The hospitality industry is widely using customer data to develop successful personalized marketing communication. However, in the event of information leakage, personalized advertising may escalate customers’ privacy distress. Building on Conservation of Resources theory, this study proposes three dimensions for privacy threats that impact the relationship between personalized hospitality advertising and consumer responses. Findings from six experiments across high and low involvement hospitality products demonstrate diverging effects of personalized advertising depending on the type of privacy threat communicated. Results further indicate that customers’ psychological comfort mediates the relationship between high-personalized advertising and the customer response to the advertising when privacy threat is high. Additionally, when the perceived severity and distance of the announced privacy threat are high and low respectively, rational appeals generate higher levels of psychological comfort, while the same happens for emotional appeals when the perceived scope of the threat is high. The study concludes with value-adding theoretical and managerial implications for the hospitality industry.

If a picture speaks a thousand words, imagine what kind of story a video could tell… The need for videography in Consumer Research has been recognised and endorsed by the ACR Film Festival, which has been growing for more than a decade. Belk and Kozinets (2012) argue “As industry increasingly embraces videographic techniques for representing consumer realities and portraying their marketing research findings, it is useful for our field to follow suit and, in many ways, lead the charge towards finding new, rich forms for understanding the consumer”. Indeed the ACR film festival has showcased incredible research that highlights the importance of videography, the rich data it provides and the captivating presentation and storytelling of consumer research (e.g. Hietanen, Schouten, & Vaniala, 2013; Kawaf, 2014; Rokka, Rousi, & Hämäläinen, 2014; Seregina, Campbell, Figueiredo, & Uotila, 2013; Veer, 2014) This research takes videography to a new level in consumer research, an unavoidable move toward studying the ever-growing arena of digital consumption. Therefore, this abstract presents screencast videography as a method of studying consumer behaviour in the specific context of online fashion shopping. With the rapid evolving nature of technology, various experiences have moved completely or partially to the digital world. New experiences and opportunities arise everyday for the average individual as well as for businesses of all sizes. This is apparent in the rapid growth of ‘netnography’ as a method for studying ‘the field behind the screen’ by Kozinets (2002). This method has allowed an infinite number of possibilities for studying online communities in digital ethnographic fashion. Similarly, if visual ethnographies and videography research such as Burning Man, ESPN and Nike Town (Kozinets, 2002a; Kozinets et al., 2004; Penaloza, 1998) allowed such rich understanding of observable experiences, so far the same has not been possible in the context of online experiences. The consumption experience of online fashion websites along with browsing, shopping or interacting with web atmospherics occur within the personal and private space of the individual; and so there is currently no method in the literature that allows for such work to be done in studying online experiences and behavioural decision making processes. Therefore, my proposition in this abstract is to introduce screencast videography as a form of videographic interpretive approach to studying the consumption experience of digital spaces. Screencasting is defined, in Information Technology research, as “a method of presenting digitally recorded playback of computer screen output which often contains audio narration” (Brown, Luterbach, & Sugar, 2009, p.1748). The use of screencasts is most popular in education and particularly in virtual learning environments. Brown et al. (2009, p.1748) argue, “Because screencasting captures desktop activity along with audio commentary, it can be a particularly effective method of explaining computer-based procedures”. I work on employing this method in understanding the consumption experience in online context; the empirical use of this method has been presented at the ACR film festival (Kawaf, 2014). Similar videography, this approach allows for the production of natural data (Knoblauch, Schnettler, Raab, & Soeffner, 2006) and is indeed less obtrusive since the hindering camera effect argued by Belk and Kozinets (2005) is not present in this approach.

