Although social marketing is generally associated with communication activities and mass media, there exists a broader scope of social marketing that utilizes a systematic approach to defining concepts, behaviors, and products for promotion and distribution. Dynamics of Competitive Advantage and Consumer Perception in Social Marketing explores important social issues that call for reform such as healthcare, self-perceptions, and corporate responsibilities to the environment. This publication will guide readers in the understanding and appreciation of social marketing and give insight to how it can be used to positively alter social conscience and create social change.

To varying degrees, classic religions are associated with critique of materialistic values. Onto this opposition of the market and the temple other binaries have been grafted, so that 'North' and the 'West' are portrayed as secular and materialistic, 'South' and 'East' either as 'tigers' pursuing western-style affluence and economic growth or locked into retrospective fundamentalisms. These characterisations are called into question in a context of diversity and global movements of peoples and goods. In this collection this complexity is addressed in an analysis of the interconnections between religious and consumption practices and cultures, and the ways in which both are responding to the ecological threat posed by continuous economic growth. International in scope, the book combines empirical and theoretical work in its attempt to interrogate the traditional opposition of spiritual and materialistic values, and to explore the interplay of religious and consuming passions in contemporary cultures. This analysis leads to a consideration of the ways in which religions and secular spiritualities can contribute to a new ecological consciousness, and to the adoption of less destructive and rapacious ways of life.

Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption presents an innovative reinterpretation of the forces that have shaped the remarkable growth of ethical consumption. * Develops a theoretically informed new approach to shape our understanding of the pragmatic nature of ethical action in consumption processes * Provides empirical research on everyday consumers, social networks, and campaigns * Fills a gap in research on the topic with its distinctive focus on fair trade consumption * Locates ethical consumption within a range of social theoretical debates -on neoliberalism, governmentality, and globalisation * Challenges the moralism of much of the analysis of ethical consumption, which sees it as a retreat from proper citizenly politics and an expression of individualised consumerism

Drawing on a wide range of studies of Europe, the United States, Asia, and Africa, the contributions gathered here consider how political history, business history, the history of science, cultural history, gender history, intellectual history, anthropology, and even environmental history can help us decode modern consumer societies.

The rewards of success in emerging markets are potentially huge, and as luxury companies continue to expand their global reach, they will need to continually assess if their current strategy is delivering competitive advantage. This text presents a repository of knowledge that brings clarity to key issues and trends for practitioners, academics and students of luxury brands. It sets out to decode the luxury markets in the primary emerging markets (BRICs) and provide a rich resume of the key factors that influence the effectiveness of luxury brand strategies.

Technology and Household Consumption is a comprehensive text that provides insights into technology's impact on consumer behavior and the household environment. Consumption and consumer behavior has become a very important subject of study that is now covered in many disciplines including family economics, culture studies, and feminist/women studies.

In the first section, this book provides a historical perspective on how consumer behaviors have changed because of technology and how technology itself has changed. Data on ownership and expenditures is detailed in describing the penetration of technology in the household and changes over time. In the examination of demographics and social changes, an emphasis is placed on women and children. As it is important to understand the entry paths and factors that influence them, the book also introduces a research framework to understanding the adoption and utilization of household technologies. In the second section, the book examines specific household technologies and consumption experiences including shopping choices and behaviors, entertainment outlets and availability, communications technologies, and working at home. The book concludes with a section on the relationships between marketers and consumers.

Veganism is so much more than what we eat. It's about striving to live an ethical life in a profoundly unethical world. Is being vegan difficult or is it now easier than ever? What does veganism have to do with wider struggles for social justice - feminism, LGBTQ+ politics, anti-racism and environmentalism?

Consumers are not usually incorporated into the sociological concept of 'division of labour', but using the case of household recycling, this book shows why this foundational concept needs to be revised.

A well-planned marketing orientation strategy that keeps customers informed is the first step to building a long-term relationship with customers and providing them with appropriate incentives. The difficulty with providing a winning strategy in a highly competitive market, however, stems from responding to the specific needs of the customers. Customer Satisfaction and Sustainability Initiatives in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is an essential reference source that links together three highly relevant topics in the business of modern economy-innovation, customer satisfaction, and sustainability-and analyzes their synergies. Featuring research on topics such as e-business, global business, and sustainable innovation, this book is ideally designed for business consultants, managers, customer service representatives, entrepreneurs, academicians, researchers, and students seeking coverage on directing sustainable companies.

