Stealth marketing as a strategy

Stealth marketing has gained increasing attention as a strategy during the past few years. We begin by providing a brief historical review to provide some perspective on how this strategy has been practiced in a myriad of ways in various parts of the world, and how it has consequently evolved in the emerging new marketplace. A more inclusive definition of stealth marketing is then proposed to conceptually understand its use in various contexts. Specifically, we propose a new typology of stealth marketing strategies based on whether businesses or competitors are aware of them, and whether they are visible to the targeted customers. We further provide suggestions of how firms can counter the stealth marketing strategies used by their competitors. Contrary to conventional wisdom, evidence is also provided about how such strategies can be used for “doing good” for society. Finally, the assessment of efficiency and effectiveness of stealth marketing strategies, and their related ethical implications, are discussed.     

Communication and marketing of services by religious organizations in India

Marketing communication is a vital strategic tool for religious organizations to achieve competitive differentiation. The study uses media richness theory with competitive response to develop hypotheses about the use of personal and non-personal channels by religious organizations. The study uses unique primary survey data on 568 Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Jain organizations spread over 7 states in India, collected between 2006 and 2008, to investigate the marketing communication strategy of religious organizations in response to their competitors' use of non-personal communication channels and provision of non-religious services. The findings suggest that if a competitor uses higher non-personal communication channels, then this evokes a retaliatory reaction with the incumbent, increasing their personal communication channels. Second, an incumbent who is more responsive to a competitor increasing their non-religious service provision will respond by increasing their non-personal communication channels and by decreasing their personal channels. The findings have implications for managers who need to select the richness of the media for their communications' strategy in the context of competitive response.     

Pleasantly surprising clients: a tactic in relationship marketing for building competitive advantage in the financial services sector

The turbulent environment in which financial institutions evolve motivates strategic thinking aimed at competitive advantage. Drawing from the literature on relationship marketing, one potentially successful strategy at the level of front line service is for financial advisors to behave in a pleasantly surprising way toward their clients (e.g., acknowledging a family member's birthday; covering a parking expense; giving tickets to an entertainment venue). We examine both antecedents and consequences of clients' perceptions of their advisors behaving in a pleasantly surprising way toward them. Antecedents included advisors' customer orientation, knowledge of client, and sense of humour. Consequences included clients' trust, satisfaction, purchase intentions, and word‐of‐mouth intentions. Several strategic recommendations and research avenues following from these findings are offered. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Recycling as a marketing problem: A framework for strategy development

This article provides a framework for integrating past recycling research by conceptualizing recycling compliance as a marketing problem. Within a social marketing framework, recycling behavior is considered the product, and the marketing problem is to sell recycling to the consumers or public. Recycling research is then categorized as consumer research (research on characteristics of the recycler), pricing research (research on the costs to the consumer, including implicit or less tangible costs), distribution research (research on modes of participation for the recycler), and promotional research (research on intervention strategies such as raffles and contests, personal selling techniques such as block leader programs, and persuasive communications). Using this framework, we provide an integration of a vast amount of recycling research, and also suggest how this research can be used to design actionable strategies for the development of community recycling programs. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Mindfulness as a strategy for sustainable competitive advantage

This conceptual article explores how mindfulness can be successfully integrated in the strategy tool kit of organizations. The likely global reconstruction in the aftermath of COVID-19 can be effective if organizations reexamine their existing philosophies and business practices. Against this backdrop, mindfulness is a time-tested practice that has the potential to transcend all functions in a company’s value chain and to create a sustainable competitive advantage. This article uses a strategy lens to examine mindfulness in organizations, which has implications for researchers and practitioners. First, I discuss the theoretical frameworks of mindfulness, the performance improvements that individuals can expect from consistent practice, and how these improvements translate to organization-level performance. Next, I summarize the methods and tools for workplace application and the steps for implementing mindfulness strategies in organizations. Finally, I describe implementation challenges and offer assessment tools for mindfulness.     

Impact of culture on marketing strategy: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features eleven articles selected from the papers presented during the fourth meeting of the Royal Bank International Research Seminar which took place in Montreal at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, September 23 and 24, 2007. They cover topics related to culture and marketing communications, consumer socialization, materialism, identity and religiosity, service quality, language effects, consumer revenge behavior and government actions.     

