Women Consumers Research Articles

Ethnicity and Folate Influence Choline Status in Young Women Consuming Controlled Nutrient Intakes

Objective: We previously demonstrated that choline and folate are interrelated and that African American women have lower folate nutriture than Caucasian and Mexican American women under conditions of controlled folate intake. The present study sought to examine the influences of ethnicity and controlled folate intake on choline status.Methods: Forty-two women of Mexican American (n = 14), African American (n = 14), and Caucasian American (n = 14) descent consumed a folate restricted diet (135 μg DFE/d) for 7 weeks, followed by 7 weeks of folate treatment with either 400 or 800 μg DFE/d. Total choline intake remained unchanged throughout the study at approximately 350 mg/d. Plasma choline and its derivatives were measured by LC-MS/MS at weeks 0, 7, and 14.Results: Plasma phosphatidylcholine declined during folate restriction (P < 0.001) and tended to increase in response to 800 μg DFE/d (week × folate, P = 0.099) in Mexican American and Caucasian women. For African American women, however, phosphatidylcholine continued to decline (week × race, P = 0.056). Plasma betaine was modified by ethnicity and level of folate intake (week × race × folate, P = 0.039) however no clear patterns emerged.Conclusions: The phosphatidylcholine data suggest that the lower folate status observed in African American women may also be associated with lower choline status. In turn, diseases linked to folate may also be linked to choline.

The Influences of Consumers' Value Systems on Pursued Clothing Images and Consumption Values

The purpose of this study was to examine the women consumers' pursued clothing images and consumption values according to the value system. The data was obtained from questionnaires filled out by 305 women living in Seoul and Gyung-gi. For data analysis, factor analysis, cronbach's alpha, ANOVA and cluster analysis were used. The results of this study were as follows: First, value, pursued clothing images and clothing consumption values were consisted of various factors. Second, women's values influenced on the pursued clothing images and clothing consumption values. Third, according to value factors, women classified into four groups, And they showed different pursued clothing images and consumption values. Also they were differentiated with shopping frequency and age. Therefore, value system was the important factor which can suggest the women's pursued clothing images and consumption values and marketer should know the value system of targeting consumers.

Dominated Consumer Acculturation: The Social Construction of Poor Migrant Women's Consumer Identity Projects in a Turkish Squatter

We conduct an ethnographic case study of poor migrant women living in a Turkish squatter to explore how consumer acculturation operates in this important context. Poor migrants have no choice but to engage Turkish consumer culture because it is hegemonic and it conflicts ideologically with their village culture, and they do so with few resources. Our dominated consumer acculturation model specifies three modes of acculturation structured by this context: migrants reconstitute their village culture in the city, shutting out the dominant ideology; or they collectively pursue the dominant ideology as a myth through ritualized consumption; or they give up on both pursuits, resulting in a shattered identity project.

A Research of Purchasing Behavior on Sauce Product &amp; The Credibility of Mess Media Advertisement - The Residential Women Consumer in Busan -

A Research of Purchasing Behavior on Sauce Product &amp; The Credibility of Mess Media Advertisement - The Residential Women Consumer in Busan -

A Research of Purchasing Behavior on Sauce Product &amp; The Credibility of Mess Media Advertisement - The Residential Women Consumer in Busan -

A Research of Purchasing Behavior on Sauce Product &amp; The Credibility of Mess Media Advertisement - The Residential Women Consumer in Busan -

Women: segmenting the home fitness equipment market

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to question whether increased interest in exercise has truly generated a market for home fitness equipment in which women are a viable consumer segment. It is guided by two objectives: to what extent are female consumers a viable target market segment for home fitness equipment; and to what extent do women believe/disbelieve the advertising claims that are made about such products.Design/methodology/approachData collection included in‐depth interviews with salespeople at two retail sporting goods establishments. Following questionnaire development, 400 self‐administered surveys were distributed to women, only, at various locations including malls and standalone locations such as coffee shops. Respondents were qualified with a question about frequency of exercise.FindingsResults identify that women are a viable market. Cross tabulations and chi square significance note the associations between respondents' age, occupation, nationality and religion and the various equipment purchased including treadmills, workout equipment, stationary cycles and abdominal machines. Belief in advertising claims was higher for cardio equipment and least for abdominal machines. Post purchase satisfaction was greater for products that favoured noticeable physical changes and by businesswomen who arguably, may be more discerning shoppers.Originality/valueUndertaking this research in a country known for its extensive expatriate population enabled an international cross‐sectional view of women's consumer behavior using the various demographics information collected. Academically, it considers constraint theory while practically, it provides a gender specific profile for the home‐use sport and fitness equipment market. Limitations include the narrow scope of four demographic variables and four product groups.

