Marketing Executives Research Articles

Perceptions of Interactivity and Consumer Control in Marketing Communications

ABSTRACTThe literature of marketing communication in the latter half of the 1990s offers evidence that interactive marketing is a significant presence in the field of marketing communication, and that control of interactive communication in many cases is passing into the hands of consumers. Perceptions of the development of communication interactivity, and measurement of the outcomes of interactive marketing communication--both as a basis for measuring marketing success and as a basis for determining marketing communication investment and agency compensation--are therefore legitimate subjects for research inquiry. A survey was conducted among marketing communication executives and educators to investigate perceptions of the present and future status of interactive and consumer-controlled interactive marketing communication, the degree of preparation for them, preferences for their measurement, and preferences for methods of compensating agencies for interactive marketing communication services.

‘Introducing Mr. Kau Kau’: Using ‘Prepared Role’ to Facilitate Student Learning in International Marketing

Prepared Role is a form of dramatic convention whereby another lecturer, student or guest, is introduced into classroom drama to play an accurate and authentic role (Neelands, 1998). This paper documents the case of a PhD student performing in the Prepared Role as a visiting overseas official, addressing and interacting with university marketing students in their role as Australian marketing executives interested in exporting products and services to Papua New Guinea. Interpretive research, in the form of an open-ended response examined the contribution of Prepared Role in terms of student perceptions of learning within a drama-based marketing unit at an Australian University. Findings indicate that Prepared Role was beneficial to student learning in the context of international marketing.

Turning adversity into advantage: Does proactive marketing during a recession pay off?

Recessions can severely affect the performance of firms, and even their very survival. However, all firms are not equally affected by a recession. Some firms view recessions as opportunities to strengthen their businesses, invest aggressively and establish their advantage over their weaker competitors, whereas others cut back, waiting for the recession to pass. Why do some firms view the recession as an opportunity and develop an aggressive marketing response to it? What are the effects of such a marketing response on the performance of the firm? These are the two central questions we address in this paper. We propose a new construct, which we call proactive marketing in a recession, as the firm's interpretation of the recession as an opportunity (opportunity interpretation) and development and execution of a response to capitalize on the perceived opportunity created by the change (offensive response). We develop and test a model of the antecedents and consequences of proactive marketing during a recession. The results of a survey of 154 senior marketing executives show that some firms do indeed adopt proactive marketing during a recession. Both organizational and environmental contexts influence firms' proactive response to a recession. Firms that have a strategic emphasis on marketing, an entrepreneurial culture, and slack resources are proactive in their marketing activities during a recession, while the severity of the recession in the industry negatively affects proactive marketing response. In addition, firms that have a proactive marketing response in a recession achieve superior business performance even during the recession. Our results suggest that not all firms do, or should, respond in a proactive manner during a recession. Those firms with a strategic emphasis on marketing already have programs in place (e.g., well-recognized brands, differentiated products, targeted communications, good support and service, etc.) that enable them to derive benefits from a proactive marketing response during the recession.

Managing the Design Innovation–Brand Marketing Interface: Resolving the Tension between Artistic Creation and Commercial Imperatives*

The relationship between design and marketing is an uneasy one. Managing this tension is critical for luxury marketers, whose point of differentiation is a combination of design excellence and market execution. This article explores the tensions between marketing and design and the integration of design into the brand management process in luxury wine firms. The results of the investigation describe five design‐based values held by luxury winemakers: remaining true to craft, expressions of place, stylistic consistency, living up to the brand's heritage, and remaining current. Five methods of integrating design into the firm are identified. These are top leadership support and integration at the strategic level, simultaneous loose–tight coupling, being in the marketplace versus being of the marketplace, intergenerational teams, and deliberate decoupling. This last is a novel solution and involves designers walking a fine line between their commitment to their values and the ongoing evolution of the brand. Essentially, designers of luxury wine products downplay their scientific expertise, market knowledge, and responsiveness in favour of appealing to their five espoused values.

Market orientation in a multiple stakeholder orientation context: implications for marketing capabilities and assets

Does a market orientation approach focus too heavily on customers at the expense of other stakeholders? Managers also need to address the interests of other stakeholders when making marketing decisions. This gives an orientation to each stakeholder group, which exist simultaneously, giving a multiple stakeholder orientation profile (MSOP). In the reported empirical study of senior marketing executives, this weakness is addressed, by taking a simultaneous multiple stakeholder orientation approach. The study identified where marketing capabilities and assets are both different and similar among executives with a market focus in their MSOPs, and those with other MSOPs.

