Modeling the relationship between firm and user generated content and the stages of the marketing funnel

While research has successfully linked social media to separate customer metrics, an in-depth conceptual and empirical understanding of how social media affects the stages of the marketing funnel is currently lacking. We draw on extant theories of consumer information processing and source credibility to conceptually link and contrast the relationships between firm generated content (FGC) dimensions of neutral valence, positive valence and vividness, user generated content (UGC) dimensions of volume and valence and the marketing funnel stages of awareness, consideration, purchase intent and satisfaction. Using daily aggregate brand-level data for 19 brands across seven industries, our analysis shows that UGC dimensions have a stronger relationship with awareness and satisfaction while FGC dimensions are more effective for consideration and purchase intent. Specifically, we observe that FGC vividness has the strongest relationship with consideration and purchase intent, while UGC valence dominates UGC volume for these stages. Our results also show that brands with higher corporate reputation have stronger relationships between dimensions of FGC and the marketing funnel stages. Findings by consumption category show that UGC and FGC dimensions have larger positive relationships with awareness for durables and non-durables, and with consideration, purchase intent, and satisfaction for services. Thus, overall, our study offers critical managerial insights into social media marketing regarding how to leverage both FGC and UGC in managing the marketing funnel and brand reputation.     

Retaining customers in UK financial services: The retailers' tale

Retaining customers offers major benefits to retailers of financial services, such as improved customer profitability and lowered acquisition costs. In spite of the importance to the sector in minimising customer ‘churn’, there has been limited investigation into the practices of customer retention. This paper reports empirical research into the retention of customers in traditional retailers of financial services in the UK to study the practices involved in retention. Following a pluralistic research design, data were generated by means of interviews with senior bank staff and by surveying staff involved either directly or indirectly with retaining customers. The study discovers key elements in the practice of retaining customers and also points to a number of potential difficulties as these organisations balance the activities of customer acquisition and retention.     

Big data on a smaller scale: A social media analytics assignment

It is truly important for students to understand how to monitor online marketing buzz. This assignment, social media analytics, utilizes the content analysis research method to build student's in-depth understanding on how to evaluate and interpret user-generated content (UGC) to create social media campaigns. The authors adapted Resnik and Stern's (1977) coding scheme for UGC. Through experiential learning, students immerse themselves in data and analyze UGC. The assignment scored high in knowledge acquisition as a pedagogical tool. Finally, the authors provide an updated social media analytics coding scheme, guidelines for instructors, student rubric information, and student learning outcomes.     

How customer experience incongruence affects omnichannel customer retention: The moderating role of channel characteristics

Although a positive customer experience is known to be an important source of competitive advantage, it is unclear how customer experience can be effectively managed in an omnichannel setting. Drawing on goal theory, this study explores the effect of incongruity between online customer experience and offline customer experience on customer retention in an omnichannel context. It also examines the moderating effects of three channel characteristics: transparency, convenience, and seamlessness. Our hypotheses are tested with online survey data, and the results indicate that in an omnichannel context, customer experience incongruence has a negative effect on customer retention, but channel transparency, convenience, and seamlessness can effectively mitigate this negative effect. The findings have both theoretical implications for research related to omnichannel business and customer experience and practical implications for managers of omnichannel services.     

How Does Brand-related User-generated Content Differ across YouTube,Facebook, and Twitter?

This study tests hypotheses regarding differences in brand-related user-generated content (UGC) between Twitter (a microblogging site), Facebook (a social network) and YouTube (a content community). It tests them using data from a content analysis of 600 UGC posts for two retail-apparel brands (Lululemon and American Apparel), which differ in the extent to which they manage social media proactively. Comparisons are drawn across six dimensions of UGC; the dimensions were drawn from a priori reading and an inductive analysis of brand-related UGC. This research provides a general framework for comparing brand-related UGC, and helps us to better understand how particular social media channels and marketing strategies may influence consumer-produced brand communications.     

