Cultural Brands/Branding Cultures

This conceptual paper examines the interface between culture and business, with specific reference to branding. It argues that, while considerable strides have been made in recent years to develop Arts Marketing theory, the subject now needs to take account of wider social and cultural issues. The paper explores the way in which processes of meaning-making have been theorised in consumption and cultural studies. It argues for a view of the symbolic dimensions of branding practices that positions them within the circuit of culture, as a cultural phenomenon. It is argued that brands are symbolic articulators of production and consumption. In this sense, all brands are representational texts, and are socially, not merely managerially, constructed. Different kinds of cultural brands are identified, including cultrepreneurs, cultural corporates and commercial corporates, and their practices in relation to business and culture are discussed. It is suggested that marketing (including branding) is not a neutral analytical repertoire for the study of exchange relationships, but is itself a particular kind of cultural brand, namely an ideological myopia which operates in the service of capital. It is suggested that Arts Marketing practitioners and scholars consider these wider issues in formulating their marketing practices and research strategies.     

Consumer spirituality

ABSTRACT

Consumers increasingly turn to the marketplace in search of spiritual well-being. In this introduction to the special issue, we unpack the concept of consumer spirituality. We define consumer spirituality as the interrelated practices and processes engaged in when consuming market offerings (products, services, places) that yield 'spiritual utility'. The market offerings are purposely designed to quench consumers’ thirst for meaningful encounters with one’s inner self or a higher external power. We identify three vehicles – materiality, embodiment, and technology – that consumers engage with to access consumer spirituality. By unpacking the concept of consumer spirituality along three themes - (1) shaping markets for consumer spirituality, (2) the means for accessing consumer spirituality, and (3) making sense of and researching consumer spirituality - we provide a future research agenda to advance scholarly explorations of consumer spirituality and to facilitate a systematic development of this nascent body of literature in marketing and consumer research.     

Branded lives: The production and consumption of meaning at work

Over the last number of decades, as a result of regulatory, technological and changing consumer dynamics, many service organisations operate in an increasingly competitive and dynamic external environment. These changes have led to service companies trying to both recruit and retain profitable customers. In order to compete effectively, do companies focus on transaction and relationship marketing activities only or on the balanced delivery of both? Apart from a small body of work (Brodie et al. 1997; Coviello et al. 1997; 2002), the literature has treated transaction and relationship marketing in an isolated and non-integrated fashion. In particular there has been limited consideration of the pertinent issues facing service organisations trying to integrate these two perspectives in practice. This article describes an in-depth study of a service organisation's transaction and relationship marketing activities. In this study theory was used in the development of a conceptual model. This model was used as a framework to guide the study and data collection using one retail bank case. The data were analysed in relation to the transaction and relationship marketing focus and activities of the bank. The findings indicate that resource investment in some aspects of transaction and relationship marketing activities, in practice, was unbalanced compared to the resource investment in a wide range of support activities. The study has implications for research and theory and to those attempting to deliver both transaction and relationship marketing in the context of dynamic and competitive environments.     

Positive management of marketing-operations relationships: the case of an internet retail SME

The Internet has become one of the most competitive retail marketplaces. Companies operating in this area face demanding customers intolerant of any service failure and a large number of competitors. A key issue in how companies can serve this market is the way in which they internally manage the relationship between the marketing and operations departments of the business. These two areas represent the "value adding" core of all organisations. Co-operation and collaboration between these functions is vital for success in a highly competitive marketplace such as internet retail. However, the reality for many organisations is a legacy of functional division, hostility and even hatred. This paper presents case evidence from an internet retailer that has achieved positive working relationships between marketing and operations functions, leveraging this to deliver award winning customer service, growing the business and maintaining profitability.     

