Communicating a company's higher purpose to conscious consumers through online behavioural advertising

In the 21st century, the use of Internet and web applications have become a major component of advertising. The advantage of online advertising is that advertisers can monitor the online behaviour of consumers and show personalised advertisements to targeted consumers. There has been a phenomenal rise in the number of conscious consumers who believe that a company's values should match their own. Some organisations work to achieve a higher purpose. There arises a need for such conscious consumers to be identified, based on their characteristic features, as a separate segment. The values of this particular segment should match with those of a purpose-driven company. The best way to do this is by showing personalised online advertisements to these target consumers so that they are aware of the higher purpose that the company wants to achieve. Thus, this research paper attempts to present a conceptual framework to identify the segment of conscious consumers and inform them about the higher purpose which a conscious business wants to achieve through online behavioural advertisements, and instil in their minds an implied social label.

A literature review of customer behaviour patterns on e-commerce websites using an eye tracker

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of 26 papers in which an eye tracker has been used to analyse how e-commerce websites can impact customers' behaviour. Most journal articles included in the literature on consumer neuroscience only provide a summary of the actual functions of neuroscience techniques. There are no reviews of studies that focus on the use of an eye tracker on e-commerce websites in either the consumer neuroscience or marketing research literature. The findings show that websites affect customers differently according to variables such as age, gender, nationality, etc., so there is a need to make changes in how the website is designed, depending on the types of users and audiences of the websites. This review article discusses limitations and suggestions for future research as well as detailing the theoretical and practical implications for neuromarketing.

Conceptual organisation of customer engagement: Understanding the concept of engagement and considering the structure of customer engagement factors

Customer engagement has been increasingly recognised as a measure of corporate performance. Several practitioners and researchers have proposed various customer engagement concepts. The concept of engagement has been discussed earlier in academic fields such as psychology and education before the notion of customer engagement became popular. However, researchers across disciplines have not reached a consensus on the implications, the factors that constitute engagement and the measures of engagement. Therefore, inconsistencies in the interpretations of engagement have complicated the use of the customer engagement concept to understand complex customer behaviours and to measure customer–company relationships. In this context, the present study summarises the differences in the interpretation of engagement concepts across disciplines, and identifies the sources of difficulty in interpreting engagement. The study develops a framework in terms of definitions, measurement methods and scales, research methods, and constructive concepts to better understand the concept of customer engagement.

Review of literature on green consumer behaviour over 25 years (1994-2018)

The objective of this paper is to present a review and classification of academic work done on consumer behaviour in the green marketing domain over a 25-year period. Suitable keywords were used for identifying articles in top rated journals between the years 1994 and 2018. Two hundred and sixty-seven articles cleared the filtering criteria. These articles were analysed for their year of publication, publication outlet, authorship, article impact, geographical distribution of sample, frequently used theories, keywords, and products used for study. Studies were also classified on their primary themes and the underlying theories therein were presented. This research provides various indicators to researchers intending to work in the area of exploring consumer behaviour for green offerings.

Trends in sports analytics for event management: A content analysis

This is a conceptual paper which explores recent trends in sports analytics for event management and the influence thereof on viewership, sponsorship and athletic performance. The content analysis here entails multiple case studies on sporting events; recommended practices for organising sporting events are highlighted using a site-ordered effects matrix. Analysis yields unprecedented outcomes related to sporting event ticket prices (relevant especially to fans and organisers), willingness of athletes to participate in mega events, technologies to be used to effectively reach out to passionate fans, and innovative practices to build a sound infrastructure involving sponsors, athletes and authorities.

Recapitulation of brand anthropomorphism: An innovating marketing strategy

The aim of this paper is to explain anthropomorphic marketing by illustrating the factors associated with the sociality motivation , effectance motivation, and elicited agent knowledge model (SEEK). This model was designed to explain anthropomorphic tendencies of a brand, as we do not know much about why people view non-human entities as human-like. In addition, this paper also focuses on how anthropomorphic representation strategies are used by marketers in the present scenario to build strong consumer-brand relationships and how these anthropomorphic marketing strategies affect the consumer-brand evaluation process. This paper examines the anthropomorphism of the brand by examining in depth the factors related to the SEEK model and explaining the anthropomorphic patterns of the market. It shows how consumers or advertisers view, imagine, interpret and exploit a non-human entity. Consumers can evaluate an anthropomorphic marketing strategy either positively or negatively. Therefore, marketers should use this tendency to anthropomorphise any brand or a product carefully. This literature review has important implications and it provides direction for researchers, as well as advanced investigation of brand anthropomorphism.

Big data augments emotional labour and organisational outcomes

Marketing managers and practitioners believe that effective emotional labour strategy and big data techniques are essential elements for firms to optimise customer service encounters. However, no common understanding of emotional labour in a big data context exists, and knowledge about how big data techniques affect emotional labour's service delivery is limited. In this study, I use emotional regulation and role/script theories to propose ways in which surface acting decreases and deep acting increases customers' perceived customer orientation (PCO), resulting in enhanced word of mouth (WOM). Because big data analytics tools provide information to shield employees from emotional dissonance and depletion, this study further proposes that big data analytics will augment the aforementioned benefits. However, the influence of big data analytics may depend on a firm's data verification ability. Lastly this study suggests that firms strengthen their data verification capability to achieve the big data bonus.

A united front towards consumer-focused sponsorship

In marketing, sponsorship has been considered as an essential marketing strategy and communication tool. Despite the continued growth of sponsorship research relative to the effectiveness of sponsorship in marketing, a number of sponsorship factors, its effects, and the individual information-processing mechanics remain unexplored. The current research extends on previous conceptual work and incorporates a number of controllable and uncontrollable sponsorship factors such as antecedent factors, mediating factors, market, and personality factors. This paper reviews the literature on sponsorship and presents a commentary to inform future research and development of a comprehensive conceptual model for sponsorship effects.

If it is love, can I get my money back? A critical review of the brand love literature

Brand love is becoming central to modern marketing theory and practice. In academia, researchers are showing increasing interest in investigating its causes and consequences. In practice, a growing number of consultancies and advertising agencies are currently proposing love scores, love indices, and love rankings for brands. An exacting examination of the extant literature reveals, however, that: (1) brand love's conceptual proprieties have always been entirely elusive; (2) its measurement is still substandard; (3) extant empirical studies are full of methodological flaws and far-fetched findings; and that (4) researchers have ignored one important issue while investigating brand love, that is, culture. This paper tries to draw attention on the aforesaid four deficits with the intent of instigating discussions, debates and, in due course, a deeper understanding of this concept.