Influencing consumers’ selection of domestic versus imported products: Implications for marketing based on a model of helping behavior
Janeen E. Olsen, Abhijit Biswas, Kent L. Granzin
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science · 1993 · Volume 21 · Issue 4
Abstract
Recent marketing campaigns have urged American consumers to “Buy American.” Marketers can improve the success of their campaigns if they understand the network of influences that lead American consumers to help threatened domestic workers. Consumers’ cooperation in purchasing domestic products may be viewed as a form of help for American workers whose jobs are threatened by the success of imported products. This study presents a model designed to explain consumers’ willingness to help these workers. Survey data were subjected to structural equation analysis to test the model. Results confirmed willingness to help is influenced by the salience of the problem, identification with the workers, inequity of the situation, felt similarity with the workers, empathy with the workers, and the costs of helping. These findings suggest ways to market the Buy American theme.
Keywords
Group Identity, Equity Theory, Textile Worker, Empathic Concern, Experimental Social Psychology
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