Dr. Cudmore presents marketing research papers

B. Andrew Cudmore, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing, presented two papers and was session chair at the Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators
conference in Orlando March 2-6. The two papers were “The Benefits of Copycat Strategy and the Differences between Store Brands: a Focus on Quality”; and
“Motivations: Understanding the Many Markets of Ecotourism in Hungary.” In the abstract for his first paper Dr. Cudmore stated that more positive consumer
judgments are possible for store brands that capitalize on the opportunity to minimize their perceived quality gap with the leading national brands.
Results from two studies indicate that store image, and store brand package similarity positively affect consumer store brand judgments, the higher the
consumer store brand knowledge. Alternatively, results from a third study indicate that store brand price similarity has no effect on quality perceptions,
but negatively affects other consumer store brand judgments, the higher the consumer store brand proneness. The results have important implications for
store brand identification, imitation, and pricing strategies. In the abstract for the paper on ecotourism, Dr. Cudmore stated that to achieve the goal of
natural resource sustainability, a well-formulated strategy based on the needs of the parties involved must be addressed. A focus on ecotourism (a subset
of nature tourism) is one method of working toward such environment sustainability. With proper planning in place, he said, ecotourism represents a viable
opportunity to both promote knowledge of sustainability and to fund conservationism. In particular, the creation of a birding and wildlife festival could
serve as a pilot program, or specific catalyst, by which the more general concept of ecotourism can take root in Hungary. A general environmental situation
analysis is offered for Hungary, followed by a more detailed discussion of the merits of ecotourism.