Young consumer-brand relationship building potential using digital marketing

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (11) ◽  
pp. 1993-2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolla Confos ◽  
Teresa Davis

Purpose This paper aims to examine branding strategies directed at child consumers, used by six high fat, sugar and salt food brands across three different digital marketing platforms. It identifies brand relationship building potential in this digital context. Design/methodology/approach This study analyses the contents of branded mobile phone applications, branded websites (including advergames) and branded Facebook sites to understand the nature of young consumer–brand relationship strategies that marketers are developing in this digital media marketing environment. Findings The use of sophisticated integrated branding strategies in immersive online media creates the potential for marketers to build relationships between young consumers and brands at an interactive, direct and social level not seen in traditional media. Categories of relationships and brand tactics are identified as outcomes of this analysis and linked to brand relationship building potential. Research limitations/implications The results suggest that branded communication strategies that food companies use in the online environment are creating conditions that appeal to young consumers, fostering new ways to build brand relationships. As this is a dynamic medium in a fluid state of change, this exploratory study identifies and categorises the marketing strategy, but not the young consumers’ response to such branding strategies (a limitation). Originality/value This study details the potential for child–brand relationship building in the context of online branding environments. It identifies the potential for longer-term effects of embedded advertising directly to young consumers, within and across three digital media platforms.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiran Nair ◽  
Ruchi Gupta

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the various application of artificial intelligence (AI) to social media and digital advertising professionals and agencies to specialize to an advanced degree and maintain collaboration and creativity to bring a better return on investment.Design/methodology/approachDigital marketers are still oblivious to the importance of AI application, while some others simply do not know how to implement it. AI is currently acting as a significant disruption in digital and social media marketing worldwide.FindingsBased on the literature review, the paper identifies the various AI applications in the field of digital media marketing.Originality/valueThis paper can serve as a useful guide for social media marketers to implement AI applications to impact digital marketing strategies better.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shobha Menon

Theoretical basis This case highlights repositioning strategies that change a product’s position in the minds of the consumer in response to changes in market conditions. These changes should be balanced with a certain amount of brand authenticity and continuity. Brand identity is the vision, core values and key beliefs of the brand. There are four main branding strategies as follows: house of brands, endorsed brands, sub-brands and branded house. These options can be placed in a continuum and the position on the branding relationship spectrum reflects the degree to which brands are separated in strategy execution and in the customer’s minds. Research methodology This case is based on secondary data, mainly from interviews of industry leaders in business journals, newspapers, research articles and industry reports, including from international organizations. Case overview/synopsis The case examines the frequent revisions in branding strategies by India’s second largest group of hotels – Indian Hotels Company Limited. Repositioning involves changing the market’s perceptions of an offering to compete more effectively in its target segments. However, a certain amount of continuity is also essential to the brand’s development over time. The case helps students to view the brand from two angles as follows: the angle of brand identity and the disruptive angle of new developments. They will examine the rationale for the frequent repositioning strategies using the brand relationship spectrum and whether these will affect the brand identity of the iconic brand Taj. Complexity academic level This case has been effectively used with MBA Marketing students in Product and Brand Management and Services Marketing classes to demonstrate how companies use repositioning strategies as a considered response to the market conditions. As competitive conditions and consumers evolve, changes in branding strategy will be necessitated. The students are expected to have basic knowledge of brand architecture and brand strategies. The case can be used to illustrate the brand relationship spectrum and the differences among branding strategies in brand architecture. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Hass ◽  
Ashley Hass ◽  
Mathew Joseph

