Showing papers on "Return on marketing investment published in 2014"

Decision-driven marketing

Abstract: The gap between marketers� aspirations and what their organizations can accomplish creates intense pressure to reshape how marketing is done. In recent years some leading companies have developed an innovative approach that focuses on the seams between marketing and the other functions it interacts with--the C-suite, IT, sales, finance, and so on. It is at these seams that communication most often breaks down and processes stall. Typically, three categories of marketing-related decisions cross organizational seams: strategy and planning; execution; and operations and infrastructure. When marketing works closely with other units to execute key decisions, it can get things done far more quickly and effectively than in the past. But divergent assumptions or a lack of alignment and shared commitment between functions can get in the way. When the authors asked people in marketing and other relevant units what roles they played in a decision, the answers were all over the map. In a classic example, both marketers and product developers in one automaker�s European division believed that they had the final say on which features to include in a new model. The authors provide a tool for revamping the decision process at the boundaries between functions and describe how Target, Nordstrom, and other large companies have identified important decisions at the seams and increased the impact of their marketing organizations.

The Service Revolution and the Transformation of Marketing Science

Abstract: The nature of marketing science is changing in a systematic, predictable, and irrevocable way. As information technology enables ubiquitous customer communication and big customer data, the fundamental nature of the firm's connection to the customer changes: better, more personalized service can be offered, from which service relationships are deepened, and consequently, more profitable customers grow the influence of service within the goods sector and expand the service sector in the economy. Marketing is becoming more personalized, and marketing science techniques that exploit customer heterogeneity are becoming more important. Information technology improvements also guarantee the increasing importance and usage of computationally intensive data processing and “big data.” Most importantly, these trends have already lasted for more than a century, and they will become even more pronounced in the coming years as a result of the monotonic nature of technology improvement. These changes imply a transformation of marketing science in both the topics to be emphasized and the methods to be employed. Increasingly, and inevitably, all of marketing will come to resemble to a greater degree the formerly specialized area of service marketing, only with an increased emphasis on marketing analytics.

Business to business digital content marketing: Marketers’ perceptions of best practice

Abstract: Purpose – This paper aims to draw attention to the emerging phenomenon of business to business (B2B) digital content marketing, offers a range of insights and reflections on good practice and contributes to theoretical understanding of the role of digital content in marketing. B2B digital content marketing is an inbound marketing technique and hence offers a solution to the declining effectiveness of traditional interruptive marketing techniques. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 key informants involved in B2B content marketing in the USA, UK and France, in five industry sectors. Findings – B2B digital content marketing is an inbound marketing technique, effected through web page, social media and value-add content, and is perceived to be a useful tool for achieving and sustaining trusted brand status. Creating content that is valuable to B2B audiences requires brands to take a “publishing” approach, which involves developing an understanding of the audience’s...

Not All Fun and Games: Viral Marketing for Utilitarian Products:

Abstract: The success of products such as FarmVille has prompted many firms to engage in viral marketing on Facebook and other social media websites. Yet is the viral marketing approach adopted for games suitable for other, more utilitarian products? This study aims to answer questions that link product characteristics and contexts to viral marketing success: Should primarily utilitarian products rely on the same sharing mechanisms for their viral marketing campaigns as less utilitarian products? If not, why is this the case, and how should viral marketing for primarily utilitarian products differ? This empirical study analyzes the Facebook viral marketing campaigns of 751 products and reveals that the same sharing mechanism that made FarmVille so successful is the worst possible mechanism for promoting primarily utilitarian products. These findings are in line with theory from social psychology: because consumers do not visit Facebook to learn about utilitarian products, they rely on simple cues and heuristics to ...

A Service Lens on Value Creation: Marketing's Role in Achieving Strategic Advantage:

Abstract: Marketing needs a new mindset to fulfill its proper role in creating and sustaining strategic advantage. To extend its influence beyond the boundaries of current offerings, the firm, and conventional practice, marketing and markets must be viewed through a service lens. This lens allows marketing to take a lead role in assisting the enterprise to enable value co-creation by customers who have jobs to be done. This article offers four new premises to guide marketing thought and practice for achieving and sustaining strategic advantage.

Marketing mix strategies for closing the gap between green consumers' pro-environmental beliefs and behaviors

Abstract: A substantial gap – or disconnect – exists between the stated pro-environmental beliefs and actual consumption behaviors of purportedly green consumers. Given this complicating factor, the construction and execution of successful green marketing strategies generally require more than broad-brush development and applications of short-term marketing plans. This study was initiated to evaluate the influence of managed green marketing mix elements on the dimensions of consumer-based brand equity in a green marketing context, in an effort to develop insights that will allow green marketers to close this gap. The potential moderating influence of consumers' environmental concerns and their consideration of the future consequences of current behaviors are also investigated. A model is developed and tested using a snowballing sample of consumer and five global brands selected from Interbrand. Seven discrete green marketing implications – each related either to the strategic management of green products, promotion...

