Tourism souvenirs hold strong symbolic value related to pleasurable travel experiences in people's lives. Using principal component analysis and ANOVA techniques, profiles of tourists were developed based on their souvenir buying and tourism styles. Four distinct and integrated patterns of behavior emerged related to tourists' preferences for travel activities, souvenir products, and shopping. Results provide support for hypotheses that souvenir buying and tourism styles are associated.
The objective of this research was to develop profiles of successful and struggling craft producers. The profiles were examined in relation to existing scholarship on entrepreneurship and served as the basis for generating hypotheses for future research. Seventy craft producers who worked in fiber, clay, and wood, and who had operated in-home businesses for a minimum of three years, participated in telephone interviews intended to explore a range of topics related to their success. Groups of successful (n = 34) and struggling (n = 36) craft producers were formed based on economic criteria and the participants' self-ratings of success. Profiles of successful and struggling participants revealed differences in their business practices related to planning and management, employment, product development, pricing, marketing, and promotion. Findings suggest that successful craft entrepreneurs have many behavioral characteristics in common with entrepreneurs who manufacture other products and who operate in settings outside the home.
Acquiring in-depth understanding of a target consumer market is an important marketing strategy for businesses to employ in attracting and maintaining customers. The purpose of this research was to generate consumer profiles for fiber, clay, and wood crafts. The profiles were used for hypothesis testing and contributed to a data base from which craft producers could draw in making marketing decisions. Fifty-three consumers who had purchased crafts in at least two media during the previous year were interviewed in depth. During interviews, the respondents ranked three sets of craft stimuli and discussed the reasons for their rankings. Data were analyzed using content analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. Five consumer profiles emerged for fiber crafts; four consumer profiles were developed for both clay and wood. Aesthetics, workmanship, function and use, and strong sensory or affective attachment were themes important to consumers across all media. Other themes were more specific to the particular types of media. Hypotheses are proposed for future research in which domestic consumers of U.S. regional crafts would be compared with international tourist consumers and with domestic consumers of international crafts.
The purpose of this research was to (a) identify incidence of use of customized sewing services, (b) develop profiles of users and non-users of sewing services, and (c) compare groups of users of specific sewing services. Thirtyseven percent of a stratified random sample of 641 Iowa households reported in a telephone interview that they had used customized sewing services during the past five years. Responses from a mail survey to 436 of the households were used to develop consumer profiles. Users differed from non-users on interest in self-enhancement through clothing, use of a variety of customized services, personal sewing abilities, education, and income. Five groups of users, identified based on type and frequency of use ofspecific customized sewing services, included Comprehensive Users, Custom Garment and Alteration Users, Mending and Alteration Users, Alteration Users, and Mending Users. Groups differed on interest in dress, use of a range of customized services, personal sewing skills, source of sewing professional, distance traveled for sewing services, and predicted future use of services. Recommendations were made to providers of sewing services. Consumer expenditures on individualized goods and at FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIV on June 1, 2015 ctr.sagepub.com Downloaded from
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