Motives behind retailers’ post-entry expansion - Evidence from the Chinese luxury fashion market

This study aims to examine the motives behind retailers’ post-entry expansion in foreign markets. Through case studies of eleven participating luxury fashion retailers in China, qualitative data was collected from twenty-two executive interviews. Although their initial market entry was driven by both reactive (push) and proactive (pull) factors, the motives behind their post-entry expansion have become predominantly proactive, especially long-term growth strategies, the ambition to extend their brands and retail formats to more cities, and the experiences gained in entry markets. The desire to optimize the retail store portfolio through multiple channel strategies have slowed down the expansions of physical stores.     

The different faces of coupon elasticity

Coupons account for over two-thirds of all consumer promotional efforts initiated by the manufacturers of consumer goods. In this study, the impact of coupons on brand sales is investigated and how that impact decays over the life of the coupon is demonstrated. Specifically, we present an econometric model that can capture coupon effects in terms of equivalent price reduction, account for coupon effects over time, allow inference of coupon effects when retailers decide to double or triple the coupon value, and provide both self-coupon and cross-coupon elasticities at different levels of aggregation. A widely used sales response model is adapted, and an analytical model is proposed to estimate both the self-coupon and cross-coupon (face value) elasticities of sales at the store level. From the store-level elasticity estimates for a given week, the authors analytically derive the coupon elasticities for the chain level by aggregating across stores, and over the life of the coupon by aggregating over time. The proposed sales response model is estimated with the data obtained from three markets for various product categories, and the coupon elasticities are computed. The proposed framework allows one to demonstrate the hypothetical equivalence of a shelf-price reduction for a given coupon face value in each week. Also, the effect of doubling the face value of a coupon results in more than a proportionate increase in elasticity. The authors find that both self and cross-coupon elasticities are much smaller in magnitude than the average self and cross-price elasticity measures reported in the literature.     

绿色促销活动的伦理思考

伦理化的绿色促销活动体现了一种新的营销观念，反映出企业经营理念、价值观、社会责任感的企业深层形象，因而是绿色营销研究的主要内容。     

Violation behavior in vertical restraint: Empirical analyses in the case of retail price maintenance

An extensive body of work within the marketing and economics literature has been devoted to studying vertical restraints, yet only a few researchers have investigated the violation behavior of retailers. In this paper, we investigate violation behavior in the context of retailer price maintenance. We investigate this behavior using a unique data set from a subsidy program in China, which includes transaction-level information that shows retail price maintenance (RPM) practices in multiple product categories by multiple manufacturers across multiple markets. The results from our fixed effects regression show that retailer violations are more likely to occur when intra-product competition is high. However, how retailer violation likelihood varies with inter-product competition may depend on the product category. We find that inter-product competition, is negatively associated with the likelihood of violation, for “less popular” product categories in the program such as washing machines, air conditioners, etc., but is positively associated with the likelihood of violation for “popular” product categories such as refrigerators, televisions, and cell phones. Our research provides some of the first empirical evidence about retailer violation behavior under RPM in the world’s largest emerging market by focusing on the relationship between violation behavior and market structure. We discuss the implications for monitoring efforts of manufacturers and regulators.     

肯德基“秒杀”事件引发的促销策略思考

互联网技术改变了人们的生活方式及购买行为,企业为了适应环境的变化纷纷导入网络营销观念。本文以市场营销学为理论基础,分析了肯德基2010年4月的一次促销策略存在的问题,并对企业在互联网背景下制定促销策略提出个人见解。     

To Justify or Not to Justify: The Role of Anticipated Regret on Consumers’ Decisions to Upgrade Technological Innovations

Prior research suggests that adoption decisions are primarily based on product features and experiential opportunities, like trial and observation. Our research follows inquiries that identify anticipated regret (AR) as an emotion integral to consumer decision making. Prior research and current retailing practice assume that AR can be alleviated by compelling product attribute-based rationales for immediate purchase. These rationales often take the form of direct attribute comparisons between the current best and the future technologies. Counter-intuitively, we find that giving consumers attribute-based justifications for immediate purchase produces a uniform level of AR and purchase delay regardless of the perceived rate of innovation (PRI). However, under conditions of low PRI and no justification, AR decreases significantly. A clear implication of our findings is that firms marketing current technology should not rush to provide consumers with justifications for immediate upgrade since such communications will remind consumers of what they might miss if they adopt now, resulting in increased AR and purchase delays. Instead, we suggest that retailers focus promotional efforts on highlighting the hedonic benefits consumers experience by adopting today.     

Corporate brand strategy: Drivers and outcomes of hotel industry’s brand orientation

The MNC resellers are vastly competitive and capital-intensive. Based on the corporate brand orientation, the objective is to investigate how the individual dimensions of hotel industry’s brand orientation can improve a corporate experience and subsequently create superior hotel performance and retailer preferences. A model of the integration of the hotel industry’s brand orientation was tested in a survey conducted among MNC resellers from hospitality industry. Structural equation modelling was applied to gain insight into the various influences and relationships. The research makes two main contributions. It makes a theoretical contribution by classifying the integration of the hotel industry’s brand orientation for hospitality industry and from this extrapolate key suggestions for further study. The continuous evolution and economic influence of the hospitality industry require the application of innovative marketing practices.     

Promotional Competitions: A Taxonomy of Campaign Framing Choices Integrating Economic,Informational, and Affective Objectives

Promotional competitions remain underresearched with only limited conceptualization of campaign design (framing) options evident. Our research addresses the following questions: What are the specific framing options available to campaign planners? What framing strategies should decision-makers apply to optimize campaign performance against promotional aims and objectives? We analyze a sample of promotional competition campaigns in the Australian market to identify the range of specific framing options. We present a taxonomy of Action, Entry, and Prize choices, integrating the key promotional aims of economic, informational, and affective influence. Academic and practitioner implications are discussed and a future research agenda is proposed.     

Can Marketing Help in Tackling Food Waste?: Proposals in Developed Countries

One third of food destined for human consumption is wasted globally, and much of the food waste that comes from high-income or developed countries is caused by poor marketing practices, consumer behavior, and consumption patterns. The present study focuses on developed countries to propose some marketing actions that could help in reducing food waste. A comprehensive analysis was carried out for each marketing variable, to provide a snapshot of actions and proposals that are being developed. Our study highlights the relevance of marketing in contributing to reduce food waste, through the removal of “Buy one, get one free” sales promotions, clarifying date labeling, or raising food waste awareness campaigns. The main contribution of this study is the proposal of marketing actions that help in tacking food waste.     

Web-Based Promotions

Abstract

Numerous business and popular articles continue to appear to stress the importance of the Internet as a powerful and interactive means of communication. As with other media, the web affects viewers' product evaluations and behavioral intentions. This article attempts to understand how students (recently admitted freshmen) form opinions about their school through interaction with the university web site. Multiple studies are conducted using website variables. The results of study one suggest website vividness, interactivity, and entertainment value are crucial in the formation of positive evaluations of and word of mouth behaviors directed toward the university. In study two, these same predictors helped explain word of mouth intentions but contributed little to evaluations.