Business Commons^™

The Vibe, Sarah P. Douglass

Capstones

The Vibe is a long-form narrative about where tech is taking the female orgasm. The piece concludes that physiological research is a required next step when creating the climax of the future.

http://sarahpdouglass.com

The Impact Of Casino Revenue-Sharing On Tourism Efforts In Niagara Falls Usa: 2006-2016, Anthony L. Astran

Public Administration Master’s Projects

This qualitative case study examines the intersection of a Native-owned casino, revenue-sharing with its host community, and the impact of tourism marketing efforts vis-à-vis funds provided to the community’s tourism agency. Specifically, this report studies downtown Niagara Falls USA from the time period between 2006 and 2016, and seeks to determine whether and how funds from Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino boosted tourism marketing efforts by Niagara Tourism & Convention Corporation (NTCC). Background research and a series of elite interviews with city officials and tourism agency leaders uncovered overall positivity in terms of growth in Niagara Falls USA’s tourism efforts …

The Development Of A Wayfinding Smart Phone Application As A Large Healthcare Facility Investment Opportunity, Jessie Fortson Marshall

Doctoral Projects

Health care is a continually growing field. New hospitals are constantly being built, while older facilities are experiencing renovation and expansion. With this growth comes a set of difficulties for patients as they try to navigate through large, multi-building facilities. Most large facilities have multiple parking garages, numerous buildings, and medical towers with an unending number of floors. Patients are forced to rely on directional signage to find their destination that is often insufficient. Attempting to navigate through large facilities is often overwhelming for visitors leading to frustration and stress.

New technology has allowed a convenient solution to this problem …

What’S In It For Me? Consumer Perceived Value Of Marketing Activities As A Driver Of Consumer Brand Engagement On Social Network Sites., Mary Jane Gardner

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Social network sites are transforming the way companies, both big and small, communicate and market to consumers. Many businesses recognize the need for incorporating a social networking strategy as part of their overall marketing efforts. This strategy involves the use of social network sites as a means of promoting and communicating about a focal brand to consumers, attracting and building relationships with consumers, and increasing sales. However, an effective social network strategy is much more complex than simply having a Facebook page to which companies occasionally post. The effectiveness of marketing on social network sites depends at least in part …

How Visual Communication Strategies, Brand Familiarity, And Personal Relevance Influence Instagram Users’ Responses To Brand Content, Lijie Zhou

Dissertations

This study comprehensively investigated the effects of visual themes, visual perspective, personal relevance, and brand familiarity on brand constructions (attitude-toward-brand, brand love, brand respect, and three dimensions of brand image) on Instagram. The study consists of two parts. In Study 1, the main and interaction effects of visual design elements on individuals’ visual attentions, brand recognition, and attitude toward brands were examined by using a 4 (visual theme: customer-centric, employee-centric, product-centric, and non-branded) × 2 (view perspective: first-person view vs. third-person view) between-subject eye-tracking test. In Study 2, a 4 (visual theme: customer-centric, employee-centric, non-brand, and product-centric) ×2 (brand familiarity: …

Z-Cube: Mobile Living For Feminist Nomads, Zi Ye

Masters Theses

Homes proclaim our social standing and reflect the trend of the times. This project seeks to explore and redefine the relationship between modern homes and modern women who strive for mobile life styles.

Modernism and globalization have brought us a new way of living that could have never been imagined before— our workspace and homes are no longer limited to a specific unit but have extended to the entire globe. The physical changes compelled by modernity have also complemented the changing role of women. Since the beginning of the 20th century, modern women have expanded their lives outside of their …

Proving Marketing Roi: A Digital Marketing Framework, Andrew Wiltsie

Master of Arts in Media and Communication Plan II Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study is to analyze emerging literature on the best practices in selecting marketing objectives, web analytics/KPI goals, and marketing mix channels by using digital marketing to provide executives with proof of marketing ROI. Evidence-based research was used to analyze emerging trends in digital marketing by combining literature on setting marketing objectives, web analytic and KPI goals, and selecting marketing mix channels. This study contributes a framework that can be used by both educators and practitioners to showcase the most common practices in digital marketing and how they can be applied to create an effective and efficient …

