Strategic Marketing Implications Research Articles

A Discussion on Changes in Consumer Behaviors and Marketing Coping Strategies during the Pandemic Era – A Case Study of the Hotel Industry and Catering Industry

Abstract To date, the COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the world for three years, and it has greatly impacted the service industry, especially the hotel and the catering industries, which were the first to bear the brunt, as the pandemic changed the previous living habits and consumption patterns of many consumers. This study used in-depth interviews in qualitative research methods to conduct exploratory research of these two service industries and analyzed the changes in marketing environments and consumer behaviors faced by enterprises under this pandemic. The research results show that there were significant impacts and changes in the marketing macroenvironment (political, economic, social and cultural, and technological) and microenvironment (suppliers, competitors, and customers). Meanwhile, this study also put forward possible business opportunities for and threats to enterprises due to this pandemic. Finally, this study proposes strategic marketing implications and practical management suggestions for enterprises to adjust market segmentation and positioning. Furthermore, this study formulates the 7P marketing strategies of Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence, and Process to mitigate the adverse impacts of the pandemic. Keywords: COVID-19, Marketing strategy, Online merge with offline, Hotel industry, Online travel agent.

Deconstructing the role of artificial intelligence in programmatic advertising: at the intersection of automation and transparency

ABSTRACT With the increasingly sophisticated improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in marketing communications, a gap prevails between heightened levels of excitement around it and high-level application. Consequently, this topic necessitates in-depth investigation to prepare for future changes. This study examines the role of AI in programmatic advertising through a quantitative content analysis of AI-enabled digital programmatic advertisements. Although the idea that sponsorship disclosure, appeals, and sentiments are important in persuasive messages has been documented, this study extends existing literature by examining these concepts within AI-enabled programmatic advertising. Sponsorship-linked marketing and congruence theory guided this study. The results showed that only about half of the ads revealed sponsorship information. Further, the brand-sponsor association was not clearly established in the ads. A sentiment analysis showed the prominence of positive sentiments in the ads. Additionally, the ads mostly used product- and consumer-focused appeals. Theoretical and research contributions and strategic marketing implications are discussed.

The manifestation of brand engagement in self-concept through customer word-of-mouth behavior

ABSTRACT This research investigates brand engagement in self-concept (BESC) and its manifestation on how customers gather, give, and exchange information about a set of brands integral to their self-concept. Despite the importance of word-of-mouth, research has yet to adequately address how customers communicate and exchange their advocacy for these brands across the target actors in their communication ecosystem and modality. We draw on the social network paradigm and social risk and self-enhancement theories and propose a conceptual model tested by data from 471 respondents. Our results suggest that customers are more likely to express the brands related to their self-schema through word-of-mouth equally to both close and distant groups. Specifically, we find that the impact of BESC on close group word-of-mouth is stronger in offline modes, while the effect of BESC on distant group word-of-mouth is stronger in online modes. Strategic marketing implications for offline and online word-of-mouth communication are discussed.

European consumer segments with a high potential for accepting new innovative fish products based on their food-related lifestyle

Consumer lifestyles influence consumer behaviour towards food product choices and provide important insights about the existence of consumer segments that vary in their response to new food products. With the aim to contribute to a more market-oriented enhancement of the European aquaculture industry competitiveness, the objective of this study was to identify and profile food-related lifestyle segments of consumers that vary in terms of their willingness to buy new aquaculture fish products. Data were collected through a survey among respondents in three large European fish markets (Spain, France and Germany, N = 1500 in total). Certain core dimensions of the food-related lifestyle construct were used as segmentation bases. We identified five consumer segments across two country groups. The segments differed mainly in terms of their psychographic profile and their intention to buy new aquaculture fish products. Our results contribute to identifying the most promising European consumer segments in terms of buying intention that can be targeted when promoting new aquaculture fish products. The findings have important strategic marketing implications for the food industry and aquaculture, while highlighting the important role food-related lifestyles can play in European segmentation for new food product development.