An internet marketing framework for the World Wide Web (WWW)

It is likely that the World Wide Web (WWW) will come to play a significant role in the marketing strategies of many organisations, even when it fails to become the dominant marketing communications channel. A framework is required whereby an organisation can assess the potential of, develop a role for, create and manage a WWW site within its marketing strategy. The WWW is an interactive channel offering a potential for many‐to‐many communications to all players in a market. Existing frameworks either fail to recognise the implications of this or else they ignore it. This paper attempts to develop a framework which invites organisations to fundamentally rethink their marketing strategies through consideration of the opportunities presented by the WWW.     

8th International Conference on Corpor@te and M@rketing Communications (CMC)

This article addresses self-gift giving both from a consumer perspective and from the point of view of brands' promotional messages. Self-gifts may be regarded as personal acquisitions which are distinguished from other purchases by a particular motivation and context – quite literally, gifts to oneself. Our knowledge of this phenomenon from the consumer side remains limited, despite evidence of its importance in understanding consumer decisions. Furthermore, there is no empirical research addressing the extent to which organisations make use of the concept of self-gifts in their marketing activities. This paper addresses these gaps using a two-stage methodology. First, it enhances the understanding of self-gift consumer behaviour (SGCB) by 14 in-depth interviews with consumers. Then, drawing on the self-gift themes which emerged from the interviews, it presents the results of a content analysis of marketing communications for two selected product categories. The combined methodology offers new and rich insights into the theoretical understanding of self-gift consumer behaviour and provides recommendations for practitioners differentiating their marketing communications.     

Drivers of sales and marketing collaboration in business-to-business selling organisations

This paper focuses on identifying and exploring the antecedents and consequences of collaboration between the sales and marketing functions within organisations and empirically tests the resulting model. There is evidence to show that collaborative sales and marketing functions have benefits to an organisation in terms of improved business performance, but many organisations have not yet achieved collaborative internal functions. The study identifies five antecedents to collaboration between sales and marketing and tests the proposition that greater collaboration between sales and marketing is linked to benefits in terms of improved business performance.     

Marketing planning: Operationalising the market orientation strategy

Abstract

Despite strong empirical validation of the relationship between market orientation and business performance, the literature is inconclusive on the implementation of the strategy. This paper reviews the implementation of market orientation, and investigates the associations between market orientation and marketing planning and their associations with business performance. A survey of 216 Australian larger business organisations was conducted to find evidence of these relationships. The results highlight a close association between market orientation and marketing planning, with virtually the same level of association between them, and the business performance measures used. This evidence suggests that they arguably represent the same domain. The results suggest that marketing practitioners may use the marketing planning technique as an intangible productive resource to operationalise the market orientation strategy, and use it to design a specific style and magnitude of market orientation suitable for an organisation.     

Interdependencies between Marketing and Public Relations Disciplines as Correlates of Communication Organisation

The academic literature on corporate and marketing communication organisation is characterized by a comparatively large amount of conceptual work, with little detailed empirical analysis to support the theoretical perspectives offered. Following an established line of inquiry in organisational research; an information-processing perspective on organisational structure and design, the article develops and tests the hypothesis that interdependencies between marketing and public relations disciplines are correlated with choices for organisational arrangements. The findings of an exploratory analysis of organisations in the UK suggest, however, that in the majority of cases there is a lack of fit between information processing requirements brought about by the interdependencies between the marketing and public relations disciplines and the information processing capacity accompanying the actual design choices and organisational arrangements made. The practical implications of these findings for practitioners are discussed, and recommendations for further research are made.     

Entrepreneurial Marketing in the Public Sector: The Lessons of Headteachers as Entrepreneurs

This article argues that headteachers of primary schools have been at the forefront of the marketing/entrepreneurship interface since attempts to introduce competitive market forces into the maintained education system. It examines primary school headteachers' marketing strategies and compares them to those of owner managers of small firms. Case studies of ten schools illustrative of a variety of provision and market conditions provided the empirical data over a five year period. The headteachers shared many of the marketing problems of owner-managers of small firms. Headteachers found that the most effective marketing strategies consisted of: i) marketing to improve relationships with existing parents, staff and governors as an essential precursor to any external marketing effort; ii) parental involvement in the school which improved the likelihood of word of mouth recommendations; and iii) influencing such recommendations by marketing to improve parental and other involvement in the school. As word of mouth is also the most important source of new business for small firms, there are opportunities for lessons from the public to the private sector.     

