Using humor in the industrial selling process

Humor is an oft used promotional tool in advertising, and the question naturally arises as to whether humor can also be designed to accomplish specific goals in the industrial selling process. In this article, principles of humor are applied to the buyer/seller process, with particular reference to the steps of the sale. The judicious use of humor by the industrial salesperson can enhance the sales presentation and favorably influence the overall buyer/seller relationship, provided the salesperson has adequate knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of humor.     

The role of humor usage on creativity,trust and performance in business relationships: An analysis of the salesperson-customer dyad

Using humor wisely is known to have many benefits in a work-related setting. Despite these potential benefits, there is limited research on this phenomenon in a business-to-business selling context. In light of this absence, the authors introduce a theoretical model explaining the role of humor usage in a salesperson-customer encounter. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to examine the simultaneous influence of salesperson humor usage on creativity and customer trust, which in turn affect objective sales performance. Using 149 salesperson-customer dyads from a cross-industry survey, the results indicate that (1) salesperson humor usage positively influences salesperson creativity and customer trust, (2) which in turn mediates the influence of humor on objective sales performance. In addition, (3) customer trust also influences word-of-mouth propensity and expectation of relationship continuity. The article's broader contribution is that humor usage may be a fundamental human ability that is central for enhancing creativity and developing strong relationships in a business-to-business setting.     

论卡通人物在广告中的作用

广告中应用了卡通人物,能够引起消费者注意,激发消费者的购买欲望的作用,同时它具有喜剧、夸张、幽默、简洁、明快趣味的方式,给人们心理上造成一种愉悦快乐的情绪,使观众过目不忘,充满在幻想的世界里。     

Improving mail survey responses from industrial organizations

A considerable amount of evidence has shown that some of the techniques that enhance response in mail surveys of industrial respondents differ from those that increase response rates in mail surveys of the general public. In this article a number of suggestions are offered for obtaining, on a consistent basis, a 50% to 70% response within two to five weeks in mail surveys of industrial respondents.     

A survey of sales management practices

When ascertaining what sales management tools and practices to use, one approach would be for sales managers to compare the tools and practices they are presently using (or contemplating) with those used in other firms. This article provides sales managers with the opportunity for such a comparison by presenting the results of a study that examined what tools and practices sales managers are currently employing.     

Direct mail response factors for an industrial service

This article addresses the lack of quantitative research on industrial services marketing communications by providing a quantitative study of a direct mail promotion for an industrial service. Prenotification, the structure of the letter, the ethnic background of the signatory, personalization, and prequalifying the respondent were tested as factors influencing the response rate in the direct mail promotion. The results are useful as baseline information for current practitioners and to provide insights for the future development of theories of marketing communications for industrial services.     

An experimental approach to segmenting buyers of marketing research

Successful industrial market segmentation may often depend on the marketer's ability to identify key characteristics influencing purchase preferences. Environmental, organizational, and personal factors are all potential determinants of buyer response patterns. Recent attention to microsegmentation processes has focused interest on personal level factors and how these are modified by organizational and situational variables. Utilizing a simulated buying experiment, this study explores a simplified approach to microsegmentation that emphasizes information readily available to industrial vendor representatives.     

A model of industrial satisfaction/complaining behavior

A model of the purchaser's satisfaction with supplier response to a formal buyer complaint is developed and tested. The authors answer two important questions: (1) what variables affect the purchasing agent's satisfaction with a supplier's response to a complaint? and (2) how can the supplier respond so as to keep that customer in the future?     

Managing risk in contract pricing with multiple incentives

A significant amount of industrial marketing occurs in response to efforts initiated and managed by the buyer through a contracting process. Often the contract involves research, engineering, development, and test/evaluation of products with considerable risks. This article discusses techniques used to evaluate sources of risk in contracting and methods to distribute and manage these risks between the buyer and seller, focusing principally on multiple incentive, multiple-formula pricing mechanisms.     

Increase response to industrial surveys

The results of this article support the contention that a prenotification telephone call increases the probability of response to a mail survey request. The article also discusses the practical problems associated with the use of a telephone prenotification in an industrial setting and provides a step-by-step procedure to help overcome these problems.     

