An examination of selected marketing mix elements and brand equity

This study explores the relationships between selected marketing mix elements and the creation of brand equity. The authors propose a conceptual framework in which marketing elements are related to the dimensions of brand equity, that is, perceived quality, brand loyalty, and brand associations combined with brand awareness. These dimensions are then related to brand equity. The empirical tests using a structural equation model support the research hypotheses. The results show that frequent price promotions, such as price deals, are related to low brand equity, whereas high advertising spending, high price, good store image, and high distribution intensity are related to high brand equity. Boonghee Yoo (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is an assistant professor of marketing at St. Cloud State University. His research interests include brand equity, cross-cultural scale development, service quality, retail productivity, Internet marketing, and marketing methodology. He has published previously in theJournal of Retailing, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Business & Industrial Marketing, theJournal of Service Research, and theJournal of Marketing Channels. Naveen Donthu (Ph. D., University of Texas, Austin) is a professor of marketing at Georgia State University. His research interests center on research methodology, site selection models, comparative and outdoor advertising, brand equity, Hispanic consumer research, cross-cultural issues, and customer satisfaction. His work has appeared in journals such asMarketing Science, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, theJournal of Retailing, and theJournal of Business Research. Sungho Lee (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Seoul, South Korea. His research focuses on understanding consumers’ cognitive processing of brand and price information, brand extension and brand equity, and advertising-driven persuasion processes. He has published previously inAdvances in Consumer Research, Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research, Academy of Marketing Science-World Marketing Congress, Korean Marketing Review, andKorean Management Review.     

The incidence of unethical practices in marketing research: An empricial investigation

The authros examine from the perspective of marketing professionals the incidence of unethical research practices and the influence of organizational factors as determinants of the incidence of unethical research practices. The results indicate some degree of indicence of unethical research practices, particularly of those involving respondents. In addition, the results suggest four organizational variables— extent of ethical problems within the organization, top management actions on ethics, organizational role, and industry category—as determinants of the incidence of unethical research partices.     

SERVCON: development and validation of a multidimensional service convenience scale

As customers have demanded greater convenience in service exchanges, researchers have responded by incorporating the convenience construct into their conceptual models and empirical studies, but a comprehensive, formally validated measure of convenience remains lacking. This study conceptualizes service convenience as a second-order, five-dimensional construct that reflects consumers’ perceived time and effort in purchasing or using a service. Service convenience dimensions are salient at different stages of the purchase decision process. Given this conceptualization, the study presents the development and validation of the SERVCON scale, a comprehensive instrument for measuring service convenience. The five dimensions are independent within a nomological network that illustrates distinct antecedent and consequent effects, and the results reinforce the multidimensional representation, offering insight into the distinctive relationships between each service convenience dimension and its antecedents, such as competitive intensity, and consequences, such as repurchase behavior. The findings help researchers and managers understand a fully conceptualized convenience construct and facilitate the measurement of convenience in future empirical studies.     

Institutionalization of ethics and its consequences: a survey of marketing professionals

Because of increasing ethical problems in business, organizations have tried to control these problems by institutionalizing ethics, such as by creating new ethics positions and formulating codes of ethics. In this study, the authors develop a scale for measuring the institutionalization of ethics in organizations and assess it for dimensionality, reliability and validity. Two separate studies are conducted, both using samples drawn from an American Marketing Association practitioner population. In Study 1, using a sample of 126 marketing practitioners, we performed exploratory factor analysis on 44 institutionalization items resulting in two separate dimensions of the institutionalization of ethics construct: implicit and explicit institutionalization. Using a national sample of 306 marketing practitioners in Study 2, we performed confirmatory factor analysis on these two dimensions and investigated the effects of these dimensions on perceived importance of ethics, job satisfaction, esprit de corps and organizational commitment. Implicit institutionalization had a significant direct affect on all four of these constructs. On the other hand, explicit institutionalization significantly influenced only the perceived importance of ethics.     

Customer evaluation of retail salespeople utilizing the SOCO scale: A replication,extension, and application

Measuring retail salesperson performance is a critical, though relatively neglected research issue. We suggest that the SOCO scale may be an appropriate tool for measuring salesperson performance from the buyer’s perspective. Therefore, a replication of the SOCO scale was undertaken by having consumers evaluate retail salespeople. The SOCO scale items were slightly modified to fit the consumer sample and retail focus of the study. In addition, the number of points on the SOCO response scale was also reduced and the verbal anchors modified to better suit the needs of telephone surveys. Despite these changes, the properties of the scale were found to be strikingly similar to those reported in prior studies. It was recommended that retailers adopt the SOCO scale to measure salesperson performance.     