Modeling Customer Opt-In and Opt-Out in a Permission-Based Marketing Context

Abstract: The rise of new media is helping marketers evolve from digital to interactive marketing, which facilitates a two-way communication between marketers and customers without intruding on their privacy. However, while research has examined the drivers of customers' opt-in and opt-out decisions, it has investigated neither the timing of the two decisions nor the influence of transactional activity on the length of time a customer stays with an e-mail program. In this study, the authors adopt a multivariate copula model using a pair-copula construction method to jointly model opt-in time (from a customer's first purchase to the opt-in decision), opt-out time (from the opt-in decision to the opt-out decision), and average transaction amount. Through such multivariate dependences, this model significantly improves the predictive performance of the opt-out time in comparison with several benchmark models. The study offers several important findings: (1) marketing intensity affects opt-in and opt-out times, (2) cus...

Sustainable Export Marketing Strategy Fit and Performance

Abstract: Despite the growing global importance of sustainability issues, scant research has examined marketing strategy sustainability issues in international settings. Although significant prior work has examined drivers and performance consequences of adaptation/standardization of marketing strategies in international markets, researchers have yet to apply this avenue of inquiry to sustainable marketing strategies. Building on contingency theory and the concept of strategic fit, the authors develop a model of drivers of sustainable export marketing strategy adaptation and explore the circumstances under which such a strategy affects export performance. Using a sample of U.K. exporters, they find that various macro- and microenvironmental factors are responsible for sustainable export marketing strategy adaptation, which shapes the nature of sustainable export marketing strategy fit and its export venture performance outcomes. The results indicate that sustainable export marketing strategy adaptation is the outcome of the differences between home and export markets in terms of economic and technological conditions, competitive intensity, customer characteristics, and stakeholder pressures. Moreover, the performance relevance of sustainable export marketing strategy adaptation requires adequate fit with these macro- and microenvironmental factors.

Segmenting consumer reactions to social network marketing

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how consumers may be segmented with respect to their reactions to social network marketing. Design/methodology/approach – Consumers are segmented on the basis of attitudes toward social network marketing and the association among psychological, economic, and socio-demographic covariates are explored using data from 883 consumers and latent-class analysis. Findings – A total of five segments are identified – Passive, Talkers, Hesitant, Active, and Averse – along with significant covariates, such as information search, convenience, entertainment, age and gender that predict membership. Research limitations/implications – Evidence was found of two segments that are highly impacted by social network marketing in terms of brand engagement, purchase intention and WOM referral intention. The most engaged – the Active – representing approximately 10 percent, is most open to interacting with brands in social networks, likely to make a purchase as a result of the...

Social Media Marketing in Tourism and Hospitality

Abstract: This book describes ongoing developments in social media within the tourism and hospitality sector, highlighting impacts on both the demand and the supply side. It offers a combination of theory and practice, with discussion of real-life business experiences. The book is divided into three parts, the first of which provides an overview of recent trends in social media and user-generated content, clarifies concepts that are often used in an overlapping way and examines the digitization of word of mouth via online networks. The second part analyzes the impacts that social media can have on traveler behavior for each step in the travel process and also on suppliers, highlighting opportunities, threats and strategies. In the third part of the book, future potential trends deriving from the mobile marketing technologies are explored and possible methods for social monitoring by means of key performance indicators are examined. It is considered how engaging customers and prospects by means of social media might increase customer loyalty, foster electronic word-of-mouth communication, and consequently have important effects on corporate sales and revenues. The discussion encompasses methods to measure company performance on each of the social media in order to understand the optimal mix that will support and improve business strategies.

Consumer Attitude Metrics for Guiding Marketing Mix Decisions

Abstract: Marketing managers often use consumer attitude metrics such as awareness, consideration, and preference as performance indicators because they represent their brand's health and are readily connected to marketing activity. However, this does not mean that financially focused executives know how such metrics translate into sales performance, which would allow them to make beneficial marketing mix decisions. We propose four criteria---potential, responsiveness, stickiness, and sales conversion---that determine the connection between marketing actions, attitudinal metrics, and sales outcomes. We test our approach with a rich data set of four-weekly marketing actions, attitude metrics, and sales for several consumer brands in four categories over a seven-year period. The results quantify how marketing actions affect sales performance through their differential impact on attitudinal metrics, as captured by our proposed criteria. We find that marketing--attitude and attitude--sales relationships are predominantly stable over time but differ substantially across brands and product categories. We also establish that combining marketing and attitudinal metrics criteria improves the prediction of brand sales performance, often substantially so. Based on these insights, we provide specific recommendations on improving the marketing mix for different brands, and we validate them in a holdout sample. For managers and researchers alike, our criteria offer a verifiable explanation for differences in marketing elasticities and an actionable connection between marketing and financial performance metrics.

