Sustainability marketing research: past,present and future

Abstract

This paper provides a synthesis and critical assessment of the sustainability marketing literature, from the period 1998–2013, building on a previous assessment from 1971 to 1998. It details research within major marketing journals and critically assesses this research in relation to the on-going conversation which focuses on marketing’s relationship with the natural environment. Differences in the content and depth of sustainability coverage in marketing journals are considered. Potential avenues for future sustainability marketing research are proposed, with a particular call for theoretical and managerial reflections which tackle broader systemic and institutional issues within the discipline.     

Communicating greener strategies: a study of on-pack communication

Developing and implementing successful green strategies depends upon good communication. Faced with an increasingly cynical public, companies are finding it difficult to communicate improvements in their eco-performance to the marketplace in a way that will enable them to generate a competitive advantage. This difficulty is compounded by the problems involved in using traditional communications media for a task to which they are often poorly suited. Advertising for example, is difficult to formulate around green issues which are complex and hard to put across within the sort of short, style-orientated information bite that characterises many contemporary campaigns. Companies are looking for alternatives, and for packaged goods manufacturers are using the product's package as a communications channel. It reaches all existing (if not all potential) customers, and on-pack information is typically seen by consumers as relatively credible. This paper provides an exploratory study of on-pack information in part of the environmental ‘front-line’; the anti-perspirant and deodorant (APD) market. Options for on-pack communication are examined along with some of the issues that arise from trying to engage in environmental communication with the customer using packaging as the medium. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

A brand so bad it’s good: The paradoxical place marketing of Belfast

Abstract

According to O’Driscoll (2008), paradox characterises marketing in the ‘after modern’ epoch. This is certainly true of place marketing, which is often described as a paradox-rich domain (Dinnie, 2011). Drawing upon the results of a novel, culture-based research procedure, this paper describes the paradoxical outcomes of an urban branding exercise in Belfast, one of the world’s most infamous cities. Albeit dismissed by local worthies as a futile attempt to ‘put lipstick on a gorilla’, this paper argues that Belfast’s branding is not only far from futile but a perversely paradoxical form of marketing that’s so bad it’s good.     

New product planning: Lessons from Japanese experience

Japan has derived a reputation as a market that is extremely difficult to enter. However, this belief tends to promote neglect of the study of other factors—important among which is that of the competitive styles of Japanese companies. An issue that is particularly germane is that of product strategy. This article reports on research that was performed among a sample of foreign consumer products' companies in Japan. The article explores the theme that effectiveprodud strategy in Japan requires cultural sensitivity, as well as an ability to cope with the aggressive, technical led approaches of Japanese companies that comprise the competitive set.     

Extending Fisch and Block’s (2018) tips for a systematic review in management and business literature

Management Review Quarterly - A systematic literature review is designed to synthesize meaningful knowledge from a large number of studies on a research topic. Over the past decade, management...     

Continuance intention of baby boomer and X generation as new users of digital payment during COVID-19 pandemic using UTAUT2

The emergence of social distancing and stay at home regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic directly affects people’s lifestyle, including baby boomers and X generation. Many of them have started using digital payments for online or offline transactions to minimize contact with others. This study aims to analyze the continuance intention of the baby boomers and X generation toward the use of digital payments using UTAUT2 (Unified Theory of Acceptance Technology). Data were collected from 320 users with an age range of 40–74 who had just started using digital payments during this pandemic. Structural equation modeling has been used to analyze the data. The result indicates that UTAUT indicators positively affect user satisfaction. User satisfaction positively affects inertia. Overall satisfaction and inertia positively affect continuance intention. Therefore, digital payment companies and banks with digital services can expand their target market beyond Millennials and pay more attention to the older generation like baby boomers and X generation. Managers can find the results of this study useful and beneficial to develop their marketing strategy and take advantage of this situation to increase digital payment users to a broader age range.

     

Football – marketplace icon?

Football has always been an important part of consumer culture, in many countries producing a global audience for World Cups and millions of people celebrating annual football competitions. It was once described by iconic Liverpool Football Club (FC) football manager Bill Shankly as follows, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don’t like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that.” This marketplace icon contribution puzzles over whether football truly represents a marketplace icon and if so how does this effect the world’s most popular sports game? The commentary explores the significance of the beautiful game asking the reader to consider that it is not only a marketplace icon but much more than that, likened here to a “supra socio-cultural phenomenon” which rises above market logic or as Foer argues Football explains the world.     

“Exiled Music Herself,Pushed to the Edge of Existence”: The Experience Of Musicians Who Perform Background Music

In reconsidering music in the background, the authors look to what Adorno said seventy years ago about music as aural wallpaper, as the Muzak corporation put it: “music is there to be listened to but Muzak is there to be heard”. Examining the history of listening, and in particular the influence of romanticism and bohemia, we explore through depth interviews the experiences of musicians who perform background music. This text is enlivened by an accompanying audio presentation which brings to centre stage the voices of the musicians on how they negotiate the romantic experience of music when the audience isn't interested.