Australasian Marketing Journal

Consumers are ever more aware of the impacts of fashion textiles on the natural world, as well as the production ethics concerns directed toward traditional fast fashion products in terms of human resources. This has led to an emerging form of fashion retail centered on production principles that encourage increased lifecycles of products, reduced volume of purchasing by individuals, and ethical care in production and sales. The ethical movement termed slow fashion thus has a unique philosophy that is at odds with a number of traditional aims of retailing. Striving for higher profits through increased sales volume and rapid turnover of goods contradicts the conscious consumption philosophy of slow fashion proponents. This paper therefore explores the market strategies used by four New Zealand fashion retailers who identify as slow, and have a business approach that encourages consumers to prioritize longevity and consumption ethics over price and fashion newness. The research takes a case-based approach, and finds that the central issue for slow fashion retailers, irrespective of their individual philosophies within the slow fashion sphere, is that of finding a balance between the particular conscious retailing models they have self-prescribed, and that of traditional retailing. A necessity for profit making and market share underscores the difficulty of their position in the modern fashion marketplace, and this paper details their unique strategies in negotiating this ethical retail space.

This qualitative study explores ethical luxury in Taiwan, a country that represents a significant demographic in the luxury market. The study utilized the ZMET technique and focus groups. A total of 28 heavy users of luxury brands were interviewed. Results indicate that luxury brands are chiefly defined by such constructs as price, quality and aesthetical attributes, whereas ethicality is centrally demarcated by human wellbeing, the environment and animal welfare, amongst other elements. The fusion of these two concepts implies several encouraging outlooks and certain deterring factors. Results denote that there is potential for ethical luxury's inception in the Taiwanese market, but with considerable forethought in the process. This study extends the body of knowledge in how consumers perceive the prospect of ethical luxury, especially from a non-western perspective.

This study examines the effectiveness of using guilt in road safety advertising among young populations characterized as having high levels of belief in fate, and refutes the positive relationship between belief in fate and health message ineffectiveness, by introducing the notion of negotiable fate. This type of coping implies that when belief in fate increases, persuasion increases and this relationship operates through self-efficacy perceptions. That is, when exposed to guilt-based road safety messages, belief in fate generates self-efficacy perceptions, which motivates drivers to focus on the problem instead of denying it, leading to a higher persuasion. The current research constitutes a first empirical test of the relationships between belief in fate, self-efficacy, and compliance with guilt-based road safety communications. We also test a moderation-mediation model proving that the mediator role of self-efficacy is reinforced with the use of higher levels of guilt in the message. Results can provide guidance for non-profit organizations and public agencies on how to develop future policies to promote safe behaviors among young drivers who have high belief in fate.

Do consumers really like familiarity and therefore dislike novelty? This is a central question that has resonated through different fields of marketing and psychology. Past research has found that people heuristically associate familiarity to liking, but they also prefer novelty in certain motivational contexts. This paper presents three studies to show that novelty does not result in liking but instead, evokes interest—a similar but functionally different positive affective experience. Specifically, we show that people feel interested toward and therefore favour a product when it is subjectively perceived to be new or said to be new, even when the novel product is objectively identical to its counterpart. Novelty, however, was found to be unrelated to liking. These findings suggest that consumers’ paradoxical tendency to favour both familiarity and novelty is manifested in ways beyond a general emotional valence account. Specifically, familiarity appears to evoke liking whereas novelty appears to evoke interest.

This research aims to test the power of brand attribute associations and emotional consumer-brand relationship (E-CBR) as drivers of the intention to purchase brand extensions, while taking into consideration the moderating role of perceived fit. These aspects are examined in the context of luxury brands, given their expressive and hedonic nature. In more detail, using survey data from a population of Iranian consumers and covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM), this study confirms that E-CBR has a positive impact on the intention to purchase a luxury brand's extension. The study also confirms that E-CBR mediates the relationship between brand attribute associations and the intention to purchase a luxury brand's extension. As such, this research sheds light on the synergic effects of cognitive (brand attribute associations) and emotional (E-CBR) factors in relation to extensions of luxury brands. With respect to perceived fit, the results highlight that it moderates the relationship between brand attribute associations and the intention to purchase a luxury brand's extension. These findings advance existing knowledge of how consumers see extensions of luxury brands, revealing important underlying mechanisms that tie rational and emotional aspects, shaping consumers’ intent. Accordingly, this research yields important implications in relation to the marketing tactics that could be utilised to promote the acceptance of luxury brands’ extensions, especially in growing middle-Eastern markets such as Iran.

This article details an eclectic bibliometric method to study brand personality, identifying theoretical buildings and possible emerging research topics across marketing science fields. A mix of diverse bibliometric software and multiple correspondence analyses related to the topic supports considerations of four methodological phases, in particular: (1) research overview, (2) authors, (3) semantics, and (4) models. The bibliometric findings offer a catalog of BP research approaches. A comparison of research trends associated with renowned marketing science organizations and the current analyses suggest emerging research topics. Continued research should adopt and improve bibliometric methods and multiple correspondence analyses, despite to their heterogeneity.

The present work empirically assesses the effect of the rigor–relevance debate on the relevance of research in marketing across various eras. The paper also ranks different types of relevance according to the importance given by managers. Finally, the current research informs if the top marketing journals are focusing on the relevant relevance category in the modern era. Fifty-seven articles in three leading marketing journals were analyzed for the period 1936–2015. Content analysis and n-way analysis of variance were used to measure the magnitude of managerial relevance in these papers. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to rank the relative importance of different types of relevance. The results support that the relevance across eras changed according to the direction of the ongoing debate on rigor–relevance. Findings indicate that significant gaps exist between the relevance expected by managers and those provided by the journals. The managers prefer “forecasts,” which is instrumental relevance; however, the leading marketing journals focus majorly on conceptual relevance. Out of the eight types of managerial relevance identified, “forecasts” was ranked the highest by managers, followed by “rhetoric devices” and “uncovering causal relationships.” Further, the three leading marketing journals differentiate themselves by focusing on different types of relevance. The results and implications provided are particularly useful for academicians, editors, academic administrators.