Effective advertising in industrial supplier directories

This article discusses the relative effectiveness of various advertisement characteristics in industrial supplier directories. Correlations and regressions on ad characteristics and response data indicate that ad space (size and/or number) and logos have a positive impact while the impact of pictures can be negative.     

A dynamic industrial product model

This article reports on the development of a marketing model for industrial products to aid marketing managers in developing marketing programs on a quarterly and yearly basis. The system incorporates a market response model which relies heavily on the involvement of managers in providing inputs. The model was parameterized and tested in the context of a large manufacturer of capital goods. The results were supportive of the conceptual soundness of the moral and its utility in decision making.     

Principles vs. Practice in New Product Planning

The product planning practices at nine large companies in the electronics industry are described and examined in the light of three principles derived from modern management practice. Major deviations between principle and practice are revealed. Close examination of the firms' new product activities suggests that the deviations stem from the inherently complex nature of the process and the premium it places on the need to manage it effectively. Suggestions for improving product planning performance are made. These relate to the need to make the process more uniform and systematic, to improve the guidance provided by strategic planning, and to obtain greater input to the process from marketing research.     

Industrial survey sampling

A market researcher designs a probability sample of 1000 business executives. Questionnaires are mailed and ultimately 400 usable replies are received. Is the researcher entitled to say that his 400 respondents still represent a probability sample of the population? If the researcher is to evaluate the results of his survey by using statistical techniques that are valid only in reference to the probability sample, then evidence should be presented to show that the character of probability in the sample as originally designed has not been destroyed through nonresponse. There are very sophisticated methods for evaluating the impact of nonresponse, as well as less technical methods. The researcher reporting survey results owes it to the users of the data to explain the initial design of the sample and, if there is a problem of nonresponse, to explain the procedures that have been used to asses the impact of the nonresponse factor. Unless the sample as ultimately executed can be defended as a probability sample, statistical techniques that assume probability should not be employed in evaluating results.     

Measuring the Extent of Structural Remedy in Section 7 Settlements: Was the US DOJ Successful in the 1990s?

This paper suggests an innovative measure of structural relief obtained in a typical Section 7 settlement. The fraction of competitive overlap subject to divestiture as a condition of the settlement is modeled as a function of merger-specific efficiencies, the proportion of the deal held “hostage” to antitrust review, the merger’s anticompetitive potential, and other factors. The model is applied to data on 86 recent Justice Department cases covering the period 1990–2003 and to the subsample of 1990s cases. All data are collected from publicly available documents only. The government is found to secure larger divestitures when the cost to the acquirer of delaying the settlement is high. The resulting estimates are used to predict several out-of-sample observations. I would like to thank the General Editor and two anonymous referees for many helpful suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. The remaining errors are mine.     

Industrial buyer complaining behavior

Many areas of household consumer behavior research were extended to study organizational buyer behavior in the recent years. However, one exception is the buyer dissatisfaction and complaining behavior area. This article discusses the various conceptual aspects of organizational buyer complaining behavior. A model of buyer complaining behavior is proposed and some theoretical portulates are formulated for additional research.     

Reducing overreaction in contract markets

Predicting market share can be difficult for industrial firms whose sales occur in the form of a few large contracts received at irregular intervals during the course of a year. This article discusses the problems that this type of sales pattern may cause and provides a solution for determining probabilistic share forecasts.     

Comparing U.S. and Japanese corporate-level operating performance using financial statement data

This study uses financial statement data restated to a similar reporting basis to compare the operating performance of U.S. and Japanese companies, identifying possible strategic and environmental explanations for the differences observed. Comparisons are made for U.S. and Japanese samples as a whole, for groups of Japanese firms (keiretsu v. nonkeiretsu), and for 11 industries. The results show that neither country appears to generate systematically higher profit margins, but that U.S. firms turnover assets other than inventory more quickly and therefore have higher rates of return on assets. More intensive examination of these results suggests that environmental factors, such as cultural or structural differences, are the primary causes of the observed differences in the data analyzed.