How do alternative strategic orientations influence social media performance?

Increasingly organisations are using social media due to its advantages over traditional media however, its successful implementation has been problematic. To address this issue this study drew from the organisational orientation literature to examine alternate frameworks for implementation. Survey data were obtained from senior marketers from various Australian industries and structural equation modelling was used to test the hypothesised relationships. The study identified the components of alternate strategic orientations which were positively or negatively related to social media performance. The contribution of the study is to identify how the different emphasis within market, entrepreneurial and e-marketing orientations impact social media performance in terms of customer retention and customer acquisition. Implications for theory and practice are provided. Finally, research limitations and future research suggestions are presented.     

Key Issues in Multichannel Customer Management: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

Multichannel customer management is “the design, deployment, and evaluation of channels to enhance customer value through effective customer acquisition, retention, and development” (Neslin, Scott A., D. Grewal, R. Leghorn, V. Shankar, M. L. Teerling, J. S. Thomas, P. C. Verhoef (2006), Challenges and Opportunities in Multichannel Management. Journal of Service Research 9(2) 95–113). Channels typically include the store, the Web, catalog, sales force, third party agency, call center and the like. In recent years, multichannel marketing has grown tremendously and is anticipated to grow even further. While we have developed a good understanding of certain issues such as the relative value of a multichannel customer over a single channel customer, several research and managerial questions still remain. We offer an overview of these emerging issues, present our future outlook, and suggest important avenues for future research.     

How to grow a brand: Retain or acquire customers?

While customer acquisition is clearly important for new brands, mature brands are often said to rely on defection management for maintenance and growth. Yet the theory to support this approach has been subject to very little empirical investigation. How do brands actually increase the size of their customer base? Through superior acquisition or by reducing customer defection? Or some mixture of both? Conversely, do brands decline through deficient acquisition or excessive defection? This work analyzes changes in ‘first brand loyal’ customers to answer these questions, using a combination of panel data on the prescribing behavior of doctors and a cross-sectional tracking survey for residential finance. This study is the first research to compare defection and acquisition against stochastic benchmarks for customer churn under stationary conditions. The results are surprising: for both growth and decline, unusual acquisition plays a much stronger role than unusual defection. This finding demonstrates that acquisition has been under-rated in the past, and implies that prospect management is at least as important as defection reduction. A simulation shows that unusual acquisition also accounts for far more improvement in profit than does unusual defection.     

论商业银行的顾客获取战略——关系营销视角的思考

顾客获取与顾客保持对于商业银行的客户关系管理同样重要。在关系营销的框架下,从战略层面为商业银行寻求顾客获取的基本流程,突出顾客获取与顾客保持的衔接,并确定潜在目标范围,选择顾客获取战略,保持与客户的长期关系。     

The effect of shipping fees on customer acquisition, customer retention, and purchase quantities

The growth of the e-commerce sector has highlighted the importance of shipping fees. We empirically study the effects of shipping fees and marketing activities on customer acquisition, customer retention, and average expenditures using data from an online grocer. We find that shipping fees greatly influence order incidence rates and graduated shipping fees significantly affect average expenditures. The analysis indicates that customer acquisition is more sensitive to order size incentives while retention is more influenced by base shipping fee levels. Furthermore, a profitability analysis suggests that shipping policies that provide incentives for larger order sizes may outperform free shipping promotions and standard increasing fees structures.     

Relating strategic market orientation and market performance: role of customer value types

A service provider achieves competitive advantage by configuring appropriate strategic orientation and customer value type. This paper addresses three important issues: (i) which customer value type (economical, relational or technical) is important for bank customers? (ii) which strategic market orientation (customer or competitor) helps in achieving the desired value type? and (iii) which value type significantly predicts market performance? We propose that a strategic market orientation pursued by a firm shall influence the customer value it intends to offer so as to maximize the market performance. Using data collected from 538 bank customers, this study reveals that when there is a perfect match between strategic market orientation and value being perceived by its customers, a firm shall achieve strategy-value fit and realize optimal market outcomes in the form of customer satisfaction, acquisition, retention, cross-selling, and up-selling. Furthermore, a bank shall realize maximum level of market performance if it pursues both customer and competitor orientation and endeavors to deliver technical/functional value to its target customers. The paper concludes with managerial implications and future research directions.     