Female Consumerism and Household Authority in Early National New England

This article explores connections between female consumer activity, male household authority, and concerns regarding the survival of the republic in late eighteenth, early nineteenth-century New England. Newspaper essays warning of the dire individual and national consequences of excessive female consumerism and husbands' newspaper advertisements accusing their wives of excessive spending reveal a contest within New England households over control of economic resources, the extent and meaning of women's consumer activities, and the implications of these activities for the nation. Wives' consumer spending challenged their husbands' authority and could threaten the men's position as economically independent citizens. Many New Englanders feared that women's spending would disrupt male household authority and undermine the success of the new republic.

Consumers for the Nation: Women, Politics, and Consumer Organization in France, 1944-1965

This article explores consumer organization and action as an avenue for women's social, political, and economic influence in postwar France. Historical treatments of women and politics in this period typically concentrate on the lack of a feminine presence in formal political organizations. Broadening our definition of "the political" to include public and political actions outside the traditional structures of republican citizenship creates a very different view of women in the postwar period. Women's, family, and consumer organizations worked to create a sphere for women's political action through the role of the "consumer for the nation"; the woman consumer who benefited family and nation through her consumer demands and purchases. While this role naturalized women's position in the home, the effectiveness of women's consumer demands also make necessary a revision of our understanding of women, politics, and the growth of consumer society in postwar France.

The Effect and Moderation of Gender Identity Congruity: Utilizing 'Real Women' Advertising Images

The Financial Times recently reported that Nike is jumping on the real women bandwagon, using more ordinary women as opposed to flawless models in their advertising campaigns. Along with Nike, many companies have identified that some women experience negative effects by comparing themselves to highly attractive models in advertising, producing a negative impact on advertising effectiveness (Bower & Landreth, 2001). Advertising practitioners go to great lengths to design advertisements with female images that women consumers can easily identify with. On this basis, determining whether female advertising images that are congruent with female consumers' views of themselves can improve advertising effectiveness is a timely endeavor. Gender identity congruity refers to the extent to which structural correspondence is achieved between the entire configuration of a gender image in the advert and the configuration specified by a consumer's schema or beliefs (Orth & Holancova, 2004). According to the principle of cognitive consistency, individuals value harmony among their thoughts, feelings and behavior and are willing to maintain consistency between these elements (Solomon, 1992). Congruity of gender identity may be particularly germane in advertising to female target markets. Researchers have appraised the positive impact of the congruity between consumers' self-concept and advertising appeals on attitude and purchase intention (Hong & Zinkhan, 1995) and between self-concept and brand image on the liking of the brand (Dolich, 1969) and on purchase intention (Landon, 1974). As gender identity is a dimension of one's self-concept, it is reasonable to expect that increasing the amount of gender congruent information contained in an advertisement will facilitate the processing of this information and even improve the rating of the arguments (Worth et al., 1992). Surprisingly, past research in advertising has paid little attention to the impact of gender identity congruity on advertising effectiveness (for a review see Wolin, 2003). Thus, this paper examines the unique predictive ability of gender identity in explaining women's response to advertising (Jaffe, 1991; 1994). The contributions of this paper are twofold: (1) to demonstrate whether advertisements that are congruent with female consumers' gender identity elicit strong positive consumer reactions and (2) to identify the factors that may moderate/mediate the impact of gender identity congruity on female consumer responses to advertisements.

Still Miss Understood: She

The International Advertising Festival at Cannes recognizes and celebrates creative achievements in advertising, much as the Cannes Film Festival honors artistic excellence in film. In 2004, global advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide presented a seminar titled, Miss Understood: She's Not Buying Your Ads, at Cannes to a standing-room only crowd. The presentation examined why advertising cannot quite seem to engage women consumers with the same level of breakthrough work that is more frequently directed at men, and challenged the industry to raise the creative bar across female-targeted categories largely associated with cliche-ridden, uninspiring, and even offensive work. Two years later, Miss Understood is still being delivered around the world by Leo Burnett in the hopes that its message will serve as a catalyst for change.

