Integrating marketing and information services functions: a complementarity and competence perspective

Integrating two disparate functions in organizations—marketing and information services (IS)—has become a critical business concern due to the increasing use of information technology (IT) to find and open new markets, deliver improved services to customers, and streamline internal marketing processes. This study appears to be the first to empirically examine the dynamics of bringing these distinct groups of specialists together. We investigate potential antecedents, consequences, and contingencies of IS-marketing integration, drawing on theories of complementarity and competence. Through a survey of IS and marketing executives, we learn that integration is facilitated by trust between the two functions and the interaction between IT strategic intent and customer orientation; it is impeded by a gap in top management knowledge of IT versus marketing. We also find that integration fosters the much-coveted capabilities of developing and introducing innovations (innovativeness) as well as responding flexibly, swiftly, and adroitly to opportunities (strategic responsiveness). Additionally, we determine integration is bounded by market dynamism. In sum, integration between marketing and IS can be enhanced via managerial efforts, and the relationship is profoundly beneficial to businesses.     

我国第三方物流企业的市场营销战略与策略研究

本文通过对第三方物流企业的需求与供给分析，提出第三方物流企业的市场营销战略：一是市场定位以中国大陆地区为基地，以精良的设备、高效的管理制度和高素质的员工队伍，为客户提供订制的个性化的物流服务——个性化战略；二是实现个性化战略的两条基本思路——定位个性化和服务个性化。据此战略指出第三方物流企业相应的营销策略是市场细分策略、价格竞争策略、一对一营销策略、客户资源整合策略、品牌建设策略和营销创新策略等。     

Customer value impact of sales contests

Although firms spend more than $26 billion annually on sales contests, no empirical research has investigated the effects of contests on individual customers. While some short-term firm effects of contests have been documented, the impact on long-term customer value has remained a matter of speculation. This research investigates the long-term customer impact of sales contests, by applying the customer value framework. We add to previous research that has used customer value of marketing programs by employing the acquired, retained, and add-on framework to segment customers based on their purchase history. We develop hypotheses drawing on theories in the buyer behavior, customer loyalty, and sales management domains. By disaggregating the overall customer value into initial and subsequent components, we demonstrate a greater long-term value per customer in the retained customer cohort and lower short-term and long-term value per customer among the two other cohorts (acquired and add-on customers). There is no adverse impact on other drivers of customer value such as customer churn and purchase frequency. While our study focuses on individual customer effects, we note the significantly higher volume of customers during the contest leads to a positive aggregate-level assessment. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for managers and researchers.     

基于价值链理论的旅行社核心竞争力培育途径研究

旅行社企业创造价值的一系列过程构成价值链。通过对传统旅行社价值链分析,发现仅仅以降低顾客交易成本和批量经营的增值方式已不再适应信息化和旅游模式进化发展的当代社会。从顾客价值和体验的角度出发,突破传统价值链模式,提出旅行社应以创新思维在价值链各环节创造更多价值,要重点培育旅行社的产品整合力、品牌营销力、策划创新力、接待服务力和后台管理力,才能真正提高企业核心竞争力。     

Leveraged high-variety strategies: From portfolio thinking to platform thinking

Summary Barbara Kahn correctly points out the importance of creating dynamic relationships with customers and adopting high-variety strategies to succeed in today’s fiercely competitive world. However, high variety is also often high cost and high complexity. In this commentary, I propose that platform thinking is a powerful way to manage these contradictions in becoming a high-variety provider. Platform thinking relies on a simple insight—understand the common strands that tie your firm’s offerings, markets, and processes together, and exploit these commonalities to create leveraged growth and variety. Platform thinking should permeate all aspects of the firm’s strategy and should guide all strategic decisions on diversification and growth. Marketers who master platform thinking may find the 21st century to be a somewhat more inviting prospect. Mohanbir S. Sawhney is an assistant professor of marketing in the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. His research interests include strategic marketing in technology-based industries, marketing decisions for experiential products, and cross-functional integration in new product development. His research has been published inManagement Science andMarketing Science, and his modeling work in the motion picture industry has been widely cited in the trade press. He is a consultant for several large technology firms as well as small Internet start-up firms. His current research projects include strategic planning for market-driving firms, cross-functional product line management, and strategy formulation for digital opportunity arenas.     

