Why do SMEs switch suppliers?

Purpose Combining a conceptual framework with empirical evidence, this study aims to offer insights into why small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the business-to-business beauty sector switch suppliers, due to pricing considerations. Design/methodology/approach Data gathered from 475 telephone surveys of Spanish hairdressers provide the input for discrete choice models for testing the proposed hypotheses. Findings The SMEs that change suppliers tend to be sensitive to promotions, express less satisfaction with a current supplier’s offerings and serve fewer customers who buy professional products for their in-home use. If SMEs are satisfied with the supplier’s services though, they are less likely to change and more prone to negotiate with that supplier. Research limitations/implications This study does not address why dissatisfied SMEs might remain with their current suppliers. Further research might replicate this study using additional pricing data from suppliers. Practical implications Suppliers in business-to-business (B2B) sectors can leverage these findings to allocate their marketing budgets optimally and establish service strategies that will enable them to retain buyers and reduce their switching risk. Originality/value As an extension of extant literature, this study specifies switching drivers for SMEs in the B2B beauty sector. The findings should apply throughout this worldwide service sector, as well as to similar markets such as health, beauty and personal care and well-being services.

Marketing mix strategies during and after COVID-19 pandemic and recession: a systematic review

PurposeThis study aims to answer two important questions: (1) Whether companies should reduce or increase the marketing expenses to face the recession caused by COVID-19? and (2) What marketing mix strategies should companies undertake to shine in the post-pandemic world?Design/methodology/approachAs recession caused by the COVID-19 crisis is one of the main drivers of business environment and customer behaviour changes, the authors systematically reviewed articles on marketing mix strategies during recessions. Out of 1,128 documents extracted from the Scopus database, 41 English-written articles were selected and analysed.FindingsThis study illustrates: (1) marketing budgets should not be cut during COVID-19 and (2) the marketing mix practices and strategies that firms should undertake during COVID-19 pandemic in terms of product, price, promotion, and place were explained.Originality/valueThe findings of this study advance the understanding of marketing strategies and practices that should be adopted and put into practice to deal with the impacts of COVID-19 on the business environment and shine in the post-COVID-19 world.

From audiences to data points: The role of media agencies in the platformization of the news media industry

Media agencies have become one of the key actors in the contemporary media industry: by channelling marketing budgets to some media and some platforms and not to others, media agencies play an important role in creating the digital media infrastructure and laying the tracks of the public sphere. Yet we know very little about these commercial middlemen between advertisers and audiences, what they do, and how we should understand their role in the digital media ecology. This article discusses the role of media agencies in relation to platformization with a focus on the news media sector. Based on interviews, publicly available material and trade journals, the article depicts an industry deeply engaged in digitizing, tracking and commodifying media audiences, while at the same time aware of ethical challenges of the digital media infrastructure. This leads to a call for more political attention and critical research on the democratic implications of the new value chains between platforms, advertisers, audiences, media agencies and news media as well as the many tech companies providing derived digital services and products.

Outdoor advertising market in conditions of pandemic

The article presents the results of studying the global and Russian advertising market dynamics, in particular, the outdoor advertising market in a pandemic. The crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all advertising markets. The most stable markets were considered in the USA and China. The media segments of the advertising market in Russia in the period of 2010 - 2020 have been analyzed; advertising on the Internet is recognized as a leading segment, in second and third places are television advertising and UN advertising, respectively. Global ad spend across all media is 4.2% lower in 2020. Outdoor, TV, radio and print advertising revenues amounted to $ 233 billion. The outdoor advertising market was among the first to be negatively affected by the pandemic: the decrease in car and pedestrian traffic led to changes in marketing budgets, a less number of advertisers and high cost of outdoor advertising. Starting from the second half of 2020, the market began to recover, which in the near future will entail an increase in brand spending on outdoor advertising. The relevance of programmatic sales in modern conditions has been proved. The costs of programmatic purchases of digital inventory in outdoor advertising in the USA are illustrated, the slow introduction of programmatic purchases in the UN-company of Russia is noted. The results of a neuromarketing study conducted in 2020 among residents of Belgorod, confirming the problem of low visibility of outdoor advertising, are presented. The main directions of further development of the outdoor advertising market are outlined: short-term planning, reduction of terms and volumes of advertising placement; digitalization of inventory; consolidation of outdoor advertising operators; development of programmatic sales in the regions, etc.

Improving Approaches to the Formation of Enterprise's Marketing Budgets

This article discusses the importance of optimizing advertising budgets for enterprises in the face of fierce competition for the consumer. It highlights the principles that business owners should consider when developing a marketing budget and notes the change in the influence of marketing in the sales funnel. The process of optimization of advertising budgets is presented.Also, the main approaches and methods of forming the marketing budgets of enterprises are highlighted. The method is considered in detail, taking into account the effectiveness of the use of marketing budgets. And recommendations are given on the allocation of budgets within advertising channels, depending on the goals and size of the enterprise.

Communications at a crossroads: what place for integrated marketing communications in a post-Covid-19 landscape?

