International Journal of Market Research

Part of the sales effect of advertising arises through its transmission into word of mouth (WOM). Evidence on the scale of this transmission is considered and an argument is made that barriers to the carryover of ad effect into WOM may operate when a category lacks a precise form and when an ad lacks content that can be used directly in WOM. The transmission of the ad message into WOM should be an objective of those creating ad copy and this transmission should be measured in ad pretests.

In 2000, Pincott and Branthwaite published ‘Nothing New Under the Sun?’ which discussed the role of the internet in research both in terms of the hazards and opportunities this confers. Specifically, Pincott and Branthwaite argued that whilst the advent of the internet offers up new approaches and techniques, this must not be at the detriment of methodological rigour and standards we have grown accustomed to in the industry. In this paper, it is argued that the advent of big data, big qual and the emerging potential of the metaverse present new opportunities in research but pose the same questions originally conceived by Pincott & Branthwaite, 2000. Moreover, methodological rigour and standards are framed by three interconnected themes, namely, the role of data science and big data, the importance of softer skills of interpretation and narration and finally, the role of theory in elevating and grounding research.

This paper explores a rapid and low-intensity qualitative method that yields deep and rich insights into Generation Z and Millennials, who constitute the largest consumer group in history. This group favours frictionless digital solutions and their engagement with ‘elaborate’ qualitative techniques is unlikely, requiring researchers to marshal efficient technology-facilitated methods that render comparable insight. We assess the capacity of a ‘simple’ projective technique – online word association, accompanied by a few supporting questions – to offer as fine-grained insight into this consumer group against a more involved story stem completion method. The UK buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) context provides a complex novel market for this examination. Results suggest strong conceptual interconnection between the word association and the story stem completion task. Word associations generated similar resonance and tonality to that of the story stem but in a more compact manner, which liberates researchers and participants alike. The word association task focuses and delineates attention on a narrower set of words, not often done in the context of more traditional qualitative techniques, including story stem completion. Young consumers’ vocabularies reveal their most salient perceptions of the phenomenon. The word association task also facilitates Generation Z and Millennials’ active and positive online engagement, removing resistance and withdrawal from the research. This improves marketing response through immediacy, relevancy, and potency.

This paper proposes diary studies as a methodological choice for addressing crucial questions in qualitative process research. Diary studies unearth within-individual relationships that capture individual experiences and sense-making of these experiences in a processual manner. Therefore, using diary studies not only addresses the need for more dynamic methodological designs in qualitative research, but is advantageous for providing a process view of how the individual engages with the constructs studied. While process-studies, studied longitudinally, are often fraught with challenges of attrition or disengagement, this paper discusses how a methodological choice which is perceived as being beneficial by the participant can sustain engagement and consequently, research rigour. On one hand, a comparison of interview and diary data from the same participants show evidence of memory decay in interviews and reinforce the rigour of diary studies in the study of processual phenomenon. On the other hand, this study also showcases how researcher know-how, unintentionally imparted through reflective and processual questions asked in the study positively impacts the participants, and when reflected on, enhanced learning. This paper therefore demonstrates the ability of a research method to benefit both the research and the researched, and suggests a step-by-step design to implement a rigorous and impactful diary study using user-friendly forms and reflective questioning.

Privacy concerns may influence many choices consumers make. However, their expressed concerns are sometimes inconsistent with their information-sharing and privacy-protecting behaviors. Many theories have been proposed to explain the paradoxical gap between privacy attitudes and behaviors. Part of the privacy paradox may be explained with two measures that have received limited consideration: impulsiveness and social desirability bias (SDB). Surveys of US adults in 2015 and 2022 included questions to measure several types of privacy concerns along with impulsive tendencies and SDB (N = 2729). Age, education, gender, race, income, and impulsive tendencies were linked with some privacy concerns. If people with above-average concerns also disclose personal information on impulse, it might explain part of the paradox. Large coefficients on the SDB measure suggest that individuals who adjust their responses to be consistent with social norms may also overstate specific privacy concerns. For these individuals, their high expressed concerns may be inconsistent with their privacy behaviors. When researchers try to explain consumer attitudes or actions that involve privacy, multiple privacy concern dimensions should be considered and demographics, impulsive tendencies, and SDB should be included in the models.

In this study, we aimed to understand and reduce the difference between self-report in a survey and the actual behavior. Thus, we investigated whether such a difference was caused by participants who engaged in insufficient effort responding (IER), which has been receiving increasing research attention. We collected and analyzed data of actual and self-reported smartphone game usage from behavior logs and survey responses including the items associated with the IER scale, respectively. The results confirmed a strong tendency of overreporting and low correlations between the behavior log and survey responses for IER participants. Although the distributions of survey responses differed between IER participants and others, those of the behavior log did not. In conclusion, when IER participants are excluded, the difference between the behavior log and survey responses reduces, but the distribution of the actual behavior remains the same without selection bias.

This study investigates the accuracy of a survey that combines smartphone completion, random digit dialing (RDD), and text message invitation to a web survey. A benchmarking study was conducted using 26 questionnaire items from a survey on wellbeing, health, and life in general. Additionally, methodological, technical, ethical, and cost considerations of this relatively new approach to web survey data collection were investigated, compared to previous research findings, and discussed with an aim to propose practical solutions. Ultimately, average errors in this survey were compared to average errors in three other probability samples and one nonprobability online panel sample (i.e., reference samples) using nationally representative benchmarks from high-quality government data sources. The results showed that the sample used in this study was similarly accurate to the reference samples from a different benchmarking study. Based on these findings, a very low response rate in the RDD text-to-web survey did not appear to introduce significant nonresponse bias for a majority of survey items, and all large errors can be explained. Hence, in countries where prior consent to text messages is not required, RDD text-to-web should be considered as a cost- and time-effective alternative to probability- and nonprobability-based online panel surveys, telephone, or interactive voice response surveys, and used in market, public opinion, and social research.

Sales managers often struggle to create effective combinations of promotion framing and promotion reward timing. However, whether gain-framing (vs. loss-reduction framing) promotions are better suited to be combined with immediate or delayed promotions remains an open question. In three studies, we show that the gain (vs. loss-reduction) framing of promotion information activates a high (vs. low) construal level, which leads to a higher preference for delayed (vs. immediate) promotions. We also find that time perception moderates the proposed effect. Specifically, consumers with time-overestimating (vs. time-underestimating) perception are more likely to choose immediate (delayed) promotions when they are at a low (high) construal level. Our findings provide insights for marketers and retailers that consumers would like to wait for a higher reward in a longer horizon under the gain promotion frame, while they prefer an immediate reward even if the benefit is much lower under the loss-reduction promotion frame.