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.     

Integrating Cross-Cultural Marketing Research Training in International Business Education Programs: It's Time,and Here's Why and How

International business necessitates that its international business educators prepare today's workforce with skills necessary to take on cross-cultural research tasks and challenges. Yet, global business finds these skills in short supply. Perhaps this is the case because empirical evidence shows U.S. academic coverage of cross-cultural research complexities are severely limited as measured by text coverage. Slightly lagging behind international business and marketing programs located outside the United States in recognizing and acting on this this need, many U.S. programs now seek to enhance cross-cultural coverage. However, empirical evidences show that U.S.-based programs and the textbooks they use are lagging behind in their treatment of cross-cultural marketing research. Coverage in these texts is typically limited to a single chapter that repeats basic research concepts usually covered in principles of marketing courses. This article discusses a customized international marketing research course integrated with training that includes cross-cultural research issues and complexities and provides a framework of criteria useful in selecting an appropriate text.     

Television Advertising to Children: What Parents are Saying about Government Control

Four hundred parents were interviewed in the Southwestern United States to study parental response to the idea of child marketing and specifically television advertising to children. Findings indicate that the children of those parents interviewed are exposed, on the average, to more than twenty hours of television each week and that in-store product recognition on the part of the children is quite high. General response of the parents indicate a strong doubt in the honesty of advertising to children and a call for greater federal legislation to correct the situation. Also, a strong degree of cynicism was observed among parents interviewed about the institution of television advertising to children and its apparent misleading aspects. Parents were quick to criticize the use of premiums and prizes as a tool of selling to children.     

“Why Does all the Girls have to Buy Pink Stuff?” The Ethics and Science of the Gendered Toy Marketing Debate

The gendered marketing of children’s toys is under considerable scrutiny, as reflected by numerous consumer-led campaigns and vigorous media debates. This article seeks to assist stakeholders to better understand the ethical and scientific assumptions that underlie the two opposing positions in this debate, and assess their relative strength. There is apparent consensus in the underlying ethical foundations of the debate, with all commentators seeming to endorse the values of corporate social responsibility and gender equality. However, the debate splits over three critical points of empirical disagreement: whether gendered toy marketing influences children’s toy preferences or simply reflects boys’ and girls’ fundamentally different interests; whether the effects of gendered toy marketing are negative, neutral or beneficial; and whether a shift to gender-neutral marketing would be economically viable. We assess the three points of disagreement against the available evidence and shared ethical principles underlying the debate, and conclude that current defences of gendered toy marketing fail.     

Evidence-based advertising

Complex phenomena such as advertising are difficult to understand. As a result, extensive and repeated testing of diverse alternative reasonable hypotheses is necessary in order to increase knowledge about advertising. This calls for experimental studies: laboratory, field, and quasi-experimental studies. Fortunately, much useful empirical research of this kind has already been conducted on how to create persuasive advertisements. A literature review, conducted over 16 years, summarised knowledge from 687 sources that drew upon more than 3,000 studies (Armstrong 2010). The review led to the development of 195 principles (condition-action statements) for advertising. We were unable to find any of these principles in a convenience sample of nine advertising textbooks and three practitioner handbooks. The advice in these books ignored conditions for the most part. The books also tended to ignore empirical evidence, which is how we learn about conditions; of the more than 7,200 sources referenced in these books, only 30 overlapped with the 687 used to develop the principles. By using the evidence-based principles, practitioners may be able to increase the persuasiveness of advertisements. Relevant evidence-based papers have been published at the rate of 20 per year from 2000 to 2010. The rate of knowledge development could be increased if journal editors invited papers with evidence-based research findings and if open peer review were provided on a continuing basis.     

Formulating objectives—what can really happen

The history of the evolution of strategic marketing planning in one medium sized but highly profitable British firm over a period of nineteen years is discussed. The development from production based corporate planning to a marketing oriented system is shown to be in response to external influences with which management coped using such concepts as were available to them at various times in the story. The key element in any system of corporate planning is considered to be the generation of objectives and the case history is used to illustrate the practical problems of formulating meaningful statements of objectives. At the latest stage of evolution the marketing concept is shown to be the organising principle of the system.     

Belief when evidence does not support theory

Marketing has looked to other scientific disciplines to supplement its understanding of motivation. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory is frequently uncritically cited in texts, even though most evidence has failed to support its validity. Science requires that theory be supported by empirical facts. Maslow's theory is briefly summarized, along with a review of the related literature. Reasons are given and empirically supported for the continued popularity of Maslow's theory in marketing despite lack of scientific support. A cautionary note for the continued development of marketing theory concludes the presentation. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Using guanxi-style buyer-seller relationships in China: Reducing uncertainty and improving performance outcomes

Recent marketing literature has recommended that companies employ either long-term relationship marketing or short-term transactional approaches to buyer-seller relationships depending on the value of the customer to the company. This article found that in China, guanxi-style buyer-seller relationships similar to relationship marketing were strongly related to reduced levels of perceived uncertainty about the business environment and a variety of improved performance outcomes. The use of transactional relationships was related to higher uncertainty and lower performance. The use of gifts and favors seemed more characteristic of transactional relationships and were not related to positive outcomes. Both quantitative evidence from American sellers and qualitative evidence from Chinese buyers supported these conclusions. It is argued that guanxi-style buyer-seller.     

