International Journal of Market Research

Less than 15% of ads are directed specifically to women and less than 5% are intended just for men. The remaining 80% are apparently targeted to everyone. This presumes very little difference in overall response between genders, which is strange, given that fundamental gender differences do exist. For example, women typically respond more positively to ads than men. Why should this be so? Is it intrinsic, is it cultural, or are there types of ads that work better with women than men, and vice versa? What leads to such differences? This paper reviews gender differences stemming from in-utero hormonal flows that shape the embryonic brain. How do such differences affect overall gender response to advertising? The findings show that advertising directed to just men or just women is more effective - yet paradoxically, it is seldom utilised, as most advertising appears to be targeted to both genders. In addition, although there is a wide range of effective styles of advertising and of content types that are demonstrably effective, many are comparatively neglected. Thus, there are opportunities for much more creativity and variety in the way advertising messages are communicated. The paper seeks to provide some clear pointers on how to go about this.

Behavioural economics draws on many different academic disciplines from cognitive psychology and social theory through to the newer disciplines of (social) neuroscience, evolutionary anthropology and genetics. Marketing and communications practitioners are now embracing it because it puts human behaviour centre stage rather than attitudes, beliefs and opinions. Contemporary qualitative research also draws on many of the same disciplines, and also others such as semiotics, linguistics and epidemiology. However, it has always been more comfortable describing motivations, attitudes, beliefs and opinions rather than behaviour itself. Many of the principles described in behavioural economics (BE) challenge the very nature of qualitative thinking and practice. This paper examines the relationship between the two models of thinking and how each can benefit from a greater understanding of the other.

This paper aims to expand the domain of brand image perception measurement by providing a method for eliciting brand associative networks and comparing it with traditional brand image measurement methods. This paper then argues that these networks may differ from one individual to another, depending on the cultural background and/or the experience with the brand. Accordingly, the authors introduce a methodology of clustering consumers with similar perceptions into distinct segments, which can be targeted differently. Using picture analysis and metaphor-based elicitation techniques, Lipton's Ice Tea brand associations are extracted and utilised as an input for the creation of 160 individual associative networks. These networks are first aggregated to measure the brand reputation and subsequently clustered into six segments. This paper provides clear arguments for using associative networks as the preferred method to capture the complete brand image. The paper discusses implications of perceptual segmentation for image management, brand positioning, perceptual competition analysis and brand communication.

Measurement scales are a crucial instrument in marketing research for measuring unobservable variables such as attitudes, opinions and beliefs. In using, evaluating or developing multi-item scales, a number of guidelines and procedures are recommended, to ensure that the measure applied is psychometrically robust. These procedures have been outlined in the psychometric literature since the late 1970s and are composed of steps that refer to construct and domain definition, scale validity, reliability, dimensionality and generalisability. Various statistical instruments are used in the scale-developing process, almost always referring to metric variables (interval or ratio scales). Instead, items forming scales are rarely measured metrically; items are frequently ordinal and, in some rare cases, nominal. In this paper, it is shown how the implementation of latent class analysis may improve the process of measurement scale development, since it explicitly considers that items generate ordinal or even nominal variables. Specifically, applying appropriate latent class models allows us to assess scale validity and reliability more soundly than traditionally used methods.

Consumers are increasingly saturated by market research, which leads to decreasing response rates and an increased danger of response bias. Market researchers thus face the challenge of recruiting respondents, increasing response rates and reducing respondent fatigue by making questionnaires as short and pleasant as possible. One way of achieving this is to replace traditionally used ordinal multi-category answer formats (such as Likert-type scales) with forced binary scales. This proposition is attractive only if it indeed shortens the survey time while not compromising the quality of managerial insights from the data. This study investigates these conditions. Results from a repeat-measurement design indicate that managerial interpretations do not differ substantially between the two answer formats, responses are equally reliable, and that the binary format is quicker and perceived as less complex.

Since the Chinese government advocated a Harmonious Society, socially responsible consumption has increased and companies are responding to the trend. However, our understanding of the attitude and behaviour of 1.3 billion Chinese consumers on socially responsible consumption is almost blank. The primary objective of the present study is to develop a scale to measure socially responsible consumer behaviour (SRCB) in China's Taoist context. The secondary objective is to identify whether Chinese consumers share the same ecological and social concerns with their western counterparts as previous research suggests. This paper starts with a new definition of SRCB based on a literature review, then identifies the dimensions of SRCB in China on the basis of in-depth interviews and previous findings. Finally, a nine-factor, 34-item scale is developed through a widely used scale-building process. Differences with findings from the US and France are discussed and marketing implications are elaborated.