As consumers increase their purchases from online retailers, businesses must find exceedingly innovative ways to increase customer engagement. While online gaming has become increasingly prevalent, motivating customers through the same means has gained greater importance for businesses. Utilizing Gamification in Servicescapes for Improved Consumer Engagement is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on employing various gamification mechanics to alter and enhance certain behaviors in marketing contexts. While highlighting topics such as online gaming, user engagement, and target marketing, this book is ideally designed for retailers, advertisers, marketers, promotion coordinators, industry professionals, business executives, managers, researchers, academicians, and students seeking current research on bridging servicescapes and marketing literature with gamification.

One of the integral parts of determining business success directly correlates to how well a company interacts with their customers. This increased demand for direct communication has evolved how companies cooperate with their patrons and examines how essential ethics is related to these communications. Ethical Consumerism and Comparative Studies Across Different Cultures: Emerging Research and Opportunities provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of the fundamental issues related to ethical consumerism and applications within business, science, engineering, and technology and examines the impact Arab and global cultures have on consumerism. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as business ethics, data management, and global business, this book is ideally designed for managers, executives, advertisers, marketers, sales directors, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students.

To gain the most competitive edge, marketers must continually optimize their promotional strategies. While the adult population is a prominent target, there is significant market potential for young consumers as well. Analyzing Children's Consumption Behavior: Ethics, Methodologies, and Future Considerations presents a dynamic overview of the best practices for marketing products that target children as consumers and analyzes the most effective promotional strategies being utilized. Highlighting both the advantages and challenges of targeting young consumers, this book is a pivotal reference source for marketers, professionals, researchers, upper-level students, and practitioners interested in emerging perspectives on children's consumption behavior.

Digital transformation is spreading throughout every industry all over the world. Acquiring new technologies to use within business practices increases productivity and strengthens the connection between businesses and their consumers. The digital transformation process and automation promotion must be intensified and explored globally so that economies can grow and develop, providing a better quality of life for their populations. Implementing Automation Initiatives in Companies to Create Better-Connected Experiences explores the most current and decisive topics for business and academia. It evaluates the ways in which automation and connectivity help the decision-making process of companies and the learning process for students and researchers. Covering topics such as consumer behavior, omnichannel retailing, and metaverse applications in business, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for business executives and managers, IT managers, marketers, agencies, government officials, students and faculty of higher education, researchers, and academia.

Having a grasp on what appeals to consumers and how consumers are making purchasing decisions is essential to the success of any organization that thrives by offering a product or service. Despite the importance of consumer knowledge and understanding, research-based insight into the buying patterns and consumption habits of individuals in emerging nations remains limited. The Handbook of Research on Consumerism and Buying Behavior in Developing Nations takes a critical look at the often overlooked opportunities available for driving consumer demand and interest in developing countries. Emphasizing the power of the consumer market in emerging economies and their overall role in the global market system, this edited volume features research-based perspectives on consumer perception, behavior, and relationship management across industries. This timely publication is an essential resource for marketing professionals, consumer researchers, international business strategists, scholars, and graduate-level students.

This gripping book considers the history, techniques, and goals of child-targeted consumer campaigns and examines children's changing perceptions of what commodities they "need" to be valued and value themselves. In this critique of America's consumption-based society, author Jennifer Hill chronicles the impact of consumer culture on children-from the evolution of childhood play to a child's self-perception as a consumer to the consequences of this generation's repeated media exposure to violence. Hill proposes that corporations, eager to tap into a multibillion-dollar market, use the power of advertising and the media to mold children's thoughts and behaviors. The book features vignettes with teenagers explaining, in their own words, how advertising determines their needs, wants, and self-esteem. An in-depth analysis of this research reveals the influence of media on a young person's desire to conform, shows how broadcasted depictions of beauty distort the identities of children and teens, and uncovers corporate agendas for manipulating behavior in the younger generation. The work concludes with the position that corporations are shaping children to be efficient consumers but, in return, are harming their developing young minds and physical well-being. Features content from across disciplines including sociology, psychology, cultural anthropology, and social work Introduces the idea that corporations exert a powerful-and largely negative-influence over children and childhood Offers a theoretical explanation of the current state of consumer capitalism Presents findings based on original research conducted by the author

