This article examines how the relationship between entry timing information and consumer preference for brands varies depending on the types of difference in the early stage of a market. Three hypotheses are developed and tested empirically in three experiments.
In experiment 1, the result indicates that consumer preference for the first entrant is significantly higher than for the late entrant when there is no difference between two brands (hypothesis 1). In experiment 2, Consumer preference for late entrant with an alignable difference was significantly higher than the first entrant (hypothesis 2). In experiment 3, however, late entrant advantage with a non-alignable difference was not supported (hypothesis 3). The empirical results suggest that late entrants can create competitive advantages by adding an alignable difference to the brand in the early stage of a market. Finally, research limitations and future directions are discussed.

View full abstract

Though we all know and accept the notion that the product package has impact on consumer choice at point of purchase, little is studied or understood its communicative effects. The purpose of this study is to develop hypotheses of consumers' information acquisition and choice at new product packages based on information processing behavior model. Comparing between product sales favorable and unfavorable, examined data gathered from exploratory qualitative study and found powerful role of packaging in decision-making strategy, especially in nondurable products. In conclusion, three hypotheses are suggested and managerial implications are discussed from the viewpoint of brand communication.

View full abstract

This article presents demonstration that consumer response to price has some rule in the data collected by the direct questioning method. From the literature review, this article hypothesizes that the response depends on proportion based on the internal reference price and on the left digits of price. As analizes the data of 12 categories of convenience goods, this article demonstrates the hypothesis, and finds some rules. In one case, when the price become twice as high as the internal reference price, the consumer feeling that price is "not expensive" is about 50% of all. Finally, consumer response to price is found to be balanced to a certain extent.

View full abstract