Institutional pressures and marketing ethics initiatives: the focal role of organizational identity

Institutional theory implies that normative societal expectations create pressures for organizations to respond acceptably to important institutional constituents. Although the role of the institutional environment on marketing has been studied, the organizational mechanisms by which firms respond to societal pressures remain under-investigated. We suggest that an important determining factor involves organizational identity, which drives firm response to societal norms and facilitates its quest for legitimacy. Accordingly, this study contributes to organizational theory in marketing by casting identity as the focal mechanism in the firm’s response to the institutional environment. Marketing ethics and CSR issues frame this research given natural synergies with institutional and organizational identity theories and evidence that increasingly, firms must respond to societal expectations involving ethics in their marketing practices. Using game theoretical models and economic experiments, we find that the influence of the institutional environment emerges through firm identity, affecting resource allocation to ethical product augmentation.     

人际传播理论在景区营销中的应用研究

景区营销中最常使用的是各种大众媒体,但是对于成本低、效果好的人际传播渠道使用较少。人际传播学中的意见领袖理论、信息把关人理论和创新扩散理论都能在景区营销中发挥重要作用。对于景区营销来说,人际传播是不可忽视的一条信息渠道,潜在游客最多使用的和最信赖的就是这条信息渠道。     

Linking consumer behavior constructs to international marketing strategy: A comment on wills,samli, and jacobs and an extension

In a 1991 article by Wills, Samli, and Jacobs, a new approach to international marketing strategy development was presented. Two micro constructs, involvement and learning theory, and two macro constructs, cultural context and the diffusion process, were linked in an integrative matrix summarizing various tactics for promoting and distributing a VCR around the world, within the bounds of a global marketing strategy. This comment sharpens the focus and extends the thrust of their work. It examines their proposed research agenda, clarifies certain constructs, and suggests a reformulated approach to theory development. It also proposes an approach to segmenting the world market for VCRs, incorporating four levels of felt involvement and two rates of product learning. Finally, suggestions for future research are outlined. She received a Ph.D. in International Marketing from Bradford University Management Centre, England, and is bilingual in English and French. She has taught in England, France, and Morocco, and has published in theJournal of the Market Research Society, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Advances in International Marketing, International Journal of Advertising, European Journal of Marketing, and theJournal of Business and Industrial Marketing.     

Development of a taxonomy of services to gain strategic marketing insights

A theme emerging in the services marketing literature indicates that services marketers should look beyond their own industry boundaries to gain marketing insight. A number of conceptual typologies for grouping services have been developed. However, none of these conceptualizations have been studied empirically. This article presents an empirically based taxonomy, developed through cluster analysis of consumer's perceptions of services. The results of the study offer several insights into strategic marketing for service marketers.     

Influence of buyer ethics and salesperson behavior on intention to choose a supplier

A survey of purchasing professionals was conducted to investigate the effect of perceived unethical salesperson behavior on intentions to choose a supplier. Results suggest that as salesperson behavior is perceived as more unethical, the purchaser is less likely to choose the firm that the salesperson represents. This result is due to norm violations influencing intentions in two ways: (1) through externally controlled rewards or punishments (e.g., harming the purchaser’s career), and (2) through internally self-bestowed rewards or punishments (e.g., feeling bad for not doing the “right” thing).     

Linking cause-related marketing to sales force responses and performance in a direct selling context

The influence of a firm’s cause-related marketing efforts on sales representative attitudes and behavioral performance is investigated. Results from a field study indicate that the influence of a representative’s construed customer attitude toward the cause campaign on selling behavioral performance is mediated through cognitive identification and selling confidence. Further, the influence of construed customer attitude toward the campaign on selling confidence is moderated by cognitive identification such that the effects are stronger for salespeople with lower levels of identification with the company. The authors discuss the implications of the research and offer directions for further research.

