Up,up and away: social marketing breaks free

Abstract

The social marketing literature has been dominated by questions about the field’s legitimacy along with the ethical and other implications of its relationship with commercial marketing. In reviewing social marketing’s origins and considering its future, this paper acknowledges then moves beyond these concerns, enabling a focus on the opportunities created for this vibrant field in the current environment. Three thematic areas frame the paper’s discussion: the legitimacy of social marketing as a field in its own right; the broadening and deepening of the field and the consequences for social change; and the strengths and opportunities arising out of social marketing’s relationship with mainstream marketing. The paper reviews social marketing’s origins, before considering how the field might draw on the turbulent environment and the dynamic developments taking place within marketing to shape its future.     

An environmental social marketing intervention among employees: assessing attitude and behaviour change

Abstract

The paper examines the impact of individual and organisational factors on two simultaneous environmental social marketing interventions (SmartPrint and heating/cooling) and types of behaviours (recycling, printing and heating/cooling), among employees of a British City Council. Using a quantitative methodology, in the form of a situated experiment, self-reported attitudes, perceptions of organisational support, self-reported behaviours and actual behaviours were measured before and after the interventions. The interventions generated significant changes in employees’ overall environmental behaviour, heating/cooling behaviour and in some perceptions of organisational support (support and incentives/rewards). Findings are used to detail recommendations for future campaigns aiming to improve organisations’ environmental performance and to drive enduring employee behavioural change.     

Feel the VIBE: Examining value-in-the-brand-page-experience and its impact on satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours in mobile social media

A critical issue for marketing managers is how best to orchestrate branded social media consumption experiences via mobile applications. This is important because in a mobile first world, these experiences are perceived to be valuable to consumers which in turn facilitate positive consumer behaviour toward the brand. So far, marketing literature offering managerial guidance on this issue remains limited. To this end, this study investigates for the first-time consumer perceptions of ‘Value-In-The-Brand-Page-Experience’ (VIBE), a multidimensional construct, in an emerging market setting of China. China represents an appropriate contextual condition to study given its high mobile penetration and its integration within consumer's lifestyle. This study further examines the impact of VIBE on customer satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours toward the brand via a survey of 714 Chinese consumers. The results substantiate the VIBE framework which contributes to the sparse conceptual development of value perceptions in mobile social media. Furthermore, it confirms the existence of a value–satisfaction–customer engagement behaviour chain. The findings are managerially relevant and focus on leveraging the components of VIBE. These components act as key mechanisms for unlocking customer satisfaction and customer engagement behaviours for brands in the domain of mobile social media.     

Value co-creation and social media: Investigating antecedents and influencing factors in the U.S. retail banking industry

This study seeks to examine and unearth antecedents to co-creation behaviours within a U.S. retail banking context. A critical aspect for marketing managers and academics alike, co-creation has a strong influence on tangible factors such as profit and intangible factors such as referrals, satisfaction and feedback. Antecedents were identified as trust, customer engagement and participation attitude whilst social media usage was a consumer characteristic identified as influencing co-creation. Data was collected from 489 U.S. retail banking customers via an online survey. The data was analysed via structural equation modelling. The findings indicate that customer engagement influences trust, co-creation and participation attitude. Participation attitude was found to influence trust and co-creation but trust had no direct effect on co-creation. The study further found that social media usage intensity influenced co-creation behaviours. The findings contribute in three ways. First, this is one of the first studies to scrutinise participation attitude in an attempt to explain co-creation behaviours for U.S. banks over social media. Second, identification of precursors to value co-creation has been ascertained in a U.S. retail banking social media context. Third, the study additionally contributes to the findings that social media usage has a moderating effect in value co-creation and offers a potential segmentation strategy.     

