Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the role of social media usage among business-to-business sales professionals in China. Specifically, the authors seek to define and explore the ...unique ways in which Chinese salespeople use social media, with a special emphasis on the role of guanxi . Guanxi is a complex cultural construct that revolves around the exchange of favors to build trust and connection for business purposes. Design/methodology/approach – Three in-depth interviews of sales managers from two industries along with survey data from 42 pharmaceutical sales representatives were collected to gain an understanding of the general usage and attitudes toward social media in the sales process in China. Findings – Results indicated that virtually all the salespeople in the sample were highly familiar with social media and integrated it into the sales process. Furthermore, all participants indicated that their companies were highly supportive of the use of social media with their customers. More importantly, salespeople in China view social media as a critical tool in building guanxi with their customers. Findings from this exploratory study are used to create a conceptual framework for understanding the important role of social media in building guanxi in China. Research limitations/implications – While the sample is limited to three managerial interviews and 42 survey responses, the data indicated a near universal acceptance and use of social media among Chinese salespeople. Most importantly, social media appears to be the modern gateway to the ancient and culturally unique construct of guanxi that is absolutely indispensable to successful business-to-business sales performance in China. Practical implications – The structural challenges within China make trust and emotional connection essential to any potential business relationship. Trust is at the core of guanxi . Any firm hoping to succeed in China must understand guanxi and the use of Chinese social media to help build it. This study adds to the knowledge and understanding of guanxi and begins to elucidate the uses of social media as a tool to build and maintain it. Social implications – Social media appears to be the modern gateway to the ancient and culturally unique construct of guanxi that is absolutely indispensable to successful business-to-business sales performance in China. This study deepens our understanding of not only guanxi but also how the modern phenomenon of social media is affecting it. Originality/value – This is one of very few studies to investigate the use of social media among salesforces in China. More importantly, the authors know of no other study linking social media with guanxi .
Now in its 7thedition, Marketing Plansis a highly renowned international bestseller. The book has been thoroughly revised, and every chapter has been carefully updated with special attention to the ...latest developments in marketing. To accomplish this, Professor Malcolm McDonald has been joined in this edition by Professor Hugh Wilson, a leading expert on CRM and multichannel strategy as well as marketing planning.Major changes to this edition include new chapters based on the very latest research on:Planning for integrated marketing communications and digital marketingDeveloping multichannel strategyDeveloping the CRM planMarketing effectiveness and accountabilityMarketing Plansis designed as a tool and a user-friendly learning, resource. Every point illustrated by powerful practical examples and made actionable through simple, step-by-step templates and exercises.The book is established as essential reading for all serious professional marketers and students of marketing, from undergraduate and postgraduate to professional courses for bodies such as CIM. Above all it provides a practical, hands-on guide to implementing every single concept included in the text.'It is clearly and powerfully written and is probably the best book on the theory and practice of marketing planning ever written. It is a best-seller in Europe and I strongly recommend the book to anyone with an interest in marketing planning.' —Warren J. Keegan, Professor of International Business and Marketing Director, Institute for Global Business Strategy, Pace University, New York'I am extremely impressed by the step lucidity of what is presented.' —Dr D. H. Eaton, North Carolina University'A book reaching the quantities sold of Marketing Plansmust be a book that is really used. It is not difficult to see why. Malcolm McDonald writes about what to do in marketing and how to do it. Unlike many academic marketing writers, he will never let you forget that marketing ends with –ing.' —Kenneth Simmonds, Professor of Marketing and International Business, London Business School'Malcolm McDonald is clearly one of the most respected Professors of Marketing in Europe and the author of a number of outstanding books. The fact that Marketing Planshas been such a massive seller offers testimony of this. McDonald writes with clarity and insight that is becoming increasingly rare today. It is powerful, up to date and has proved that it works. I recommend it to you!' —John D. Ryans, Jr, Bridgestone Professor of International and Professor of International Marketing, Kent State University, Ohio
Toward a theory of customer engagement marketing Harmeling, Colleen M.; Moffett, Jordan W.; Arnold, Mark J. ...
Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,
05/2017, Volume:
45, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Customer engagement marketing—defined as a firm’s deliberate effort to motivate, empower, and measure customer contributions to marketing functions—marks a shift in marketing research and business ...practice. After defining and differentiating engagement marketing, the authors present a typology of its two primary forms and offer tenets that link specific strategic elements to customer outcomes and thereby firm performance, theorizing that the effectiveness of engagement marketing arises from the establishment of psychological ownership and self-transformation. The authors provide evidence in support of the derived tenets through case illustrations, as well as a quasi-experimental field test of the central tenet of engagement marketing.