Emerging Strategies for Sponsorship on the Internet

Internet sponsorship is a rapidly evolving communications platform at a fledgling stage for sponsorship-linked marketing. The complex and involving nature of the phenomena offers new research opportunities and the potential for innovative marketing strategies. The Internet presents the opportunity to combine aspects of traditional event/activity sponsorship and media sponsorship innovatively and to extend marketing strategy in new directions. This paper presents an overview of emerging Internet sponsorships strategies, and explores sponsorship extension strategies that relate to media, brand, channel development, consumer experience, and networking. Exploratory case studies confirm and extend the initial strategy discussion. Finally, future directions for researchers and practitioners are suggested.     

Fashion creation and diffusion: The institution of marketing

Abstract

In scholarly discussions, marketing tends to be imagined and (re)presented as a practice of organisations, involving a set of activities, whereby consumer desires are discovered and provided for through two-way communication. By studying the creation and diffusion of fashion, we observe that marketing is not simply a mechanism or set of activities but an institution of modern society that involves all social elements together with consumers and marketing organisations. Through a qualitative inquiry with both consumers and producers, we illustrate how these different elements exercise their roles and responsibilities for marketing to work as an institution. By this illustration, we also provide a perspective on how trickle-up, trickle-across, and trickle-down diffusions are simultaneously operative in fashion. Finally, we articulate the implications of recognising marketing as an institution that will help marketing scholars and practitioners in reorganising and re-strategising their purpose and role in society as modernity evolves.     

Well-being Marketing: An Ethical Business Philosophy for Consumer Goods Firms

In this article we build on the program of research in well-being marketing by further conceptualizing and refining the conceptual domain of the concept of consumer well-being (CWB). We then argue that well-being marketing is a business philosophy grounded in business ethics. We show how this philosophy is an ethical extension of relationship marketing (stakeholder theory in business ethics) and is superior to transactional marketing (a business philosophy grounded in the principles of consumer sovereignty). Additionally, we argue that well-being marketing is based on duty ethics concepts, specifically the duty of beneficence and non-maleficence. Subsequently, we show how the well-being concept guides marketing decisions for consumer goods firms.     

Religion,humanism, marketing,and the consumption of socially responsible products,services, and ideas: Introduction to a special topic section

This introduction to the special issue provides an overview and brief summary of the eight articles that follow and take up the issue's theme. Despite the fact that religion and religious world views exert considerable influence on consumer attitudes and behavior, mainstream business journals have presented little research that explores the relationship between religion and marketing. Articles featured in this special issue examine three themes of interest: (1) the influence of strongly held religious or non-religious world views on the marketing of socially responsible behaviors; (2) how religious world views influence the conduct of marketing; and (3) what marketing scholars can learn from the marketing practices of various religious organizations. The authors extend a note of appreciation to the reviewers of the many papers submitted to the issue and to the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business Research, Arch Woodside.     

Behavioural psychology,marketing and consumer behaviour: a literature review and future research agenda

Abstract

Psychology, along with a wide range of other academic disciplines, has influenced research in both consumer behaviour and marketing. However, the influence of one area of psychology – namely, behaviourism – on research on consumers and marketing has been less prominent. Behaviourism has influenced consumer and marketing research through the application of classical and operant conditioning, matching and foraging theories, amongst other frameworks, during the past 50 years. This article provides a review of research and applications of behavioural psychology in the area, as well as a brief introduction of behavioural psychology for scholars unfamiliar with the area. The article also suggests avenues for further research examining the potential development of behavioural psychology approaches for both consumer and marketing researchers.     