Reading Augustine presents concise, personal readings of St. Augustine of Hippo from leading philosophers and religion scholars. Augustine of Hippo knew that this fallen world is a place of sadness and suffering. In such a world, he determined that compassion is the most suitable and virtuous response. Its transformative powers could be accessed through the mind and its memories, through the healing of the Incarnation, and through the discernment of Christians who are forced to navigate through a corrupt and deceptive world. Susan Wessel considers Augustine's theology of compassion by examining his personal experience of loss and his reflections concerning individual and corporate suffering in the context of the human condition and salvation.

Research on consumption from an environmental perspective has exploded since the late 1990s. This important new volume cuts across disciplines to present the latest research in the field. The book is divided into three parts, the first of which addresses the problems of consumption both as a concept and as an economic and social force with high environmental impact. In the second part, the authors try to explain consumption as an attempt by individuals to satisfy different types of needs whilst simultaneously being embedded in certain lifestyles and constrained by time and daily routines. The final section looks at how change towards less environmentally damaging consumption patterns can be achieved through national sustainability and consumer policy measures, as well as through community building and individual action. In accordance with the transdisciplinary nature of ecological economics, the original contributions emanate from a variety of different perspectives to reflect the diversity of research in this growing field. By seriously exploring the role of consumption within ecological economics, this fine book will provide invaluable reading for students and researchers interested in sustainable consumption, ecological economics and consumer research.

Global economic scenarios are increasing in complexity due to the recent global financial crisis, globalization, the evolution of ICT, and the changing behaviors of consumers. This has made it difficult to predict trends and build strategies within the retail industry. As a result, long-term forecasts and schedules are not possible, and more research is needed to explore today's consumer profile and set the frameworks for future recovery strategies. Predicting Trends and Building Strategies for Consumer Engagement in Retail Environments is a pivotal reference source that provides practical insights into improving the understanding of complex retail environments and consumer shopping behaviors in order to predict trends and develop strategies for retailers in times of economic crisis. While highlighting topics such as consumer engagement, industry models, and market globalization, this publication explores qualitative and quantitative methods of interest and the multidisciplinary approaches revolving around the industry. This book is ideally designed for marketers, managers, practitioners, retail professionals, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on relationship marketing, digital marketing, service management, and complexity theories.

Consumers in eighteenth-century England were firmly embedded in an expanding world of goods, one that incorporated a range of novel foods (tobacco, chocolate, coffee, and tea) and new supplies of more established commodities, including sugar, spices, and dried fruits. Much has been written about the attraction of these goods, which went from being novelties or expensive luxuries in the mid-seventeenth century to central elements of the British diet a century or so later. They have been linked to the rise of Britain as a commercial and imperial power, whilst their consumption is seen as transforming many aspects of British society and culture, from mealtimes to gender identity. Despite this huge significance to ideas of consumer change, we know remarkably little about the everyday processes through which groceries were sold, bought, and consumed. In tracing the lines of supply that carried groceries from merchants to consumers, Sugar and Spice reveals how changes in retailing and shopping were central to the broader transformation of consumption and consumer practices, but also questions established ideas about the motivations underpinning consumer choices. It demonstrates the dynamic nature of eighteenth-century retailing; the importance of advertisements in promoting sales and shaping consumer perceptions, and the role of groceries in making shopping an everyday activity. At the same time, it shows how both retailers and their customers were influenced by the practicalities and pleasures of consumption. They were active agents in consumer change, shaping their own practices rather than caught up in a single socially-inclusive cultural project such as politeness or respectability.