This article discusses the diffusion process in an online social network given the individual connections between members. The authors model the adoption decision of individuals as a binary choice ...affected by three factors: (1) the local network structure formed by already adopted neighbors, (2) the average characteristics of adopted neighbors (influencers), and (3) the characteristics of the potential adopters. Focusing on the first factor, the authors find two marked effects. First, an individual who is connected to many adopters has a greater adoption probability (degree effect). Second, the density of connections in a group of already adopted consumers has a strong positive effect on the adoption of individuals connected to this group (clustering effect). The article also records significant effects for influencer and adopter characteristics. For adopters, specifically, the authors find that position in the entire network and some demographic variables are good predictors of adoption. Similarly, in the case of already adopted individuals, average demographics and global network position can predict their influential power on their neighbors. An interesting counterintuitive finding is that the average influential power of individuals decreases with the total number of their contacts. These results have practical implications for viral marketing, a context in which a variety of technology platforms are increasingly considering leveraging their consumers' revealed connection patterns. The model performs particularly well in predicting the next set of adopters.
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This book explores the concept of the celebrity as a 'Human Fashion Brand' and the effectiveness of the celebrity in promoting fashions and shaping the identity and decisions of fashion consumers.
...Beginning with an overview of the background and context of the fashion celebrity, the authors consider celebrity fashion classifications and fashion influencers; they explore existing theory, models, and tools and the role of technology; and they explain how celebrity-endorsed products impact fashion consumers and trends. The book defines and develops a 'Human Fashion Brand Model,' which describes the relationships between the fashion celebrity, fashion celebrity marketers, and fashion consumer behaviour choices in celebrity fashion emulation. Coupled with reflective questions to aid learning, every chapter is illustrated by case studies of celebrities as fashion brands, as well as their impact on fashion, including Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé, and Madonna.
Providing a holistic understanding of the celebrity as a human fashion brand and celebrity-inspired fashion consumption, Celebrity Fashion Marketing should be recommended reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Celebrity Fashion and Influencer Marketing, Fashion Marketing, Fashion Brand Management, and Consumer Behaviour.
The Connected Customer Wuyts, Stefan H. K; Dekimpe, Marnik G; Gijsbrechts, Els ...
2010, 20110119, 2010-03-05, 2011-01-19
eBook
In today’s connected consumer environment, customers are better informed and harder to please, but they also leave a more visible evidence trail in the form of improved databases and customer ...information. Consumers are increasingly interconnected through various sorts of social networks, a trend that is facilitated by recent advances in electronic media and telecommunication (i.e., MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Cyworld). Consumers are also increasingly connected with brands and seek to play a more participative role in their relationship with companies, stimulating companies to reconsider how to connect with consumers.
This book consists of a collection of chapters by thought-leaders in the field of marketing and beyond that deals with the rich facets of connectivity. This edited volume is a great source of research ideas and fresh theory building for academics and students in marketing and related fields who wish to understand this exciting field. It will be a source of inspiration for practitioners who are eager to take up the challenge and adapt their marketing strategies to the changing nature of consumer and business markets.
Stefan Wuyts is associate professor of marketing at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. After studying Business Engineering and Marketing, he joined the Tinbergen Institute (Erasmus University Rotterdam) as a doctoral student. His doctoral dissertation was awarded by the Dutch Royal Society for Economics. Stefan’s research interests include B2B markets, channel management, innovation, and social networks. His work in these areas has appeared in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and International Journal of Research in Marketin g, among other. In 2007, he was named a MSI (Marketing Science Institute) Young Scholar and published a monograph with Christophe Van den Bulte, ‘Social Networks and Marketing’ (MSI 2007). Stefan serves as area editor for International Journal of Research in Marketing and reviewer for Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, and Journal of International Business Studies . He has collaborated with several B2B companies such as ASML and Nexans.
