The Study of Important Marketing Issues: Reflections

This paper details how marketing scholars can address important marketing issues. It starts by clearly distinguishing importance from relevance and, on that basis, discerns four types of research projects: (1) thought leadership; (2) science leadership; (3) applied science; and (4) puzzling science. It proposes to funnel more resources from applied and puzzling science to thought leadership and to sustain science leadership. To do so, it offers a research funnel (awareness-consideration-choice-execution) and how ability and motivation throughout the funnel guide a scholar towards more important research. It offers three key takeaways on how to achieve more important research: (1) socialize with practice; (2) embrace residual ambiguity; and (3) do not get bored or boring from hyperspecialization.     

It's a secret: Marketing value and the denial of availability

Marketing thrives on secrets, yet surprisingly little formal attention has been paid to how the marketing of secrecy and the secrecy of marketing can play a significant role in contemporary organizations. We draw upon the fields of organizational studies, psychology, and marketing to develop a typology of secrets that reflects their marketing value and their knowledge value. Marketing secrets can have value to the firm (strategic value), to the customer (marketing value), or to both parties. Based on these two dimensions, we identify four different types of marketing secrets: (1) appealing secrets have high strategic value, as well as high marketing value; (2) mythical secrets mean little to the firm but a lot to the customer; (3) plain secrets are critical to the firm but are irrelevant to customers; and (4) weak secrets have neither strategic value nor marketing value. Our typology enables academics to formulate research questions regarding secrecy in marketing, and serves as a guide for practitioners in the construction of strategies that can exploit the strategic value of secrets by ‘romancing’ them, and increase their knowledge value by ‘educating’ the secrets.     

Marketing operations efficiency and the Internet: An organizing framework

A business can leverage the potential of the Internet to enhance the effectiveness of its competitive strategy as well as the efficiency of its operations. While the former has received considerable attention in literature, there is a dearth of research on the later. This paper focuses on leveraging the Internet for enhancing the efficiency of a business' marketing operations. We propose an organizing framework that provides insights into opportunities for achieving marketing efficiency gains in the context of the interactivity, personalization and addressability characteristics of the Internet.     

城市营销的机会分析

城市营销在近年来越来越受到国际性的关注。在制定城市营销战略的过程中，首要的任务就是要分析城市营销的机会。本文在前人研究的基础上，总结了以环境分析和市场分析为核心的城市营销机会分析框架，并进一步展开了以SWOT分析为精髓的城市营销环境分析和以顾客行为分析和市场细分为要旨的城市营销市场分析。     

互联网时代的口碑营销及应用策略

口碑营销是近年来企业进行营销传播的常用营销策略之一.互联网的出现使得消费者的口碑传播行为呈现出新的特点,同时为企业进行口碑营销活动提供了新的机会,因此,研究互联网时代的口碑营销具有一定的理论与实践意义.本文首先阐述了网上口碑传播的内涵,指出了网上口碑传播的途径,然后论证了网上口碑传播的特点.以此为基础,探讨了企业开展网络口碑营销的应用策略.     

隐性营销体系构建研究

从营销创新的角度探讨了隐性营销的支撑体系、传播体系和关系体系。支撑体系是实施隐性营销的前提,传播体系和关系体系是隐性营销体系的主体。通过三者之间有机的互动来创造顾客需求,实现企业营销目标与顾客需求的良性循环。     

Factors Affecting E-Mail Marketing Sourcing Decisions: A Transaction Cost Perspective

Electronic marketing strategy is an important priority for e-business, but limited research has been undertaken to understand and predict decisions regarding the insourcing or outsourcing of these marketing activities. This study focuses specifically on e-mail marketing and uses an established seven function classification of the activities which include: designing, building, testing, deploying, tracking, reporting, and analyzing. Transaction cost theory was employed as a predictor of insourcing and outsourcing decisions for each of these e-mail marketing activities. To test these functions, case studies were used for tracking the value of two attributes of transactions–asset specificity and uncertainty (behavioural uncertainty, environmental volatility, and environmental diversity)–under three levels of analysis. Results show that specific skills and tacit knowledge used to manage functions are major factors for sourcing decisions, and overpower the effect of uncertainty. It was also found that companies consider an outsourcing option for each individual function rather than the combined or whole e-mail marketing functions. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations, implications for academics and practitioners, and future research directions.     