Traveling to your match? Assessing the predictive potential of Plog’s travel personality in destination marketing

ABSTRACTThis study revisits .Plog’s travel personality model in a true experimental setting and tests the model’s predictive power. The specific aim is to examine whether attitudinal and behavioral responses toward a destination vary as a function of the congruity between the tourist’s travel personality and the characteristics of the destination as perceived from an advertising message. The concept of self-congruity serves as a foundation for the theoretical framework. Results indicate message-personality congruity had a significant influence on visit intention via attitudes as mediators. This study provides theoretical implications for the predictive potential of Plog’s model as well as strategic marketing implications for destinations.

‘You are where you shop’: Examining stereotypes about town center shoppers

The future role of the town center as a retail hub is uncertain. Despite being a historical meeting place, town centers have been struggling for decades to attract customers and retain retailers after the development of out-of-town centers and advancement of online shopping. Previous retail research has mostly used rational explanations and strategies like improved access, pricing, and retail mix to deal with this situation; but this study uses the stereotyping framework that traditionally examined user imagery associations. Town centers have historical charms, cultural establishments, and high streets, which may give rise to certain stereotypical judgments of consumers who prefer or dismiss town centers over other channels, such as more mass consumption-oriented out-of-town centers or online retailers. Could stereotyping be an alternative way to generate alternative strategies to cope with the decline of town center retailing? In two experiments with representative samples (total N = 703), we found that town center shoppers were perceived to be more likable, cultured, and moral, but less frugal than out-of-town and online shoppers. We further observed that status and polarization were central to our postulation as the results were moderated by income type such that only employed, but not welfare-recipient, town center shoppers were perceived positively. These findings not only support the role of symbolic consumption and stereotypes in retail channels, but also provide strategic marketing implications for town centers where retailing activities are in decline.

Factors affecting consumers’ online product review use

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine factors affecting the extent of consumers’ use of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), specifically online product reviews (OPRs), during their decision-making process. It also examines their motives for using OPRs.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses an exploratory qualitative research methodology involving observation and free-flowing face-to-face interviews with consumers who have previously made a purchase online and who read OPRs during the decision-making process. An adaptation of the grounded theory method is used for collection, coding and data analysis.FindingsFindings confirm previously uncovered motives for consumers’ use of OPRs. In addition, the findings suggest that two previously unidentified factors influence the extent of consumers’ use of OPRs: “decision-making drive” and “decision-making drag”. Decision-making drive is a mental momentum created when one or more factors that enhance decision-making readiness are present. This momentum tends to accelerate the decision-making process and shorten the information search process, leading to a reduction in the extent of OPR use. In contrast, decision-making drag is a mental resistance created when one or more factors that impede decision-making readiness are present. This resistance tends to decelerate the decision-making process and lengthen the information search process, leading to an increase in the extent of OPR use.Originality/valueFocused on the pre-consumption phase of eWOM, between the stages of product need recognition and information search, this study is the first to identify decision-making drive and decision-making drag as additional psychological mechanisms affecting the extent of OPR use by consumers. For marketers, understanding these mechanisms has strategic marketing implications that can provide guidance to brands, websites and online review systems.

Influencing Factors of Product Diversification and Innovation: An Exploration of Geographic Clustering and Product Breadth

Numerous scholars have considered the effects of the geographical clustering or agglomeration of firms. However, the debate over the relationship between firm clustering and firm outcomes has yet to be resolved. Based on our analysis, we propose that firms that are located in clusters benefit from a broader product offering or diversification. However, we also predict that increases in cluster size, beyond a certain point, yields a reduction in product breadth. Our aim in this article is to propose a roadmap for future research on product diversification, to more fully explicate the previous mixed cluster-performance results and strategic marketing implications

The role of tourists' emotional experiences and satisfaction in understanding behavioral intentions

Modeling behavioral intentions remain an important area of research in tourism. This study empirically tests a model linking tourists' emotional experiences, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The model proposes that satisfaction mediates the relationship between tourists' emotional experiences and behavioral intentions. Data were collected from international tourists visiting Petra, a UNESCO world heritage site. Contrary to theoretical predictions, results do not support the mediating effect of satisfaction on the relationship between emotions (joy, love, positive surprise, and unpleasantness) and behavioral intentions. Findings offer important strategic marketing implications for Petra in relation to branding and managing destination experiences.

