Sales, Marketing and Distribution (MFBS-575)

The article talks about the rules of engagement (ROE) for salespersons in selling commercial products and their importance in closing the sales with customers. Topics discussed include the need to greet customers when entering business; the need consider a customer's preferences; and the need to not do any product demonstration before engaging enquiry.

Over the past 40 years, we have witnessed seismic shifts in advertising planning and buying processes. Due in no small part to the emergence of digital media, consumer choices have mushroomed, while advertisers understand much more about target audiences. Advertising activities have been drastically transformed by the possibilities that technology creates for targeting and measurement, automation of activities via programmatic advertising, and an overall computational approach in which algorithmic, data-driven decisions dominate. In this era, what does it mean to "do media planning" and to do it well? The present article argues for planning decisions to move away from simply purchasing exposure to instead focusing on fostering engagement through meaningful and sustained interactions with consumers. It provides an overview of the digital ecosystem that makes computational advertising possible, updates the notion of consumer engagement for this context, and reviews how measurement becomes more central to media planning decisions. Ethical and normative considerations and computational advertising as an adaptive learning system are discussed as crosscutting issues, followed by a proposed research agenda.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the influence of customer satisfaction on four facets of customer engagement: customer influencer behavior, knowledge behavior, referral behavior and purchase behavior. Furthermore, its (in)direct influence on affective attitude, price perception and loyalty is investigated.

Design/methodology/approach
Two studies were conducted. First, an experimental scenario design was set up to investigate the hypothesized relations between customer engagement; customers’ affective attitude and their loyalty; and their price perceptions. Second, a survey at a national forest park center helped to secure external validity.

Findings
The results indicate that engaged customers develop a more positive affective attitude, which leads to increased future loyalty and positive price perceptions. In addition, the results suggest that assessing cognitive approaches exclusively is not sufficient for understanding customers’ price perceptions.

Research limitations/implications
Future research should investigate antecedents of customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) other than satisfaction, and extend this research by taking into account further mediators that might be cognitive rather than affective.

The article discusses merchandising trends and updates based on the 2018 annual "Natural Foods Merchandiser" magazine's Market Overview which surveyed natural product retailers. Topics explored include the importance of the interior design of retail food stores, the availability of customer service such as online ordering and product delivery, and the sales increase which may be attributed to cross-merchandising strategies.

The evolution of social commerce (s-commerce) has changed both businesses and customers. Therefore, understanding customer engagement behaviour in the s-commerce context has become a key competitive advantage for companies that aim to build a customer-centric business. The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth review of customer engagement studies in the context of s-commerce. This study used a systematic literature review approach on customer engagement studies in the context of s-commerce. The results show that social theories and factors play a significant role in customer engagement along with technological factors. More importantly, drawn from the review results, a research framework was developed to show the factors that provide the greatest influence in customer engagement behavior.

Purpose

This paper aims to focus on customer engagement (CE) in the underexplored context of transactional retailing websites, providing insight into the drivers, manifestations and dimensionality of the construct. The website is viewed as a collection of environmental stimuli, and focus is placed on identifying the website environmental cues that promote CE.

Design/methodology/approach
This focussed study follows an exploratory research design. A total of 22 semi-structured interviews were conducted with one segment group: over-55-year-old female online shoppers in the most commonly purchased product category online, clothing. The stimulus–organism–response model forms the theoretical framework.

Findings
The unique findings identify that product-related environmental cues drive CE on a website, suggesting that CE occurs at the level of the product, as opposed to the website.

Research limitations/implications
CE with websites exists beyond the customer–brand dyad, with the website forming the third node in a triadic relationship between customer, brand (at level of the product) and website (at level of the product-related cues).

Practical implications
This study reveals the relationship between website environmental cues and the manifestation of CE, providing managers with insight on how best to drive CE. Confirmation is provided that the website represents a vital touchpoint in the engagement journey of a retail customer.

Statistics are given regarding the result of the customers survey on how important are the several consumer engagement strategies in grocery industry including social media, customer relation marketing, and loyalty incentive programs.

Sponsorship is an established marketing communications platform that takes many forms. In terms of objectives and measurement, sponsorship has functioned like advertising for decades. The current work argues that the potential of sponsorship to support consumer engagement for both the sponsor and sponsee has been underdeveloped and underresearched. Given this thesis, following an overview of the background and importance of sponsorship, the potential of sponsoring to further brand engagement is examined. A sponsorship engagement model based on authenticity is proposed, adoption of this model is discussed, and relevant research questions are suggested.