Putting Prognostication To Work

OVERVIEW:After brainstorming over the effects of a future terrorist attack (seven years before 9/11), Moen Inc. initiated a five-stage discovery process to increase innovation, build more value into its household faucet product line, and create more consumer pull. In addition to the award-winning product that resulted from the process, the company gained a new world view and strategy for future growth. Corning, too, determined to revamp its innovation process, following the dot-com collapse in 2002. The glassmaker's Early Stage Marketing Group implemented a workshop exercise designed to encourage “creative collisions” between its brightest staffers and outside experts. The exercise has not only created a list of new opportunities, “but the environment in which we can operate and move into new places in the future,” according to a marketing executive.

The Role of Marketing in the Corporation: A Perpetual Work in Progress

This study critically examines the widely-held view that the role of marketing in corporations is in decline. Based on interviews and discussions with top marketing executives and chief executive officers from a broad sample of leading U.S. and global corporations, we describe major changes that are occurring in the organization and management of marketing activities in large manufacturing firms and compare these findings with earlier predictions. We find that there is still a wide range of opinion about the meaning of marketing, which increases the difficulty of assessing marketing performance and justifying the support and resources for marketing activities from top managers focused on shortterm financial objectives. At the same time, marketing as a distinct function with its own bureaucratic structure has become a more dispersed set of activities and responsibilities. One result of these developments, contrary to trends that appeared to be emerging in the early 1990's, is that marketing in many firms has lost a seat at the table as marketing expenditures have been reduced and marketing activities decentralized. At the same time, marketing in some firms continues to play an influential role in corporate strategy, suggesting a range of possible influence of marketing in the corporation. Marketing's ambiguous position raises significant questions for the future of marketing as management practice and academic discipline.

Perceptions of IMC after a Decade of Development: Who's at the Wheel, and How Can We Measure Success?

ABSTRACT The literature on integrated marketing communication (IMC) in the decade since its introduction offers evidence that debates over the definition, acceptance, leadership, and measurement of IMC remain unresolved. A survey was conducted to investigate leadership preferences and perceptions of appropriate methods of measurement and agency compensation in planning and implementing IMC. The survey was conducted by internet among samples of six professional groups with ties to marketing communication: advertising agency executives, public relations agency executives, marketing academics, and public relations academics. The survey revealed some clustering of leadership preferences but little movement toward marketing communication measurement and agency compensation methods consistent with corporate marketing executives, corporate public relations executives, advertising and models of IMC as a developing paradigm.

Market Situation Interpretation and Response: The Role of Cognitive Style, Organizational Culture, and Information Use

Improving marketing decision making requires a better understanding of the factors that influence how managers interpret and respond to a market situation. Building on extant literature, the authors develop a model that delineates antecedents of and responses to the interpretation of a market situation. Using case-scenario methodology, the authors test the model in the context of a marketing decision (annual advertising and promotion budget recommendation) with data collected from a nationwide sample of hospital marketing executives. The results of the partial least squares analysis show that (1) cognitive style, organizational culture, and information use affect the extent to which managers perceive a given market situation as one in which they can control the outcomes of their decision; (2) the more managers perceive a situation as controllable, the more they appraise that situation as an opportunity; and (3) the more managers appraise a situation as an opportunity, the greater is the magnitude of their response.

Characteristics of marketing organisation in the New Zealand financial services sector

During the past 15 years, a body of research has explored the implementation of the marketing concept in terms of the integration of marketing functions under the control of a Chief Marketing Executive (CME), and the position of the CME within the organisation. Relatively little attention has been focused on the organisation of the marketing function within professional services industries. We report a cross‐sectional study examining the characteristics of the marketing function and responsibilities of the CME in a major New Zealand professional services sector, financial services. Our findings suggest a high level of formal organisation structure for marketing within the New Zealand financial services industry. However, while the CME continues to be central to the organisation of the marketing function, there remains considerable variation in the corporate positioning of the marketing function and responsibilities of the CME within this professional services industry.

Marketing Meal Solutions

To regain sales lost to restaurants, many supermarkets developed meal solution programs. Inadequate marketing planning and execution contributed to the disappointing performance of many of these prepared food initiatives. Trends suggest that prepared food will continue to be a growth area and more restaurants are providing takeout and delivery services. By following sound marketing principles, supermarkets may be able to compete with both existing and emerging food-service meal solution concepts.

Estudio crítico sobre las fuentes de información en la Internet dirigidas a los empresarios interesados en el proceso de exportación e importación en Latinoamérica y el Caribe

Sinopsis de las siguientes tesis: Comunicación integrada en mercadeo: Definición y valor percibido en las empresas de los miembros de la Asociación de Ejecutivos de Ventas y Mercadeo en Puerto Rico, La afinidad de los métodos estadísticos Chow-Lin, Fernández y Litterman para la distribución de series de tiempo: El caso del Producto Nacional Bruto real de Puerto Rico, Estudio crítico sobre las fuentes de información en la Internet dirigidas a los empresarios interesados en el proceso de exportación e importación en Latinoamérica y el Caribe, Estudio exploratorio sobre los valores culturales relacionados con el trabajo de un grupo de estudiantes puertorriqueños de la Escuela Graduanda de Administración de Empresas usando el modelo desarrollado por el Dr. Geert Hofstede.