Recent Journal and Trade Publication Treatments of Globalization in Mass Media Marketing and Social Change

International marketing strategies, made possible by technological innovation and forced by economic reality, must be supported and refined by empirical study of their successes and failures. This study reviews all articles published in over 800 scholarly journals and trade publications in 1989 and 1990 in an attempt to describe the studies becoming available to the international marketer for guidance. In all, 130 articles dealing with mu media or advertising and marketing in an international perspective were found. Six dimensions of these are analysed and discussed: editorial type; subject; the mass medium of focus; inclusion of quantitative data; and country or countries.

This analysis of all 130 studies reveals that articles are more apt to cover news than more generalizable types of knowledge, refer to media and to international aspects more in general terms than in specific terms, often provide unsubstantiated advice, generalizations or predictions, under-represent countries outside of Europe, and are very infrequently based on primary data.

An overall judgement is that empirical studies of the success or failure in the use of media or advertising in global marketing, necessary to provide guidance to international marketers, were virtually absent from the body of scholarly research published in the two years studied.     

Empirical Evidence of Marketing Practices in the Nonprofit Sector: The Case of Performing Arts

ABSTRACT

Arts organisations are adopting marketing practices as international literature suggests. However, there is an important lack of studies proving this. So, the overall goal of this article is to examine how performing arts institutions apply marketing principles in their management process. Specifically, we propose to group these organisations according to their implication with marketing practices. An empirical research design using univariate and multivariate techniques was drawn. The results showed that performing arts organisations are adopting marketing tools but with different levels of implication. So, the three groups found were labelled neutral, involved and image conscious due to the apathy, slight interest and image development show respectively towards marketing.     

Social media resources and capabilities as strategic determinants of social media performance

Recent research reveals meaningful uses of digital marketing instruments, though without addressing internal, organizational antecedents of a firm’s social media performance. Drawing on resource-based theory and the concept of dynamic capabilities, this article identifies social media–specific resources and dynamic capabilities that can enhance social media performance. It also offers theoretically supported and validated scales to measure them. The authors empirically investigate their performance effects using different kinds of data pertaining to consumer brands, gathered from manager surveys, brands’ financial statements, Facebook fans, Instagram followers, YouTube subscribers, and brand image measures. The proposed social media resources and capabilities improve social media performance directly and brand perception indirectly. In particular, the impact of the social media strategy and measurement is moderated by firm size. A profile deviation analysis further reveals that the social media capabilities gap between top-performing versus other brands explains significant variance in social media performance. The advantages of developing social media capabilities early on also persist in the long-term, with substantial relevance for managers.     

Homogeneity and heterogeneity in stochastic models of brand choice behavior

Heterogeneity of consumers is one of the cornerstones of empirical findings and theories in marketing. It serves, for example, as the foundation for such areas as market segmentation and product differentiation. This paper attempts to trace and clarify the evolution over the last twenty years of the homogeneity assumptions in the area of stochastic models of brand choice behavior. In analyzing individual choice behavior by means of stochastic models, all individuals were often assumed to possess the same set of transition probabilities or follow the same stochastic process. However, empirical studies at the individual level indicate that individuals are actually non-homogeneous in those probabilities and processes. In this article we provide an analytical proof that if the behavior of individuals is specified to be homogeneous when it is not, wrong inferences about the type of stochastic process individuals follow and about the expected behavior of the total population will be drawn. Ways to remedy these problems by allowing for heterogeneity are reviewed. The implications of heterogeneity and our findings in the various application areas which utilize stochastic choice models are examined.     

Factors influencing sales call frequency of industrial salespersons

Industrial sales representatives face a problem of allocating their time in deciding which customers or prospects to call on and how frequently to make those calls. These decisions directly influence the firm's costs and revenues, yet research in this area has been sparse. This article reports an empirical study of the relationship between the call frequency of salespersons and select characteristics of the market, the customer, and the salesperson-customer interaction. Data for the study were collected by a self-administered questionnaire which was completed by 83 salespersons representing 34 different firms. Respondents provided data concerning their call frequency on a particular customer, time in the sales territory, and responses to a series of Likert statements. Eight summative scales were developed from the statements. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between call frequency and the independent variables. Several predictors (Role Consensus, Important Purchase Decision, Important Customer, and Customer Disposition) were salient variables in the model. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research findings to marketing managers and researchers.     

A Special Theory of Globalization:

The focus of this study is to provide theoretical and empirical evidence supporting a new direction of globalization offering the viewpoint of marketing globalization. The result of this analysis suggests a special theory of globalization that can be implemented by the multinational organization. One approach to globalization focuses on a standardized marketing mix strategy to global homogenous markets, while the other focuses on a modified marketing mix strategy to global diverse markets. Multinational corporations can engage in either or both strategies while maintaining a global approach to international marketing.     

