Developing Country Perspectives on Country-of-Origin Effects: The Case of the Proudly South African Campaign

ABSTRACT

Research on the effect of product country of origin (COO) also referred to as “made in campaigns” or “buy national campaigns” has attracted considerable attention from international marketing theorists for the past 40 years. This paper examines how the Proudly South African (PSA) initiative in the context of the global debate on the relevance of the concept of country of origin/buy national campaign/made in campaigns has been developed. Reference is made to other international campaigns such as Made in USA and Buy New Zealand and to the importance of the concept as a cue in the purchase decision-making process of consumers.     

The Use of Living Cases in International Management

Abstract

Educators recognize the need to provide ‘hands-on, practical experience’ to business students and exposure to ‘real world’ concerns. This article describes an approach to using living cases in a class on international management, whereby students complete a semester long consulting project for a local small business and provide that company with a plan on how to “go international.”     

Reaching the customer: Strategies for marketing and customer service

The author suggests that logistics and marketing can combine to provide a sustainable means of competitive advantage. Many marketing executives never consider the very substantial contributions which effective logistics management could make to success in the marketplace. “Marketing Logistics” can lead to success by securing a cost advantage through increased efficiency and by maximising added value through customer service, providing high levels of service at lower cost.     

Personal legitimising: A perspective of marketing management

This paper explains the basic social process of “personal legitimising” and illustrates its influence on marketing activity. Personal legitimising is the process by which individuals manipulate situations to suit their own agenda. The link between personal legitimising and an organisation's marketing activity was discovered using a grounded theory research strategy within a UK management consulting firm.

Personal legitimising has two groupings of behaviour, namely “obstructing existing marketing activity” and “driving new marketing activity”. Within the former are the categories of “stigmatising”, “pseudo endorsing” and “smokescreening”. The latter incorporates the categories of “latching on”, “self indulging” and “bragging”.

The paper has three parts. The first explains the basic social process of personal legitimising. The second shows how grounded theory methodology was used in this context. The third develops the possible contribution of personal legitimising to the understanding of marketing.     

Corporate Governance and Neoclassical Economics

Abstract

Although the term “corporate governance” is relatively new in the economist’s lexicon, the issues with which it is concerned are as old as the profession itself. In this article, first I try to illustrate this, and then I trace the development of the literature, including discussions of the so-called managerial discretion literature and the principal–agent literature. Following a discussion of asset bubbles, I illustrate the tension between concerns about corporate governance and neoclassical economics by examining the literature on managerial compensation and mergers. This literature reveals a wide gap between traditional neoclassical economics and more recent developments in behavioral economics.     

Comments on “time of consumption and the time of consumption: Consumer society and the ‘end’ of history”

The essay expounds upon the “problem” of time and its relation to history within the context of consumer culture. Beginning with the premise that consumer culture can be regarded as both the time of image consumption and the image of time consumption (from Debord 1983), the author goes on at length to discuss the concept of time in its three dimensions and then to relate briefly, the implications for the study of history. What follows is a short summary of the author's argument and then a reaction to it based on the idea of liberation.     

Adapting to the Online Teaching Environment

Abstract

This paper proposes that literature (e.g., short stories, folktales, etc.) may be a valuable tool in helping to adapt teaching methods to the online environment, particularly in the case of developing experiential exercises that are compatible with either synchronous or asynchronous online learning. In addition, literature can help students to become better international managers, and builds skills valued by curriculum experts and future employers, including communication skills, team building skills, and contextual understanding of cultural diversity issues. The paper includes an example of how to use the folk tale “Stone Soup” to develop an introductory exercise for an international management class.     

Expanding the magic circle – gamification as a marketplace icon

ABSTRACT

This article explores the gamification trend sweeping the globe promising increased engagement and motivation, in practically any industry, context and culture, based on a stratagem of “game design elements in non-game contexts,” which is its most quoted definition [Deterding, Sebastian, Miguel Sicart, Lennart Nacke, Kenton O'Hara, and Dan Dixon. 2011. “Gamification – Using Game-Design Elements in Non-Gaming Contexts.” Paper presented at the CHI EA “11 proceedings of the 2011 annual conference extended abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, BC, May 7–12.]. The rise of gamification as marketplace icon is examined and particularly claims that position gamification as the manifestation of a wider societal transformation into playful societies – a “ludic turn.” Many of these grandiose statements are the result of ahistoricity and ambiguity regarding the definition of gamification. Based on game philosophy, game studies and gamification research this article posits gamification as an emergent perspective, as distinct conceptualisation, on the rule-driven organisation of sociotechnical management systems that reference “games.” Of particular importance is the role of rules. Examples such as Frequent Flyer Programmes and Foursquare are analysed according to the player/consumer positions they bestow, which are explored from participatory, co-creational, critical and game philosophical perspectives. Conclusively, a “gameful” perspective of rule-generated goal-oriented behaviour, or “playful” perspective of instinctive and limitless fun, shed two challenging perspectives on the interpretation of gamification in the marketplace.     

Smoke-filled Rooms and Research: A Response to Jean J. Boddewyn's Commentary

Abstract

Professor Boddewyn's discussion raises important issues about the social importance and objectivity of academic research. One major issue concerns the social relevance of the advertising research conducted by academics, which Professor Boddewyn contends is largely neglected by the mass media. This neglect “renders main-line advertising scholars irrelevant.”     