‘From a mother to another’: creative experiences of sharing used children’s clothing

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how consumers deliberate and incorporate concerns for sustainability in their consumption behaviours, through the lens of children’s clothing provisioning. Frustrated by the limited acknowledgement for sustainable issues within the UK mass market fashion retail sector, the participants reveal engaging with social innovation exchange initiatives, including networks of used children’s clothing. The research is informed by 28 professionally working mothers who navigate between meeting the social needs of themselves and their family with their growing knowledge for sustainability. The networks are symbolic of shared social values and building supportive communities that provided emotional and practical pathways for family provisioning. The research illustrates how societal discourse around sustainability is growing and how alternative market structures provide routes that appeal to consumers practically, socially and ideologically. Moreover, the research contributes to understanding opportunities that advance the sustainability agenda, for marketing, social innovation initiatives and progressing sustainable businesses.     

Green Marketing: A Theoretical Perspective

The theoretical view of green marketing, derived from within institutional economics, environmental politics, and technological theory, is a multi-disciplinary perspective suggesting that a potential environmental crisis resides not necessarily in specific behaviours but rather within the dominant social paradigm (DSP) of Western industrial societies. Effective policies and strategies then must recognize the crisis as one of paradigms. This paper addresses the failure of contemporary green marketing to move beyond the limitations of the prevailing paradigm. While there are nascent macro developments in marketing thought that might lead to a truly green marketing considering sustainability, holistic thought, and the limitations of the prevailing paradigm, they remain thus far on the periphery of the discipline. They will remain so until a broader, multi-disciplinary approach incorporating the multiple dimensions of the DSP is developed.     

The influence of individual and firm level social capital of marketing managers in a firm’s global network

Firm success is dependent, to a degree, on a marketing manager’s ability to develop social capital within the firm’s global network. A model is developed employing individual social capital (both internal and external) as the foundation for three types of firm level social capital (i.e., customer, business partner and governing agency) resident in a firm’s global network. It is theorized that customer, business partner and governing agency social capital provide a basis for enhancing customer value delivery and thus firm performance. Specific marketing management strategies necessary for the development of each type of firm level social capital, as well as the benefits derived from each type of social capital are presented. This analysis raises a number of previously unexplored research issues concerning the nature and scope of social capital in a firm’s global network and how social capital can be employed in a global marketplace.     

The Fort McMurray demonstration project in social marketing: Health- and safety-related behaviour in a prosperous industrial community

Abstract

This is the first in a series of surveys conducted in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, as part of the Fort McMurray Demonstration Project in Social Marketing. The Project is a community-based, cooperative program designed to demonstrate and to evaluate the application of social marketing and community animation to health- and safety-promoting interventions. This baseline survey was for the purpose of planning specific interventions and to support evaluation of the impact of these interventions. In 1992, a survey of Fort McMurray residents was conducted by telephone. Respondents to the survey tended to be disproportionately women (60%) and aged 30 to 44 (men 55%, women 54%). Most of the findings reported describe a generally affluent community with good self-reported health status and satisfaction in the quality of life. Occupational and personal health-and safety-related behaviours showed some contradictions. Both hearing protection and eye protection are much more frequently practiced at work than at home by both men and women. Protection from ultraviolet radiation, in the form of sunscreens or clothes cover, is practiced with about the same frequency at home or at work, suggesting that this behaviour is conditioned by lifestyle attitudes. Warm-up exercises are much more commonly practiced by both men and women before exertion at home than at work. We conclude that safety-related practices at home and at work are often at variance. The strategy of encouraging generalization of safety-related behaviours, to be practiced consistently both at home and at work, seems to hold promise for achieving greater compliance and promoting both community and workplace safety.     

中国当下的团购网站成败因素分析研究——以淘宝聚划算为例

中国的团购网站在近2年以来呈现了不断增长的趋势,面对良莠不齐的团购网站,市场的淘汰也是很残酷的。目前团购网站大量倒闭,倒闭数量远远大于新增网站数量。本文主要以聚划算为研究对象,从其发展历程、优势分析、案例、营销策略等几个方面进行阐述和分析,希望对中国团购市场的发展起到一定的引导作用。     

An Analysis of Cause-Related Marketing Implementation Strategies Through Social Alliance: Partnership Conditions and Strategic Objectives

