Decoding Western Festive Season Symbols and Rituals in Marketing Messages: A Bottom of the Pyramid Consumer Study in South Africa

Abstract

This study explored the communication of marketing messages containing traditional, Western festive season symbols and rituals. Specifically, the research sought to understand the decoding of such messages portraying festive season symbols (like Santa Claus and Christmas trees) and rituals, by Afrocentric bottom of the pyramid (BOP) consumers. This qualitative study involved interviews with thirty-one participants in two metropolitan areas in South Africa. The study used a combination of semi-structured interview questions and treatments of two South African television advertisements and two newspaper advertisements depicting Western festive season symbols and rituals. The study revealed a broadly positive sentiment towards the festive season, where festive season activities allow participants to implement their Afrocentric cultural values of unity and collective responsibility. Findings also show that Afrocentric cultural values do affect the decoding of these marketing messages. There was also a variety of responses to marketing messages displaying the symbols of Christmas trees and Santa Claus, which were not common in BOP consumer households. The key recommendation highlighted by this study is that marketing messages communicated to South African BOP consumers should also consider Afrocentric values of unity and collective responsibility.     

“Consuming” national identity in Western Ukraine

This paper represents an attempt to study national identity in the post-Soviet context through the lens of everyday life practices. Building on ideas of banal nationalism and consumer citizenship, and with support of empirical evidence collected in L'viv, Ukraine, this paper demonstrates how national identity becomes materialized in everyday life through consumption practices and objects of consumption. While exploring objects and practices that are not originally national in scope but infused with national meanings by ordinary people, it will be shown how consumption becomes an arena for the expression and renegotiation of national self-portraits. Differences in national meanings among residents of L’viv belonging to two different language groups will highlight the diversity of ways and means by which people express their national sensibilities. By exploring national meanings in everyday consumption practices of Ukrainian citizens, this study aims to provide an alternative perspective on post-Soviet nation-building and contribute to the current debate on the position and identity of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine.     

价格听证中消费者参加人遴选机制的困境与出路--基于北京市价格听证实践的考察

价格听证在经过各方最初的热情追捧后，正面临前所未有的困境，社会公信力每况愈下。其原因是多方面的，而消费者无法有效参与价格听证无疑是其社会公信力下降的重要原因。这其中，消费者参加人遴选机制的不合理又扮演着重要作用。因而，需要在理解消费者参加人在价格听证中重要作用的基础上，厘清当前消费者参加人遴选机制所面临的诸多问题，提出应对之策。进而在对各种遴选方案进行利弊分析的基础上，选择一条适合各地实际的消费者参加人遴选机制。     

Cue utilization in the product authentication process: a framework and research agenda for product counterfeit prevention

Scholars suggest that consumers rely on heuristics to evaluate products. They employ both extrinsic and intrinsic cues to evaluate product quality and utilize the same cues to differentiate between counterfeit and genuine products. This has far-reaching public health, economic, product authentication, and even criminal justice policy implications due to the emerging ideas of criminalizing the purchase of counterfeit goods. In order to predict the viability and the possible effects of such a policy, a thorough understanding of consumer attitudes toward counterfeits, purchase motivation, and behavior, as well as of their ability to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit goods, is imperative. Building on cue utilization theory, this article develops a framework for understanding how consumers develop and utilize heuristics for product authentication in the context of intellectual property infringements and outlines a research agenda. Additionally, it helps to inform the development of prevention and enforcement efforts, in consumer education and enforcement agent training, as well as a basis for policy decisions.     

External and Internal Consistency of User Evaluations

User evaluations may be useful to improve the quality of public services if they are consistent with service characteristics (i.e., external consistency) and user satisfaction (i.e., internal consistency). This article analyses the internal and external consistency of user evaluations of water services in Nicaragua. Internal consistency is assessed through item-total correlations, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, and factor analysis. External consistency is analyzed through ordered logit and regression models. Results show a considerable degree of internal consistency. However, user evaluations are only partially consistent with service performance as personal characteristics also influence individual perceptions of the overall service, water pressure, system reliability, and water quality.     

‘Lending by numbers’: credit scoring and the constitution of risk within American consumer credit

Abstract

This paper examines how statistical credit-scoring technologies, sanctioned by the state in the interests of promoting equality, became applied by lenders to the problem of controlling levels of default within American consumer credit. However, these technologies, constituting consumers as ‘risks’, are themselves seen to be problematic, subject to their own conceived sets of methodological, procedural and temporal risks. Nevertheless, as this article will show, such technologies have increasingly been applied to other areas of consumer lending, thus interpreting a wider array of operational contingencies in terms of risk. Finally, it is argued that, since the 1980s, the constitution of credit consumers as risks has been deployed to new ends through technologies of ‘profit scoring’ and new practices of ‘risk pricing’.     

试论消费者权益保护的经济学基础

消费者是经济活动的重要主体 ,他往往成为经济学家的重点研究对象 ,因此对消费者权益的保护就不仅仅体现对人权的保护 ,而且是以经济学的研究为其理论基础的。本文旨在从宏观经济学和微观经济学的角度对消费者权益保护的必要性进行研究 ,阐明要促进我国经济的发展 ,增强在国际市场上的竞争力 ,国家更应该重视消费者权益的保护     

培育和拉动消费市场的对策

近年来，消费市场低迷已成为困扰中国经济发展的重要原因。为此，应从整顿和建立社会信用制度；加强对中小企业的信贷支持；发展个人消费信贷；规范证券市场等方面，培育和拉动消费市场，以确保中国经济的稳定和健康发展。     

网络银行中客户权益的法律保护

在网络银行交易中,对客户权益的保护应集中在安全保障权、隐私权、知情权、公平交易权和获得合理赔偿权等方面。从不同的归责原则论述网络银行应承担的法律责任及网络银行的赔偿责任,以期在鼓励金融技术创新与保护弱势消费者群体利益之间求得平衡。