Measuring What Matters: Exploring Student Motivations To Inform International Student Recruitment, Rebecca Lubitz

Capstone Collection

Over the last decade, international students in the United States have surpassed the one million mark (Institute of International Education [IIE], 2016(a). Research found here highlights the goals and motivations of this growing constituency and examines factors that influence international students to choose educational experiences in the United States.

Two online surveys were distributed, one to international recruitment agents that work for UC Berkeley Extension, and another to international students. The paper examines survey responses along with existing research to offer data-driven theories on how international educators might more effectively approach student recruitment and program design. The research concluded that …

Transitioning Business-To-Business Marketing Communications To Social Media, Terri S. Gibson

Master of Arts in Media and Communication Plan II Graduate Projects

There has been a movement toward digital media marketing channels away from the traditional media marketing channels in the realm of business-to-business (B2B) marketing. This transformation is more than mere semantics. It reflects the recent integration of digital strategies including blogging, social media, and email marketing by B2B marketers. A greater commitment to driving return on investment (ROI) and tracking movement through a website is seen in these strategies. In the rapidly changing digital landscape of B2B marketing, there is a focused emphasis on analytics, which reveals a sharp contrast between traditional media channels and social networking. With traditional media, …

Business Model: California Agriculture Marketing Agency, Mary M. Alameda, Emma L. Larson

Agricultural Education and Communication

The importance of creating a marketing agency specializing in agriculture is to bridge the gap between producers and consumers. The lack of transparency from the producer has created a torn industry causing the average consumer to be questioning his or her food, or simply not understanding the agricultural way of life. An agricultural marketing firm in California can represent and advocate for local businesses to start closing the producer to consumer gap.

The American farmer excels at many things, but lacks in public communications. Modern day farmers have been able to produce more food than ever despite fewer resources and …

Effective Methods Of Marketing An On-Campus Resource To College Students, Samantha Gary

Graphic Communication

The problem this research it attempting to solve is how to market an on-campus resource to college students. Through conducting surveys, gathering research, reviewing case studies, and analyzing data, the author has found that the answer is to not to segment college students by major. It is more effective to figure out what a typical students’ needs are and address them by providing a solution to their problems. By strategically placing printed posters around campus that capitalized on student’s needs for study breaks and outlets to tap in to their ideas, the author found that more students respond to this …

Marketing And Advertising For Small Business In Local Economies, Nathan Ross

Graphic Communication

This paper analyzed traditional and current marketing and advertising strategies employed by small and local businesses. The research focused on understanding issues and struggles for small businesses in terms of marketing and advertising in order to develop and test a new strategy that was focused on a community event. The event was designed to assimilate successful aspects of current marketing plans into one that has low monetary risk, and little to no extra time investment for the business. A community was created by an art collective called Nomadic Artifacts which was the basis for a case study.

The “Arts & …

Impact Of Photo Angle On Food Perceptions And Evaluation, Austin B. Jacobs

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Food photography is an increasingly popular phenomenon, especially on social media. There are over 215 million photos on Instagram with the hashtag “food.” There is a growing trend to showcase the food on social media, as both health and “food art” has become part of popular culture. The purpose of this project is to explore how the photo angle utilized in the image influences a number of consumer outcomes, including evaluations of the food itself, the company, and desire to interact with the image. Specifically, pictures of food commonly employ either a three-quarter downward looking angle (as if you were …

The Hidden Costs Of Scheduling: Temporal Structure Reduces Task Enjoyment And Contracts Time, Gabriela Nicole Tonietto