Cause-related marketing (CRM) is an effective marketing tool for promoting corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and the bulk of campaigns are designed and delivered through collaborative ‘social’ alliances with non-profit organisations (NPOs). The authors seek to uncover some of the factors that explain how firms and NPOs choose their potential partners in the development of their CRM strategy. The rationales for the observed patterns are investigated through semi-structured interviews conducted with managers employed by the UK-based firms and NPOs. The authors find that each party has specific preferences when choosing the particular CRM implementation strategies in different situations, as well as different initial positions when negotiating the formation of the social alliance. This article contributes to our understanding of the CRM implementation strategies and both the company’s and the NPO’s behaviours toward each of the strategies.     

Consuming apart,together: the role of multiple identities in sustainable behaviour

Although consumers’ awareness of the environmental and ethical consequences of their behaviour has grown, research on the role of multiple consumer identities in sustainability behaviours is scarce. The aim of the current study was to explain sustainable behaviour from a social identity perspective. We conducted a longitudinal cross‐national within‐subjects design consumer study in six countries (T1, N=3083; T2, N=1440). The results indicate that environmental sustainability can comprise several distinct yet overlapping sustainable behaviours. Multiple social identities seem to play different roles in these different behaviours. Therefore, efforts to enhance different sustainability behaviours are challenging yet promising. Once consumers incorporate a sustainable behaviour, it becomes part of their own identity and could lead to spill over effects on other closely related sustainable behaviours.     

The Consequences of Consumers’ Use of Pre-Existing Social Relationships to Make Purchases

In this article, we extend and refine previous research on marketing relationships by specifically examining consumers’ use of pre-existing social relationships (i.e., friendships) with firm representatives to make purchases. This study identifies the various consequences of using pre-existing social relationships and integrates these new outcomes with existing research to develop a cohesive theoretical framework. Doing so highlights the unique advantages of developing stronger relationships between firms and customers, while also extending marketing scholars’ and practitioners’ understanding of relationship marketing. Finally, this study links the outcomes of using these relationships to important marketing constructs, such as satisfaction and loyalty.     

Investigating generational differences in e-WOM behaviours

Marketers have generally assumed actionable differences exist between Gen X and Gen Y, particularly with regard to electronically mediated marketing. Using a mixedmethod approach, this study investigates whether generational differences exist in electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) behaviours. Through focus group research, attitudes and behaviours toward e-WOM were elicited from members of both generations. From these sessions, propositions were developed and tested. The findings suggest that, although there are structural differences in the media used to spread e-WOM – with Gen Y more heavily engaged with social networking media and Gen X more reliant on email – the two generations’ motivations and behaviours are strikingly similar. Few differences were found in technology skills or attitudes toward technology. Implications for marketing theory are discussed. Practical implications for managers seeking to generate e-viral ‘buzz’ are also offered.     

Forward looking or looking unaffordable? Utilising academic perspectives on corporate social responsibility to assess the factors influencing its adoption by business

The paper demonstrates its ‘CSR at a tipping point’ thesis by juxtaposing views of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as essential for business and societal sustainability against those that see CSR as unaffordable or irrelevant in the current economic climate. Drawing from Kohlberg's seminal theory of moral development, CSR is conceptualised as the development of organisation moral reasoning, and the proposition is illustrated by demonstrating inter‐disciplinary similarities in levels of ethical concern within different approaches to the practice of marketing, human resource management (HRM) and performance management. Levels of concern for CSR are related to environmental and firm‐specific drivers and constraints that influence the CSR dynamic. Environmental influences on organisational CSR stances emanate from a range of stakeholder constituencies, while the importance accorded to CSR is also influenced by firm‐specific factors such as the organisation's stage of development, strategy and leadership. The paper's identification of inter‐disciplinary similarities in the varying levels of concern for CSR and its delineation of CSR drivers and constraints contribute to CSR theory, and these frameworks also represent analytical tools that managers can use to assess or to change an organisation's CSR stance. The multi‐level perspective on CSR adopted by the paper links an organisation's overall or ‘macro’ CSR stance to the ‘meso’ levels of CSR represented by practice within its specialist functions. It proposes that the ‘CSR at a tipping point’ proposition is assessed by utilising the conceptual model in the paper within a case‐study research design to determine whether specific organisations – identified as ‘CSR‐positive’ ones by their relatively high level of concern for stakeholder welfare – are changing the importance they accord to CSR as a result of the new business context, and the extent to which practice in their marketing, HRM and performance management functions are shapers or consequences of this.     