This text is designed to introduce important concepts related to the consumption of fashion and clothing to beginning students. Designed to support teaching and learning, this book looks at the cultural and economic significance of the global fashion industry. Beginning with an historical overview of fashion consumption, the book then provides an analysis of both rational normative consumer decision-making as well as hedonic and alternative consumption patterns. It concludes with a look at ethical decision-making and social responsibility concerning design, production, and consumption.Each chapter contain definitions of the key concepts, overviews of the relevant theories, case studies, as well as summary sections, a listing of key terms, questions for discussion, and assignments for class use. Combining insights and perspectives from a wide range of disciplinary approaches, including fashion, cultural studies, sociology and business, this book will be of interest to students on a variety of courses studying consumer behaviour.

Fans of specific sports teams, television series, and video games, to name a few, often create subcultures in which to discuss and celebrate their loyalty and enthusiasm for a particular object or person. Due to their strong emotional attachments, members of these fandoms are often quick to voluntarily invest their time, money, and energy into a related product or brand, thereby creating a group of faithful and passionate consumers that play a significant role in multiple domains of contemporary culture. The Handbook of Research on the Impact of Fandom in Society and Consumerism is an essential reference source that examines the cultural and economic effects of the fandom phenomenon through a multidisciplinary lens and shapes an understanding of the impact of fandom on brand building. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics such as religiosity, cosplay, and event marketing, this publication is ideally designed for marketers, managers, advertisers, brand managers, consumer behavior analysts, product developers, psychologists, entertainment managers, event coordinators, political scientists, anthropologists, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current studies on the global impact of this particularly devoted community.

Customer-Centric Knowledge Management (CCKM) is needed in order to build good customer relations and to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty. It includes the management of processes and techniques used to collect information regarding customers' needs, wants, and expectations for the development of new and/or improved products and services. Customer-Centric Knowledge Management: Concepts and Applications is a comprehensive collection addressing managerial and technical aspects of customer-centric knowledge implementation. It seeks to expand the literature and business practices and contributes to the dynamic and emerging fields of organizational knowledge management, customer relationship management, and information and communication technologies (ICTs).

Visual Branding pulls together analyses of logos, typeface, color, and spokes-characters to give a comprehensive account of the visual devices used in branding and advertising. The book places each avenue for visual branding within a rhetorical framework that explains what that device can accomplish for the brand. It lays out the available possibilities for constructing logos and distinguishes basic types along with examples of their use and evolution over time. Authors Edward McQuarrie and Barbara Phillips place visual branding within its historical context, covering the 120-year period since brand advertising first took modern form in the United States. Using copious real-life examples to illustrate how branding has evolved with the introduction of new technologies and opportunities, the book also critiques purely psychological perspectives on branding and explains how historical and rhetorical analyses can contribute new insights. This exploration of rhetoric as an alternative to economic and psychological perspectives in marketing, advertising, and consumer scholarship will be essential reading for students and scholars in graduate programs in marketing, advertising, and consumer psychology.

Susan Dobscha and the authors in this Handbook provide a primer and resource for scholars and practitioners keen to develop or enhance their understanding of how gender permeates marketing decisions, consumer experiences, public policy initiatives, and market practices. This Handbook's main objective is to provide a roadmap through the complicated terrain of gender as it pertains to marketing and consumer behavior. The author also highlights that the study of gender is not restricted to certain theories, methods, or approaches. The unifying conclusion is that the study of gender is an important topic that has not received the attention it deserves within the marketing discipline; and attention to gender is crucial now more than ever. This book will give marketing scholars the guidance they need to incorporate the topic of gender into their research by highlighting the current conversations that are taking place in the field of marketing, and more importantly by illuminating the gap in which more scholarship is necessary to increase our understanding of gender complexities. Contributors include: J. Brace-Govan, J. Coffin, C. Coleman, S. Dobscha, J. Drenten, S. Dunnett, C.A. Eichert, S. Ferguson, L. Gurrieri, R.L. Harrison, W. Hein, G.H. Knudsen, J. Littlefield, P. Maclaran, A.-I. Nolke, S. O'Donohoe, J. Ostberg, N.J. Pendarvis, A.S. Rome, M. Sanghvi, K.C. Sredl, L. Steinfield, L. Stevens, L. Walther, M. Zawisza, L.T. Zayer