Women’s Porno: The heterosexual female gaze in porn sites “for women”

The article deals with a number of Internet sites claiming to specialize in providing pornography for heterosexual women, as a vehicle to examine the nascent “gaze” and visual parameters of heterosexual female sexuality. The focus here is semiotic—looking at visual coding of website images rather than audience reception (i.e., whether heterosexual women are actually the main consumers of women’s porno). Motivation for this decision is discussed. Theoretically, the article draws from Butler’s performative notions of sexuality in anchoring discussion. The remainder of the article does a comparative textual analysis of nine pornographic Internet sites, three of which label themselves “for women.” Findings are as follows: “Women’s porno” fuses the matter and anti-matter of men’s homo- and heterosexual pornography, in the process engendering an active, sexually interested, heterosexual female gaze and typifying Butler notion of “insurrectionary speech.”

Adult consumer education across Europe – redressing the market or reaching the vulnerable consumer

Consumer education is an important EU and United Nations priority. In most countries’ formal education systems, it is not a single discipline in its own right, but a cross‐curricular subject involving many areas of the school curriculum. Adult consumers are expected to be critical and informed consumers but may not know how to acquire the appropriate skills. The formal school system in many countries has failed to deliver these skills and values and adults need consumer education through both formal and informal means. With increasingly varied societies consumer education will help to produce active socially responsible citizens and citizenship is an essential element of the delivery of consumer education to adults. It is particularly important that consumer education should reach the vulnerable groups in society. Increasing globalisation and business power necessitate ethical and sustainable business practices; an informed, educated and empowered consumer will strengthen the market place to the benefit of both consumers and business.Unlike school education, adult education across Europe is fragmented with a mixture of formal education, including training for vocational qualifications, continuing and community education, and informal education, an essential contributor to life‐long learning delivered through media, women's groups, consumer groups and many other large and small organisations.The issues have been addressed by the EU Socrates supported CEA (Consumer Education for Adults) project which has 10 partners from 7 European countries drawn from non‐government organisations, teacher training and adult education institutions, universities and research institutes. The project has produced a training manual for adult consumer education, a training module, piloted in Vienna, which includes a handbook of teaching materials and a video, and has initiated a dialogue between consumers, consumer educators, business and producers.

Identity, Ethnicity and Gender: Using Narratives to Understand their Meaning in Retail Shopping Encounters

This paper examines the ways in which two women (Sweetie and Desiree) experience a dissatisfying retail encounter. Citing data derived from memory-work methodology, we illustrate how stories can be used to gain a detailed insight into the complexity of consumption experiences and give voice to women consumers. By allowing women to write about, and critically reflect on their experiences, we show how consumers attach meaning to retail encounters and how we, as researchers can offer alternative interpretations of consumer behavior to those commonly reported in the literature. In this paper we use memories of "nasty" retail encounters to illustrate how social constructs related to identity, such as ethnicity and gender, have meaning in shopping experiences. Because of the new understandings possible via this method, we argue for using reflexivity in our research and analyses informed by feminism.

Gender effects on Internet, catalogue and store shopping

A survey of 300 men and 300 women consumers measured their attitudes towards shopping and their perceptions of Internet, catalogue, and store shopping based on 12 positive and 12 negative adjectives. The results indicate women have much more positive attitudes toward shopping in general. Women's ratings of catalogue and store shopping were significantly more positive and less negative than men's ratings. The opposite was true for Internet shopping. Women obtain more satisfaction from shopping and are likely to respond positively toward any enhancements to the shopping experience.

Targeting the New Chinese Woman

Abstract Modern Chinese women are joining the workforce in larger numbers than ever before. With more disposable income and better exposure to western media, Chinese women have become the prime targets of the global marketers of consumer products such as cosmetics. However, the secret of success in this market lies in the deep understanding of modern Chinese women consumers and how their consumption behavior is being shaped by the changing cultural and lifestyle patterns. Although a few researchers have studied the behavior of Chinese consumers as a whole, nobody has systematically studied the characteristics of the Chinese women consumers. This study provides valuable information on the changing face of Chinese women. It provides a framework to show how the Chinese women consumers should be segmented for a typical consumer product, and how marketers should redesign their marketing strategies to sell their products to Chinese women.