Impacts of Instrumental Versus Relational Centered Logic on Cause-Related Marketing Decision Making

The purpose of cause-related marketing is to capitalise on a firm’s social engagement initiatives to achieve a positive return on a firm’s social investment. This article discusses two strategic perspectives of cause-related marketing and their impact on a firm’s decision-making regarding campaign development. The instrumental dominant logic of cause-related marketing focuses on attracting customers’ attention in order to generate sales. The relational dominant logic of cause-related marketing focuses on building relationships with the target stakeholders through the enhancement of a firm’s legitimacy. The combination of these two types of logic gives rise to four types of cause-related marketing: altruistic, commercial, social and integrative. This paper uses the qualitative method to explore a firm’s marketing decision choices regarding campaign-related decision dimensions—campaign duration, geographical scope, cause selection, and implementation strategy—for each type of cause-related marketing. The finding provides theoretical, managerial and public policy implications.     

Engaging the commodified face: the use of marketing in the child adoption process

This paper evaluates the ethical consequences of the use of marketing techniques in the child adoption process within England and Wales. Since 1995 the political climate in the UK has seen a reassessment of the manner in which the state organises care for children who are within its legal guardianship. Successive UK governments have acknowledged the under‐utilisation of child adoption as a moral and efficient means of child‐care. However, the presentation of child adoption in a more active fashion involves concerns about the manner in which child adoption has been organised. Increasingly child adoption organisations and social work professionals are being made accountable through the language of customer service and performance measurements. The use of commercial techniques such as marketing is justified on utilitarian grounds. However, any utilisation of marketing within the child adoption process is forced to ensure that the child is not de‐centred. Legislation requires that the needs and welfare of the child are the first consideration for the adoption agency. Here we begin to see tensions between the humanitarian project that is child adoption, and the unease produced by viewing the child as human ‘product’. This invites analysis via critical theory. The use of marketing in child adoption raises issues related to the objectification and commodification of the child and prospective adopters. Within child adoption it is assumed that we must engage with the child as ‘face’ (Bauman, 1995). But will these assumptions stand the encroachment of marketing techniques into this very sensitive area?     

Social Media Marketing Management: A Conceptual Framework

Managers today face many challenges when using social media in their marketing strategies. Drawing from social media literature, this study introduces a new framework to assist managers in developing and using social media as a marketing tool. This framework has four dimensions related to the actions managers perform when implementing and engaging with social media: messaging/projecting, monitoring, assessing, and responding. Each dimension of the framework may be applied differently based on the firm’s strategic direction or focus. The framework provides an opportunity for a firm to examine the entire scope of social media marketing from a broad strategic perspective as well as a more tactical perspective. Propositions formulated by the authors suggest how organizations with different strategic characteristics may manage social media differently. The study provides an understanding for managers of the variety of issues related to the specific aspects of maintaining a firm’s online presence based on a firm’s scope, culture, structure, and governance.     

Social influence and green consumption behaviour: a need for greater government involvement

ABSTRACT

Within the green marketing literature, there has been a tendency to focus on the individual when explaining green consumption behaviours (GCBs) rather than looking at the wider social factors that may influence green practices. The main objective of this article is to gain a greater understanding of how consumers’ GCBs are influenced by the social environment, within a social cognitive framework. A total of 20 individual interviews and 10 joint interviews took place with consumers who did not always behave in accordance with their pro-environmental values, and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Our analysis shows how consumers’ GCBs are influenced by other individuals; however, if we want to see a greater commitment to green consumption practices, government bodies need to take a more active role.