Purpose Over the past decade, gamification’s popularity has broadened into many industries and has become embedded in consumers’ lives. As privacy protection and how firms utilize users’ data has been at the forefront of consumers’ minds, practitioners and academics alike need to understand consumers’ perceptions of the ethics of gamification. This paper aims to explore and provide preliminary evidence on young consumers’ perceptions of gamification and the ethics involved in these strategies used by firms. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted two studies using a mixed-methods approach to gain a foundational understanding of young consumers’ perceptions of gamification. In Study 1, interviews provided initial insights and helped inform an exploratory survey administered in Study 2 to 161 young consumers attending a university in the southwest region of the USA. Findings The findings indicate that consumers have positive attitudes toward gamification tactics as long as the rewards are sufficient. Further, consumers do not find gamification as unethical as long as they have control over having the ability to opt-in. Originality/value Previous research has examined gamification from several contexts including health care, education and the workplace. However, there is little research that focuses on gamification from the consumers’ perspective, specifically the young consumer. As more firms are using gamification tactics such as on their mobile applications, it is critical to understand how young consumers perceive gamification and how that can impact the consumer-brand relationship. This research offers two studies as a first step in investigating young consumers’ perceptions of gamification tactics firms use and offers several future directions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kezia Herman Mkwizu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore digital marketing and tourism with a focus on opportunities with a case study of Africa, motivated by developments in tourism particularly the increase in tourist arrivals and the growth of digital statistics in the digital era. Design/methodology/approach Literature review as a research methodology was adopted in this study, and the integrative literature review was the method used as well as content analysis to review studies in digital marketing and tourism relating to Africa. Findings This paper reveals that digital media, content and mobile advertising are among the trends in digital marketing and, thus, affords Africa the opportunity to market its attractions to tourists in this digital era. Research limitations/implications Future studies can explore quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the phenomenon of digital marketing in relation to tourism. Practical implications Other countries within Africa to adopt similar digital marketing such as digital media and creative content in order to manage the digitization of marketing activities in the tourism sector. Originality/value This study explores digital marketing and tourism with a focus on opportunities for Africa as a case study by specifically examining social media marketing in relation to tourist arrivals using integrative literature review and content analysis methods.


Author(s):  
Fatih Pinarbasi

Managerial thinking in marketing management requires holistic perspective for understanding and interpreting issues and trends in marketing environment. Technology plays a key role in business related issues and the effects of it can be seen in digital marketing concept. On the other hand, consumer behavior is always popular because of the nature of concept. In today's world consumer-brand relationship can be consumer-driven or brand-driven. So, this combination creates a dual structure which can help for a holistic perspective. The aim of this chapter is examining marketing management in two perspectives: digital marketing and consumer behavior. Literature review is used in this study to examine current literature in three different contexts. These contexts refer to specific areas in marketing management and they address two perspectives used in this study. All contexts have descriptive information and selected studies. This study highlights main topics in the contexts and provides a holistic perspective for marketing management.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1448-1458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaël Bonnin ◽  
Mauricio Rodriguez Alfonso

Purpose With the rise of digital media and content marketing, business-to-business (B2B) technology firms increasingly use narratives in their marketing strategy. If research has studied the impact of narrative on audiences, the structuration of the narrative strategies is still an overlooked area. The purpose of this paper is to understand the structuration of narrative strategies. Design/methodology/approach Authors studied the cases of narratives on the Internet of Things produced by two leading technology firms, IBM and Cisco, between 2012 and 2016. Material includes advertising campaigns, blogs, written customer cases, white papers, public speeches and selling discourses. Findings The research highlights the importance of metanarratives as the core of the structuration of seemingly different contents. It also shows how firms tap into fundamental mythic archetypes and broader sociocultural narratives to try and legitimate the emerging technology. Finally, research also introduces the concept of transmedia strategy and illustrates its use by the two firms studied. Research limitations/implications The results are based on only two cases of multinational firms, limiting the generalization of the findings. Practical implications The results of the research may encourage firms to use more narrative branding strategies. They also offer directions for the key elements to manage when elaborating a narrative strategy (defining key metanarratives, identifying and using broader sociocultural narratives, designing a transmedia strategy). Originality/value The paper is among the first to try to understand the structuration of narrative branding strategies. While exploratory, it contributes to research on B2B branding and digital branding by bringing the narrative into B2B branding research.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Cheng ◽  
Hua Jiang

Purpose This study aims to explore the role of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot marketing efforts (CMEs) in the establishment of relationships between brands and their customers, extending the link between relationship marketing and online consumer behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected from 1,072 customers in the USA, who used chatbot marketing activities from any of 30 brands leading their industries in messaging innovation. Structural equation modeling is used for data analysis. Findings Results show that interaction, information, accessibility, entertainment and customization are important CMEs components. CMEs have significant direct effects on the quality of communication with chatbot agents and indirectly affect customer–brand relationships (CBR) and customer response. In addition, the findings demonstrate that CBR mediates the association between communication quality and customer response. Originality/value Implications of this study can enable practitioners to understand the effects of AI on user experiences and provide a guide for the development of CMEs strategies and relationship building.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 568-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Apostolos Giovanis