Exploring globalization and marketing performance at the 2012 Global Marketing Conference at Seoul

This special issue of the Journal of Business Research features sixteen articles selected from papers presented during the third Global Marketing Conference held in Seoul, July 19–22, 2012, hosted by Korean Scholars of Marketing Science, European Marketing Academy, Japan Society of Marketing and Distribution, International Textile and Apparel Association, and Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. The articles offer readers an interesting mix of topics and methods in complex and global marketing environments. They offer marketing practitioners new ideas and approaches for dealing effectively with the increasingly challenging marketing world and provide marketing researchers insights that may inspire future research.     

Doctoral Programs in Business-to-Business Marketing: Status and Prospects

ABSTRACT

PhD programs in Business-to-Business Marketing are under increasing pressure to bring both more rigor and relevance to their training processes. We report on an empirical investigation on the practices and needed developments in Marketing PhD programs, focusing specifically on Business Marketing. Based on a sample of 41 programs worldwide, we find widespread agreement that the rigor/relevance challenge is even greater for Business Marketing scholars than for their colleagues who concentrate on the consumer market. Business Marketing PhDs deal with products with hard to understand uses and benefits, often exchanged in non-public markets with relatively few customers. These challenges lead us to recommend, among other things, that we must recruit PhDs from non-traditional sources and encourage them to partner with scholars from methodological and scientific disciplines to increase both rigor and relevance in their work.     

Marketing ethics: a comparison of American and Middle-Eastern marketers

This study compares the moral philosophies, ethical perceptions and corporate ethical values of American and Middle-Eastern marketers. Hypotheses are developed on the basis of their respective national and organizational cultures. Using a sample of marketing practitioners from both countries, empirical support is found for the hypothesis that Middle-Eastern marketers are more likely to be idealistic than their American counterparts. However, no significant differences are found on the relativistic dimension of moral philosophy. Also, American marketers are found to have higher ethical perception than Middle-Eastern marketers. Finally, contrary to our hypothesized direction, some support is found to indicate that Middle-Eastern marketers are more likely to have higher corporate ethical values than American marketers. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Marketing: Who's really minding the store globally?

In today's highly competitive global marketplace, firms have increasingly turned to outsourcing. In fact, it is not just “blue collar” jobs being outsourced, but “white collar” jobs, as well. Even marketing, “the window to the company's worldwide customer base,” is feeling outsourcing pressures. This article takes a look at the corporate implications of outsourcing global marketing functions and reports the findings of a telephone survey conducted among U.S. and Canadian marketing executives. U.S. firms were found to outsource marketing activities more frequently than Canadian firms, often at the expense of control and customer satisfaction.     

信息技术下旅游市场营销学教学改革初探——以江苏科技大学南徐学院为例

旅游市场营销学是一门应用性和操作性很强的学科,旅游市场营销学作为旅游管理专业的主干课程之一,是旅游管理本科学生的一门必修课,随着信息技术的发展,围绕该课程进行教学改革显得尤为重要。     

Business Marketing Education: A Distinctive Role in the Undergraduate Curriculum

ABSTRACT

By extending their knowledge of markets beyond the consumer-goods domain, by deepening their understanding of how organizations make buying decisions, by strengthening their grasp of cross-functional processes, and by providing them with decision-making skills in this important area of marketing, the business marketing course makes a special contribution to undergraduates and the undergraduate marketing curriculum. Moreover, the content and focus of the business marketing course are closely tied to important themes that are transforming business practice. This article isolates the distinct contribution of business marketing education and examines important trends that are reshaping this domain. The central knowledge areas that comprise the undergraduate business marketing course are detailed and linked to specific course design strategies that can be pursued to strengthen the skill set of marketing students and respond to the needs of important constituents.     

The Evolution of Marketing Channels: Trends and Research Directions

Despite the vast increase in marketing channels research published in the past decade, few contemporary analyses review or synthesize the domain. This article provides a comprehensive review of marketing channels research from 1980 to 2014. To present a multidimensional view of marketing channels, the authors evaluate extant literature from four perspectives: (1) key theories and constructs, (2) marketing channel strategies, (3) units of analyses, and (4) substantive topics in channels research. A content analysis of the relevant topics within each perspective that have had the greatest impact on channel research provides insights into research trends. This multidimensional analysis offers an integrated guide to extant literature, as well as an outline of promising directions for research, in light of the most significant trends.     