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Time is an important but limited resource, and consumers are constantly looking for ways to get more from their time. This has led to the popularity of scheduling as a strategy to help consumers manage and organize their time. Although scheduling is both highly recommended and widely adopted, surprisingly little is known about the psychological effects of scheduling. In this dissertation, I explore the potential effects of scheduling for task enjoyment, perceived time, and time consumption, finding that scheduling may have some important hidden costs. In the first chapter, I examine the effect of scheduling leisure activities. While prior research …

Creative Advertising Portfolio, Hayley E. Sunderman

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Since I was a young child, all I wanted was to draw and write. I would compose entire binders of my artwork, as well as Microsoft Word documents of the beginnings of mystery novels. As I grew older, I let my self-doubt take over and I convinced myself that I was not talented enough to pursue any type of creative career path. I came into college as a Marketing major knowing that my future career options would be fairly vast. During my junior year, I realized my strong desire to work in creative advertising. Graphic design, copywriting, photography, videography, and …

Examining Snapchat: Narcissistic Tendencies Of Core Users, Austin Philpott, Susan Waters

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study aims to establish current levels of narcissistic tendencies among the major Snapchat demographic, 18 to 34-year-olds in the United States. Like the Raskin and Terry 40-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory, commonly referred to as NPI-40, the present survey utilized a smaller variant with 16 items, known as NPI-16, for participants. This study may provide indications for further research and advertising techniques using social media, specifically Snapchat.

A Theoretical Application Of Metaphor Research To The Film Industry, Michael J. Stanton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper explores the value of using metaphor based marketing research methods (most notably Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique) in the development and green-lighting processes of filmmaking. A review of literature reveals that even large blockbuster films lack any marketing research employed in the developmental stage. Audiences are extremely difficult to analyze when considering something as abstract and subjective as what makes a “good” film. Metaphor based marketing research methods (e.g. ZMET) offer a solution by examining the minds of consumers through language markers called metaphors. Using a metaphor based marketing technique early in a film’s development process may help to …

Total Immersion: Virtual Reality's Path To Mass Adoption, Joshua Daghir

Honors Capstone Projects - All

With the release of devices such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Google Daydream in 2016, virtual reality seems poised to take over the tech and media landscape. Professional estimates of the projected popularity of these devices span extremely wide ranges, and many of these predictions fall victim to a self-serving bias. The purpose of this research is to identify the variables that affect the spread of the use of virtual reality, and to analyze how the characteristics of modern virtual reality relate to these variables. The framework used to identify and assess these variables comes from Everett Rogers’s …

Shopping With Strangers: Grocery Shopping Behaviors Of Generation Z, Madelyn Olsen

Honors Theses

Marketers frequently segment different populations by generation to target their products more efficiently. Each generation has its own characteristics and behaviors. Marketers use these characteristics and behaviors to improve ways to get consumers’ attention, increase interactions with brands, and increase purchase of products and services.

In a rapidly changing world, these generations are becoming increasingly visible and identifiable due to the integration of technology and social media into daily life. The generation that this study focuses on is called Generation Z. Generation Z has not been fully identified yet because their group is still emerging. Researchers have found it difficult …

Kalamazoo Wings Student Participation Campaign, Kelly Hughes

Honors Theses

This public relations campaign is to increase participation of Western Michigan University students at Kalamazoo Wings hockey games. The *millennial audience represents 25-30% of many professional sports teams’ overall revenue base (Fisher 2015). Western Michigan University students have low participation at Kalamazoo Wings hockey games since they do not even make up 1% of the fans that attend Kalamazoo Wings games. The campaign goal is to increase participation of Western Michigan University students at Kalamazoo Wings hockey games by 25% by May 2018. *Millennial: A person reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century.

My research has indicated that the …

Western Michigan University’S Department Of Dance Marketing Plan, Cassandra Hartline

Honors Theses

The following report constitutes the formal marketing plan for the department of dance at Western Michigan University. This plan is intended to synthesize all of the marketing related information pertinent to Western’s dance department and provide easy one step access to this material at any time. The other purpose of this plan is to dictate the primary objectives the department is looking to accomplish through implementation of marketing tactics.