The article focuses on the challenges of influencer marketing and content creation faced by food firm Mezzetta. Topics discussed include efforts of Linqia for influencer marketing and helping connect brands with influencers; Rajiv Doshi, director of digital marketing at Mezzetta, on the need for introducing new customer to the brand; and goals of increased brand awareness and household penetration.

Purpose

Organizations are investing heavily in social media yet have little understanding of the effects of social media content on user engagement. This study aims to determine the distinct effects of informational, entertaining, remunerative and relational content on the passive and active engagement behavior of social media users.

Design/methodology/approach
Facebook Insights and NCapture are used to extract data from the Facebook pages of 12 wine brands over a 12-month period. A multivariate linear regression analysis investigates the effects of content on consuming, contributing and creating engagement behavior.

Findings
Results reveal distinct effects of rational and emotional appeals on social media engagement behavior. Rational appeals in social media have a superior effect in terms of facilitating active and passive engagement among social media users, whereas emotional appeals facilitate passive rather than highly active engagement behavior, despite the social and interactive nature of the digital media landscape.

Research limitations/implications
Results contribute directly to understanding engagement and customer experience with social media. Further theoretical and empirical examination in this area will aid in understanding the dynamic nature of the levels of engagement within social media.

Practical implications
Findings provide managers and practitioners with guidelines and opportunities for strategic development of social media content to enhance engagement among consumers in a social media forum.

This study establishes the relationship among three concepts (attachment, love, and engagement) that have attracted the interest of both practitioners and researchers lately. Based on the consumer–brand relationship literature, a theoretical model is proposed. Using data obtained from a survey to 320 consumers from Madrid (Spain), the results show that only two constructs actually exist: attachment and active engagement, with love being part of attachment (passion) or engagement (long-term relationship). Thus, emotional attachment must be based on emotions that generate captivation. This admiration activates engagement, turning the consumer into the best brand promoter.

Purpose

This paper aims to develop a richer, more complete understanding of how firms define and consider customer engagement on social networks. The research builds from the theoretical backdrop of customer engagement. The research then uses a qualitative interview approach to understand the firm perspective.

Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data were collected using in-depth interviews with employees at a variety of companies including Facebook, Google, another leading social networking site, a higher education institution and a start-up company.

Findings
Companies view engagement with social media as measureable metrics of consumer interactions with the platform. These metrics could include growth and interaction on the platform, number of users, subscribers to the site or page views. Propositions are developed around how customer engagement is defined, the breadth and depth of social media and when social media is used as a push or a pull strategy.

The article talks about the retail industry and offers suggestions to retailer for attracting conscious consumers of 21st century. Topics discussed include the focus of the consumers on health and wellness, the need for retailers to meet the emotional needs of the consumers, and the role of millennials in setting the trends for the industry.

The article describes the habits and behavior of U.S. shoppers as they transition to becoming omnichannel shoppers. Topics covered include the need for industry players to look beyond millennial and Generation Z consumers, the key aspects to engaging with omnichannel shoppers and what retailers look for in merchandising solutions. It also discusses how brands and retailers could benefit from merchandising solutions that deliver convenience.

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the psychological motivations behind customers’ engagement with the brands and further investigate the effect of brand engagement on brand attachment and brand loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach
The theoretical model is tested with the data collected from 282 brand community members during offline brand community events, and structural equation modeling technique is used for statistical analysis.

Findings
The results indicate that brand psychological ownership and value-congruity act as important psychological motivations for customers to engage with the brands. A sense of brand attachment mediates the relationship between brand engagement and brand loyalty.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explain whether consumer engagement in social media brand communities (SMBCs) motivates consumer brand loyalty; and second, to explore the antecedents of consumer engagement by developing a model based on personal engagement theory.

Design/methodology/approach
Online survey data from 279 brand community members of Weibo (one of the most popular social media websites in China) were used to test the proposed model. Structural equation modeling with partial least squares was performed to test both the measurement model and the structural model. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the interaction effects.

Findings
The findings show that three factors, namely, recognition, community identification and self-efficacy, had significant positive effects on consumer engagement in SMBCs, which consequently enhanced brand loyalty. Self-efficacy moderated the effects of both community identification and recognition on consumer engagement. The impacts of three factors on consumer engagement are contingent upon the type of SMBCs.

