The research aims to investigate how to improve relationship quality and retain customers through marketing communications. The article presents an extensive review of the marketing literature relating to branding, relationship marketing, and marketing communications with a view to identifying effective ways to enhance brand personality, brand image, and brand awareness as well as relationship quality and, ultimately, customer retention. The exogenous constructs of the conceptual model include influential factors such as marketing communications, brand personality, brand image, and brand awareness. The endogenous constructs include cognitive and affective customer evaluations such as customers’ trust, satisfaction, value, and the resultant brand loyalty (retention). It is found that brand equity is important in determining customer expectations, which is an antecedent of customer satisfaction. Consumers will be satisfied with the brand if the initial expectations of the brand are nearly or entirely met. I...

From Marketing Communications to Brand Management: Factors Influencing Relationship Quality and Customer Retention

This research investigates the path from integrated marketing communications to switching cost, satisfaction, commitment, and switching intention among mobile telecommunications customers. This research is based on extant literature that brand awareness, image, and personality created by company integrated marketing communications influence consumer expectations. Exploratory research finds that consumers will be satisfied if the provider can fulfil its promises and meet customer expectations. Sales promotion has a direct relationship with switching costs. In turn, switching costs affects the level of commitment, which can be augmented by high consumer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction, commitment, and switching cost are direct antecedents of switching intention.

Integrated Marketing Communications and Their Effects on Customer Switching Intention

Multiple transformations of post-socialist cities: Multiple outcomes?

This research aims to investigate the relationship between two elements of marketing communications – advertising and sales promotion, in relation to customer loyalty towards service providers in Thailand. This study also looks into addressing other factors that influence behavioural and attitudinal loyalty of Thai customers. This research is based on the premise that brand personality, brand image and brand awareness created by company advertising and sales promotions can shape consumer expectations, which in turn determine customer satisfaction. Secondary research finds that consumers are satisfied with a company which can fulfil its promises and meet their expectations towards provided services, eventually customer trust. Customers’ value and trust then lead to attitudinal and behavioural loyalty.

https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/452b5c01-4cf8-4e42-bd4b-9ad656b1bc2f/1/PDF (Published version).pdf

Integrated marketing communications and their influences on brand loyalty: A Thai perspective

Cross-border public services are considered to be one of the possible tools to eliminate the periphery position of border regions. The Czech part of the Gmund/Ceske Velenice divided twin town faces the problem of very distant healthcare, as the closest hospital on its side of the border is at around a 50 min car-drive, whereas the hospital in Austrian Gmund is within several minutes reach. This paper analyses whether cross-border healthcare provision could help to eliminate this problem. It describes the EU legislative framework for the cross-border healthcare provision and states that it has been rather underused until now, with a minor exception of the situation between European Communities’ founding members. In the Gmund/Ceske Velenice context, the functional partnership run by the Lower Austria as the key actor was created. Its ability to use the INTERREG programme has helped to create conditions for a sustainable cross-border healthcare, but only as a partial solution restricted on an outpatient care. The main identified barriers are of administrative nature. To a partial surprise of authors, the mental barrier plays a minor role and could be overcome by systemic measures implemented by partners of this initiative.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/6980/pdf

Can Cross-Border Healthcare Be Sustainable? An Example from the Czech-Austrian Borderland

This article reports the results of a study of consumer attitudes to brand loyalty. An empirical investigation
is based on the sample of 872 individuals aged from sixteen years and located in the cities with upper and
lower ten thousands inhabitants in sports shoes market. First, the creation of brand loyalty is defined,
followed by an overview of theoretical works in the field. Finally, the study itself is presented. The study
concludes that there is a significant dependence on the degree of loyalty determined by the environment in
which consumers live and expenses connected with a specific sport. It also reveals the dimensions of brand
selection that is influenced by a reflection of self-image of consumer in spite of the increase of price.