Purpose Given its importance in the brand management of service firms, the present research initiative primarily concerns the investigation of the formation process of consumer-brand relationships in the service industry. By considering a chain of effects’ model, this paper aims to integrate two brand commitment paradigm’s perspectives with service evaluation theory, representing the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of the relationship building process, to better explain the way consumers relate to a service brand. The proposed conceptual model is tested in the context of mobile broadband internet services. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 573 customers of mobile internet services was conducted using a structured questionnaire with established scales. Data were analyzed with partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicated that brand loyalty is determined by relationship commitment, which, in turn, is influenced by the consumer-brand relationship components – trust, satisfaction, investment size and quality of alternatives – as well as by the service brand’s perceived value. Finally, the relationship quality components of the brand, trust and satisfaction to a large extent, and investment size to a lesser extent, mediate the relationships between service brand evaluation and brand commitment. Research limitations/implications The sample is industry-specific, and this may affect generalizability of findings. Also, the cross-sectional design adopted does not reflect temporal changes. Practical implications From a practical point of view, the findings suggest that providers can improve their loyalty figures through the establishment of strong consumer-brand relationships as a result of the development and delivery of high quality, valuable services and other relationship-building tactics that support the consumer-brand binding. Originality/value Although there are previous studies that extend either the relationship investment model or the commitment-trust theory with the service evaluation theory, the proposed model is the first to combine the previous three research streams into one causal chain model, to explain the development and flow of events in the consumer-brand relationship process toward brand loyalty.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 266-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dipanjan Kumar Dey ◽  
Ankur Srivastava

Purpose The purpose of this research paper is to examine predictors of impulsive buying intentions among youngsters from a hedonic shopping perspective. Recent theoretical work suggests that impulsive buying can function as a form of different hedonic shopping value dimensions such as fun, social interactions, novelty, escapism and outside appreciation. Design/methodology/approach The present research empirically tests a theoretical model of impulse buying intentions by examining the associations between hedonic shopping value dimensions and intentions in the presence of situational characteristics as moderators. A survey of 333 youngsters aged 15 to 23 is conducted using a structured questionnaire. Constructs are measured using established scales. Findings Results indicate that the impulsive buying intentions of youngsters are positively associated with all the five dimensions of hedonic shopping value. Situational characteristics of money and time availability positively moderate this relationship. Task definition negatively moderates the association between impulsive buying intention and hedonic shopping value dimensions. Research limitations/implications Two major theoretical implications result from this study. First, the study enabled the conceptualization of a theoretical framework of impulse buying intentions by including five dimensions of hedonic shopping value as important factors in young consumers’ impulse behavior buying intentions. Further, it includes the moderating effects of all the three aspects of situational characteristics in the same model. Practical implications The marketers can make use of the shopping value dimensions and the situational characteristics moderators to design and implement marketing strategies so that sales via impulse buying are maximized. Originality/value This study provides novel insights on the complex process of impulsive buying by youngsters by expanding the application of the hedonic shopping motives in the presence of situational factors as moderating variables.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhigyan Sarkar ◽  
Juhi Gahlot Sarkar

Purpose Extant research shows that individual’s relationship with brand can be structurally similar to both interpersonal love relationship and religious relationship. A stream of consumer research states that individual can love a brand like a person loves another person. Another stream of consumer research postulates that individual can perceive brand equivalent to religion, and even substitute religion with brand. Research is scarce connecting these two different paradigms of brand relationship, given that interpersonal relationship is not necessarily as devotional as religious relationship. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the psychological process through which an individual can substitute his/her religion with brand. The basic theoretical premise of this substitution behaviour is the proposition that brand meanings can be perceived as equivalent to religious meanings. Design/methodology/approach This paper has conducted an integrative review of selected extant research related to individual-brand relationships, interpersonal relationships and religiosity. Findings This paper develops a consumer response hierarchy model showing the inter-related psychological processes through which an individual can substitute his/her religion with brand. The model forms the basis for the discussion of theoretical contributions and managerial implications. Originality/value The value of this conceptual paper lies in developing a process model for the first time in the area of consumer-brand relationship domain explaining the stage-wise psychological processes through which individual can move from mere cognitive brand satisfaction towards perceiving brand as substitute of religion.


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