Textile marketing: a status report

This exploratory study investigated the status of textile marketing in the United States by (a) examining the textile industry's use of effective marketing techniques, and (b) identifying common problems and needed improvements in textile marketing. The procedure followed these steps: (a) effective marketing techniques were identified, (b) interviews were conducted with nine textile executives and four individuals representing the United States textile industry at large, and (c) the respondents' statements about textile marketing practices were analysed for evidence of effective marketing techniques, common textile marketing problems and needed inprovements in textile marketing. The results indicated that only five of the thirteen respondents described textile firms that were using effective marketing techniques, but some textile firms were using effective marketing techniques and this should be an incentive for other textile firms. Several common problems and needed improvements in textile marketing were also identified. Because of the small sample size, the open-ended questions, and the subjective analysis of the respondents' statements, this study must be regarded as exploratory. However, representative statements from the respondents are presented and these statements are informative about textile marketing practices.     

The pharmacist as a drug information supplier in hospitals: A view from services marketing

The aim of this study is to gain insight into how the information supply services of the pharmacist and his or her potential competitors are seen by physicians. In the context of the upcoming professionalization trend of the pharmacist we are interested in determining how the hospital pharmacist can position himself as a drug information supplier and what factors are critical for his or her success. A research framework is presented which explains the selection process and use of personal drug information sources by hospital physicians. Data was collected from a sample of 329 Dutch internists. Overall, subspecialized physicians and supporting medical specialists were perceived as the most important sources of information for internists. The hospital pharmacist was perceived as lacking in expertise in the areas of therapy choice and implementation of the therapy and as being competent in the diagnosis-related cases. Regression analyses showed that technical and process dimensions significantly relate to the overall perceived quality with an information supplier. Pharmacists and others who were perceived as less important sources of information can use the results of this study to strengthen their position.     

Globalization, culture, and marketing strategy: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features eleven articles selected from the papers presented during the fifth meeting of the Royal Bank International Research Seminar which took place in Montreal at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University, September 25 and 26, 2009. They cover topics related to globalization, cultural values, global consumer behavior, market segmentation, marketing strategies of emerging economies, consumer socialization, materialism, service quality, and government actions.     

Incorporating sales and marketing considerations into a competitive multi-echelon distribution network design problem with pricing strategy in a stochastic environment

This paper presents a multi-echelon distribution network design problem with pricing strategy in a stochastic environment, where location, inventory, and pricing decisions in retail and wholesale channels are made simultaneously. The considered network is comprised of a central warehouse, a set of distribution centers, and a set of retailers and wholesalers. The objective of the problem is to maximize the supply chain profit. The decisions include the location of distribution centers and the allocation of retailers and wholesalers to them, order-size for each distribution center and product price at retail and wholesale channels for different payment conditions. A mixed-integer nonlinear mathematical model was formulated and solved using the Lagrangian relaxation method and a Genetic algorithm. Computational results indicate that Lagrangian relaxation algorithm has good performance in terms of objective function value and runtime, even in large sized problems.     

Anatomy of competitive advantage: towards a contingency theory of entrepreneurial marketing

Entrepreneurial marketing (EM), born out of the practice of firms operating in conditions of uncertainty, is emerging as a powerful alternative to cope with the decreasing effectiveness associated with traditional marketing. In this article, the authors provide their collective position regarding the field of EM. A brief history and conceptual background of EM is presented and the contextual differences that have shaped its evolution are considered. Distinctions between traditional and EM are derived based on discussions of the concepts of size, speed, market, opportunity, risk, and uncertainty. The perspective of value co-creation in uncertainty is used to develop a contingency framework to serve as the foundation towards a general theory of EM. Operand and operant resources and environmental conditions are proposed to moderate the EM process from opportunity recognition to entrepreneurial organization, EM, and temporary competitive advantage. The theoretical facets are illustrated with seven propositions and directions for future research.     

Commentary: advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond

ABSTRACT

Shelby Hunt provides an insightful, precise essay on the nature and contribution of the field of marketing across five distinct periods and concludes with a discussion of the potential for the field of marketing, both within marketing and across allied fields of management. This ‘promise’ of marketing’s academic future is followed by a discussion of the key factors likely to play a significant role in lessening the contribution of the field. The purpose of this commentary is to focus on Hunt’s key question regarding Era V: Is the future of the marketing discipline promising or problematic? As such, this commentary addresses four issues: (1) the ‘promising’ assets that the discipline has in play; (2) the slide towards academic irrelevance and, thus, the ‘problem’; (3) Hunt’s observations on how the slide might be reversed; and (4) my viewpoint on what can be done to reverse the slide.     

The contribution of marketing to competitive success: A literature review

This paper reviews the literature relating to the practice of marketing and its relation to corporate success, examining pertinent concepts and issues. The marketing factors thought to be determinants of success are categorised as attitudinal, strategic and tactical factors, and these provide the framework against which enhanced corporate performance through marketing effort is analysed. The final section of the paper presents a summary of observations on the literature reviewed.     