Marnik G. Dekimpe (Ph.D., UCLA) is Research Professor of Marketing at Tilburg University (The Netherlands) and Professor of Marketing at the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium). His work has been published in Marketing Science, Management Science, the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Marketing, the International Journal of Research in Marketing and the Journal of Econometrics , among others. He has won best-paper awards at Marketing Science (1995, 2001), the Journal of Marketing Research (1999), the International Journal of Research in Marketing (1997, 2001, 2002), and Technological Forecasting and Social Change (2000). As of October 2009, he becomes the editor of the International Journal of Research in Marketing . He also serves on the editorial board of Marketing Science , the Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Interactive Marketing, and Marketing Letters . He is an Academic Trustee with both the Marketing Science Institute and AiMark.
Els Gijsbrechts is Professor of Quantitative Marketing at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. She received a PhD in Applied Economic Sciences from the University of Antwerp, and previously held positions at the University of Antwerp, FUCAM and the Catholic University of Leuven. She is Area Editor for the International Journal of Research in Marketing - the official journal of the European Marketing Academy. Her research focuses on modeling consumers' shopping behavior and their responses to retailer and manufacturer decisions such as shelf layout, price (promotions), branding, stock-outs and assortment decisions. She has been involved in research and teaching programs for various companies, such as GfK, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Heineken and Delhaize – to name just a few. Her research has been published in leading journals like the Journal of Marketing Research , the International Journal of Research in Marketing , and the Journal of Retailing , and received several nominations, such as those for the IJRM Best Paper Award , the Davidson Award , and the William O’Dell Award .
Rik Pieters is professor of marketing at Tilburg University and guest professor at the R.H. Smith School at University of Maryland. He holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Leiden. His work has appeared in Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Management Science, Pint Bulletin, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of the American Statistical Association , among others. He is an area editor of Journal of Marketing Research . Together with Michel Wedel he organized the first conference on Visual Marketing at the University of Michigan. His research interests are effectiveness of marketing communication, the social and cognitive psychology of consumer behavior, visual marketing. When not doing research he collects data in various fields.
Preface. Introduction. Part 1. Connectivity and the New Reality of Markets C. Van den Bulte, Opportunities and Challenges in Studying Customer Networks. C.M. Henderson, R.W. Palmatier , Understanding the Relational Ecosystem in a Connected World. S. Wuyts , Connectivity, Control, and Constraint in Business Markets. Part 2. Leveraging Vertical Connectivity with Channel Partners and Brands N. Camacho, V. Landsman, S. Stremersch , The Connected Patient. B. Shiv , Is Mr. Spock a Good Candidate for Being a Connected Customer? The Role of Emotion in Decision Making. A. Rindfleisch, N. Wong, J.E. Burroughs , God and Mammon: The Influence of Religiosity on Brand Connections. R. Srivastava, T. Wiesel , Brand Platforms as Strategic Investments: Leveraging Customer Connections to Manage Profitability, Growth and Risk. Part 3. Leveraging Horizontal Connectivity Among Customers R. Burt , The Shadow of Other People: Socialization and Social Comparison in Marketing. R. van der Lans, G. Verbruggen , Viral Marketing: What is It and What are the Components of Viral Success? J. Goldenberg, S. Han, D.R. Lehmann , Social Connectivity, Opinion Leadership and Diffusion. A. Bonfrer , The Effect of Negative Word of Mouth in Social Networks.
"The mantra of marketing practice today is connectivity--creating deeper connections with customers to enhance brand equity, generate more loyalty, develop new products, and achieve other goals. This book features research by some of the world's best academics on the topic of connectivity. It is a must-read for any academic, student, or practitioner interested in what we know about viral marketing, social networks, emotion, word-of-mouth, and a number of other topics related to how to create and improve customer relationships." - Russell Winer, Chairman, Marketing Department, Stern School of Business, New York University, USA
" This is a timely topic that should find relatively broad interest. Moreover there are no up-to-date competing volumes and the line up of authors is strong." - Norbert Schwarz, University of Michigan, USA
"The focus on how consumers create networks with marketers and other consumers is an important topic. It has significant relevance to scholarship and research in the field. New ideas would be issues pertaining to connections between consumers and their service providers (e.g. doctors and their patients) social capital issues, and issues of how networks can be of strategic importance to both marketers and consumers. These are new and unique ideas." - Cornelia Otnes, University of Illinois, Champaign, USA
"This book offers unique evidence-based insights into a very important and evolving research domain: social networks and consumer connectivity. It is comprised of a well-connected set of scholarly contributions, made by top academic experts in the field. Its three-dimensional structure: overall connectivity, vertical connectivity, and horizontal connectivity, allows for an impressive coverage of what is known as well as what needs to be further researched. It can serve as a very useful guide book for those who want to understand the topic in depth and those interested in adding to the extant knowledge base." - Jehoshua Eliashberg, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Online reviews are changing the way that consumers shop and firms respond to consumer feedback. Viewed more broadly, online reviews are a type of information flow altering the functioning of ...marketing systems at the micro, meso, and macro levels. A systematic review of the past two decades of research shows great attention to the impact of online reviews on information flows, as well as the nuances of micro-and meso-level efficiency outcomes. However, there is scant consideration for the effectiveness related outcomes of online reviews (such as customer well-being, distributive justice, and externalities). Through a macromarketing lens, online reviews are an information flow with the potential to change well-being outcomes for all stakeholders, rather than just a tool to be exploited by firms or consumers. A theoretical framework and a series of questions are presented for future research on how online reviews and more generally information flows between actors may impact the efficiency and effectiveness of a marketing system.
