When individuals obtain information about choice alternatives in a set one attribute at a time, they rapidly identify a leading alternative. Although previous research has established that individuals then distort incoming information, it is unclear whether distortion occurs through favoring of...

We introduce a new statistical procedure for the identification of unobserved categories that vary between individuals and in which objects may span multiple categories. This procedure can be used to analyze data from a proposed sorting task data in which individuals may simultaneously assign...

Leader-driven primacy in consumer choice uses initial product information to install a targeted brand as the early leader. Then the biased evaluation of subsequent attributes builds support for that brand. The end result is that the manipulation of information order impacts the proportion of...

Consumers generally establish a preference for one product early in a decision process. When this preference does not include consideration of product prices, the currently preferred product is called the benefits leader. This article proposes that consumers who switch to a cheaper product after...

This article examines the influence that emerging preferences (i.e., leaders) have on predecisional information search. We consider two possibilities. First, decision makers may seek information they expect will support their leader (leader-supporting search). Second, decision makers may seek...

In addition to deciding whether to buy an item, consumers can often decide when they buy an item. This article links the speed with which adults acquire items to the first letter of their childhood surname. We find that the later in the alphabet the first letter of one’s childhood surname, the...

For brands to thrive they must understand consumer sentiment; if consumers’ likelihood to share their opinion is a function of their attitude toward a brand, then brands’ perception of consumer sentiment may be systematically biased. While research in consumer-to-consumer sharing (i.e., word...

Clustering algorithms partition a set of n objects into p groups (called clusters), such that objects assigned to the same groups are homogeneous according to some criteria. To derive these clusters, the data input required is often a single n × n dissimilarity matrix. Yet for many...

The Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning (STP) process is the foundation of all marketing strategy. This chapter presents a new constrained clusterwise multidimensional unfolding procedure for performing STP that simultaneously identifies consumer segments, derives a joint space of brand...

Previous research in marketing and consumer research has shown that consumers/households often possess multiple ideal points in a given product/service category. In such cases, traditional segmentation and positioning models that estimate a single ideal point per individual/segment may render an...