Marketing Doctrine: A Principles-Based Approach to Guiding Marketing Decision Making in Firms

Abstract: The authors introduce and examine a new marketing concept that a small set of leading firms has begun to adopt: marketing doctrine. Marketing doctrine refers to a firm's unique principles, distilled from its experiences, which provide firm-wide guidance on market-facing choices. As such, marketing doctrine provides a firm-wide common approach to decision making. Importantly, marketing doctrine helps a firm address the classic consistency–flexibility conundrum by providing high-level guidance to all decision makers in the firm (thus ensuring consistency) but not specifying execution details (thus allowing for local flexibility). Across three samples, the authors explore the concept using a discovery-oriented, theories-in-use approach with 35 executives from several industries. This article makes four contributions. First, it offers a parsimonious definition of the marketing doctrine construct and contrasts it with related constructs. Second, it offers insight into how firms can develop marketing doctrine. ...

Assessing the Total Financial Performance Impact of Brand Equity with Limited Time- Series Data

Abstract: One of the key challenges in empirically modeling the total impact of marketing assets on financial performance is the limited availability of marketing metrics data over time. The author presents an approach for estimating the total financial impact of marketing assets with limited time-series data and demonstrates the approach with an application to brand equity research. Consistent with prior research, the aggregate analyses indicate that brand equity, as measured by customer mindset metrics, positively affects current financial performance. In addition, the author documents brand equity's significant and much greater impact on the firm's future financial performance: at the aggregate, only a small portion of the total financial impact of brand equity is reflected in current-year profits, whereas the bulk of the profitability impact is realized in the future. Most importantly, however, the analyses document significant heterogeneity of these effects: in some industries, the entire direct impact is cont...

The financial contribution of customer-oriented marketing capability

Abstract: This article assesses the financial contribution of marketing capability. In contrast with previous research, which conceptualizes marketing capability as the deployment of marketing resources to achieve sales, this study conceives marketing capability as the deployment of marketing resources to achieve the ultimate objectives of customer satisfaction and brand equity (i.e., customer-oriented marketing capability [COMC]). Thus, this research disentangles the dynamic relationships among marketing resources, sales, customer satisfaction, and brand equity through the use of network Data Envelopment Analysis to capture COMC. According to what the value relevance perspective proposes, COMC positively influences the growth of Tobin’s q and improves the growth of analysts’ recommendations. These findings remain robust and consistent with the use of additional measures and methods common to the marketing and financial literatures. Our study provides tools and a framework for analysis for managers to maximize their ability to use marketing strategy to drive performance.

An empirical study of luxury brand marketing effectiveness and its impact on consumer engagement on Facebook

Abstract: Luxury brands have embraced the social media era through marketing communications pointing out the particular attributes of luxury such as high quality, rich pedigree, rarity, personality and placement, as well as using public relations, public figures and typically high pricing, to drive consumer engagement. This paper provides empirical findings about the effectiveness of luxury brand marketing in driving consumer engagement on social media platforms. An empirical study of 52 luxury brands' Facebook pages has been conducted. The findings of this study provide valuable guidance for luxury brand managers and marketing researchers on how to formulate and implement effective social media marketing strategies to leverage their luxury brand's potential.

Looking Beyond the Horizon: How to Approach the Customers' Customers in Business-to-Business Markets

Abstract: Suppliers in business-to-business (B2B) markets often approach their customers' customers with marketing activities. However, marketing research lacks an integrative conceptualization of this phenomenon. The authors address this void by conceptualizing a B2B supplier's marketing approaches to indirect customers. Drawing on a literature review and a qualitative empirical study, the authors identify three indirect customer marketing approaches: direct customer downstream support, cooperative indirect customer marketing, and independent indirect customer marketing. They also propose external (value chain–related) and internal (B2B supplier–related) moderators that influence the relationship between a B2B supplier's marketing approaches to indirect customers and its financial performance. The authors argue that although power constellations and product value contribution in the value chain determine the specific indirect customer marketing approach that will lead to financial success, internal professionaliza...

Essentials of Marketing: A Marketing Strategy Planning Approach

Abstract: Chapter 1: Marketing's Value to Customers, Firms, and Society Chapter 2: Marketing Strategy Planning Chapter 3: Evaluating Opportunities in the Changing Marketing Environment Chapter 4: Focusing Marketing Strategy with Segmentation and Positioning Chapter 5: Final Consumers and Their Buying Behavior Chapter 6: Business and Organizational Customers and Their Buying Behavior Chapter 7: Improving Decisions with Marketing Information Chapter 8: Elements of Product Planning for Goods and Services Chapter 9: Product Management and New-Product Development Chapter 10: Place and Development of Channel Systems Chapter 11: Distribution Customer Service and Logistics Chapter 12: Retailers, Wholesalers, and Their Strategy Planning Chapter 13: Promotion-Introduction to Integrated Marketing Communications Chapter 14: Personal Selling and Customer Service Chapter 15: Advertising, Publicity, and Sales Promotion Chapter 16: Pricing Objectives and Policies Chapter 17: Price Setting in the Business World Chapter 18: Ethical Marketing in a Consumer-Oriented World: Appraisal and Challenges Appendix A - Economics Fundamentals Appendix B - Marketing Arithmetic Appendix C - Career Planning in Marketing