This study compared attitudes toward money of Mexican‐ and Anglo‐American consumers. Based on the Hispanic/Mexican‐American literature, hypotheses were generated for four dimensions of a money attitude scale (MAS) developed by Yamauchi and Templer (1982). Mexican‐Americans were found to have lower scores on a Retention/Time dimension that reflects willingness to delay spending money to achieve gratification. Contrary to previous studies, Mexican‐Americans were found to have lower scores on a Quality dimension, calling into question an assumption found in much of the literature that Hispanic consumers prefer high prestige goods/services. Hypotheses pertaining to Power/Prestige and Distrust/Anxiety dimensions were also not confirmed suggesting further reservations about Hispanic consumer characterizations found in the consumer behavior literature.

Six sigma is a way to measure the probability of manufacturing a product or creating a service with zero defects. Presents a case study to illustrate how the concept of zero defects, measured by six sigma, can be applied to customer satisfaction measurement and to examine the impact of customer expectations on the company’s strategies for improving satisfaction. The information presented is based on actual studies conducted for a high‐tech manufacturing company in the USA during 1991 and 1992. The performance and expectations values and some of the attributes have been altered for reasons of confidentiality.

Two areas of interest in the study of customer loyalty are relationship marketing and the blending of products and services. This paper develops a customer process model by integrating these ideas with the life-cycle concept. The case of a power-tools manufacturer is used as a basis to evaluate this model. Data from extensive customer studies conducted at a national level form the basis of the analysis. This study provides a framework in which to evaluate a ® rm's attempts to improve customer loyalty. The model is universal in applicability and can be implemented across the product-service continuum.

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