Technology-driven service strategy

Advancements in technology are radically transforming service, and increasingly providing the underlying basis for service strategy. In this paper, we develop a typology and positioning map for service strategy, in the context of rapid technological change, and outline the process for firms to position or reposition their service strategies. Which strategy to choose is based on the degree to which customer demand is heterogeneous, and the degree to which potential customer lifetime value varies across customers. This results in four strategies: the McService strategy that is standardized and transactional, the Relational Service strategy that is standardized and relational, the Customized Transaction strategy that is personalized and transactional, and the Adaptive Personalization strategy that is personalized and relational. We provide firms a roadmap for identifying a “sweet spot” strategy in relation to a segment’s realized or potential customer lifetime value, combined with the firm’s technological capabilities. Because technological capabilities inevitably advance, firms will tend to move from standardized to personalized and from transactional to relational over time, implying that firms should be alert to technological opportunities to personalize their relationships with customers. Our strategic framework also produces a useful bridge from marketing practice to the conceptual evolution of the service literature, showing how the historical trends toward continuing customer relationships and co-productive personalization should drive strategic thinking in service.     

Factors influencing the likelihood of customer defection: The role of consumer knowledge

Customer satisfaction is the predominant metric firms use for detecting and managing customers' likelihood to defect. But while satisfaction and defection are related, satisfaction is only a weak predictor of whether a customer will defect. This article suggests that for repurchase decisions that involve an information-based evaluation of alternatives to the incumbent, likelihood of defection will be influenced by “how much” customers know about those alternatives. The relationship between level of knowledge about alternatives and defection is examined in the context of actual health insurance choices. Results suggest that the level of objective and subjective knowledge about alternatives has a direct effect on likelihood of defection—above and beyond satisfaction level. The view of defection forwarded in this article suggests that managers may be able to gain additional control over customer defection through actions aimed at influencing how much customers know (or come to know) about alternative vendors. Anthony J. Capraro (tcapraro@unca.edu), an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, earned his Ph.D. in marketing in 1999 from the University of Texas after having spent 20 years in industry in marketing and marketing management positions. His current research interest focuses on developing and enhancing the value of a firm's customer base. Susan Broniarczyk (Susan.Broniarczyk@bus.utexas.edu), an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, earned her Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Florida. She serves on the editorial boards of theJournal of Consumer Research and theJournal of Marketing Research and the advisory board for the Association for Consumer Research. Her research, which examines consumer decision making and how consumers' knowledge structures affect their reaction to missing or conflicting product information, appears in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of Marketing Research, andOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. Rajendra K. Srivastava (Rajendra.Srivastava@bus.utexas.edu) is the Jack R. Crosby Regent's Chair in Business and a professor of marketing and management science and information systems (MSIS) in the McCombs School of Business at the University Texas at Austin. He is also the Daniel J. Jordan Research Scholar at Emory University. He earned his doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. His research, which spans marketing and finance, has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, and theJournal of Banking and Finance. His current research interests focus on the impact of marketing strategy and market-based assets on corporate financial performance, particularly in the context of technology-intensive products and services.     

Market-based capabilities and financial performance of firms: insights into marketing’s contribution to firm value

While there is recognition that market-based capabilities contribute to a firm’s financial performance, the exposition is largely conceptual (Srivastava et al. Journal of Marketing 62:2–18, 1998; Journal of Marketing 63:168–179, 1999). Using a resource based view of the firm, the present study proposes that (1) market-based assets and capabilities of a firm impacts (2) performance in three market-facing business processes (new product development, supply-chain and customer management), which in turn, influence (3) the firm’s financial performance. It develops related hypotheses and tests the framework empirically. The study also examines for the first time the interrelationship among the three business processes and their impact on the market value of firms. Further, the study examines the moderating influence of two organizational variables—size and age of the firm. Overall, the major contribution of the study is that it offers a process linkage between capabilities, process performance and financial performance. The results of this research will provide strategic insights to managers on optimal customer management, product development and supply chain strategies.

中小商业银行客户贡献度评价及分类研究

以目前已有的客户价值评价模型为基础,对商业银行的企业类客户进行研究,建立其对银行业绩贡献度的评价指标体系,提出客户价值评价模型,对客户消费行为、自身属性等数据进行了挖掘和分析,详细阐述评价方法和过程,并用模糊C-均值聚类方法对客户进行分类,探讨银行对每类客户的营销策略,以期达到保持有价值客户、提升客户层次的目的。实证分析结果表明基于本文提出的对商业银行客户价值的评价方法更为简单、实用,可以为中小商业银行进行客户评价提供决策支持。     

Toward a theory of the boundary-spanning marketing organization and insights from 31 organization theories

Now more than ever, marketing is assuming a key boundary-spanning role—a role that has also redefined the composition of the marketing organization. In this paper, the marketing organization’s integrative and mutually reinforcing components of marketing activities, customer value–creating processes, networks, and stakeholders are delineated within their boundary-spanning roles as a particular emphasis (labeled MOR theory). Thematic marketing insights from a collection of 31 organization theories are used to advance knowledge on the boundary-spanning marketing organization within four areas—strategic marketing resources, marketing leadership and decision making, network alliances and collaborations, and the domestic and global marketplace.     