Understanding the psychological process underlying customer satisfaction and retention in a relational service

This paper reexamines the psychological process underlying the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention in a relational service context. It is based on a composite model of the attitude-behavior relation, which takes both attitude toward target and attitude toward behavior into account. Data were collected from a survey with a sample of 209 clients from a major credit counseling organization in the USA. Account data indicating those clients' actual retention behavior were matched with the survey data. A two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) procedure was employed to establish the construct validity and test the hypotheses. The results revealed that the effect of customer satisfaction on retention is mediated by the more proximal determinants of the actual retention behavior. Specifically, customer satisfaction has both direct and indirect effects on customers' attitudes toward remaining in the Debt Management Program (DMP), which is the proximal predictor of customer retention. In addition, satisfaction alone cannot guarantee customer retention. Customers' perceived behavioral control exerts direct effects on their intention to remain and retention.     

Emerging market multinationals’ firm-specific advantages,institutional distance,and foreign acquisition location choice

How do emerging market multinational enterprises’ (EMNEs’) firm-specific advantages (FSAs) drive their foreign acquisition location choice? We theorize EMNE FSAs as important contingencies influencing the effect of institutional distance (ID) on EMNE foreign acquisition location choice. As a baseline main effect, we expect ID to positively influence EMNE location choice, as well-developed institutionally distant host-country environments are attractive to EMNEs. This effect is reduced by EMNE FSAs shaped by home-country conditions, such as success in navigating institutional voids and superior human resource management, which are more competitive in institutionally closer countries. Conversely, this effect is heightened by EMNE FSAs shaped by investment choices for knowledge and for international venturing. Based on analyses of 278 EMNE acquisitions by EMNEs from nine emerging markets, our findings largely support our hypotheses. Our study extends research on EMNE FSAs, which often have been compared only with those of developed-country multinational enterprises.     

Budget allocation for customer acquisition and retention while balancing market share growth and customer equity

Following the Blattberg and Deighton (BD) model, we incorporate market share growth to explore links between acquisition and retention. We then devise a method for nonlinear programming using a spreadsheet to balance the objectives of market share growth in the short term and customer equity in the long term. The aim of this approach is to determine the optimal spending allocation for customer acquisition and retention and, by applying this allocation to the numerical example used in the original BD model, to balance these objectives. We demonstrate that the differential unit cost of marginal effects, ceiling rate, efficiency, and allocation of spending on acquisition and retention to achieve market share growth can maximize customer equity. We also develop a criterion to help firms decide where to place spending emphasis, that is, on retaining existing customers or on gaining new ones, while keeping the objectives of market share growth and customer equity firmly in mind.     

The impact of high-performance work systems in the health-care industry: employee reactions,service quality,customer satisfaction,and customer loyalty

The purpose of this study is to empirically test the effects of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on employee attitude, service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty in health-care organisations. The proposed research model was tested using structural equation modelling for hypotheses, based on data collected from 196 pairs of employee–customer respondents in four selected hospitals with more than 500 beds. The results indicate that hospitals can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through efficient operations, employee engagement, and service quality. One of the key findings of our study is that HPWS in health-care organisations influence employee reaction and service quality.     

