Market Mavens Research Articles

Beyond the "mobile versus PC" dichotomy: Profiling online shoppers based on device usage

Availability of a growing number of devices for information searching and purchasing online is affecting consumer habits and company strategies. This paper investigates device usage patterns in the online Deal of the Day (DoD) shopping process. The study employs a cluster analysis of respondents based on their device usage. Four clusters emerge and are profiled by means of a benefits and costs approach based on demographic and psychographic characteristics. Multi-device behaviours for information search and DoD purchasing and multi-device behaviours are found to be dominant. Smartphone exclusive users display higher purchase frequency than multi-device segments. Tablet and smartphone users are found to be Market Mavens. Several implications for marketers are discussed.

Social network sites: early adopters’ personality and influence

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a social network site influence (SNSI) profile of early adopters. This study explores the relationship between personality traits of early adopters of social network sites (SNS), their propensity to share information and rumors and their general SNSI.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was sent to the first users of Twitter (n = 200) and Google+ (n = 130) to assess their personality traits. Answers of each respondent were matched to their SNSI scores from Klout and PeerIndex, the industry standard for measuring SNSI.FindingsEarly adopters of SNS, in comparison to market mavens, are more likely to exert influence on one particular topic related to their profession: technology and the internet. Their levels of extraversion, openness and conscientiousness have a positive and significant impact on information sharing, and a negative impact on rumor sharing. Both, information sharing and rumor sharing have a positive and significant impact on the general SNSI of early adopters.Originality/valueFirms struggle to decide whether to invest early in the life of newly created SNS as they are unsure about the characteristics of early adopters of such networks, and, more importantly, whether these sites are effective initial vectors for word-of-mouth. The findings demonstrate that early adopters’ influence (SNSI score) is on par with that of the rest of SNS users, suggesting their influence may be somewhat limited. The study also shows that the opinion leadership impact of the more influential early adopters is monomorphic in nature, being mainly confined to the related technology and internet domains.

The Effect of SNS Information Attributes on Usability and Diffusion Intention -Moderating Effect of Market Mavenism.

본 연구의 목적은 SNS에 적합한 정보속성을 탐색하고, SNS에서 정보의 생성과 확산에 기여하는 개인이나 집단과 그 영향을 확인하는 것이다. 연구자들은 SNS환경에 적합한 정보속성으로 정확성, 양면성, 참신성, 다양성과 경험성의 다섯 요인을 추출하고, 제 변수와 정보의 유용성 및 정보 확산 의도의 인과관계를 분석하였다. 또한 SNS에서 정보를 수용하고 편집하며 정보확산을 주도하는 개인 또는 소비자인 마켓메이븐의 역할과 함께 변수 간 관계에 대한 마켓메이븐경향의 조절효과를 검증하였다. 연구가설의 검증을 위해 549개의 온라인설문자료를 이용하였으며, 연구 결과는 다음과 같다. SNS정보속성 중에서 정확성, 양면성, 경험성 요인이 사용자의 정보유용성 지각에 긍정적인 영향을 미쳤으나, 참신성과 다양성 요인은 통계적 인과관계를 발견하지 못하였다. 전체집단과 달리 마켓메이븐경향이 높은 집단에서는 정확성과 경험적 요인이 정보의 유용성지각에 약하거나 부정적인 영향을 주었고, 전체 SNS사용자집단에서 기각되었던 참신성과 다양성 요인은 유용성지각에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.

Travel agents as market mavens: An empirical study on travel agencies in Izmir

Despite the developments in computer-mediated communication after the advent of the Internet, traditional word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is still influential on consumers' buying decision processes. As one of the WOM influencer groups, market mavens are information providers who affect buying decision of other consumers with their product knowledge and marketplace expertise. The purpose of the study is to examine whether front-line employees working at travel agencies are market mavens or not. A survey of 120 travel agency employees was conducted using a structured questionnaire including open-ended questions as well. Descriptive statistics, parallel test, minimum average partial test, exploratory factor analysis, independent samples t-test, and correlation analysis were performed using SPSS 24.0 software. The conclusion of the study revealed that the front line employees in travel agencies had a tendency to give recommendations and share information as market mavens.

