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This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb008134. When citing the article, please cite: Alfred S. Boote, (1985), “PRICE INELASTICITY: NOT ALL THAT MEETS THE EYE”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 2 Iss: 3, pp. 61 - 66.

Managers often do research to help them determine the optimum price for a new product. Several different price‐points are ordinarily tested in order to determine the impact of price on sales of the product. Aside from its impact on demand, price also has been studied for its effect on consumers' perceptions of products. For example, research has indicated that people use price as a cue for evaluating the quality of a complex product such as stereophonic equipment for the home. That is, price is used in lieu of knowledge of the technical aspects of the product. Research presented in this paper reveals a yet deeper aspect of price's effect on perception. In this case, variation in price was associated with changes in the way people perceived a new product's function, perceptions that differed from the manufacturer's intended positioning for the product.

Suppose you're the marketing director for an appliance manufacturer and you want to get some information from the customers or consumers who buy your kind of product. Will an offer of cash induce more cooperation from your respondents? Will a “gift” (a product of equal or greater monetary value) do as well or better than cash? Or can you get just as good results without any inducement other than an expression of appreciation? A lot of marketers are turning to mail surveys to get information about their custom‐ers, and they need answers to these questions. There's no point in spending more money than is needed, but then why take chances when the saving of a few dollars could doom the survey?

Asia, as a market, offers a great deal of opportunity for those who are willing to understand its cultural characteristics and marketing systems. This article investigates the use of media and the practice of marketing in Asia. Some marketing guidelines are offered and their managerial implications are discussed.

IN order to be able to discriminate with certainty between butter and such margarine as is sold in England, it is necessary to carry out two or three elaborate and delicate chemical processes. But there has always been a craving by the public for some simple method of determining the genuineness of butter by means of which the necessary trouble could be dispensed with. It has been suggested that such easy detection would be possible if all margarine bought and sold in England were to be manufactured with some distinctive colouring added—light‐blue, for instance—or were to contain a small amount of phenolphthalein, so that the addition of a drop of a solution of caustic potash to a suspected sample would cause it to become pink if it were margarine, while nothing would occur if it were genuine butter. These methods, which have been put forward seriously, will be found on consideration to be unnecessary, and, indeed, absurd.

Although dysfunctional behaviors by customers is increasingly being recognized by both scholars and practitioners, “illegitimate” complaining, in the form of fraudulent returns by customers, is under‐researched. The aim of this study is to address this gap in extant knowledge through explicitly focusing on uncovering factors which permit consumers to exploit retailers' liberal return policies when fraudulently returning products that they know they have used or damaged.

In‐depth interviews were utilized as the main data collection method. Interviews were conducted amongst service employees and customers. A total of 87 interviews were conducted with front‐line employees and managers of 12 general retail outlets. Customer interviewing involved 96 interviews. Potential customer informants were randomly contacted with a request to participate in a study of customer service and returning goods.

Data analysis revealed ten main factors that appear to be related to customers' likelihood of successfully, fraudulently returning products.

As with other similar studies of this nature, the findings and implications are limited by the research design and methods employed. However, these limitations also indicate potentially fruitful avenues of future research. Future studies could employ different methods and explore differing contexts to gauge the generalizability of findings.

The findings of the study have a range of implications for practitioners and policy makers. Insights are generated into the extent of fraudulent returning and the factors which facilitate successful fraudulent returns. As such, practitioners could use such insights to reduce the frequency of such episodes. Public policy implications centre on highlighting the issues which policy makers may wish to consider.

The current study is the first to explore how (rather than, why) consumers exploit firms' return policies and fraudulently defraud retailers. As such, a fundamental and stark contribution centres on the finding of widespread, recidivist fraudulent returning among those interviewed. Ten facilitators of fraudulent returning were identified, providing rich insights into how customers are able, successfully, to return used and damaged products.

The price war and intense competition in Indian banking industry have exposed banks to one of the major threat of switching. Consumers are now more price and service conscious in their financial services purchasing behaviour. They are more prone to change their banking behaviour as banking products and services are nearly identical in nature. The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight of the drivers that lead a customer switch from one service provider to another in Indian banking industry using exploratory design.

The impacts of the influencing factors have been studied and tested empirically using exploratory factor analysis. Quantitative data have been collected by means of questionnaire employed from Clemes et al. and administered to 296 banking customers of Rajasthan utilizing convenience sampling.

Results reported that price, reputation, responses to service failure, customer satisfaction, service quality, service products, competition, customer commitment and involuntary switching have their significant effect on customers’ switching behaviour.

The findings of present study can be used by the Indian banks for their product and service designing strategies, marketing strategies and customer services practices in order to reduce customer switching. It would help them in improving their service operations and also in increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty by understanding the banking behaviour of their customers.

The originality lies in the fact that this study is one of few which have focused on the drivers leading to the switching intentions of Indian banking customers.