Storytelling has become increasingly of interest for marketing and management in the last years and promises both aesthetic design and effecting consumers’ perception of fashion brands positively. Nevertheless, the complexity of story design, still being rather focussed by the humanities, and its effective adaption for luxury fashion brands regarding value perception and related behavioural consequences are still poorly understood and have not been explored so far. We seek to fill this research gap. In our study, we chose a luxury brand’s existing story and applied story concepts of narratology to rearrange plot, characters, and style first. In a second step, we examined the effect of applying the story concepts by testing the perception of three different groups (no story, original story, and rearranged story). Using PLS path modelling, we proved our hypotheses empirically. Our examination suggests that an application of narrative concepts for creating fashion brand stories has a measurable impact on consumer’s reception and behavioural outcome. On the one hand, this involves dimensions of luxury value, such as financial, functional, individual, and social consumer perceptions as well as an overall likability perception of the brand. On the other hand, this perception obviously impacts consumption habits regarding luxury fashion as much as it is related to recommendation behaviour, willingness to pay a premium price, and purchase intentions. Our findings strongly advice to consult established theories, concepts, and models of the humanities for storytelling in marketing and management. While measuring specific elements already proves their applicability, it will be a major task for theoretical and qualitative research to discuss existing material for the demands of marketing and management as well as (fashion) brands. Even for professionals in brand management, our study advices to have a closer look on traditional storytelling concepts to create effective campaigns. The particular value of our study is to present and empirically verify design elements of storytelling with respect to theoretical narrative approaches, which may have specific impact on certain luxury values and their causal effects on luxury fashion consumption. Our results reflect remarkable implications for luxury brand management as well as future research in luxury fashion, brand management, and marketing storytelling. A luxury company may stimulate purchase behaviour with a storytelling campaign. Nevertheless our study proved that a rather appropriate design, respecting research approaches of narratology, is able to increase the impact on consumers’ perception and behavioural outcome.

China has become a key market for the luxury fashion industry. Yet the relationship with the role of digital marketing is still mostly unexplored. The increase of Internet in China has been Impressive. A report from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) indicated that Chinese netizens increased to around 0.632 billion. Internet has a deep impact on people’s life, changing their lifestyles and consuming behaviours. For luxury brands entering Chinese market, the competition becomes fiercer. Despite the traditional marketing model, an increasing number of luxury companies are orienting their strategy towards the blue ocean—on-line market. On-line luxury fashion commerce has become a creative joint of Internet technology and business operations. Despite the fact that the Chinese market is regarded as potentially the fastest growing market for the luxury industry, many challenges exist nowadays since China is a young player in both luxury industry and e-commerce field. Some experts in the field believe that the limitation of customers’ experience is the most essential problem, and some others assert it would be difficult to do on-line marketing for luxury products. Besides, there is still an ongoing debate on the key factors that determine the success of on-line sales in luxury industry. Luxury Fashion customers are mainly composed by elder segment, while luxury consumers are increasingly becoming a younger segment (about under 40 years old) in China. In particular, their consumption concept is very different from that of traditional customers. A survey from McKinsey & Company indicates that there are almost 90% of Chinese Internet users living in tier1, tier2 and tier 3 cities have enrolled in a social-media site. Moreover, Chinese people are regarded as the world’s most active social-media population, around 91% of respondents telling they visited a social-media site in the previous six months, followed by 70% in South Korea, 67% in the United States and 30% in Japan (Chiu, Lin, & Silverman, 2012). This article is based on an exploratory study analysing the current situation of Chinese online market and the online shopping websites. Through interviews with customers who already had online luxury shopping experience and a questionnaire to about 150 potential customers of online luxury shopping websites, this paper tries to identify some of the key factors affecting the purchasing behaviour of Chinese customers of luxury fashion products. Based on the understanding of the current situation and the innovative role played by the digital orientation of purchasing behaviours in luxury, this article will introduce some hypotheses in order to verify the assumptions associated to key challenges and success factors in the Chinese market which can be the reference for luxury companies to fix their on-line marketing – pricing, distribution network, fashion brands variety. The exploratory study in the field has already showed specific results. With respect to pricing strategy for online purchasing, results showed clearly that besides the fact that traditional luxury purchasers are not price-sensitive also in relation to the fact that luxury products high price is a symbol of exclusivity; the modern luxury fashion Chinese customers, mainly composed by people younger than 30-years old, enjoying the wealth accumulated by their parents and other family members, have better education backgrounds which makes them have little conceptions about the purchasing power of currency. Logistics, which contain the products’ packaging, delivery mode and time and comprehensive quality of it appeared to be the one of the most important way to present the e-retailers’ services for online luxury customers. Through customers purchase luxury products online, the majority of them are still expected to enjoy the luxury experience and services just like in the traditional luxury boutiques. Based on the knowledge and the previous studies of luxury consumers and Chinese e-commerce two hypotheses will be proposed and verified in the empirical study. Furthermore, Supply channel for online luxury shopping websites have also shown to be also particularly relevant as the product quality and the modes are the most attractive factor for customers. A qualified supply channel will guarantee the products’ quality and variety for customers. Chinese market has its own characters and Chinese citizen shopping habits are also distinct, obviously, the current situation in China has indicated that luxury brands and e-commerce still in the run-in period. Through there are some successful cases in western countries which can partly provide some key factors for Chinese market, it is impracticable for luxury brands and some retailing websites copy their experience and follow those “rules” in China. It is quite critical for both luxury brands and e-commerce companies recognize the difference existed in this market, understand the real situation and then modify their marketing policies. This study has only analysed some of the key issues affecting the purchasing patterns of luxury fashion customers. Consequently more quantitative and qualitative research in the field that analyses it from different perspectives it is suggested.

