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Retailers may respond to a manufacturer discontinuing a brand or product range in three ways: not offering an alternative, thus reducing the assortment size; replacing it with a substitute; or introducing a rebranded product by the same manufacturer, if such an option is available. This study aims to evaluate all three scenarios and assess the extent to which total category sales are affected; how these discontinuations affect alternative offerings within the product category; and whether usage levels moderate within category switching behaviour. Shoppers did not have the option of switching stores to acquire the discontinued brand – their preferred brand/product range ceased to exist.

All three studies are quasi-experiments using scanner panel data. The product discontinuations examined are real events that took place within the major supermarket chain in New Zealand.

In all the three scenarios, average category sales decreased for the three-month period following the discontinuation. In Study 1, where a preferred brand of milk was discontinued with no replacement, overall category sales decreased but competing brands gained sales; introducing a replacement corn chip range (Study 2) successfully captured the spend on the discontinued range, but other brands lost sales; and rebranding a cereal (Study 3) decreased both brand sales and category sales. With the exception of Study 1, near-substitute product offerings did not capture a greater proportion of the spend from the discontinued brand as compared to less similar substitutes. Expectations were that heavy users would have a greater propensity to shift to near alternatives than would medium/light users; however, none of the studies lend support.

This is the first research effort to use scanner panel data to explore the reactions by brand loyal customers to three different brand discontinuation scenarios initiated by the manufacturer.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the recipient side of gift exchange by establishing the combination/level of gift benefits preferred by the recipient. It investigates the association between these benefits and the nature of the relationship between the gift giver and recipient.

A total of 250 people were surveyed about a recent gift receipt experience. Levels of symbolic, experiential, and functional benefits sought from the gift were established. Canonical correlation was used to analyse the interrelationships of relational variables (relationship type, strength, and length) and the preferred gift benefits.

People prefer gifts with a greater symbolic meaning (see with lower levels of functional and experiential benefits) from people close to them. People who have not known each other for long, but have a strong emotional connection, prefer gifts that are primarily functional. It shows that benefit associations are significant to gift recipients, the type of relationship the recipient is in has a significant effect on the desired combined level of benefit associations, and the symbolism of meaning for gifts can be expressed through benefit associations.

Studies of gift exchange focus on the gift giver and the benefits gained from the act of giving. The results show that the exchange process used by sociologists and consumer behaviorists to describe and explain gift‐giving activity cannot assume the same levels of benefits associated with the gift occurring on each side of the exchange. It is also shown for the first time that the type of giver, and the relationship the recipient has with the giver, will modify recipient preferences.

This paper aims to explore the topic of gift‐giving to children, highlighting some of the issues that provide insight into how consumers might be making their choices.

A total of 285 personal interviews were conducted using a structured questionnaire. All participants were aged 18 or over, and had purchased a gift for a child aged under‐13 within the previous three months.

The findings of this study are that kinship, gender of the buyer, and the presence of siblings are related to the type of gift bought, including how traditional or contemporary it is, how educational it is, and whether the gift is reflective of the child's personality.

Understanding the purchasing behavior of shoppers giving gifts to children allows marketers to participate in important stages in societal development.

This paper provides insight into the purchasing behavior of consumers when buying gifts for children.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of atmospherics in the creation of an hedonic retail experience by comparing the perceived differences between a retail environment attempting to provide an hedonic experience and one with a more utilitarian focus.

A qualitative methodology was employed, using protocol analysis and in‐depth semi‐structured interviews that were conducted with ten participants.

The paper highlights several atmospheric cues and their influence on the hedonic retail experience. The first category of cues – attractive stimuli – were those cues that attracted attention, exciting the participant and eliciting approach behaviours. The second category – facilitating stimuli – included those cues that were necessary in order to facilitate product engagement.

The paper provides a broad categorisation of atmospheric cues, providing factors that shop designers can be aware of when creating a store with the hedonic experience in mind.

The aims of this paper are to establish: a typical women's apparel store environment as a realistic base for measuring the effects of changes; effective environmental stimuli levels; and the effect of repeated exposure on affect.

A schema of typical stimuli is developed through literature, observing 212 stores, and surveying 39 women's fashion retail GMs. An experiment (n=489) establishes the set of stimuli and effective levels for creating affect for a women's fashion store. Shoppers (n=62) were repeatedly exposed to combinations of the two sets (industry standard and “ideal”) to examine whether decay in affect occurs, and whether changes can mitigate this.