Do managers know what their customers think and why?

The ability of a firm’s managers to understand how its customers view the firm’s offerings and the drivers of those customer perceptions is fundamental in determining the success of marketing efforts. We investigate the extent to which managers’ perceptions of the levels and drivers of their customers’ satisfaction and loyalty align with that of their actual customers (along with customers’ expectations, quality, value, and complaints). From 70,000 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) customer surveys and 1068 firm (manager) responses from the ACSI-measured companies, our analyses suggest that managers generally fail to understand their firms’ customers in two important ways. First, managers systematically overestimate the levels of customer satisfaction and attitudinal loyalty, as well as the levels of key antecedent constructs such as expectations and perceived value. Second, managers’ understanding of the drivers of their customers’ satisfaction and loyalty are disconnected from those of their actual customers. Among the most significant “disconnects,” managers underestimate the importance of customer perceptions of quality in driving their satisfaction and of satisfaction in driving customers’ loyalty and complaint behavior. Our results indicate that firms must do more to ensure that managers understand how their customers perceive the firm’s products and services and why.     

Do institutional investors pay attention to customer satisfaction and why?

Extant marketing, accounting, and finance research has neglected to examine the relevance of customer satisfaction information for institutional investors, despite their potential importance. This study develops and supports a framework suggesting that firms with positive changes in customer satisfaction are more attractive to transient institutional investors than to non-transient institutional investors. We also find that the impact of customer satisfaction on transient institutional investor holdings is contingent upon firm intangible asset intensity, product-market demand uncertainty, and financial market volatility. In addition, transient institutional investor holdings at least partially mediate the effects of changes in customer satisfaction on firm abnormal return and idiosyncratic risk. Thus, transient institutional investor investments represent a mechanism through which customer satisfaction affects firm value.     

Strategic marketing and marketing strategy: domain,definition, fundamental issues and foundational premises

This paper proposes a domain statement for strategic marketing as a field of study and delineates certain issues fundamental to the field. It also proposes a definition for marketing strategy, the focal organizational strategy construct of the field, and enumerates a number of foundational premises of marketing strategy. The domain of strategic marketing is viewed as encompassing the study of organizational, inter-organizational and environmental phenomena concerned with (1) the behavior of organizations in the marketplace in their interactions with consumers, customers, competitors and other external constituencies, in the context of creation, communication and delivery of products that offer value to customers in exchanges with organizations, and (2) the general management responsibilities associated with the boundary spanning role of the marketing function in organizations. At the broadest level, marketing strategy can be defined as an organization’s integrated pattern of decisions that specify its crucial choices concerning products, markets, marketing activities and marketing resources in the creation, communication and/or delivery of products that offer value to customers in exchanges with the organization and thereby enables the organization to achieve specific objectives. Chief among the issues that are fundamental to strategic marketing as a field of study are the questions of how the marketing strategy of a business is influenced by demand side factors and supply side factors.     

试论营销价值观的五个层次

营销价值观，简单说来即人们对市场营销的意义、作用、效果和重要性的总体评价。营销价值观是市场营销的灵魂。营销价值观及其体系的层次结构由低到高依次为营销产品与服务，营销顾客问题解决方案，营销顾客最大价值，营销顾客成功，营销爱、快乐、幸福。提高营销人的品德和心灵境界是营销价值观提升的核心，树立“爱出者爱返、福往者福来，成就他人就是成就自己”信念，用高层次营销价值观影响顾客、合作伙伴等营销参与者使其高尚起来。     

顾客让渡价值与旅游景区经营管理系统建设

顾客让渡价值理论是一个全新的营销理论,它要求企业着眼于顾客的附加价值,通过各种措施,增加顾客的总价值和降低顾客总成本,以求实现顾客让渡价值最大化.从顾客让渡价值理论角度看,旅游景区经营管理需要以游客为中心,狠抓顾客让渡价值系统建设,提升景区品牌的识别性和竞争力.     