Personal constructs: Their use in the marketing of intangible services

Marketing services requires identification of consumer's perceptions of salient attributes for positioning. Personal constructs (Kelly 1963) are at the core of consumers' determination of the degree to which attributes exist within phenomenon. Using Kelly's notion of personal constructs, this paper proposes a conceptual framework from which intangible attributes can be “tagged” to tangible signs.     

时不我待 后发制人——后奥运时代的营销策略探讨

伴随着北京奥运会的圆满落幕,中国开始进入一个“后奥运时代”。表面看来,奥运营销的话题已经接近尾声,然而,08奥运对于中国企业的意义却远未止步于此。在宏观环境上,奥运会对中国的经济、文化甚至国家形象所带来的巨大推动力,毫无疑问会持续惠及中国企业。因此,如何借势“后奥运”同借势奥运一样,成为中国企业尤其是赞助商眼下必须关注的关键点。     

Internal marketing: a qualitative study of culture change in the UK banking sector

This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study carried out in the UK retail-bank sector on the implementation of Internal Marketing (IM). While the overall aim of Internal Marketing is the creation of a unified culture around the values of customer service, employee empowerment and service quality, the evidence suggests that Internal Marketing is perceived and enacted in ways that at times contradict such managerial rhetoric. The paper sheds light on what internal marketing is (its underlying principles within the organisations studied), the ways in which the banks studied use it in order to change their organisational culture as well as the difficulties encountered in implementing IM as a culture change agent. It concludes that the implementation of Internal Marketing in the banks under the study is problematic and does not result into a unified organisation culture. Indeed, implementing Internal Marketing is a process fraught with difficulty, which at times leads to divisions, ruptures and ambiguity in the newly created organisational culture.     

Ethical decision making: An investigation of services marketing professionals

This study investigates the relative influences of professional values and selected demographic variables on the ethical perceptions of services marketing professionals. The relationship between ethical perceptions and ethical judgments of service marketers is also examined. The data were obtained from a mail survey of the American Marketing Association's professional members of service industries. The survey results indicate a positive relationship between a service professional's professional values and his/her perceptions of ethical problems. The results also suggest that ethical judgments of a service professional can be partially explained by his/her perceptions of ethical problems. Implications of the research findings were discussed. Anusorn Singhapakdi is Associate Professor of Marketing at Old Dominion University. His research has been primarily in the areas of marketing/business ethics. He published in various journals such as Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. He has presented papers at various professional conferences including the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Marketing Science.C. P. Rao is Eminent Scholar and William B. Spong Chair in Marketing and International Business at Old Dominion University. He has also served on the Marketing faculty at the University of Arkansas and at the Indian Institute of management. He participated in the ICAME program at Stanford University. Dr. Rao was awarded the C.P.M. (Certified Purchasing Manager) by the National Association of Purchasing Manager. Dr. Rao is a frequent contributor to many leading journals and has received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award in the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas three times. Scott J. Vitell is Associate Professor and Phil B. Hardin Chair of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. His work has appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Research in Marketing as well as various other journals and proceedings.     

Organizational culture in a terminally ill hospital

This study analyzed an organizational culture in a community hospital in Texas to measure organizational culture change and its impact on Patient Satisfaction (PS). The study employed primary and secondary data, combining quantitative and qualitative methods for a case study. Participant observation was used and archival data were collected to provide a better understanding of the organizational culture and the context in which change was taking place. This study also applied a "Shared Vision" of the organization as the central process in bringing forth the knowledge shared by members of the community hospital who were both subjects and research participants. The results from the study suggest an increase in PS due to the shared vision of one subculture within the hospital. There were powerful subcultures in this organization based on occupation and specialization, and their interests and functional orientations were not conducive to a systems approach. Hospital management was conducted in "silos" and there was lack of feedback between organizational levels of the hospital, especially in financial management, with organizational dysfunctionality in reacting and adapting to the health care market.     

Analysing marketing customization strategies in Australasian firms: a framework for services and goods exporters

Previous studies suggest that services and goods marketers can share internationalization and market entry frameworks. Very little research has investigated any similarity of marketing customization frameworks of services and goods exporters. This study has proposed a common customization framework, which was examined using the experiences of 101 services and goods firms operating in a highly different environment. It was found that the marketing environment–marketing strategy framework for service and good exporters was mostly similar, but that the extent of the influence of selected factors was stronger for service firms. The framework of marketing strategy–performance was confirmed to be mostly similar. The results of this study suggest that, after internationalization and market entry mode theories, a common marketing customization framework can probably be identified across selected services and goods sectors.