The role of channel quality in customer equity management

Maximization of customer equity is a core objective of customer–company relationship management. We present an extended model of customer equity for determining the optimal allocation of marketing resources across acquisition and retention activities. Focusing on the negative relationship between acquisition and retention, we motivate channel quality as a relevant decision variable, explicate its role in the model, and demonstrate the existence of an optimal value. In addition, rather than making concavity assumptions about acquisition and retention rate response curves, we use the flexible ADBUDG model (Little, JDC, Models and Managers: the Concept of a Decision Calculus. Manag Sci 1970; 16(8): 466–484.), which allows for both S-shaped and strictly-concave relationships, and parameterize it using decision calculus. We show how to estimate and apply the model and then provide sensitivity analyses with respect to changes in the true values of model parameters as well as inaccuracy in managerial inputs. We conclude by comparing our model with extant models and discussing the implications of our research.     

Customer Retention Strategies of Fast-Food Outlets in South Africa: A Focus on Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Nando's,and Steers

The primary aim of the research was to critically analyze and evaluate the different customer retention strategies being implemented by fast-food outlets such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Nando's, and Steers in South Africa. The fast-food industry in South Africa is experiencing numerous market-related changes, which range from intense globalization forces to heightening competition levels. The pressure on businesses today is further increased by a market where the customer acquisition rate is slowing, customer loyalty is decreasing, and sales cycles are lengthening. In such an environment, losing a valuable customer to a competitor can have a significant impact on profitability and growth. As a result, many companies have shifted their focus from customer acquisition to customer retention. The research was primarily concerned with assessing customer relationship management, relationship marketing, and communication through technology as strategies to maintain intimate relationships with customers. Personal interviews and in-depth interviews with the help of questionnaires were used to collect primary data in the research. The results indicated that KFC, Nando's, and Steers adopt similar marketing strategies or use the same concepts to manage their relationships with both internal and external customers and other stakeholders. These strategies and concepts include customer relationship management, relationship marketing, and technological means of communication.     

Up the ante: Electronic word of mouth and its effects on firm reputation and performance

Prior management research on firm reputation has acknowledged the importance of word of mouth (WOM) in influencing key choices made by businesses, as well as by individuals. In recent developments, Internet-based WOM forums aggregate vast amounts of information relevant to firm strategy and operations. For example, online social media communities aggregate information generated by both the firm (i.e. firm-generated content FGC) and users (i.e. user-generated content UGC). We theorize that FGC and UGC generate reputation benefits for a company in the form of two intermediate information mechanisms: information diversity and valence. We first undertake a qualitative content analysis to investigate the extent to which FGC and UGC generate information diversity and valence. We then test the hypothesis that both information diversity and valence increase a firm's financial performance. Our findings show that electronic WOM as transmitted through social media communities enhances a firm's reputation and thereby its performance through both these effects (i.e. embedded information and valence). We thus fully delineate the determinants of ‘good reputation’ in these social environments. As part of our robustness checks, we also consider the impact of price and quality, the two specific FGC components, on firm performance. Our findings further confirm these relationships.     

Role of Customer Retention Equity in Creating and Developing Brand Value

The present study attempts to explore and establish a customer retention equity scale and examines its impact on brand value in the Indian banking sector. The data were collected from 500 account holders of the five nationalized banks—State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India, Housing Development Finance Corporation, and Jammu and Kashmir Bank from Jammu City, North India—using a purposive sampling technique. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the study hypotheses. The study finds that customer retention strategies that include loyalty and affinity schemes, special treatment benefits, a customer feedback survey, a courtesy system, and content marketing significantly contribute to retention equity. Further, the study also reveals that retention equity has a positive and significant impact on brand value and its dimensions—brand loyalty, brand association, and brand awareness. The study contributes to the extant literature by developing and validating the customer retention equity scale from customer perspectives in the Indian banking sector. In addition, the study also integrates the research stream of retention equity with brand value to signify the contributory role of customer retention equity on brand value and its dimensions. Since the study is limited to assessing customer retention equity and brand value relationship, their relationship with other constructs, such as relational quality, customer equity, and customer loyalty, should be explored in further work.