Marketing at the retail shelf: an examination of moderating effects of logistics on SKU market share

Given that the impact of retail shelf facings and price on a product’s market share is of substantial interest to marketing managers in the retail supply chain, we examine whether these relationships may be interdependent with the firm’s supply chain activities. We offer predictions regarding the interdependence of the marketing and supply chain variables using monthly in-store observations from 62 different retail stores from five different chains, taken over a 24-month period. The in-store observations included price and number of facings, which is combined with data obtained from the manufacturer on case pack quantity and market share data from the ACNielsen HomeScan consumer scanner panel. Results indicate that shelf facings impact the effects of price and case pack quantity on market share. In addition, we explore the strength of relationships across retailers employing everyday low price versus HiLo pricing strategies. Generally, our findings suggest that retailers and suppliers must work to integrate marketing activities and supply chain processes both within and across firms to most effectively serve the consumer at the retail shelf and increase market share.     

Proactive customer orientation and its role for creating customer value in global markets

Today??s business customers expect sellers not only to respond effectively to their expressed needs but also to understand their business sufficiently well to proactively address their latent and future needs. Yet, research shows that many firms underestimate, misunderstand, or overlook these customer expectations. To draw clarity to this discrepancy, this study explores the notion of proactive customer orientation and examines the degree to which this capability offers an opportunity for competitive advantage. While research in recent years has explored the role of proactive customer orientation in new product performance, empirical investigation in this stream of market orientation literature is significantly underdeveloped. We assess the impact of the proactive customer orientation construct on value creation by taking a novel approach that examines the proactive customer orientation ?? value ?? satisfaction ?? loyalty chain using data from 800 business customers in India, Singapore, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We find that, relative to other firm capabilities, proactive customer orientation is the most consistent driver of customer value across our multinational data set. Results also show robust effects for the interaction of proactive and responsive customer orientation to create superior value. Several moderating conditions further frame the impact of this capability: intense levels of customer value change, a global relationship scope, and a transnational relationship structure. Overall, findings significantly advance the understanding of the proactive dimension within market orientation and provide marketers with insights for voice of the customer processes.     

Understanding the relationships among brands, consumers, and resellers

This article examines the historical evolution of the relationships among brands, consumers, and resellers in a world increasingly dominated by very large retail organizations with substantial power within the marketing channel. It is widely believed that manufacturers' brands are becoming less important as major retailers are becoming more powerful. This view is based on the mistaken assumption that brands are relationships with consumers, not resellers. Arguments about the decline of brands are often confused with arguments about changes in the brand management function. As major firms redefine their customer as the reseller, not the consumer, there are substantial implications for brand management and the role of the brand manager. Marketing strategy implementation will require increasingly careful coordination of marketing programs with sales strategy to achieve the necessary coordination of reseller- and consumer-targeted communications to maximize the value of the brand to both the retailer and the end user. The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. —Mark Twain, cablegram, 1897 Frederick E. Webster, Jr., is the Charles Henry Jones Third Century Professor of Management in the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. He is a past executive director of the Marketing Science Institute. He is the author ofMarket-Driven Management and Industrial Marketing Strategy and has contributed a chapter on “The Future Role of Marketing in the Organization” inReflections on the Futures of Marketing, published by the Marketing Science Institute in 1997. He earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University.     

管理咨询业的特性及营销策略

本文分析了管理咨询业的无形性、客户高度参与性、服务质量的不确定性、易逝性、知识性、为组织服务等特性。针对这些特性提出五大营销策略，主要内容有：（1）个性化品牌营销；（2）全员营销；（3）以知识为媒介的直接营销；（4）平衡需求；（5）依据服务体验模型，提升服务质量。     

Managing the co-creation of value

Central to service-dominant (S-D) logic is the proposition that the customer becomes a co-creator of value. This emphasizes the development of customer–supplier relationships through interaction and dialog. However, research to date suggests relatively little is known about how customers engage in the co-creation of value. In this article, the authors: explore the nature of value co-creation in the context of S-D logic; develop a conceptual framework for understanding and managing value co-creation; and utilize field-based research to illustrate practical application of the framework. This process-based framework provides a structure for customer involvement that takes account of key foundational propositions of S-D logic and places the customer explicitly at the same level of importance as the company as co-creators of value. Synthesis of diverse concepts from research on services, customer value and relationship marketing into a new process-based framework for co-creation provide new insights into managing the process of value co-creation.