How much and which goods are acceptable to consume? Who should be entitled to more and on what basis? These questions have been raised throughout history with answers varying widely across time and space. They were at the centre of concerns over luxury in Ancient Greece and continue to inform modern debates on the environmental effects of consumption. At the same time they have also been subject to mundane discussions conducted around the dinner table about how much the family should save, what kind of wedding would be appropriate, and whether or not family members in torn jeans are acceptable at the dinner table at all. What are consumption norms about, how do they develop and why do they change? This book addresses these questions, by bringing together sociological, historical, anthropological and economic studies on consumption.

Consumer culture influences virtually all activities within modern societies and has become an important area of study for businesses. Logical analysis of consumer behavior is difficult as humans have different reasons for repeatedly buying products they need or want, and it is challenging to follow why they buy unneeded or unwanted products regularly. Without a comprehensive understanding of consumer culture as the basis, market discussions become empty and produce little insight into the power consumers hold in affecting other individuals and society. Multifaceted Explorations of Consumer Culture and Its Impact on Individuals and Society provides emerging research from different perspectives on the basis and ramifications of consumer culture, as well as how it affects all aspects of the lives of individuals. While providing a platform for exploring interpersonal interactions and issues related to ethics in marketing, readers will gain valuable insight into areas such as consumer vs. producer mentality, the effects of consumerism on developing countries, and the consequences of consumerism. This book is an important resource for marketing professionals, business managers, sociologists, students, academicians, researchers, and consumer professionals.

This book argues that Western class categories do not directly apply to China and that the new Chinese middle class is distinguished more by socio-cultural rather than by economic factors. Based upon qualitative interviews done in Guangdong in South China, the study looks at entrepreneurs, professionals, and regional party cadres from various age groups, showing the complex networks among these different groups and the continuing significance of cadres. The study also explores generational differences, exposing how older generations are pragmatic and business-oriented, rather than personally oriented in their consumption whereas the younger generations appear more flexible and hedonistic and tend to be more individualistic, materialistic and oriented towards personal gain. In neither older or younger generations is there much evidence that the new Chinese middle class is taking on a political role in advocating political reform alongside market reforms as is suggested by some Western stratification theorists. Despite being in the vanguard of consumption, they are the laggards in politics.

Increasingly, consumers in North America and Europe see their purchasing as a way to express to the commercial world their concerns about trade justice, the environment and similar issues. This ethical consumption has attracted growing attention in the press and among academics. Extending beyond the growing body of scholarly work on the topic in several ways, this volume focuses primarily on consumers rather than producers and commodity chains. It presents cases from a variety of European countries and is concerned with a wide range of objects and types of ethical consumption, not simply the usual tropical foodstuffs, trade justice and the system of fair trade. Contributors situate ethical consumption within different contexts, from common Western assumptions about economy and society, to the operation of ethical-consumption commerce, to the ways that people's ethical consumption can affect and be affected by their social situation. By locating consumers and their practices in the social and economic contexts in which they exist and that their ethical consumption affects, this volume presents a compelling interrogation of the rhetoric and assumptions of ethical consumption.

In Consumption, Cities and States: Comparing Singapore with Asian and Western Cities, Ann Brooks and Lionel Wee focus on the interrelationship of consumption, citizenship and the state in the context of globalization, calling for greater emphasis to be placed on the citizen as consumer. While it is widely recognized that citizenship is increasingly defined by gradations of esteem, where different kinds of rights and responsibilities accrue to different categories and subcategories of citizens, not enough analytical focus has been given to how the status of being a citizen impacts the individual s consumption. The interface between citizen status and consumer activity is a crucial point of analysis in light of the neoliberal assertion that individuals and institutions perform at their best within a free market economy, and because of the state s expectations regarding citizens rights and responsibilities as consumers not just as producers. In this remarkable comparative study, the authors examine these relationships across a number of cities in both Asia and the West."