Using a customer-Level marketing strategy to enhance firm performance: A review of theoretical and empirical evidence

It is becoming increasingly apparent from the literature that marketers need to consider customer-level information when they generate a marketing strategy for the firm. In this article, the authors develop a customer-focused framework that uses a marketing strategy with an overall objective of maximized financial performance. This strategy is driven by seven customer-level marketing tactics and shows how actual customer data can be used to generate an actionable marketing strategy leading to optimal levels of profitability, customer equity, and shareholder value. In addition, the authors discuss a successful implementation of this strategy for several business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms and offer insights as to how to customize an implementation strategy for any firm, along with presenting potential challenges a firm may encounter during the implementation process. Several suggestions for future research are offered to explore and harness this newly available evidence. V. Kumar (VK) (vk@business.uconn.edu) is the ING Chair Professor of Marketing and the executive director of the ING Center for Financial Services at the University of Connecticut. He spends his time by transferring his knowledge (however little it may be) to his two daughters about customer lifetime value, diffusion models, forecasting sales and market share, retailing, and marketing strategy. J. Andrew Petersen (apetersen@business.uconn.edu) is a doctoral candidate in marketing at the University of Connecticut. His research interests include customer lifetime value, word-of-mouth effects, and customer-level marketing strategy. His research has been published inMarketing Research Magazine and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science.     

建立市场营销新理念开创企业经营新局面

企业存在着经营观念滞后、不重视市场调查研究和分析、品牌意识不强、营销工作人员素质较低等问题。问题的主要原因在企业自身。企业必须更新观念 ,研究市场 ,把握市场 ,提高竞争能力。     

Innovation pathway to profitability: the role of entrepreneurial orientation and marketing capabilities

Drawing from the marketing capabilities and innovation literatures, we identify aprocess by which a firm’s entrepreneurial orientation impacts profits and show that it is dependent on marketing capabilities. Using a half-longitudinal design we integrate survey data with performance metrics over two time periods, from a sample of 190 firms. While the effect of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on innovation is enhanced by architectural marketing capabilities, the effect of innovation outcomes on profits is enhanced by specialized marketing capabilities. Ultimately, the pathway from EO to performance, mediated by innovation, is positively significant at higher levels of both marketing capabilities. The results uncovered using Bayesian conditional process modeling, are robust to alternate model specifications, endogeneity tests, and provide insights into the capabilities-based understanding of entrepreneurism-marketing interface. We discuss resource allocation implications for managers as they attempt to maximize profits through innovation.     

Word-of-mouth communications in marketing: a meta-analytic review of the antecedents and moderators

Although word-of-mouth (WOM) activity has been studied as an outcome variable of other constructs such as satisfaction, less attention has been given to the antecedents and moderators of WOM when considering WOM as a central construct. Hence, we propose a model of WOM antecedents and moderators using a meta-analytic review. The results show that all antecedents have significant effects on WOM activity, with customer commitment showing the strongest effect. The following hypotheses are also supported: (1) WOM valence is a significant moderator, (2) cross-sectional studies show a stronger influence of satisfaction and loyalty on WOM activity than longitudinal studies, and (3) studies of WOM behavior show a weaker link between loyalty and WOM activity than studies of WOM intentions. In addition, we show that satisfaction has a stronger relationship with positive WOM than loyalty, whereas (dis)loyalty has a stronger relationship with negative WOM than does (dis)satisfaction. We discuss this finding based on the different natures of positive and negative WOM. This article is based on the first author’s dissertation.     

Emerging technologies and analytics for a new era of value-centered marketing in healthcare

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science - The healthcare system is undergoing a fundamental transformation fueled by regulatory shifts that reward value over volume, coupled with unprecedented...     

Toward a theory of the boundary-spanning marketing organization and insights from 31 organization theories

Now more than ever, marketing is assuming a key boundary-spanning role—a role that has also redefined the composition of the marketing organization. In this paper, the marketing organization’s integrative and mutually reinforcing components of marketing activities, customer value–creating processes, networks, and stakeholders are delineated within their boundary-spanning roles as a particular emphasis (labeled MOR theory). Thematic marketing insights from a collection of 31 organization theories are used to advance knowledge on the boundary-spanning marketing organization within four areas—strategic marketing resources, marketing leadership and decision making, network alliances and collaborations, and the domestic and global marketplace.     

The behavioral perspective model of purchase and consumption: From consumer theory to marketing practice

The Behavioral Perspective Model of purchase and consumption (BPM) portrays the rate at which consumer behaviors take place as a function of the relative openness of the setting in which they occur and the informational and hedonic reinforcement available in or promised by the setting. Each of eight combinations of contingencies based on these explanatory variables is uniquely related to a specific mode of observed consumer behavior. By providing an environmental perspective on consumer behavior, the model makes a critical contribution to the development of contemporary consumer research that frequently decontextualizes its subject matter. It also presents an innovative conceptualization of the nature of marketing strategies.