Industrial product positioning: Progmatic uses

With increased competition and sophistication in the industrial sector, a better understanding of buyer behavior and attitudes is necessary to minimize “marketing myopia” and maximize marketing productivity. Numerous techniques are emerging to facilitate greater understanding of the buyer. A group of these techniques, known as product positioning, are likely to be especially useful in developing effective marketing programs [8]. Product positioning has achieved substantial acceptance by consumer marketing firms but far less use by industrial firms [9]. An approach to product positioning which is useful in both industrial and consumer marketing is developed here.     

Statistical analysis and design in marketing journal articles

The use of statistical analysis in 922 articles from the 1980 through 1985 issues of the Journal of The Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), the Journal of Marketing (JM), the Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), and the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) was analyzed. A reader with no statistical background can understand 31, 56, 9, and 21 percent of the articles respectively in these four journals. Knowledge of regression and analysis of variance is important in comprehending many of the articles. Thirty-eight percent of the JAMS articles and 25, 57 and 56 percent, respectively, of the other three journals make use of these statistical techniques. Knowledge of any other single statistical method, except for factor analysis used in the JMR, provides only a marginal increase in the understanding of the literature. JAMS, JMR and JCR report extensive use of experimental designs, while the JM focuses on archival and survey types of designs. The tabulations in this paper should prove useful to marketing practitioners planning self-development and to faculty who teach undergraduates, graduates, and professional development courses. Several suggestions for increasing the accessibility of journal articles are proposed.     

The impact of a specialty retail center on downtown shopping behavior

This article describes a three year longitudinal study of the impact of the opening of a specialty retail center on shopping, dining-out, and entertainment behavior of a random sample of residents of a major metropolitan area. The results show a dramatic increase in the percentage of residents who visited the specialty center for dining-out and entertainment with a residual effect of increased visits to surrounding cultural and entertainment facilities. Federal Trade Commission