The emergence of Internet-based social media has made it possible for one person to communicate with hundreds or even thousands of other people about products and the companies that provide them. ...Thus, the impact of consumer-to-consumer communications has been greatly magnified in the marketplace. This article argues that social media is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because in a traditional sense it enables companies to talk to their customers, while in a nontraditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The content, timing, and frequency of the social media-based conversations occurring between consumers are outside managers’ direct control. This stands in contrast to the traditional integrated marketing communications paradigm whereby a high degree of control is present. Therefore, managers must learn to shape consumer discussions in a manner that is consistent with the organization's mission and performance goals. Methods by which this can be accomplished are delineated herein. They include providing consumers with networking platforms, and using blogs, social media tools, and promotional tools to engage customers.
The venues by which employees can voice satisfaction, dissatisfaction, and their experiences with the organization have traditionally been limited to internal communication systems that are ...orchestrated and sanctioned by the organization. However, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as blogs and instant messaging, now enable employees to deliver messages to hundreds or even thousands of people with a few keystrokes...messages that may or may not be desirable to or sanctioned by the organization. Under these circumstances, employee voice can be an untapped resource for enhancing the organization's public image or a bomb waiting to explode with devastating impact on the firm's reputation. Effective management of employee voice begins with understanding its purposes: contribution to management decision making, demonstration of partnership, articulation of individual dissatisfaction, and expression of collective bargaining. These expressions of voice can be guided and managed to a strategic advantage when organizations provide a proper organizational context along with the appropriate mechanisms for employees.
Millennials have heavily influenced social media's evolution into an important source of product information. They are increasingly basing their product evaluations on information gathered from ...online reviews. Thus, companies targeting Millennials may wish to pay heed to online reviews. Which products are affected by Millennials’ online reviews? Do the reviews tend to be positive or negative? Where do Millennial customers look for information amongst the plethora of online venues? As presented herein, a survey of 227 Millennials reveals that this generation is undeniably posting reviews online and being influenced by these reviews. Respondents show a definite preference for two online venues, Facebook and company websites, when voicing their opinions. Reviews are broken down by positive and negative comments, and how product categories fare for each type. Contrary to popular thinking, the respondents were more prone to post positive reviews than negative reviews. Males voice their opinions online significantly more often than females, and specific gender differences are observed by product category. Recommendations are provided for selling to Millennials by leveraging online reviews.
Word-of-mouth communication (WOM) is a dominant force in the marketplace for services. However, the current body of research provides little insight into the nature of WOM in the service marketplace. ...Reports the results of a content-analytic study that provides insight into WOM's content and the catalysts by which it is stimulated. The goal was to capture a series of "grounded events" from which broader patterns could be discerned. These grounded events were actual incidents of WOM as described by the recipients of a communication. Three content categories and ten catalyst categories are identified. Implications for managers are addressed.
As the field of employee branding has begun to unfold, more and more executives have become interested in how this process can help them achieve a competitive advantage for their organizations. This ...article explains how employee branding works and how it can be utilized to position the organization in the minds of customers, employees, and other stakeholders. A contextual analysis of its use as a source of sustainable competitive advantage at Southwest Airlines is presented. Finally, key success factors are identified for those who wish to make employee branding a strategic focus within their organizations.
In this article, a typology is presented which will help organizations better reflect the brand image they desire. The assisting typology is based on the extent to which employees know and understand ...the organization's mission, values, and desired brand image, and the degree to which they perceive their psychological contracts with the organization as being honored. Organizations can be classified as all-stars, rookies, injured reserves, or strike-out kings, based on the characteristics of a preponderance of their employees. As categorized, rookie organizations cannot deliver the desired brand image because most of their employees lack the knowledge and understanding to do so. Injured reserve organizations, on the other hand, cannot achieve the same because firm employees perceive their psychological contracts with the organization as having been violated, which renders the individuals unwilling and unmotivated. For their part, strike-out king organizations share rookie and injured reserve organizations' worst characteristics. Finally, and conversely, all-star organizations consistently deliver the desired brand image to others because their employees are both able and motivated to do so. To help firms attain this highly desired status, specific guidelines are presented herein which may help organizations become “all-stars” in their own right.
The use of mobile devices by consumers and the accompanying response by retailers is rapidly revolutionizing the retail environment. In the past, retailers have focused primarily on the outcome (to ...purchase or not to purchase) of the consumer decision process, but now mobile technologies give retailers the opportunity to more actively influence the entire consumer decision-making processes. The increasing use of mobile devices by consumers makes shopping a continuous rather than discrete activity that requires retailers to engage with their customers at critical touch points of the decision process in order to provide a more customer-centric experience. This change in focus from the decision outcome to the decision process signifies an important paradigm shift for the retailing industry. After an extensive review of the literature, we identify four pillars that form the foundation for the mobile shopping revolution and represent the essential ways and means through which retailers can engage with consumers during the decision process. We also discuss the different areas in which the pillars can enable retailers to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the mobile shopping era.
Product knowledge has been recognized as an important factor in the research on consumer decision making. It has also been acknowledged that there are different types of knowledge. In this article, ...we examine the impact of three types of knowledge—subjective knowledge, objective knowledge, and usage experience—on selected aspects of consumer decision making. Effects are examined within the context of an electronic shopping scenario in which subjects selected a VCR brand based on brand and attribute information that could be accessed through a personal computer. Results indicate that, consistent with real-world experience, the three types of knowledge are correlated with each other. However, their effects on attribute importances, information search, and perceived decision outcomes vary by level and type of knowledge. We discuss these effects and their implications for future research.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The employee brand is the image employees present to customers and other stakeholders. The process of defining the employee brand image and then motivating and empowering employees to project it to ...others is referred to as the employee branding process. Evidence suggests that financial performance as well as a sustainable competitive advantage can be gleaned when the employee branding process operates correctly. Despite growing interest in the field, the employee branding process has not been empirically tested. Hence, this article presents the results of an empirical study encompassing both an internal assessment of the employee branding process as perceived by employees and an external assessment of the employee brand image as perceived by customers. The partial least squares (PLS) method of structural equation modeling is used to determine the causal path to the employee brand. Nine out of the ten hypotheses are supported and the evidence indicates that the desired brand image is perceived by customers.
Defining and measuring the quality of service has been a major challenge for health care marketers. A comprehensive service quality measurement scale (SERVQUAL) is empirically evaluated for its ...potential usefulness in a hospital service environment. Active participation by hospital management helped to address practical and user-related aspects of the assessment. The completed expectations and perceptions scales met various criteria for reliability and validity. Suggestions are provided for the managerial use of the scale, and a number of future research issues are identified.