The Chinese market has played an important role for the luxury industry in the past years, with double-digit yearly growth (except for last year). Luxury brands have tried to design strategies to meet the local requirements, be it in terms of retail formats or communication strategies. However, Chinese luxury consumers are evolving in terms of consumption habits and materialistic value: observations from the field show that there is less and less emphasis on logo display among certain consumers (Dubois & Laurent, 1994; Lin & Wang, 2010). Such changes might affect also young consumers, which already stand for a great share of luxury consumers (Source: Red Luxury,2012). Besides, past studies on Chinese consumers’ attitudes toward luxury and values behind luxury consumption have often relied on student-samples, acknowledging the potential limitation to their results due to a potential lack of representativeness of the population interviewed. Few studies have provided analyses of the causes of the values and behaviours of young Chinese customers towards luxury product consumption, focused on them as ‘young people’ (Wang et al., 2012; Xue & Wang, 2012). Besides, most of those that tried to do so relied upon student samples of Chinese students studying abroad (in the USA or Europe) (Chen & Kim, 2013). This paper attempts to investigate the contemporary young Chinese consumers’ behaviour towards luxury consumption, segmenting them into two groups : the international student group and mainland Chinese young consumer group. A quantitative survey collected data from 104 respondents within a month where the snowball sampling method was applied to broadcast both online and offline questionnaires. Qualitative data was analyzed through lexical analyzis, while quantitative data was analyzed with the help of SPSS (Levene-test and T-tests). This study mainly focuses on four features: Chinese culture, materialism, young Chinese generation culture and buying motivation. The results of the study mainly indicate that there have been some changes between generations. One such change is that Chinese youths are more individualistic than what was found in previous studies, and another change is that young Chinese consumers hold different points of view towards the values of luxury consumption. As far as differences between international students and local young people from Mainland China are concerned, we found the following differences: • Finding 1: International students purchase luxury products to fit-in with their friends & because they want others to view them as a member of the upper class & as a successful person more than their local fellows. • Finding 2: International students’ income is more able to support them purchase luxury products than for young locals, and they are more inclined to save money to buy luxury products that their local fellows. • Finding 3: Mainland Chinese young people usually go luxury shopping with their parents more than international students do and claim they will still purchase luxury products even if prices increase more than them as well. • Find 4: Purchasing luxury products make local young people happier than international students, and they care more about the style (as opposed to price) of luxury products than these lasts.  We believe such findings will help luxury companies refine their strategies for the coming generations and help researchers notice on which dimensions of luxury consumption using expatriated Chinese students might have an impact and lead towards biased results.

This study was conducted to analyze the differences in consumer behavior of coffee product according to monthly income in franchised coffee shop's consumer in Korea. A total of 293 questionnaires were used out of the 330 that had been distributed for analysis; those that lacked reliability were excluded. Frequency, ANOVA, and Duncan's multiple range test was conducted to analyze the hypotheses of the study. The findings are summarized as follows. There were significant differences in consumer behavior with regard to seeking health, eco-friendly products, product brand, and product taste as well as preferred coffee menu and coffee consumption expenditures. High income consumers rather than low income groups showed much higher score for concerning health, concerning diet, concerning calorie, concerning instant, concerning caffeine and concerning nature, organic in coffee consumer behavior. In amount spent on purchasing coffee products according to income, low income consumers rather than high income groups had much higher financial expense burden.

This paper contributes to a better understanding of how Australian universities assess undergraduate consumer behaviour students. The study was based on content analysis of course outlines located within the websites of 39 Australian universities. Findings have implications for educators and practitioners.