Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management

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The Influence of Search Engine Marketing on the Consumer Decision Making Process in South Africa
(2014-01-21) De Abreu, Delia Maria Freitas
Information overload is an issue which consumers are increasingly faced with, and Internet search engines act as a means to assist consumers in overcoming this problem. In an age of technological advancement where Internet and search engine usage has demonstrated exponential growth, marketers have witnessed the emergence of search engine marketing as a new marketing channel of importance. Search engine marketing is unique in that it occurs closer to consumer purchase decisions than any other marketing channel has accomplished before: at the exact moment when a consumer is actually looking for a desired product or service. This research investigates how Internet search engines as marketing channels influence information search, evaluation of alternatives and the purchase decision of South African consumers. A mixed method approach was used as the research paradigm, with a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative phase involved a convenience sample of 10 face-to-face interviews, and the resultant data was content analysed to understand the important issues related to search engine marketing that influence consumer decision processes. These issues were used to develop the questionnaire for the quantitative phase, which was administered electronically and completed by 201 respondents. The resultant data was analysed using exploratory factor analysis. The quantitative study served to confirm the findings from the qualitative study and provide more reliable insights about the population, while ultimately also answering the research questions. The results of this research found that South African consumers’ search for information is influenced by a “search criteria” factor, while the evaluation of alternatives is influenced by an “evaluation criteria” factor, and the purchase decision is influenced by a “purchase criteria” factor, all related to search engine marketing. Additionally, a number of contingency factors, which do not form part of but influence the decision making process of South African consumers, were iii identified as “high and low involvement”, “sponsored listings”, “purchasing offline” and “type of product”. The key message of this research is that search engine marketing campaigns are critical to the long-term profitability of companies operating in an electronic age. The identified factors relating to search engine marketing that influence the decision making process should be considered by marketing managers, and search engine marketing strategies formulated accordingly. And finally, new search engine marketing strategies should ideally be integrated with current marketing strategies to ensure optimal success.
Perceptions of service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in mobile telephony in South Africa
(2011-11-14) Munsamy, Theesen
The South African mobile telephony sector is reaching saturation and churn rates are extremely high. The market is becoming more competitive with the advent of fixed mobile convergence, disruptive technologies and deregulation of the sector. Faced with all these challenges operators need to identify ways to keep customers loyal while ensuring that subscribers continue to increase their spending. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the crucial factors that lead to customer loyalty in the South African mobile telephony sector, namely service quality and customer satisfaction. Furthermore the antecedents, mediating and consequent relationships of customer loyalty, service quality and customer satisfaction was also examined. Data was obtained from 168 mobile phone users from the three MNO’s (mobile network operators) using a survey compiled from existing literature. The survey was confined to the Gauteng province. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling in order to test the relationships between the constructs. The findings support the proposed hypotheses and are consistent with other literary studies. Pricing, value added services and customer support services are the most significant service quality dimensions influencing customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction has a direct positive impact on customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction was found to be the mediator between service quality and customer loyalty
CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF ELECTRONIC PURSES AS A PAYMENT FOR LOW VALUE TRANSACTIONS
(2011-10-20) van der Leij, Sybren
The purpose of this research was to determine whether electronic purse (e-purse) schemes could be positioned as alternatives to existing payment methods for low value transactions. The focus was on low value transactions since it was widely believed that this was the area for which e-purse schemes were best suited. The existing payment methods considered in this research included:  Credit Cards  Debit Cards  Cheques  Cash Conjoint analysis was used to analyse the contribution made by various attributes associated with payment methods towards the overall perception of the payment methods by consumers. It was determined that the cost of a transaction and the security the payment method offered against theft, were by far the most important requirements for the likely adoption of a payment method. This implied that PIN protected e-purse schemes were well suited for the low value transaction market.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR IN PRIVATE BANKING
(2011-10-20) van der Merwe, Carol-Ann
Appropriately segmented target markets guide effective business strategies. Most South African private banks use wealth to segment clients, for example, into high net worth and high income markets. This ignores the differences in and similarities of clients‟ motivations, expected benefits, attitudes, perceptions and product usage. The purpose of this research was to investigate any differences in the consumer behaviour of high net worth and high income individuals. Factor analysis was used to reduce 28 variables into four factors reflecting consumer behaviour patterns in private banking: Involved Decision Making, Traditional Private Banking, Valued Bank Relationships and Personal Interaction Trade-off. T-testing was done to determine any significant differences. The findings revealed that no significant difference existed between high net worth and high income individuals. The implication is that in addition to using wealth as a segmentation criterion, private banks will have to incorporate consumer behaviour criteria to improve their market segmentation models
Consumer behaviour and targeting of generation Y students
(2011-10-14) Taoushanis, Maria
The student market is attractive to marketers as it is during this period that much of the consumers‟ personal style and brand preferences are determined, and this influences the consumption patterns maintained throughout their lives (Simpson, 2003 and Ness, Gorton & Kuznesof, 2002). They also influence the buying behaviour patterns of other market segments including those of their parents (Simpson, 2003 and Ness et al, 2002). The purpose of the study is to provide insights to marketers developing marketing strategies that target students. Qualitative research was used to identify the factors influencing the buyer behaviour of students, to determine the relative importance of a number of factors, to segment the market based on these characteristics and to identify effective means to target this market. The results showed that students consider brand, price, quality, style and practicality to be the most important factors influencing their purchasing decisions and based on these factors, the market was divided into six segments. The study revealed that television is the most effective means, and direct campaigns; especially telephone campaigns were the least effective means, used to target this market.