基于大规模定制理论的新营销模式构建及系统运作研究

从营销模式发展创新的过程来看,随着大规模定制的发展,企业的营销模式不断创新。虽然理论界对大规模定制营销已做过一定的研究,但尚未提出一个系统的大规模定制下营销模式的系统构架。文章试图结合大规模定制理论和营销管理的理论思维来系统构建完整营销模式体系,把它分为营销准备、实现和控制三个阶段,并对其作了具体的阐析。     

Small but Sincere: How Firm Size and Gratitude Determine the Effectiveness of Cause Marketing Campaigns

Cause-Marketing (CM) has gained momentum in recent years, both in marketing research and practice. However, while CM aims to influence consumers on an emotional or affective level, research into the emotional and affective response to CM campaigns is scarce. The current research fills this void by showing that a CM campaign is a win–win–win strategy. Though the tangible benefits of CM campaigns go to the firm and the philanthropic cause, our perspective is novel by arguing that the consumer benefits as well, albeit intangibly; CM campaigns provide an opportunity to do good, and hence induce feelings of gratitude in consumers. However, this effect depends on several contingencies. In particular, consumers perceive greater effort by small firms, relative to large firms, that engage in CM campaigns, leading them to assess the underlying motives as more sincere and then experience stronger feelings of gratitude for the opportunity to donate. Four experiments confirm this greater CM effectiveness for small compared with large firms. In turn, this study offers substantive contributions for both marketing research and practice: It proposes a cost-effective strategy for enhancing CM effectiveness, and specifies concrete strategies for both small and large companies.     

On the Marketing of Nations

Abstract

Deciding on how and where to begin a new regional expansion is a highly important and complex task for multinational companies. The importance and complexity stems from the fact that these decisions involve relatively high uncertainty (i.e., risk) and, at the same time, require an intensive multidimensional evaluation process. Many countries, however, particularly in emerging markets, work to encourage multinational companies to establish a base of operations there or to enlarge existing regional headquarters. Consequently, multinationals and countries have a common interest in identifying key elements in this multidimensional decision process and estimating the likelihood that a particular country will be more suitable to fill this task than others. In order to gain a deeper understanding as to the attractiveness of a host country for establishing a base of operation (BOO) of multinational corporations, we explore the perceptions of corporate managers of different Mediterranean countries. Our analysis highlights the different country characteristics that contribute to the difference in perceptions. In addition, we find specific attributes that contribute the most to these differences. We conclude with a discussion of actions that can be taken by a specific country to close, or expand, some perception gaps.     

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.     

Cause-Related Marketing: An Exploratory Study of Campaign Donation Structures Issues

ABSTRACT

Over the past decade, cause-related marketing (CRM) has become a popular and unique promotional tool for brands. Academic research indicates outcomes of such campaigns are generally positive for all stakeholders. Consumers feel they are making a difference, firms benefit from improved public image and increased sales, and the cause or nonprofit organization receives increased publicity and funding. However, there are ethical issues involved when linking a firm with a nonprofit organization as well as potential negatives (Smith and Stodghill 1994; Andreasan 1996; Meyer 1999; Polonsky and Wood 2001). An exploratory research study was undertaken to understand the impact of the structural elements of cause-related marketing campaigns, including how the donation is quantified, the size of the donation relative to the price of the product, the presence of donation deadlines and caps, and the level of promotion used to publicize the campaign. Findings suggest that the structural elements of cause-related marketing campaigns do influence consumers' perceptions of the campaigns. Based on these results, implications for CRM campaign managers and future research ideas are provided. This information will help practitioners, including marketing managers, advertising managers and advertising creative professionals to design the most effective communication tactics for a cause-related marketing campaign.     

影响葡萄干检验质量的因素研究

葡萄干是人们日常生活中食用频率比较高的食物之一,确保葡萄干的质量是我们必须要首先关注的问题之一。本文就目前影响葡萄干检验质量的因素和相对应的解决对策进行简要的分析。