Development of a Yellow Pages Media Unit for a Promotion/Advertising Course

Abstract

The Yellow Pages are relegated to the “other media” discussion sections of traditional advertising and promotion management textbooks. The medium in total now represents approximately $10.5 billion in total sales through more than 6,000 directories which are published annually. Yellow Pages now meets the total volume of radio as a medium.

This paper develops an outline for suggested topics for either a promotion management or advertising course to investigate the Yellow Pages as a vital and necessary medium. Topics include background of the Yellow Pages, advantages and disadvantages of the medium, creative work, placement, research and future trends.

Students are generally not being exposed to the Yellow Pages in an effective manner either in textbooks or in the classroom. There exist manifold career opportunities in the field, for employment after graduation. Further, since most Yellow Pages advertising is local in scope, many graduates may find the need to work with the medium in their marketing careers.

The teaching unit, as presented, can be utilized in a skeleton format for a single class period. At the instructor's choice, the unit can also be presented in enough depth for a week of class sessions. The goal is to provide students with a working familiarity with the Yellow Pages, for career growth and educational development.     

The Second Meaning of the Word “Creative” Should Be First in the Hearts of Advertising People

Abstract

Those who complain that pressure to sell is squeezing the creativity out of advertising forget, if they ever knew, that the second meaning of the word “creative” is “PRODUCTIVE”.

As the author points out, Webster's Collegiate Dictionary even spells it in capital letters.

Advertising should be interesting to the best prospects for the product advertised rather than to people who make advertising.

Writers and art directors are not typical of the mass market and the things which interest them do not necessarily interest the mass market.

Productive advertising, that is creative advertising, in the best sense of the word, talks to the best prospects for the product about things that interest them. It uses words and picures that the prospects can appreciate and understand.

It is a challenge to the highest skills of the best creative people which may be why there isn't too much productive advertising around.     

Advertiser Expectations of Agency Creative Product

ABSTRACT

The study reports the development and empirical testing of measures of advertiser expectations of agency produced creative product. This “applied creative,” professional, business-to-business service incorporates extensive process elements. Hence, two measurement models are developed: a traditional “unitary” model, and a dualistic model incorporating elements of process and outcome. The study demonstrates firstly that client expectations of this highly intangible, “applied creative” professional service can be empirically modelled, and secondly, that such measurement does exhibit dimensions of both outcome and process. This paves the way for subsequent modelling of consumer satisfaction or quality evaluation processes within this little explored service category.     

Customer Service

Abstract

Maintaining a high level of customer service is one of the best methods of retaining current clients and attracting new ones. Two concepts currently in favor, Total Quality Management and Continuous Quality Improvement, dominate recent thought. This paper builds on these concepts and the basic principles of marketing, to simplify the implementation process. For want of better terms, the author has adopted “LCD” (Lowest Common Denominator) and “Fail-Safe” to describe this approach. LCD encourages simplification so that the newest and least trained employee will be able to work within the system. A Fail-Safe system is designed to be “Customer Friendly” even when an error takes place.     

Country of Origin Effects on Industrial Products Coming from Eastern Europe

Summary

Industrial buyers and consumers may have opinions about the general quality of products and companies from different nations and use such opinions as informational cues in their buying processes. This article presents a comparative study of the industrial profile of a “New European nation” and Western European nations. Tentative implications of the differences in industrial profile are suggested for international marketing strategy.     

Comment on “Speculations on the Future of Advertising Research”

Abstract

David Stewart's “Speculations…” are based on the existence of a crisis in advertising. This comment takes a contrary position, premised on the derived and cyclical nature of advertising demand.     

Advertising,the Uneasy Persuasion. Schudson,Michael. New York: Basic Books,Inc., 1984. 288 Pp. $17.95

Abstract

Leckenby, John D. and Shizue Kishi (1982), “How Media Directors View Reach/Frequency Estimation,” Journal of Advertising Research, 22 (June/July), 64–69. Reviewed by Charles Frazer

Millman, Nancy (1988), EMPERORS OF ADLAND, New York: Warner Books, 225 pp. $18.95. Reviewed by Charles Frazer     

Patents,Copyrights, and Trademarks in the Early Twenty-First Century: The New Relevance of Some Old Concepts of Intellectual Property Rights

SUMMARY

After laying an historical foundation of the concept of “promonopoly” legislation in the face of a U. S. public policy devoted, since 1890, to a generally antimonopoly position, this paper examines the relevance of recent changes in the three types of domestic promonopoly law: patent law, copyright law, and trademark law. During the last thirty years of the twentieth century, and especially during the last decade of that period, all three aspects of American promonopoly legislation were strengthened. The term of copyright was extended from a maximum of fifty-six years to the lifetime of the last-living author of a work plus seventy years and coverage was broadened to extend to recordings-by a number of means-of performances; patents were lengthened in duration from seventeen years to twenty; and the law of trademarks was modified to include protection for trademark holders against “dilution,” or loss of value of trademarks due to the acts of noncompetitors. The implications and rationales of these changes are examined in the context of their effect on business life at the beginning of the third millennium. While it is too soon since the majority of these changes in law went into effect to draw definitive conclusions concerning their ultimate consequences, it does appear that, in general, their thrust is to increase the value of intellectual property to its proprietors.