Kitchens are where we cook, clean, cry, talk, laugh, break things. Hugely symbolic - as well as practical - kitchens evoke thoughts of hearth and home, family and domesticity. People today commonly spend more refurbishing their kitchens than refurbishing any other room in the home. On kitchen units alone, annual expenditure in England has been around the billion pound mark for some time. And this only represents part of what people spend on a kitchen. For, when they do up their kitchens, people frequently also buy new machinery and nearly always buy new accessories. To get at the heart of the meaning, design and purpose of the modern kitchen, the author interviewed a sample of seventy four homeowners. She follows them through the process of shopping and purchasing a new kitchen, and she discusses the importance of layout, colour, shape and texture. She explores the dominant role that women play in shaping the appearance of a new kitchen and considers the evolution of the modern kitchen in the context of the consumer age. The first history of the fitted kitchen in England, this innovative new book will appeal to anyone interested in design, sociology, gender studies and cultural history.

This first book-length treatment of the life and work of Christine Frederick (1883-1970) reveals an important dilemma that faced educated women of the early twentieth century. Contrary to her professional role as home efficiency expert, advertising consultant, and consumer advocate, Christine Frederick espoused the nineteenth-century ideal of preserving the virtuous home--and a woman's place in it. In an effort to reconcile her desire to succeed in the public sphere of modernization and consumerism with the knowledge that most middle-class Americans still held traditional beliefs about gender roles, Frederick fashioned a career for herself that encouraged other women to remain at home. With the rise of home economics and scientific management, Frederick--college-educated but confined to the drudgery of housework--devised a plan for bringing the public sphere into the domestic. Her home would become her factory. She learned how to standardize tasks by observing labor-saving devices in industry and then applied this knowledge to housework. She standardized dishwashing, for example, by breaking the job into three separate operations: scraping and stacking, washing, and drying and putting away. Determined to train women to become proficient homemakers and efficient managers, Frederick secured a job writing articles for the Ladies' Home Journal. A professional career as home efficiency expert later expanded to include advertising consultant and consumer advocate. Frederick assured male advertisers that she knew women well and promised to help them sell to ""Mrs. Consumer."" While Frederick sought the power and influence available only to men, she promoted a division of labor by gender and therefore served the fall of the early-twentieth-century wave of feminism. Rutherford's engaging account of Christine Frederick's life reflects a dilemma that continues to affect women today--whether to seek professional gratification or adhere to traditional family values.

We live in an age when consumption and consuming have come to define us. Consumption, now a global phenomenon, is so dominant it allows little room for alternatives. At the same time, information and digitization have become all-pervasive in our media culture . As ever greater aspects of the world have come to be seen as 'data', information has increasingly become the very currency of consumption.Consumption in an Age of Information maps this new terrain. Bringing together some of the world's leading theorists and critics, the essays range across high theory and popular culture - from informational flows to science fiction simulations, from pop-cultural consumption to capitalism as religion, from the consumption of time to the role of 'speed' in contemporary culture.

By any measure, the affluent sector is growing exponentially, and is far more diverse (in terms of ethnicity, education, location, and professional background) than any time in the past. This market represents lucrative opportunities for companies that understand how these customers think, act, and make purchasing decisions. Applying primary research, including demographic and economic data, and expertise developed from decades of studying, teaching, and consulting in marketing and consumer behavior, Ronald Michman and Edward Mazze present a comprehensive approach to analyzing the affluent consumer-and creating, promoting, and selling innovative products and services to them. Illustrating their principles through dozens of examples, including Armani, Mercedes Benz, Brooks Brothers, Neiman Marcus, Merrill Lynch, Tiffany, and even discounters, such as Target and Wal-Mart, the authors deconstruct how a complex market segment works. Dispelling popular myths and misconcpetions about the composition and behavior of this segment, they provide not only a practical guide for marketers and students of marketing, but a fascinating glimpse into a culture driven by materalism, status, and aspirations to luxury. By any measure, the affluent sector is growing exponentially, and is far more diverse (in terms of ethnicity, education, location, and professional background) than at any time in the past. In 2004, there were 8.2 million households in the United States with net worth over $1 million, excluding primary residence. Meanwhile, between 1995 and 2001, the number of families filing tax returns for income exceeding $200,000 doubled. This market represents lucrative opportunities for companies that understand how these consumers think, act, and make purchasing decisions.