Market Orientation and Organizational Learning Capabilities

The platform of contemporary marketing thought is founded upon the marketing concept. While there has been much debate about the precise nature of this concept, related discussion concerning its manifestation, in the form of a firm's market orientation, has developed to suggest that it is a feature exhibited by organizations possessing superior skills in understanding and satisfying customer needs. Despite the favourable externalities likely to accrue to an organization that is market oriented, it has been claimed that for a firm to achieve its full potential to learn about the marketplace, instilling a market orientation is only a first principle. While market orientation provides the norms for responding to the marketplace, this needs to be complemented by appropriate mechanisms and processes for higher-order learning to occur. This article examines such a conceptual argument and empirically investigates the relationship between two key constructs: market orientation and organizational learning capabilities. Data were generated from a survey of medium and large industrial firms and five dimensions of organizational learning capability items are tested against two different groups of firms in terms of their degree of market orientation. As contrasted with low market orientation firms, organizations characterized by high levels of market orientation perceived greater organizational learning capability with regard to the dimensions of strategic awareness, operational flexibility, strategic development processes and managerial skills. Discussion is given to these findings and implications are drawn for business executives and future research.     

The 'Value Of Marketing' and 'The Marketing Of Value' in Contemporary Times –A Literature Review and Research Agenda

Over the last quarter of a century, it has become increasingly apparent that the traditionally accepted production based view of the value adding process is no longer realistic. Awareness of the value created through the provision of services and the increasing importance of services in the economic and business environment suggests that value can also be created through the consumption process. For marketers to use the value adding potential of consumption to fulfil the marketing concept, the nature of the process and the value created by it need to be investigated. This paper provides an overview of the changing business environment and its implications for our understanding of the concept of value. It examines the increasing interest in the literature in the concept of experiential value and highlights the problems caused by its very personal, idiosyncratic and situational nature; and, suggests a conceptual model around which research into the topic can be organised. Finally, it suggests a methodology for carrying out research that would provide some insight into the factors that cause consumers' perceptions of experiential value to vary so much.     

Marketing the Police – from a Force to a Service

The British police service is a highly visible public sector organisation that in recent years has come under mounting pressures from different stakeholders, including successive Conservative and Labour governments and also an increasingly demanding public. In this setting, various business and management models and concepts have been applied to contemporary policing, but only limited research has been undertaken to date on how marketing has been adopted and utilised across the police forces of the British Isles. This paper explores the context of modern policing and suggests why the police are now being compelled to address marketing more seriously than hitherto. It draws on recent empirical work conducted across the police service and situates this within the existing literature on internal marketing. The paper concludes that marketing is underdeveloped across the police service and argues that police forces should develop their internal marketing as a precursor to successful external marketing.     

A Speeddating Story: The Lover's Guide to Marketing Excellence

Without love – or, at least, its persistence as an idea – our cultural economy would collapse. Who else but the haves, the hopefuls and the have-nots of romantic liaison would sustain the business of restaurants, nightclubs and bars, not to mention the sale of films, books, music, magazines, of everything really? An Italian poet once wrote 'any time that is not spent on love is wasted.' Yet the marketing academy rarely engages in the business of lovemaking, at least in a scholarly capacity. This paper then, considers a potent manifestation of the search for love, speeddating – a form of dating that offers men and women the opportunity to partake in short, multiple dates in one night. It concludes with some guidance for lovers of marketing everywhere, distilled from the speeddating parable, contending that sagacity, self-confidence and courage, while important, are not nearly as fundamental as loving itself, which truly offers a route to marketing excellence.     

Relational marketing: development,debates and directions

Abstract

Relationship marketing (RM) is an umbrella term for a loose collection of ideas and concepts that emerged in different empirical contexts from the late 1970s. Informed by diverse research traditions, it represented at one and the same time an extension of existing ideas within marketing management and a very different way of thinking about marketing. Though cooperation has not been a core element of the marketing management lexicon, debates about cooperation and competition predate the 1970s. Moreover, re-engaging with relational perspectives raises important questions about managerial autonomy and about the utility of the market as a regulating force. The paper calls for the development of a more realistic theory of networks with inputs from both business and consumer marketing contexts.