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) are a core part of business success in the 21st century, but are facing exceptional challenges, some of which predate the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The various stages of IMC offer rich potential to enhance marketing techniques, harness the power of data analytics and build brand success. However, while most firms would claim to be deploying IMC, many are offering little more than sales-orientated mass marketing, having failed to move beyond the most basic form of its operation (Stage 1). Amid shrinking economies and slashed marketing budgets, even the minority of firms that has moved into Stage 2 (targeted marketing exchanges), Stage 3 (the application of information technology), Stage 4 (information-led communication planning), or even the putative Stage 5 (fully integrated marketing) now risk reverting to Stage 1. It is therefore critically important to develop an advanced understanding of IMC and its potential. Equally significant is the need to address the global trend towards focusing on attracting customers while neglecting post-purchase experience. A twin approach of successfully harnessing all the stages of IMC while also paying full attention to customer retention will maximise the chances of building brand success in the current challenging climate.

Search engine optimization as a tool to increase the competitiveness of pharmaceutical companies in modern conditions

Search engine optimization (SEO), which is currently actively used by the majority of pharmaceutical companies all over the world, is one of the most relevant digital marketing technologies. The features of the SEO in pharmaceutical companies as one of the modern tools of digital marketing have been considered in the article.Most of the companies, which operate in the natural sciences, are several years behind in development from other industries, due to the low level of SEO strategy application. As a result, the marketing budgets of pharmaceutical companies are focused on maintaining traditional classical approaches in the field of marketing. This bias in the budget arises mainly from the underestimation of the role of the SEO strategy in the organization’s activities by the majority of pharmaceutical companies. Companies should clearly understand how significant is the impact of digitalization on their activity in modern conditions. SEO is much broader than using search queries and meta tags. Due to implementing digital tools, it is possible to create “social signals” for attracting a new target audience.It has been noted in the article that search algorithms, developed by search platforms, change very often, and it is necessary to constantly monitor and improve them. Moreover, SEO is required to help people to find the content that best matches their intended goal, rather than to misinform them by showing inappropriate pages with matched search keywords in search results.Competition among the largest companies is constantly increasing in the global pharmaceutical market, and the use of digital marketing tools, such as SEO, will allow companies to change radically the situation. As a result of the research, recommendations for the effective use of SEO as one of the digital marketing tools in the business of pharmaceutical companies have been proposed. Finally, the conclusions about the increasing the role of digital marketing in modern conditions have been made.

Métodos de medición y planeación publicitaria: usos de las comunicaciones integradas de marketing (CIM)

Given that one of the central elements in marketing spending is advertising, this study aims at analysing how the advertising planning process is influenced by the types of responses expected from the audience, the measurement methods used to assess advertising effectiveness and the expected results. This study was empirical and exploratory based on the application of a cross-sectional survey to 150 marketing managers of medium and large-sized companies in Colombia. The results show if organisations measure the level of compliance with the goals established in terms of IMC, they will make better decisions and allocate marketing budgets consistent with their objectives, resources and capabilities. As the results of the present study indicate, organisations can experience weaknesses in implementing measurement methods that guarantee the proper calculation of organisational results concerning advertising investment.

A Photo Post Recommendation System Based on Topic Model for Improving Facebook Fan Page Engagement

Digital advertising on social media officially surpassed traditional advertising and became the largest marketing media in many countries. However, how to maximize the value of the overall marketing budget is one of the most concerning issues of all enterprises. The content of the Facebook photo post needs to be analyzed effectively so that the social media companies and managers can concentrate on handling their fan pages. This research aimed to use text mining techniques to find the audience accurately. Therefore, we built a topic model recommendation system (TMRS) to analyze Facebook posts by sorting the target posts according to the recommended scores. The TMRS includes six stages, such as data preprocessing, Chinese word segmentation, word refinement, TF-IDF word vector conversion, creating model via Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI), or Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and calculating the recommendation score. In addition to automatically selecting posts to create advertisements, this model is more effective in using marketing budgets and getting more engagements. Based on the recommendation results, it is verified that the TMRS can increase the engagement rate compared to the traditional engagement rate recommended method (ERRM). Ultimately, advertisers can have the chance to create ads for the post with potentially high engagements under a limited budget.

RESEARCH OF PRACTICE OF USE OF ONLINE ADVERTISING TOOLS IN THE ACTIVITIES OF SMALL BUSINESSES

The relevance of the chosen topic is due to the search for growth reserves for small businesses in a difficult economic period, when, on the one hand, business is forced to suspend its activities for an indefinite time, on the other hand, consumer capacity is declining, and state support measures are insufficient for the fast launch of the economy. In this regard, small businesses primarily suffer losses, and the reduction of quarantine measures and the opening of enterprises does not guarantee a speedy recovery of financial stability of business, which will undoubtedly affect marketing budgets. In search of the most cost-effective advertising ways and close communications with consumers, business turns to the Internet, which role is confirmed by statistics of the last two years: the focus of business is shifting towards online and currently exceeds the volume of the traditional advertising market. The study analyzed how successfully small businesses use Internet tools, found out which ones are more preferable, are there qualified personnel in the company, whether the effectiveness of the selected tools is analyzed, what difficulties companies face and how they solve them, and given recommendations.