DETERMINANTS OF CUSTOMER SWITCHING BEHAVIOUR IN RETAIL BANKING
(2011-07-14) Munsamy, Herman
There are many studies that highlight the significant benefits of building long-term relationships with customers (Reichheld & Sasser, 1990; Dick & Basu, 1994 and Clayton-Smith, 1996). Hence, understanding the reasons why customers switch service providers becomes an important business imperative in ensuring profitability. The objective of the study was to establish the factors which influence customer-switching behaviour in retail banking, identify if any differences exist based on the service relationship customers had with their retail banks, and then determine the influence of loyalty programmes on these factors. The research indicates that Keaveney‟s (1995) exploratory model into switching incidents in service industry found support in the current study. Seven of the eight incidents postulated by Keaveney (1995) were highlighted as factors influencing customer-switching behaviour in retail banking. Further analysis on the relationship these customers had with their banks indicated that certain factors impacted more strongly on some groups than others. The respondent perceptions of seven of the eight factors did not differ across whether they subscribed to a loyalty programme or not. Only competitive attractiveness, illustrated that there was a significant difference in the response of the respondents. By understanding these relationships or corroboration, retail banks would be able to better understand the reasons for customer defection and institute strategies, which would curb a customer‟s tendency to switch
IN SEARCH OF THE ETHICAL CONSUMER
(2011-06-15) Sohn, Michele Esther Delis
In developed markets a growing number of consumers expect business organisations to take responsibility for their impact on society as a whole. This research investigated the applicability of these first world concerns to South African consumers. A statically significant sample of 171 respondents was asked to define the term ethical consumerism and to identify the ethical issues that they considered when evaluating which organisations to buy from and which to boycott. The qualitative data was subjected to content and cluster analysis, to determine if certain types of respondents share clearly identifiable concerns and if it is possible to segment the market into definite market segments. Chi-squared goodness of fit tests were used to determine if any demographic variables have strong correlations to these market segments. The research found clear evidence of an ethical market and that marketers are able to segment this ethical market into segments of sets of ethical concerns. Income, gender, province can be used as demographic segmentation tools to reach these segments. The relevance to marketers is that companies who adopt ethical initiatives may have market advantage over those who do not
FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER ADOPTION OF
(2011-06-08) Rajool, Godfrey
This study focuses on the factors that influence consumer adoption of liquefied petroleum gasoline as an alternative vehicle fuel in South Africa. Numerous factors emerged from the qualitative analysis, among the most notable of which was the influence of fuel cost savings. It was found that fleet operations achieved significant reductions in fuel theft, through liquefied petroleum gasoline uptake. The environmental benefit derived from LPG as an alternative fuel for vehicles was considered to be of far less consequence in the adoption decision process.
MODELLING CONSUMER PROMOTIONAL
(2011-06-08) Pritchard, John Fabian
This research is concerned with developing a technique for modelling the promotional response of fast moving consumer goods in an environment that is evolving through new product introductions and changing promotional frequency patterns. A technique is developed that achieves this objective and also achieves the objective of differentiating between own brand and category level cross period effects, as well as own brand and category level expansion effects. This is the first public domain technique that the author is aware of that achieves these objectives. Through using a theoretically derived data set and various simulations, the research also demonstrates that significant bias is introduced into the coefficient estimates of extant techniques that do not allow for the introduction of new products and changing promotional patterns when these effects do in fact exist. Through the use of Monte Carlo simulation methods, the reliability of the proposed solution algorithm is investigated in the presence of un-modelled disturbances. For the disturbance domain that was chosen for the research, it is shown that the estimation technique is quite sensitive to the disturbances, particularly when estimating cross period and category expansion effects. Directions for further research are included
Consumer behaviour and segmentation of
(2011-06-08) Posthumus, Corna
The South African government has embarked on a minerals beneficiation drive, as evident from recent legislative changes, to address South Africa’s shortcomings in adding value to mined raw materials (precious metals and gemstones). This favourable business climate created for local jewellery manufacturers poses a challenge to marketers to first understand local jewellery consumers’ buying behaviours and attitudes before branding these jewellery items across different market segments. The above provided an impetus for conducting a consumer research into South Africa’s somewhat immature precious jewellery market. A structured standard questionnaire was designed to determine consumer demographics, behaviours and attitudes towards precious jewellery. The purpose of the research study was twofold. First, typical jewellery consumers’ buying behaviour, shopping preferences and attitudes were determined to segment the South African precious jewellery market. These findings (which were analysed using quantitative research methodologies) led to the second part of the study, i.e. developing a brand strategy framework to reach the identified market segments. The results showed that the typical precious jewellery consumer in South Africa is: a primarily white, “twenty-something to thirty-something” high-income female. The results also indicated that local buying behaviours and shopping preferences (i.e. the where, what, how, when and how) of precious jewellery are very similar to those cited for overseas jewellery consumers. However, the study revealed that there are two meaningful market segments in South Africa’s precious jewellery market, as opposed to four segments, cited in the literature. The characteristics of the first segment are very similar to those documented for overseas market segments. However, an unexpected second segment (which is not documented in the literature) emerged from the study, reflecting the differentiating characteristics of the typical South African jewellery consumer, i.e. impulsive buyers of massproduced, low-priced, fashion precious jewellery items. Brand strategy frameworks for both market segments were then developed based on the study’s attitudinal segmentation results

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