This book investigates the transfer of parent country organizational practices by the retailers to their Chinese subsidiaries, providing insights into employment relations in multinational retail firms and changing labour-management systems in China, as well as their impact on consumer culture.

With studies of China, India, West Africa, South America and Europe, this book provides a global perspective on food consumption in the modern world. Combing ethnographic, historical and comparative analyses, the volume celebrates the contributions of Jack Goody to the anthropology of food.

Recognize the con artist before you get taken! Schulte exposes dozens of telephone, mail, and computer-based scams, explaining how they work and how you can avoid becoming their next victim.

"... a must for anyone who wants to be informed about ways consumers can be fleeced by phone-room sharpies". -- Chicago Tribune

This book presents the most up-to-date account of research based on the Behavioural Perspective Model of consumer choice. The accumulated empirical results, which draw on behavioural economics, psychology, and marketing, are summarized, after which the philosophy of science that underpins the model is explored. Foxall's contribution to the debate about the explanation of consumer choice, intentional behaviourism, is both expounded and critiqued, and the resulting synthesis is explored in relation to its relevance to marketing management, public policy on environmental matters, the adoption and diffusion of innovations, and further research in consumer behaviour and marketing. This is a major contribution to consumer research and marketing theory.

A sophisticated and subversive guide on how to make a difference ... one day at a time. You watch the news every night. You turn off your television set, disturbed by what you've seen and wondering what, if anything, you can do to make a difference. This is the book you need to get started. You may think that the issues which confront us are so huge, so complicated, so difficult to deal with that it's hard to believe anything we can do will have a meaningful impact but Michael Norton will prove you wrong. A lot of people doing a lot of little things could have a huge impact. This book has an idea-a-day for changing the world. Most are quite simple, can be done from home, and will not take much time. You can make a start whenever you like. Just open the book at today's date, read, enjoy, be inspired to action - and do something!

This practical and easy to understand book is about eating well. The authors include chapters on: nutrition basics and a balanced diet; how to evaluate nutrition information; vitamin and mineral supplements; 'health foods' and related products; junk foods and fast foods; additives; practical weight control; balanced vegetarian diets; the truth about sugar; 'fluid facts'; tips for teenagers; and diet, heart disease and cancer. Appendices include a listing of recommended dietary allowances, a glossary of terms, and a useful bibliography.

As the global market continues to recuperate from economic downfall, it is essential for private label products to find ways to compete with alternatives offered by wholesale and national retailers. In many cases, it becomes difficult for off-brand products to generate market appeal when consumers have preconceived notions about the quality of generic products and loyalty to branded products.The Handbook of Research on Strategic Retailing of Private Label Products in a Recovering Economy emphasizes advertising and promotional approaches being utilized, as well as consumer behavior and satisfaction in response to marketing strategies and the sensitive pricing techniques being implemented to endorse generic and store-brand products available on the market. Highlighting brand competition between wholesalers, retailers, and private brand names following a global economic crisis, this publication is an extensive resource for researchers, graduate-students, economists, and business professionals.

This book represents the first anthropological ethnography of Ikea consumption and goes to the heart of understanding the unique and at times frantic popularity of this one iconic transnational store. Based on a year of participant observation in Stockholm's Kungens Kurva store - the largest in the world - this book places the retailer squarely within the realm of the home-building efforts of individuals in Stockholm and to a lesser degree in Dublin. Ikea, the world's largest retailer and one of its most interesting, is the focus of intense popular fascination internationally, yet is rarely subject to in-depth anthropological inquiry. In Unpacking Ikea, Garvey explores why Ikea is never 'just a store' for its customers, and questions why it is described in terms of a cultural package, as everyday and classless. Using in-depth interviews with householders over several years, this ethnographic study follows the furniture from the Ikea store outwards to probe what people actually take home with them.

This book provides a sociological perspective on fitness culture as developed in commercial gyms, investigating the cultural relevance of gyms in terms of the history of the commercialization of body discipline, the negotiation of gender identities and distinction dynamics within contemporary cultures of consumption.