Missing a strategic marketing trick? The use of online social networks by UK charities

This paper explores the use of online social networks in the charity sector. Twelve major UK charities from a range of sectors and three digital marketing agencies were selected to provide rich interview data on the current adoption of online social networks by UK charities. The empirical findings illustrate the diverse drivers in adopting online social networks including regaining control of a brand, external pressures and gaining new audiences. Levels of usage differed significantly and the resistors consistently cited were the lack of skills and resources. The strategic marketing implications for the development of online social networks are also outlined for the UK charity market. The value provided by this paper stems from exploring the organisational perspective rather than the consumer experience of contributing to social networks, within a context which is often overlooked, the charity sector.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Appraisal Determinants of Tourist Emotional Responses

A coherent body of research recognizes the role of emotion in various aspects of consumer behavior. However, while a number of studies exist on the consequences of emotion, empirical investigations into its determinants in tourism have received lesser attention. Building on well-established cognitive appraisal theories of emotion, this study investigates the antecedents of tourists’ emotional responses toward destinations. Canonical correlation analysis supports an appraisal model of emotion in the context of tourist destinations. Results indicate that appraisals of pleasantness, goal congruence, and internal self-compatibility are the main determinants of joy, love, and positive surprise. Overall, the findings offer strategic marketing implications for tourist destinations.

An empirical note on regionalization and globalization

PurposeIs it regionalization or globalization that more accurately depicts the state of the global economy? Exports and foreign direct investments (FDI) data are analyzed with the aim of answering the question and determining how intra‐ and inter‐regional integration has changed over time.Design/methodology/approachTo address the research questions, this paper covers the following. First, it takes a longitudinal perspective in examining the changes taking place in exports and FDI at the regional level. Second, it draws strategic business and marketing implications of this development.FindingsThe results show a trend toward regionalization in the Quad (North America, Western Europe, Asia, and Latin America), especially with respect to exports data.Originality/valueFindings, strategic implications, and directions for future research are presented.

Perceived intrusiveness in digital advertising: strategic marketing implications

With the growth of advertising utilizing digital media, negative consumer perceptions relating to intrusiveness are believed to be challenging the claimed added-value of this medium over traditional media. Building from this context, there has been little empirical work that addresses inherent strategic marketing challenges – indeed this can be applied more generally to strategic marketing challenges surrounding various aspects of new media, such as blogs and social networks. Building from this, internet and mobile digital media platforms form the locus of a qualitative study of 20 consumers, which explores perceptions of digital advertising within the intrusiveness context. A unique contribution of this study is the linking of perceived consumer intrusiveness, with strategic marketing implications relating to the push/pull context. Key outputs of this study then, are strategic implications for marketers in utilizing digital media for advertising, while also providing a unique contribution to extant thinking in the area, and a basis for further study in a formative – yet increasingly important – area of strategic marketing.

Status and Conspicuousness – Are They Related? Strategic Marketing Implications for Luxury Brands

The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to measure luxury brands' status and conspicuousness using the new luxury brand context as a reference point. This scale will be utilized to establish empirical evidence that allows an exploration of the relationship between status and conspicuousness as dimensions of luxury brand perception. The study used Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Attribute Rating. The data were collected from 204 consumers in France. Status and conspicuousness are revealed to constitute two different, although related, dimensions of luxury brands and should therefore be measured as distinct constructs when assessing brand luxury. Strategic marketing implications for marketing managers are identified and discussed within the context of the three product categories. This is the first empirical study to use actual consumers in order to explore the difference between status and conspicuousness in assessing luxury brands.

