Product Description<br/><br/><br/>This wide-ranging yet focused text provides an informative introduction to consumer behavior supported by in-depth, scientifically grounded coverage of key principles and applications. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, First Edition, devotes ample attention to "classic" consumer behavior topics, including consumer information processing, consumer decision making, persuasion, and the role of culture and society on consumer behavior. In addition, this innovative new text explores important current topics and trends relevant to modern consumer behavior, such as international and ethical perspectives, an examination of contemporary media, and a discussion of online tactics and branding strategies. This versatile text strikes an ideal balance among theoretical concepts, cutting-edge research findings, and applied real-world examples that illustrate how successful businesses apply consumer behavior to develop better products and services, market them more effectively, and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. With its strong consumer-focused, strategy-oriented approach, CONSUMER BEHAVIOR, First Edition, will serve students well in the classroom and help them develop the knowledge and skills to succeed in the dynamic world of modern business.<br/><br/><br/>About the Author<br/><br/><br/>Frank R. Kardes is the Donald E. Weston Professor of Marketing at the College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the Society for Consumer Psychology, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the Society for Consumer Psychology, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. His research focuses on omission neglect, consumer judgment and inference processes, persuasion and advertising, and consumer and managerial decision making. He has published in many leading scientific journals and is frequently invited to present his research at leading universities throughout the world--including Wharton, Yale, Cornell, Chicago, Northwestern, Michigan, the Australian Graduate School of Management, the London Business School, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and INSEAD (France). Dr. Kardes was an Editor of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Advances in Consumer Research, and the Handbook of Consumer Psychology, and was an Associate Editor of the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology. He is currently Co-Editor of Marketing Letters.<br/><br/>Maria Cronley is a professor of marketing in the Farmer School of Business at Miami University. Dr. Cronley joined Miami 2002 and teaches classes in consumer behavior, developing consumer insights, and customer acquisition. She received a B.S. in business from Bowling Green State University, and a Ph.D. in marketing, with a secondary specialization in social psychology, from the University of Cincinnati. Her primary research interests center on consumer judgment and decision processes, with specific emphasis in the areas of inference and selective information processing, persuasion, and practices related to health services marketing. She sits on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and has published numerous articles in scholarly journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Business Research, Advances in Consumer Research, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, and the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. She has also won more than two dozen awards and grants for her scholarship and teaching, including the Endres Associate Fellows Award for research, the James Robeson Faculty Research Excellence Award, and the Outstanding Professor Award at Miami University.<br/><br/>Thomas W. Cline is Professor of Marketing in the Alex G. McKenna School at Saint Vincent College, where he teaches courses in consumer behavior, marketing research, ad