마켓메이븐이 신제품의 구전의도에 미치는 조절효과에 관한 연구

본 연구는 신제품의 출시가 범람하는 시장환경 속에서 기존의 전통적인 대중매체를 이용한 마케팅 커뮤니케이션과 다르게 진화하는 구전커뮤니케이션을 설명하기 위한 것이다. 디지털디바이스를 이용한 인터넷 사용이 일반화되면서 블로그, 인터넷카페 등에서 다양한 커뮤니케이션이 활성화되고 있다. 동시에 마켓메이븐을 커뮤니케이션의 촉진자로 활용하는 현상이 증대하고 있다. 기업은 불확실성이 높은 신제품 확산을 촉진하기 위해 새로운 시각에서 커뮤니케이터를 고려할 필요가 있고, 커뮤니케이터로써 마켓메이븐은 마케팅활동에 좀 더 의미가 있을 것으로 보인다. 이에 따라 마켓메이븐이 혁신적인 제품의 구전과정에 영향을 미치는지 조절효과를 통해 살펴보고자한다. 실증연구 결과 제품의 지각된 혁신성과 제품에 대한 지각된 호기심은 제품의 구전의도에 긍정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났고, 이러한 과정에서 마켓메이븐이 미치는 조절효과가 나타났다. The purpose of this study is to explain the word-of-mouth communication that evolve differently from traditional marketing communications using existing mass media in an environment of the flooding of new products. In particular, people use digital devices as internet users and various communication is activated in blogs and communities. It is expanding that companies use market maven as a facilitator of communication. The role of Market maven due to the spread of the Internet seems to be more meaningful for marketing activities. Market maven is a look at how it should study moderate effect on word of mouth of new products. Empirical results show that perceived curiosity and perceived innovativeness of new product has a positive impact on the word of mouth of new product, and was confirmed in a moderate effect of market maven.

Filling some gaps in market mavenism research

AbstractSince Feick and Price introduced the concept of market mavenism almost 30 years ago, researchers have accumulated a large body of empirical findings describing market maven attitudes, behaviors, and characteristics. Surprisingly, only a few studies examine the relationship between market mavenism and its personality antecedents represented by the Big Five theory. In addition, 2 consequences of mavenism, brand loyalty and frugality, have not been studied. The present study contributes to understanding mavenism by filling some gaps in this body of knowledge by using data from a sample of 351 adult US consumers. The findings reveal moderate positive associations of mavenism with openness to experience, extraversion, and agreeableness and weak positive associations with conscientiousness and emotional stability. They also show that market mavenism is positively related to frugality and negatively related to brand loyalty. The findings also confirm that mavens shop more and buy more than other consumers do. These findings continue to expand our understanding of market mavenism and provide insights that marketing managers might use as they factor mavenism into their strategies. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An investigation of how the Australian brewing industry influence consumers on Twitter

In this paper we develop and test hypotheses around organisations’ behaviour on social media and its effect on consumers’ responses. We draw on the notion of the market maven to underpin the research and suggest that organisations on social media need to focus on acting in a maven-like manner in order to influence audiences in Twitter. We collected data from the Twitter accounts of the entire brewing industry in Australia, analysing organisational postings and their impact on influence (follower numbers, retweets) of their respective Twitter accounts. In particular, we look at message formulation and language, native platform behaviour, reciprocity and persistency variables. Findings suggest that establishing a larger follower base requires an interactive, one-to-one and reciprocal approach. In order to influence audiences to retweet organisations need to speak the ‘native platform language’ and employ a soft-sell strategy. Maven-like behaviour tends to reside in the small independent craft breweries. We offer the conclusion that these craft breweries have realised that, on social media, a different approach to marketing is required: the organisations must act in a maven-like manner.

Mere newness: Decline of movie preference over time

AbstractWe investigate the possibility that an individual‐level decline in preference over time is responsible for the well‐known decline in a movie's revenues after opening. In the first part of this study, using a Canadian panel we show that such a decline does indeed occur in both individual consumers’ anticipated liking of movies, and in actual movie choice. The second part explores the mere newness effect building on the fact that new products carry both private and social values, and proposes that these values decay continuously over time. Capitalizing on the notion that characteristics of market mavens interact differently with private and social values, we develop and show support for hypotheses based on the proposed mechanism. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Materialism, Status Consumption, and Market Involved Consumers

ABSTRACTMaterialism has by all accounts an important impact on many aspects of consumer behavior. The psychological mechanisms through which materialism influences behavior, however, are not well studied. This paper describes a study of the influence of materialism on shopping intensity and amount of spending that takes into account the mediating influences of three important consumer characteristics: status consumption, brand engagement in self‐concept, and market mavenism. The researchers fit a model of these relationships based on the Meta‐theoretic Model of Motivation (3M) model to data from a sample of 351 adult U.S. consumers. The model fit the data well, and the results showed that indeed, status consumption, brand engagement, and market mavenism mediate at least partially the influence of materialism on shopping and spending.