Strategic marketing implications in competitive intelligence and the Economic Espionage Act of 1996

Strategic marketing implications in competitive intelligence and the Economic Espionage Act of 1996

Key influencers and inhibitors on adoption of the Internet for banking

The focus on new technologies in service situations is growing and is of particular importance in financial services contexts. It is argued that there is mutuality of benefit for both bank and customer through the adoption of self-service technologies (SSTs), of which e-banking is but one example. While the economic imperative for banks’ adoption of e-banking solutions is clear, the value proposition for the customer can be less evident. It is proposed that the value proposition on offer through e-banking could be better conveyed to customers were banks to have a greater understanding of the appropriateness of the on-line medium for products as they varied according to complexity level. This paper reports on a study which examined customer-stated propensity to purchase financial products on-line at varying levels of complexity. Findings underline the importance for banks to achieve a customer-oriented balance between face-to-face relationship-managed activity and online enablement and to understand now this balance varies according to customer and complexity of product. Strategic marketing implications for the case bank are discussed.

Identifying fair trade in consumption choice

Although increased consumer concern for ethical issues has been recognised in research, this has tended to explore such concerns in isolation, neglecting to consider the often complex interaction between ethical issues in consumer decision‐making. Such interrelationships are important to the study of fair trade in terms of providing a richer understanding of market potential and development in strategic decision‐making. The present paper, therefore, seeks to explore fair trade within the context of other discursive narratives such as green consuming, ethical consuming, and voluntary simplicity and the strategic marketing implications for fair trade organisations.

Global marketing of lifesaving drugs: an analogical model

PurposeIn light of the desire to bring about an increase in the global distribution of lifesaving drugs at affordable prices, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the global marketing of lifesaving drugs related to the current pandemic of HIV/AIDS.Design/methodology/approachAn analogical model is used to challenge companies to reengineer their products and their strategies to meet the twin objectives of profitability and humanitarianism. Following analogical reasoning, it is argued that an innovative reengineering and redesigning of lifesaving drugs can meet the great needs of developing countries with affordable prices.FindingsThe paper proposes an analogical model that treats the marketing of drugs in general and of lifesaving drugs in particular, to the developing countries as a “target problem.” This problem can be resolved by seeking analog “candidate solutions” from other “source industries” that have faced similar problems.Practical implicationsIn recent decades the pharmaceutical industry and its free market model of marketing drugs have come under sharp criticism both domestically and globally. Their pricing and distribution of lifesaving drugs to developing countries have been severely criticized. This paper helps pharmaceutical firms to meet the need for lifesaving drugs in developing countries.Originality/valueAnalogical reasoning as applied to marketing is new. The paper submits that this solution will be more effective in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic than any current solutions. The paper discusses the strategic marketing implications of the analogical model.

Turnout and Its Strategic Political Marketing Implications in Hungary During the 2004 European Parliamentary Elections

(2005). Turnout and Its Strategic Political Marketing Implications in Hungary During the 2004 European Parliamentary Elections. Journal of Political Marketing: Vol. 4, No. 2-3, pp. 169-175.

Linking global market segmentation decisions with strategic positioning options

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the relationship between positioning strategies and bases of segmentation in international markets.Design/methodology/approachA principal component analysis was conducted to determine the major macro‐ as well as micro‐bases of segmentation that are linked with strategic positioning decision options. Further, a regression analysis was used to examine the effect of each of the segmentation bases on the different strategic positioning options used by segmentation managers.FindingsThis study suggests the combined use of both macro‐ and micro‐bases of segmentation in order to leverage similar strategic positioning across global markets. However, micro‐bases of segmentation are suggested for firms seeking differential positioning strategies.Research limitations/implicationsThe conceptual and empirical findings of this study pave the way for embarking on promising and relevant future research that is needed to substantiate and enrich the academic understanding and managerial practice of linking global segmentation with strategic positioning decisions. Future research should focus on the use of hybrid segmentation strategies; its logical design; implementation issues; and its evaluation mechanism.Practical implicationsThis study provides specific empirical evidence of the relationship between strategic use of segmentation bases and strategic positioning. An effective use of the proposed framework will have various strategic marketing implications for firms; including cost efficiencies, opportunities to transfer products globally, expansion opportunities of current operation, and development of more effective brand management decisions.Originality/valueThe proposed global strategic segmentation and positioning matrix is a new tool that guides managers to position their brands effectively in world markets.