The fallacy of the heavy buyer: Exploring purchasing frequencies of fresh fruit and vegetable categories

‘Avocado lover,’ ‘banana lover,’ or ‘berry lover’ – these words are starting to dominate the contemporary marketing campaigns for fresh fruit and vegetable categories. Such campaigns assume that there are sizable buyer segments who purchase a particular fresh category more frequently, who are contributing a larger portion of sales, and who will continue to do so into the future. Yet, an established body of empirical evidence from consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories suggests that these assumptions could be false. The current study empirically examines fresh category purchasing behavior (through a large Nielsen US panel data) by applying three known models: the Negative Binomial Distribution, the Pareto share, and the stability over time analysis (buyers and sales contribution). This study compares the results and finds that despite many differences between fresh and CPG categories, buyers' purchasing behavior follows the same established benchmarks patterns as those observed in CPG contexts. There are many more infrequent or light buyers than heavy ‘lovers’; the heavy buyers contribute roughly 60% of sales; they are purchasing less frequently, and contributing fewer sales as time goes by. These findings carry important implications for marketers, retailers, and farmers of fresh categories. Specifically, the results show which marketing campaigns (i.e., those highly targeted at ‘lovers’ or those with a mass marketing appeal) are better grounded in the empirical evidence about buyer behavior which has the highest probability of increasing consumption.     

Using consumer perceptions to operationalize the service construct: Exploratory research in theory extension and validation

Despite the ascendancy of services marketing as a topic of interest, an absence of empirical validation measures and well-grounded research techniques in the area is evident. This article explores the need for marketing to develop an approach by which services marketing empirical research can be advanced. A methodology is proposed that operationalizes the service construct by identifying consumer perceptions of goods and services, and which provides a practical basis for conducting empirical research. Empirical evidence is offered that suggests strong reliability and face validity in support of this approach. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

What if your owners also own other firms in your industry? The relationship between institutional common ownership,marketing, and firm performance

The growth in institutional holdings of public firms has led to increased interest in the concept of common ownership, in which the same investor owns stakes in multiple firms within the same industry. Economic theory suggests that common ownership could affect firm performance, but little empirical research has examined the nature of this effect or how a firm’s extant marketing potentially relates to this effect. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a relationship between common ownership and firm performance that is moderated by the firm’s extant marketing capabilities and its relative marketing strategic emphasis. Our empirical approach employs data from over 43 million institutional holdings to develop a measure of common ownership and accounts for empirical issues like endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity. The results document a positive relationship between common ownership and firm performance and provide some evidence that this effect is stronger for firms with lower marketing capabilities and a relative strategic emphasis towards R&D spending. These results suggest that public policymakers should consider the firms’ extant strategic marketing when assessing regulations on common ownership.     

Redefining social marketing with contemporary commercial marketing definitions

Social marketing is based on the adaptation of the contemporary commercial marketing theory and practice as a means of guiding and aiding social change campaigns. This paper draws on recent developments in commercial marketing theory and prior work in social marketing definitions to create a new definition of social marketing which integrates the commercial definitions of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and Chartered Instituted of Marketing (CIM) with established social marketing definitions from the past thirty years of social marketing conceptual development. The development of the definition is supported through the use of qualitative research technique of text mining which uncovered a core series of principles consistent to the historical definitions of social marketing. Finally, the new definition also introduces clarification of several key subcomponent elements as part of an expanded definition of social marketing.     

Marketing planning: Operationalising the market orientation strategy

Abstract

Despite strong empirical validation of the relationship between market orientation and business performance, the literature is inconclusive on the implementation of the strategy. This paper reviews the implementation of market orientation, and investigates the associations between market orientation and marketing planning and their associations with business performance. A survey of 216 Australian larger business organisations was conducted to find evidence of these relationships. The results highlight a close association between market orientation and marketing planning, with virtually the same level of association between them, and the business performance measures used. This evidence suggests that they arguably represent the same domain. The results suggest that marketing practitioners may use the marketing planning technique as an intangible productive resource to operationalise the market orientation strategy, and use it to design a specific style and magnitude of market orientation suitable for an organisation.     

The impact of reduced visibility caused by air pollution on construal level

Although ample research has recognized air pollution as a severe threat to human health and emotion, little research has been conducted on its impact on consumers' information‐processing style. This study explores the effect of reduced visibility caused by air pollution on the construal level adopted by consumers. Specifically, we document how low visibility caused by air pollution makes people more inclined to adopt an abstract mindset, whereas high visibility on a clean day makes people more inclined to adopt a concrete mindset. Across a set of three field studies and one laboratory experiment, we employ alternate measures of construal level: behavioral identification index (Studies 1 and 4) and categorization task (Study 2). Our research provides empirical evidence of the proposed effect and rules out alternative explanations. Additionally, as a downstream consequence, reduced visibility due to air pollution causes individuals to favor desirability over feasibility in product trade‐offs (Study 3). Our findings shed new light on construal level theory from an ecological perspective and provide meaningful marketing suggestions.