Cyber-mavens and online flow experiences: Evidence from virtual worlds

Social media and web-based environments provide important new channels for the dissemination of messages and roles for central individuals in networks to provide conduits for marketplace information. The purpose of this research is to test individuals' propensity to transfer market mavenism – a characteristic associated with a group of highly knowledgeable consumers who are disseminators of generalized marketplace information – from physical to virtual world environments and the features of these ‘cyber-mavens.’ We posit that cyber-mavens are more likely to be immersed in flow experiences – the feeling of total immersion and deep involvement in human–computer mediated interactions – and to trial new products in virtual worlds. We also test hypotheses regarding a number of other demographic features and individual characteristics of likely mavens. The analysis is based on ANOVA, with post-hoc tests for group comparison. Our findings indicate that while ‘real-life’ market mavenism remains most dominant, mavens are able to extend this capacity into virtual worlds, suggesting the transferability of the maven concept across major channels. We also find that cyber-mavens have a greater propensity to experience ‘flow’ in virtual worlds than non-mavens and are more likely to trial new products in order to satisfy hedonist motives for personal interest in new products. Further, our findings indicate that cyber-mavens can be male or female, are well-educated, and slightly older consumers, are keen users of virtual worlds and have knowledge of other mavens. This study represents one of the first attempts to better understand how consumer behavior might differ in virtual world channels, and, by so doing, better inform our understanding of an important group of consumers for digital goods, namely cyber-mavens.

패션유통시장에서 시장 전문가의 쇼핑 행동과 멀티채널 이용현황 분석

In this study, we determined the characteristics and importance of market maven to today’s fashion retailers. Market maven is defined as an individual who is highly involved in the marketplace and takes a role as an information diffuser. In order to identify market maven, a total of 415 data were collected from 30-40 consumers who purchased fashion items from the various types of retailers. The data were divided into three groups based on the average score of summated market maven’s scale, and the high group was referred to as “market mavens.” Results suggested that the market mavens existed in the fashion retailing market and presented the differences from the other two groups. The market maven group spent more and purchased more fashion items than the other groups. With respect to shopping behavior, the market maven group was more likely to browse and bargain hunt when shopping, and showed higher mean scores on impulse buying and overall satisfaction. In addition, market maven tended to purchase fashion items from different types of retailers including online channel. Accordingly, market mavens seemed to present common characteristics with heavy browser, recreational shopper, and/or multi-channel shopper. Market mavens showed shopping enjoyment characteristics when searching for market-related information from various retailers, hence this segment should be the essential target market in the multi-channel retailing environment.

Defining Health Mavens On Demographic Characteristics: A Pilot Study In Istanbul

Market mavens are people who have general information about the market and share this information with other consumers even though they do not use the product or service. Market mavens are consumers who actively communicate with the market and every level of the product life cycle. In this study, it is aimed to define the demographic characteristics of health mavens who are a special type of market mavens. In the scope of the study, consumers that are aged 18 and above are included. 387 questionnaire forms are evaluated. People participated in the study are %52,4 female, %47,6 male; %49,8 single, %50,2 married and %35,9 18-28 aged, %26,1 29-39 aged, %22 40-50 aged and %16 51 and above. Employed people form %78,6, students %13,1, unemployed %8,3 of the sample. Lower income group %22,2, middle income group %60,5 and high income group %17,3 are classified on monthly basis. Besides, 387 people of the sample are high level %48,5, middle level %25,1 and low level %26,4 are health mavens. According to the correlation analysis, age, education and marital status are determining characteristics of health mavens. But, there is no meaningful relationship between gender, occupation and income levels of participants’ health maven levels statistically.

The Hunt for Online Hotel Deals: How Online Travelers’ Cognition and Affection Influence Their Booking Intentions

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that influence travelers’ decision-making process while searching and booking hotel deals. This study indicated that consumers’ cognition directly and significantly influenced their intent to book hotel deals. Although consumers’ affection did not have a positive and significant influence on booking intentions in general, consumers’ tendency toward being a market maven moderated the effect in consumers’ emotions of deal-searching. The findings suggested that hospitality marketers should develop promotional messages that are tailored to evoke consumers’ cognitive and affective states in terms of their tendency to be a market maven.

The baby boomer market maven in the United Kingdom: an experienced diffuser of marketplace information

ABSTRACTThis study identifies and profiles market mavens among the baby boomer generation in the United Kingdom. Boomers are an important market segment, yet most advertising targets younger audiences, making word-of-mouth communications crucial among this older cohort. Findings suggest boomer mavens place great importance on ‘respect’ values, are particularly concerned with fashion and compared with non-mavens are more likely to try new brands, watch more television, hold positive attitudes towards advertising and seek out bargains. The study is useful to those businesses wishing to target a mature consumer who people perceive as a good source of marketplace information and who likes introducing new brands to others.

Hotel flash sales consumers: Who are they?