The exponential speed of technological advancements and the ever-changing needs of customers have changed the way enterprises engage with their customers. However, despite the increasing scholarly interest in the enterprise-initiated perspective of customer engagement (CE) in recent years, it remains unclear what drives enterprises to initiate customer engagement and how enterprise-initiated customer engagement enhances enterprise performance. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate a conceptual model that consists of drivers and outcomes of enterprise-initiated customer engagement. After developing a conceptual model based on previous conceptual approaches to customer engagement, a quantitative survey was undertaken to gather the data from business-to-customer micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. The data were analyzed using the partial least square path modelling. The findings showed that external pressure and organizational readiness influence enterprise-initiated customer engagement. Enterprise-initiated customer engagement was also found to influence marketing performance. The empirical findings provide insights for managers that explain what drivers may influence enterprise-initiated customer engagement and what benefits they can expect. Overall, this research extends the understanding of the CE domain and provides additional insights for the drivers and outcomes of enterprise-initiated CE.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the different dimensions of involvement and customer engagement (CE) and analyze the influence of CE on loyalty in an online retail context. The study also tests the mediation of CE between the facets of involvement and loyalty.

Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a survey for data collection from online retail website users and analyzed the data with partial least squares – structural equation modeling.

Findings
The results reveal that the dimensions of involvement drive engagement differently. The risk importance and risk probability do not influence CE whereas the sign, interest, and pleasure are positively associated with CE. Furthermore, CE mediates the link between sign, interest, and pleasure dimensions of involvement and loyalty.

Practical implications
This study provides insights for the managers that the perception of value from a brand starts at its product category level and values like sign, interest, and pleasure can be provided to the customers by not only brand consumption but also by engaging them with the brand.

Companies are increasingly seeking consumer engagement with their services or products. The current study investigates the interrelationships among consumer engagement and higher order marketing constructs including trust, satisfaction, commitment and customer loyalty within hospitality industry. The perceptions from hotel customers were used to examine the interrelationships among the constructs. The data set was analyzed using descriptive analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Empirical results reveal that consumer engagement has the most influential impact on satisfaction, followed by commitment, loyalty and trust. Likewise, trust contributes more towards loyalty followed by satisfaction and commitment. Commitment, satisfaction and trust mediate the relationship between consumer engagement and loyalty. Hence, results suggest that consumer engagement increases satisfaction, commitment, trust, and loyalty. Based on social exchange theory and relationship marketing theory, this study analyzes from a theoretical and empirical perspective the influence of the consumer engagement on satisfaction, commitment, trust, and loyalty.

The article focuses on the use of intelligent labels to offer opportunities for engagement and transparency to consumers, brands and retailers. It highlights intelligent labels applicable in product categories such as beauty, food, grocery to provide connectivity for consumers and supply chain segments and also highlights its use to track and trace, instant inventories and proving authenticity to prevent or reduce counterfeiting.

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the moderating role of cultural value orientations on the relationship between brand ownership and customer brand engagement behavior through brand responsibility and self-enhancement.

Design/methodology/approach
Respondents came from firm-managed online smartphone brand communities in South Korea and the USA. Convenience sampling yielded 197 valid responses, with 98 coming from South Korea and 99 coming from the USA.

Findings
The study results provide empirical evidence that cultural value orientations influence customer brand engagement behavior. As expected, the findings indicate that individualism-collectivism and power distance significantly moderate the indirect effect of brand responsibility and self-enhancement on the relationship between brand ownership and customer brand engagement behavior.

Purpose

This study aims to examine the moderating role of customer engagement experiences in satisfaction–loyalty relationship in the digital business environment. This paper looks at mobile apps for shopping and travel planning to understand these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper includes the conceptualization and validation of the proposed relationship through multiple studies. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted to identify the relevant engagement experiences. Subsequently, multiple quantitative studies were conducted to examine the proposed relationships.

Findings
The effect of satisfaction on continuance intention is stronger among customers with higher levels of engagement. Further, the propensity to provide electronic word of mouth is non-linear in customers with higher levels of engagement and may not vary directly with satisfaction levels.

Numerous firms operate online brand communities (OBCs) in order to build a close consumer–brand relationship. To succeed in realizing this aim, firms must first sustain members' brand community engagement. While prior studies have examined a series of drivers of brand community engagement, most of them focused on psychological and social motivations. Limited information is available about the role of product, brand and consumer characteristics in driving brand community engagement. Building on the uses and gratifications (UG) theory, the authors investigate the moderation of product complexity, brand symbolism, and extraversion in the relationship between brand community gratification and brand community engagement. With the collaboration of an online shopping site, 462 validated survey responses were collected to test our hypotheses. The results indicate that product complexity positively moderates the impact of information value on brand community engagement and brand symbolism positively moderates the effect of social value on brand community engagement. Finally, the results show that extraversion positively interacts with social value in enhancing brand community engagement. This study advances the understanding of brand community engagement.