Interactions between sensory stimuli have a significant effect on fashion shoppers’ affect for a store. Fashion retailers are less differentiated in their use of sensory stimuli than they could be to achieve the responses they expect. Stagnation from repeated exposure can diminish affect for the store whereas small changes in stimuli levels can revitalise and increase affect.

A model of sensory stimuli‐based relationships with shopper affect should incorporate interactions. Empirically, different stimuli can easily be added or substituted within a dimension to test its effect within a factorial design. A model of fashion store atmosphere is likely to require a mediating influence of repeated exposure.

It is worthwhile getting the “correct” package of stimuli for a fashion store's atmosphere. This does not necessarily require wholesale changes; rather small changes in stimuli level can enhance a store.

The paper presents the only study to use a holistic approach to store atmosphere and base effectiveness measures against the fashion industry norm, and consider the effect of repeated exposure.

Common promotional activities employed by shopping mall marketers were ranked by a sample of customers on their likelihood of encouraging increases in the two key performance indicators used by shopping malls – sales and visits. Results suggest clear distinctions between sales drivers and visit drivers and show possible combinations that would be effective in generating optimum customer behaviour. Some traditional promotions (fashion shows and product displays) are shown to be poor performers in generating either response, whilst school/community displays appear to be encouraging non‐customer visits. Whilst mall‐wide sales are the preferred promotion, a combination of general entertainment and price‐based promotions are found to be a strong alternative way to encourage visits and spending. Actual sales, visits, and promotional types for a three‐month period were analysed to assess the degree to which customers’ behaviour matched stated behaviour likelihood, with supportive results.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate young New Zealand shoppers' ethnocentricity and brand perceptions by extending the research of O'Cass and Lim. The paper does this by looking at the relationship between ethnocentrism and brand choices, and by investigating whether young New Zealand shoppers have different price and brand‐user image congruency perceptions for local and foreign brands.

A total of six hypotheses were tested using data gathered from a mall intercept survey of 208 respondents aged between 16 and 25 years. The shoppers were measured through a series of Likert‐scale questions from the O'Cass and Lim study, the Shimp and Sharma CETSCALE items, and a range of demographic characteristic items.

Young New Zealand shoppers are about mid‐level internationally in terms of ethnocentrism, and ethnocentricity does not have an influence on their perceptions of brands. Price perceptions and self/brand user congruency perceptions are important to young New Zealand shoppers, and these are different for local versus foreign brands.

Foreign brands do not suffer from ethnocentricity but they do have a distorted (high) price perception amongst young New Zealand shoppers, suggesting a need for marketing aimed at dispelling this misperception. There is also a lack of congruency with brands, indicating that more active promotions with stronger and more distinct brand images are required.

This is one of the first studies to examine young New Zealand shoppers in any context, and is the only study to link young New Zealand shoppers with other international studies of ethnocentrism and brand perceptions. While adding to the understanding of brand perceptions it also provides practitioners with insights into young shoppers' perspectives on international brands.

This research examines the impact of intended recipient on brand choice when purchasing a gift. Keller’s conceptualisation of consumer‐based brand equity, incorporating symbolic, experiential, and functional benefits, is used as a branding framework in combination with Belk’s characteristics of gifts, for measuring consumer behaviour differences occurring in alternative gift‐giving situations. The influence of gender, household income, and age are also examined. Findings suggest consumers vary in their choice of brands for different recipient groups. They also suggest that there are gender‐based differences in consumer’s brand choice for gifts, along with some income and age related distinctions. Finally, the findings suggest that overall consumers tend to look for brands with greater perceived symbolic benefits when purchasing gifts. Implications for the gift industry are offered along with future research possibilities.

This study applies Tauber’s personal and social motives, as representative of Sheth’s non‐functional motives for shopping, to Internet shoppers. Two studies are conducted; in the first a sample of current online shoppers is surveyed on how well Tauber’s motives describe their motivation for Internet shopping. Projective technique is used in the second study, in which a group of consumers are asked to discuss how the motives may impact on online shoppers, as a means of explaining how the motives apply in the Internet setting. Results suggest that Tauber’s non‐functional motives can be adapted to the twenty‐first century mode of shopping. This leads to some strong implications for researchers and practitioners who so far have concentrated on the functional aspects of Internet shopping with respect to gaining shopping market share.