Although flash sales are currently a ubiquitous phenomenon in consumption of many products, including tourism and hospitality products and services, there is a lack of empirical evidence that identifies the types of consumer profiles purchasing flash sales deals. In an effort to fill this void, a total of 358 participants were surveyed to define those personality traits that contribute to the use of hotel flash sales. The study presents a first attempt to empirically assess the psychographic profile of hotel flash sales consumers, and provides important managerial implications based on those profiles. Results reveal that hotel flash sales consumers were more likely to be quality conscious, variety-seekers, and market mavens when compared to other consumers. In addition, and contrary to hotel managers' assumptions that flash sales consumers are price conscious, no profile difference was observed between these and other consumers.

시장 전문성과 유행 선도력의 심리적 영향 요인 비교 연구

Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine and compare effects of psychological factors on market mavenism and fashion leadership in order to determine the differences of two influential groups in the marketplace. The data were collected from 20’s-50’s consumers through an online survey institute and a total of 857 questionnaires were analyzed. Demographic variables (gender, age, and income level) were entered into the regression model 1 as independent variables, and 6 factors of consumer self-confidence, clothing involvement, status consumption, and price consciousness were entered into the regression model 2. In the regression model 1, gender (female) alone was significant in explaining market mavenism, while the income level had a positive relationship with fashion leadership. In the regression model 2, information acquisition, social outcome, persuasion knowledge among consumer self-confidence, and status consumption were significant predictors of market mavenism. On the other hand, personal outcome, social outcome, persuasion knowledge, clothing involvement, and status consumption had an effect on the fashion leadership. When comparing magnitudes of effects in predicting market mavenism and fashion leadership, social outcome and status consumption showed to have stronger impacts on fashion leadership than on market mavenism. Psychological factors showed to be more powerful in predicting market mavenism or fashion leadership, as compared to demographic variables.

A COMPARISON OF US AND INDIAN CONSUMERS M-COUPON REDEMPTION BEHAVIORS

ABSTRACT This research investigates whether a difference exists in m-coupon usage, attitudes and redemption behaviors between consumers from the United States of America and India. Market maven attitudes, coupon proneness, and the amount of time spent shopping, as well as, m-coupon attitudes, redemption attitudes, intention to redeem, social norms, and past usage are measured and m-coupon users in the USA and India were found to exhibit vastly different attitudes and coupon redemption behaviors. This study demonstrates M-coupon users from the USA and India were found to differ with regards to market maven attitudes, m-coupon use, shopping behaviors, redemption attitudes, social norms, level of income and education. Keywords Coupons, consumer decision theory, marketing, advertising, product placement, mobile technology, web-based advertising

Introducing the super consumer

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to propose a new perspective on classifying or segmenting consumers by describing a minority of them who are uniquely motivated by high levels of status seeking, brand identification, and materialism. We term this segment of individuals “super consumers.” The data came from an online survey of 351 adult US consumers. A cluster analysis using these three variables as criteria produced a two‐cluster solution. Comparing mean scores between these two groups of consumers on measures of market mavenism, shopping frequency, amount of spending, age, and gender showed that the super consumers were significantly more likely to be market mavens, to shop more frequently, and to spend more than the other consumers were. The super consumers were younger in age as well, but there were no gender differences between the two groups. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Development of market Mavenism traits: Antecedents and moderating effects of culture, gender, and personal beliefs

Mavens are individuals who spread information about different aspects of products without the expectation of reward or recognition. This study sets out to (a) determine if dimensions of altruistic behavior identified in the Actively Caring Behavior Model such as Self-esteem, Belongingness, Personal control, Self-efficacy, and Optimism influence the development of Mavenism traits, and (b) understand and clarify how the development of these traits is influenced by demographics and moderated by gender, cultural background, and personal beliefs. Mavens with high Self-esteem, composed of Optimism, Self-efficacy and Personal control, tend to confirm personal traits of Mavenism. However, Gender, Culture and Religious beliefs act as moderators. Females and males have different motivations and Altruistic dimensions. The context becomes key in assessing how to communicate with Mavenism due to dissimilarities in the effects of Altruism dimensions especially for individuals with different backgrounds in their Culture and Religious beliefs.

Antecedents and outcomes of market mavenism: Insights based on survey and purchase data

In this study, we explore three key dimensions (price search, human capital and perceived benefits) for their roles as influencers of market mavenism behavior by consumers. We also investigate the effect of market mavenism on several managerially relevant and observable market outcomes, such as cross-store price savings and deal proneness are explored. A primary data collection strategy that surveys consumers on their stated price search behavior and attitudes towards price search links explicitly with consumers' actual, observed purchase behavior. The findings are consistent with economics of information model for market mavens. Specifically, we find that mavens engaged in more cross-store price search and perceived a greater price dispersion among retailers. Along the human capital dimension, market knowledge of price and investment search were positive influencers of market mavenism. Lastly, the perceived benefit of prior market knowledge reduced future search for mavens, and reduced their need for cross-store price search.