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•An optimal policy of dynamic budget allocation for an online ad campaign is examined.•The dependence between the campaign’s budget in its length is studied.•The phases of the campaign are not ...necessarily synchronized across user segments.•The solution method combines optimization and learning.
This paper suggests a method for optimizing a dynamic budget allocation policy for an advertising campaign posted through a social network (e.g., Facebook, Instagram). The method, which considers unique features of social network marketing, yields an optimal targeted budget allocation policy over time for a single ad campaign and minimizes the campaign's length, given a specific budget and a desired level of exposure of each marketing segment. The model incorporates a general ‘effectiveness function’ that determines the relationship between the value of an advertising bid at a given time and the number of newly exposed users at that time. We develop closed-form solutions for dynamic budget allocation for several forms of the effectiveness function. We apply the approach to data obtained from a real-life ad campaign and show how a curve fitting regression procedure can estimate the shape and the parameters of the effectiveness function. Numerical simulations show the extent to which the optimal advertising policy is sensitive to the problem parameters.
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Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of export performance within the parameters of the structure-conduct-and-performance (SCP) paradigm, resource-based view (RBV), ...rational choice (RC) and perceptual view (PV), theoretical templates.
Design/methodology/approach
– The study surveyed continuing manufacturing exporters from New Zealand (n=118) using an electronic method. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the relationships among the groups of predictors and three types of measures.
Findings
– The results found that strategic factors (encapsulating RC) were strong predictors of both export intensity (EI) and export intensity growth, followed by export barriers (representing PV). Conversely, firm factors (representing an amalgamation of SCP and RBV variables) generated lower explanatory power in predicting export performance. Regarding measures of export performance, EI carried the highest efficacy.
Practical implications
– This research suggests export performance depends primarily on deliberate strategic initiatives (RC) (regarding, products, markets and approaches to order generation), and implicitly challenges the resource and natural selection based advantages inherent in firm factors.
Originality/value
– This is one of the few studies on export performance to test the explanatory power of competing theoretical views using a multiple measures approach. Insights from this research extend to the very definition of an internationalizing SME with significant implications for export researchers.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the theoretical and practical implications of adopting customer-dominant logic (CDL) of service, focusing on how firms can become involved in the ...customers’ context.
Design/methodology/approach
– Inspired by the conceptual discussion of service logic and service-dominant logic, this paper focuses on the conceptual underpinnings of CDL. CDL is contrasted with other service perspectives in marketing; CDL is a marketing and business perspective dominated by customer-related aspects instead of products, service, systems, costs or growth. It is grounded in understanding customer logic and how firms’ offerings can become embedded in customers’ lives/businesses.
Findings
– The conceptual analysis challenges the prevailing assumptions of key phenomena in service research, including interaction, co-creation, service value and service. The paper presents five essential foundations of CDL: marketing as a business perspective, customer logic as the central concept, offering seen through the customer lens, value as formed and not created and the prevalence of customer ecosystems.
Research limitations/implications
– The paper differentiates CDL from other marketing perspectives. Further empirical research is needed in different empirical settings to provide guidelines for adopting the perspective on a strategic and operational business level.
Practical implications
– As a firm’s holistic and strategic foundation, marketing is based on understanding how providers participate, at a profit, in customers’ value formation. The paper suggests how firms can successfully conduct business in dynamic markets with empowered customers.
Originality/value
– This paper expands marketing and business logic based on customer dominance. It accentuates the importance of understanding customer logic and stresses the presence of providers in the customer ecosystem.