Highly important scholarly treatment of Bahamian socioeconomic history in post-emancipation period. In addition to examining last phases of slavery in both rural and urban settings, looks at export economies of salt, cotton, pineapples, and sponges, and their roles in emergence of mercantile middle class. Concludes that partly because of flawed governmental policies, workers ended up in servitude and ultimately migrated to Miami"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Although studies indicate the assumption of one single European market, other research emphasises European countries have distinct market identities. Meanwhile, as individual countries begin to have a more widespread understanding of culture, global culture still remains unshared between countries. Consumption Culture in Europe: Insight into the Beverage Industry brings the most relevant theories about culture and European market segmentation as well as providing updated data for the evaluation and analyses of the European consumption patterns in the beverage market. This comprehensive collection is an essential tool for policy-makers and those interested in end-markets and consumer affairs.|Although studies indicate the assumption of one single European market, other research emphasises European countries have distinct market identities. Meanwhile, as individual countries begin to have a more widespread understanding of culture, global culture still remains unshared between countries. Consumption Culture in Europe: Insight into the Beverage Industry brings the most relevant theories about culture and European market segmentation as well as providing updated data for the evaluation and analyses of the European consumption patterns in the beverage market. This comprehensive collection is an essential tool for policy-makers and those interested in end-markets and consumer affairs.

An engrossing review of the development of global consumerism and its impact on sociological issues. The phrase "shop till you drop" has become as American as apple pie and the trend does not appear to be slowing. Consumer Culture begins with the history of the consumer culture, which reveals that our fascination with consuming shows not only the hidden significance of everyday items, such as sugar and fashionable clothing, but also reveals the uniqueness of our way of life. Consumer Culture also presents the views of economists and sociologists who see consumption as an expression of freedom. The book covers the social impact of consumption, examining such dubious milestones as physical attacks upon McDonald's and Starbucks, and best sellers that are critical of consumption. There is coverage of important research, such as whether consumers are making rational or impulsive choices and the effect of advertising on children. Capsule biographies of key individuals, such as Aaron Montgomery Ward, who pioneered the modern catalog, and Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's; important figures in advertising, such as Helen Rosen Woodward; leaders in the consumer protection movement, such as Ralph Nader and Florence Kelley; and more Statistics on U.S. and global consumption trends including clustering and segmentation in patterns of consumption; the growth of franchises and malls; shopping behavior by age, ethnicity, and geographical location; and environmental effects such as those due to garbage production

Across Asia, consumer culture is increasingly shaping everyday life, with neoliberal economic and social policies increasingly adopted by governments who see their citizens as individualised, sovereign consumers with choices about their lifestyles and identities. One aspect of this development has been the emergence of new wealthy middle classes with lifestyle aspirations shaped by national, regional and global media - especially by a range of new popular lifestyle media, which includes magazines, television and mobile and social media. This book explores how far everyday conceptions and experiences of identity are being transformed by media cultures across the region. It considers a range of different media in different Asian contexts, contrasting how the shaping of lifestyles in Asia differs from similar processes in Western countries, and assessing how the new lifestyle media represents not just a new emergent media culture, but also illustrates wider cultural and social changes in the Asian region.

Connected customers, using a wide range of devices such as smart phones, tablets, and laptops have ushered in a new era of consumerism. Now more than ever, this change has prodded marketing departments to work with their various IT departments and technologists to expand consumers' access to content. In order to remain competitive, marketers must integrate marketing campaigns across these different devices and become proficient in using technology. Innovations in Technology and Marketing for the Connected Consumer is a pivotal reference source that develops new insights into applications of technology in marketing and explores effective ways to reach consumers through a wide range of devices. While highlighting topics such as cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, this publication explores practices of technology-empowered digital marketing as well as the methods of applying practices to less developed countries. This book is ideally designed for marketers, managers, advertisers, branding teams, application developers, IT specialists, academicians, researchers, and students.