/pdf/role-of-brand-loyalty-in-purchase-of-sports-shoes-2ojb67cird.pdf

Role of brand loyalty in purchase of sports shoes

Abstract With respect to the fulfillment of the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy, the threat of poverty and social exclusion has not been sufficiently reduced in the European Union (EU) over the past decade, and large regional disparities persist. Young people are the most affected by the problems of income poverty, material deprivation and labour market exclusion, which are the three dimensions of poverty and social exclusion. In this article, we focus on comparing the EU countries in terms of the three listed dimensions, while revealing similarities and differences in the incidence and severity of these social phenomena among youth. In addition to measuring dimensions by the currently used AROPE (at risk of poverty or social exclusion) rate, we also use a larger spectrum of relevant indicators for a more comprehensive analysis. While the AROPE aggregate indicator uses the same methodology for the population of young people as for the whole population, our approach includes indicators that are specific to young people. We assume that all dimensions affect each other, so we apply multidimensional statistical methods such as principal components and cluster analysis to analyse them. These methods have revealed that some dimensions affect poverty and social exclusion to a greater extent and others to a lesser extent than might appear to be the case, based on AROPE’s partial rates. Moreover, we present quantified integral indicators that together with the results of the multivariate methods, provide a rather complex picture concerning the geographical distribution of poverty and social exclusion, as well as their dimensions in the EU, for the population of persons aged 18–24 years in 2008 and 2017.

/pdf/changes-in-the-geographical-distribution-of-youth-poverty-r13q88xc8p.pdf

Changes in the geographical distribution of youth poverty and social exclusion in EU member countries between 2008 and 2017

Fighting poverty and social exclusion constitutes one of the European Union’s main goals. The 
EU understands the word “poverty” to connote insufficient income and unequal access to social 
wealth.
The solution to this problem is considered so crucial that on 12th December 2007 the European 
Commission designated year 2010 to be the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social 
Exclusion. In order to reduce poverty, a common understanding of the root factors is necessary.
In the article we examine affected households in Slovakia and Czech. Then we analyse the influ-
ence of significant factors for poverty. Our analysis is based on data collected during a project in 
Slovakia and Czech EU SILC 2006.
Later this article deals with multivariate evaluation regions of Slovakia and Czech in 2006. Be-
cause the input selected indicators of poverty are dependent, we have to transform the dependent 
indicators to a smaller set of independent principal components and then carry out the evaluation. 
The result is evaluation of regions according to different point of view poverty. 
In the next analysis we focused on evaluation of Slovak and Czech regions according to the size 
of individual component scores (dimension). We used a graphic presentation of achieved results 
too. By according results of this analysis is possible to state, that they exist man sized differents 
among regions of Slovak and Czech republic from point of view poverty. The worst situation is on 
east of Slovakia and on south of Slovakia too. In Czech Republic they are the most poverty-stricken 
regions on Moravia and on north of Czech. In both of them is the best situation in capital sities 
and neighbourhood from point of view poverty. They are superior to economic forwardness and 
standard of living in comparison with others regions. Result from analysis is that economic growth 
concentrated in only some regions and others regions came to growth of unemployment. The 
unemployment sent down ability of households to face financial expenses. In Slovakia it showed 
dependency of poverty from education.

/pdf/aplikacia-viacrozmernych-metod-pri-merani-chudoby-3h1jlukkd2.pdf

Aplikácia viacrozmerných metód pri meraní chudoby

Objective: The aim of this article is to evaluate the relationship between work intensity and educational attainment of the household head and household type in Slovakia. Research Design & Methods: Statistical analyses were carried out in analytics software SAS Base and SAS Enterprise Guide by means of contingency, correspondence analysis and multinomial logistic regression. Empirical analyses are based on data from the survey EU-SILC 2015. Findings: The article provides estimates of the probabilities of individual degrees of households’ work intensity depending on the household type and educational attainment level of the household head, while simultaneously in both cases households are broken down by economic activity of the household head. The presented analysis revealed categories of households which are the most and the least threatened by labour market exclusion from the point of view of the considered factors. Implications & Recommendations: While the social inclusion monitor in Europe says that in 2012 (quasi-) joblessness was typical for households with three or more children, our analysis for 2014 did not confirm this. The exclusion from the labour market in 2014 was the most typical in Slovakia for households without dependent children, where there is no more than one person in productive age. Contribution & Value Added: The article is not limited only to the very low work intensity which is used to assess the progress in the reduction of (quasi-) joblessness, but focuses on all the levels of work intensity (very low, low, medium, high and very high).

https://eber.uek.krakow.pl/index.php/eber/article/view/347/pdf

Mária Vojtková

Papers

Role of brand loyalty in purchase of sports shoes

Changes in the geographical distribution of youth poverty and social exclusion in EU member countries between 2008 and 2017

Aplikácia viacrozmerných metód pri meraní chudoby

Work Intensity in Slovakia in Relationship with Socio-Economic Characteristics of Households

Regionálna analýza výdavkov a príjmov domácností v slovenskej republike