1967), pp. 34–42.

Jacobson Eugene Kassoff Jerome , “Self-Precept and Consumer Attitudes Towards Small Cars,” Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 47 (October 1963), pp. 242–45; May F.E. , “Adaptive Behavior in Automotive Brand Choices,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 6 (February 1969), pp. 62–64; Birdwell A.E. , “A Study of the Influence of Image Congruence on Consumer Choice,” Journal of Business, Vol. 41 (January 1968), pp. 76–88; Settle Robert B. Gibby Bruce L. , “The Measurement of Attributed Image,” California Management Review, Vol. 14 (Summer 1972), pp. 70–74; and Ivancevich Donnelly , op. cit.

Westfall Ralph , “Psychological Factors in Predicting Product Choice,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 26 (April 1962), pp. 34–40; Wiseman Frederick , “Segmentation Analysis on Automobile Buyers During the New Model Year Transition Period,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 35 (April 1971), pp. 42–49; Hughes David G. Gurro Jose L. , “Automobile Self-Congruity Models Reexamined,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 8 (February 1971), pp. 125–27; Henry Walter , “Cultural Values Do Correlate with Consumer Behavior,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 13 (May 1976), pp. 121–27; Bell Gerald D. , “The Automobile Buyer After the Purchase,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 31 (July 1967), pp. 12–16.

Business Week, “U.S. Autos: Losing a Big Segment of the Market Forever?” (24 March 1980), pp. 78–88.

Donnelly , op. cit.; Donnelly Ivancevich , op. cit.; Kassarjian Harold , op. cit.

Variables include: Social class—see Peters W.H. , “Relative Occupational Class Income: A Significant Variable in the Marketing of Automobiles,” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 34 (April 1970), pp. 74–77; and Henry , op. cit.; occupation—see Peters , op. cit.; Wiseman , op. cit.; Newman Joseph W. Staelin Richard , “Prepurchase Information Seeking for New Cars and Major Household Appliances,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 9 (August 1972), pp. 249–57; Feldman Laurence P. Armstrong Gary M. , “Identifying Buyers of a Major Automotive Innovation,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 39 (January 1975), pp. 47–53, and Peters W.H. , “Using MCA to Segment New Car Markets,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 7 (August 1970), pp. 360–63; education—see Peters, “Relative Occupational Class”; Wiseman , op. cit.; Newman Staelin , op. cit.; and Feldman Armstrong , op. cit.; stage in family life cycle—see Wiseman , op. cit.; and Newman Staelin , op. cit.; age—see Evans , “Ford”; Peters , “Using MCA”; Feldman Armstrong , op. cit.; and Henry , op. cit.; and number of children—see Evans , “Ford” and “Psychological and Objective”; Peters , “Using MCA”; and Henry , op. cit.

Gitlow Howard S. , “Discrimination Procedures for the Analysis of Nominally Scaled Data Sets,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 16 (August 1979), pp. 387–93.

As part of a response-rate study, an additional one thousand subjects from the same sample frame were mailed the questionnaire minus the 1-0 Social Preference Scale. There were no significant differences between the two groups on the basis of the prestige category of automobiles purchased, the percent of automobiles purchased for use as a second car, social class, income, life-cycle stage, or distribution of working wives. The overall response rate was 32.1 percent. Therefore, one may assume minimal demographic differences between respondents and nonrespondents in the present study.

Birdwell , op. cit.

Donnelly , op. cit.; Donnelly Ivancevich , op. cit.; and Woodside Arch G. , “Social Characteristics of Product Use, and Advertising Appeals,” Journal of Advanced Research, Vol. 8 (December 1968), pp. 31–36.

Hollingshead Alfred B. Redlich Frederick , Social Class and Mental Illness (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1958).

Nie Norman H. Hull C. H. Jenkins Jean Steinbrenner Karen Bent Dale , Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, 2nd edition (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1975).

Press S. James , Applied Multivariate Analysis (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1972).

McCrohan Kevin F. Karounous Vicki , “DIS-CRIM: A Program to Validate SPSS Classification Functions,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 15 (August 1978), pp. 250–51.

Eisenbeis Robert A. Avery Robert B. , Discriminant Analysis and Classification Procedures (Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1972).

Henry , op. cit.

Peters , “Using MCA.”

Henry , op. cit.

Peters , “Using MCA.”

Kassarjian Waltraud , op. cit.; Centers , op. cit.

The authors thank Professor Kassarjian Harold H. for his comments on earlier versions of this manuscript, and acknowledge the guidance of Keller I. Harold Gitlow Howard S. , They also thank Carl Kirschner and Thomas Daly for their assistance in preparing the manuscript, and Mrs. Eleanor Kaplow and Eunice Bailey for their editorial efforts.