Marketing's contribution to the implementation of business strategy: an empirical analysis

AbstractThis paper describes a study that assesses the performance implications of matching marketing strategy to business strategy. In order to conduct this study we first reviewed the literature on marketing strategy to identify its key dimensions. We then conducted a survey of 1000 senior marketing executives about the strategic marketing practices adopted in their respective firms or business units, and developed scales to describe 11 strategic marketing activities. We next performed a K‐means cluster analysis using these scales to develop a taxonomy of marketing strategy types consisting of: Aggressive Marketers, Mass Marketers, Marketing Minimizers, and Value Marketers. We then observed that superior performance at the firm or SBU level was achieved when specific marketing strategy types were matched with appropriate Miles and Snow (1978) business strategy types. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Defining the Domain of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty: An Exploratory Study of Senior Marketing Executives

At the very core of Marketing Information Systems (MkIS) design is the identification of the marketing information needs of decision-makers. Information needs can be defined as the user specifications of information characteristics involved in information seeking, and refer to those qualities of information perceived by managers to be 'useful' to facilitate their decision-making. Building upon previous qualitative research examining the information needs of senior marketing executives, the authors present the findings of a second qualitative research phase seeking to define the domain of one construct reported by Ashill and Jobber (1999), namely Perceived Environmental Uncertainty. The results, based on interviews with 20 senior marketing executives suggest that this construct may be multidimensional and associated with three different types of uncertainty conditions.

Defining the information needs of senior marketing executives: an exploratory study

At the very core of Marketing Information Systems (MkIS) design is the identification of the marketing information needs of decision‐makers. Information needs can be defined as the user specifications of information characteristics involved in information seeking, and refer to those qualities of information perceived by managers to be “useful” to facilitate their decision making. Drawing on empirical results from three sets of literature and from studies of information systems design (particularly management and accounting information systems design), the authors review a framework for exploring the design of an MkIS. A qualitative study examining the information needs of senior marketing executives is also reported and discussed. The results, based on interviews with 20 senior marketing executives, indicate that marketing information needs can be defined using six information characteristics.

The European Market Executive Summary

The European Market Executive Summary

Factors Influencing Marketing Effectiveness on the Web

Despite the current development of Internet marketing, understanding the effective use of the Internet still poses problems for academic researchers and marketers (Kassaye, 1999). This research attempts to empirically explore some of the critical factors influencing commercial Internet and Web development. The key factors considered for company Internet and Web site development are aspects of technology capacity, the use of different Internet developers, the approaches used to evaluate on-line marketing effectiveness and the marketing executives’ knowledge of Internet technology. As a result of a cross-sectional comparative study of ’effective’ and ’ineffective’ companies, the findings indicate that companies with higher on-line marketing effectiveness tend to possess higher levels of technological capabilities for Internet-based marketing. The results also show that their marketing executives have a better knowledge of technical aspects of Web site development. They tend to be early Internet adopters using a multiple approach to evaluate their on-line marketing efforts. These exploratory results indicate how on-line strategies could be made to be more effective.

Dynamic Strategic Thinking

Market analysts and marketing strategists stress understanding the fundamental dynamics of a market, but how deeply do they think about the interplay of such fundamentals and what frameworks do they use in such thinking? How do business schools teach managers to think this way? The premise of this article is that in their strategizing, senior marketing executives, boards of directors, consultants, and financial analysts should see the market and the firm’s embeddedness in a market as a moving video rather than a static snapshot. The authors propose that what makes the video move are fundamental feedback effects that create the evolutionary paths that a market and a firm may travel. A taxonomy of systemic feedback regularities is presented with applications that demonstrate how the taxonomy and proposed soft mapping techniques can be use to construct dynamic mental models that help managers and consultants improve their dynamic strategic thinking and the strategic foresight of firms.

Biographies [Obituary of Frederick Gordon Smith

Frederick Gordon Smith was born 26 September 1919 in Chefoo, China, and died 11 October 1994. He was a global marketing specialist and considered the dean of computer marketing executives. His life and works up to 1990 are reviewed.

MARKETING STRATEGIES: GAINING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH THE USE OF EMOTION

Top marketing executives and middle managers understanding and utilizing emotions when attempting to gain a competitive advantage through developing various marketing strategies may find this to be of added value when reaching their customers. To enhance the marketing executive's arsenal of weapons when waging competitive battles, this article will review some appropriate theories of emotions and then attempt to develop various advertising, merchandising and selling strategies based on these propositions. This article demonstrates ways in which marketing managers may match various marketing strategies with the various emotional states of typical customers. Also, to counter customer defense mechanisms, battlefield tactics are presented when engaging in a competitive war.