Letters to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Letters to the Editor     

Consumer price limits and the brand effect

The effect of brand name present/absent condition on consumer price limits was examined in an experimental setting. The findings of this study have important implications for pricing managers. The results support the past findings that brand name affects price perception. Branded products are perceived to be higher priced than unbranded products (higher acceptable price). That is, branded products seem to command a price premium as compared to unbranded products. The findings suggest that the well-known brand name should be positioned in the upper acceptable price range and the not so well-known brand names in the lower acceptable price range. This brand positioning strategy, in turn, will determine the product's position in the product line, the marketplace, its competition, and its use patterns. Price is very much a part of the product and branding policy.     

Starting on haemodialysis: A qualitative study to explore the experience and needs of incident patients

Dialysis can be very stressful with the initial months onto treatment being highly critical in terms of both adaptation and mortality. This qualitative study aimed to explore the lived experiences of incident haemodialysis patients in Singapore. Topics related to the end-stage renal disease diagnosis and haemodialysis treatment were raised with 13 incident haemodialysis patients in the form of semi-structured interviews, and interpretative phenomenological analysis was undertaken as the framework for data analysis. Emotional distress, treatment-related concerns and social support emerged as main issues following a critical review of themes. Our study revealed that incident haemodialysis patients have emotional and informational needs, highlighting the importance of intervention programmes in particular to this patient group to promote better psychosocial adjustment to the disease and its treatment.     

The moderating role of emotional differentiation on satiation

People tend to like experiences less the more they repeat them, a process commonly referred to as satiation. Despite an increasing interest in satiation among consumer researchers, we still know very little about the role that emotions play in the process. Through a series of three experiments, we show paradoxically that when individuals differentiate between the positive and negative emotions that arise during repeated consumption, they satiate at a slower rate. We show that a cognitive re‐appraisal process drives this emotional differentiation effect, whereby, when individuals focus on negative emotions they exhibit increased enjoyment of repeated consumption sequences. We demonstrate these effects for both trait and state emotional differentiation and across both continued and repeated consumption contexts. Theoretical implications of these findings for satiation, emotional differentiation, and emotion regulation literatures are then discussed.     

Reply to the comments on “Room-temperature precipitation in quenched Al–Cu–Mg alloys: a model for the reaction kinetics and yield-strength development”

We present transmission electron microscopy observations and a crystallographic analysis that show that the only significant report on the observation of {112} pseudotwins in B2 structures by Goo et al. (1985, Acta metall., 3, 1725) is a misidentification of the {114} true twins.     

Synthesis of nanostructured vanadium powder by high-energy ball milling: X-ray diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy characterization

Vanadium metal powders, ball milled with different surfactants viz., stearic acid, KCl and NaCl, have been studied by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The surfactants alter the microstructural and morphological characteristics of the powders. Ball milling with stearic acid results in solid-state amorphization, while powders milled with KCl yield vanadium–tungsten carbide nanocomposite mixtures. NaCl proved to be an excellent surfactant for obtaining nanostructured fusion-grade vanadium powders. In order to understand the reaction mechanism behind any interstitial addition in the ball-milled powders, CHNOS analysis was performed.