The Therapy of Consumption Motivation Research and the New Italian Housewife, 1958-62

This article describes the transformation of the image of the housewife-consumer in Italian advertising during the ‘economic miracle’ of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Drawing on market research, professional debates and advertising campaigns it argues that motivation research - an originally American market research technique with Freudian origins - was crucial in altering the ways in which advertisers and marketers related to women consumers. Motivation research made advertisers and marketers conceive of consumers as endowed with an intrinsic desire for self realization. The qualitative methodology that it introduced also allowed the marketing profession to observe and absorb the new ways of life that were proposed by the counterculture and the women’s liberation movements of the early 1960s. Towards the early 1970s these elements blended into a distinctly ‘emancipated’ advertising discourse, a ‘commodity feminism’ where women consumers were encouraged to use consumer goods to mark off an autonomous, individualized subjectivity, rather than to ensure the compliance with traditional gender roles.

A Foot in Each Sphere: Christine Frederick and Early Twentieth‐Century Advertising

The American advertiser has taught the American housewife to think constructively of her job.1Christine Frederick, 1929As we enter the twenty‐first century, Martha Stewart's web page proclaims her multi‐million‐dollar company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, to be a “leading creator of original‘how to’content and related products for homemakers and other consumers.”2 Over the last 20 years, Stewart's enterprise, which targets primarily women consumers, has grown from a television show to an empire that includes books, magazines, radio broadcasts, a newspaper column, and Martha Stewart product lines sold in retail stores, through catalogs, and over the Internet.

Career Development Patterns Among Professional Persons with Severe Psychiatric Disabilities: Implications for Practice

This study investigated career patterns among persons with serious psychiatric disabilities who had completed higher education. As part of a vocational program follow-up, 48 middle-aged, mostly white men and women consumers were interviewed about educational and employment histories. A computer program based on age of onset, job skill level, job and educational codes, and dates of employment was developed. Five different, mutually exclusive, career development patterns were identified: (a) career constant with postformal education disability onset, (b) career constant with preformal education completion disability onset, (c) career change with post-formal educational disability onset, (d) career change with pre-formal educational completion disability onset, and (e) early onset with no career. Results were related to current career development theories and the needs of counselors serving this population.

Self-image – is it in the bag? A qualitative comparison between “ordinary” and “excessive” consumers

An in-depth thematic analysis is presented of 32 interviews, which examined commonsense definitions of impulsive and planned buying, characteristics of typical impulse buy episodes, motivations for impulsive buying, issues of self-image and self-presentation, and regret. Ten interviews each were conducted with “ordinary” men and women consumers, and a further 10 with women classified as “excessive shoppers” (more commonly referred to as “compulsive buyers”). Two male excessive consumers were also interviewed. Distinctive patterns emerged for each different shopper group. Findings show that impulse buying, regret and other concepts have complex meanings beyond those that can be measured easily in survey research, and that the level of sophistication and reflexivity about one’s shopping behaviour is far greater in excessive shoppers. On the basis of the gender differences found, it is proposed that self and shopping are more closely linked for women than for men.

Alternative Modes of Self-Construal: Dimensions of Connectedness–Separateness and Advertising Appeals to the Cultural and Gender-Specific Self

This research examines how variations in consumers’ connectedness–separateness (C–S) self‐schema, which refers to an individual's perceptions of others as an extension of self or of the self as distinct from others, may explain cultural and gender‐level persuasion effects. Results from a cross‐cultural experiment demonstrate that a connected advertising appeal stressing interdependence and togetherness results in more favorable brand attitudes among Chinese and women consumers than does a separated appeal stressing independence and autonomy. Conversely, a separated appeal results in more favorable attitudes among U.S. and male consumers. Most important, the results suggest that the interactions detected between ad appeal and culture, as well as between ad appeal and gender, are mediated by distinct dimensions of consumers’ C–S. The self‐orientation dimension of C–S is shown to account for cultural‐level persuasion effects, whereas gender‐level effects are attributable to the dependence dimension. Thus, individual differences in these dimensions compose an important factor in explaining cultural and gender variations in consumers’ responses.