The first primary objective includes increasing visibility of the department of dance as a whole to both our primary and secondary target audiences; the second objective is to create innovative marketing …

Impacts On The Interest Level Of Consumers Toward Meal Kit Delivery Services, Matthew H. Mailloux

HON499 projects

Meal kit delivery services, such as Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and Plated, provide their subscribers with weekly recipe and ingredient kits. This study evaluated the attitudes toward these services and the impact of factors such as self-efficacy on the interest level and intention to subscribe to these services. The framework for the model was based on the theory of planned behavior. Results indicate that less confidence in the kitchen increases the interest in meal kit delivery services. Furthermore, consumers who value cooking at home and convenience were more likely to show interest in these services. Implications of these findings for industry …

More Than A Tent: A Case Study On Live Brand Experiences At Coachella Music Festival, Tori Perrella

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

In recent years, society has seen a shift of marketing practices from traditional strategies to experiential marketing in order for brands to connect with individuals on an emotional level. Live brand experiences contribute to companies building relationships with consumers to create unique, memorable experiences that will be associated with the brand after the event. The purpose of this study was to examine the best practices of live brand experiences at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. The research for this study was conducted using a case study guide created by the researcher, which examined brands’ past brand activations at Coachella. …

Household Life Cycle As A Segmentation Approach For Major Professional Sports Teams, Jacob S. Watkins

Undergraduate Distinction Papers

As entertainment and leisure market offerings increase, major professional sports teams need different approaches to segmenting consumers. Household life cycle represents an approach to segmenting. Using data from one major professional sports team, the household life cycle is found to have a relationship with purchase of different season ticket packages. Major professional sports team managers should offer different types of ticket packages to different segments of the household life cycle.

Transitioning College Media From Print Focused Business Models To Digitally Focused Business Models, Celina Oseguera

Journalism

The noticeable downturn in print advertising indicates a need for change in the news industry business model. College media is not immune to this decline and need for change. A change in business model calls for transitioning to an alternative system that does not primarily rely on print products and advertising — a digitally focused business model. Many college media organizations around the United States have started to pursue this type of model, changing the way they produce and present news in the process. Taking into account the state of print focused business models in the general and collegiate news …

Mastering Customer Loyalty, Kathleen M. Hurley

Honors Theses

Customer loyalty can be described as “the result of consistently positive emotional experience, physical attribute-based satisfaction and perceived value of an experience, which includes the product or services” (Shaw & Hamilton 2015). Since 1896, loyalty programs have developed from a simple stamp redemption system to an intricate in-store and digital model. This system has become so successful because it properly engages the customer, both inside and outside the store, to build a mutually beneficial relationship between the business and the customer. Understanding customer loyalty is essential in creating a program that will provide the customer with incentives to reward their …

New Product Development Team Creativity And Innovation: The Role Of Cultural Diversity, Communication, Proximity And Foreign Culture Representativeness, Felix A. Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores new product development team creativity and innovation. Section 1 discusses the definition, measurement and relevance of new product development team creativity. It highlights some of the discrepancies in the literature with regards to the definition and operationalization of creativity, and adopts a definition and scale, that will serve as the foundation for section 2 and 3 studies.

Section 2 examines the influence of several dimensions of cultural diversity on new product development creativity and innovation, during differing stages of new product development, and in both co-located and domestic environments.

Section 3 extends section 2 by examining the …

A Study Of The Influence Of Branded Messages On Non-Branded Food Items When Presented To 10 To 14-Year-Old Children, Cassandra J. Chinn

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Children are more likely to create bonds with foods based on the environmental, socioeconomic and familial influences in their lives during early development stages. They gravitate to foods that are familiar to them and that are positioned with familiarity, creating an opportunity for branded food items to create more of a space in their psyche as part of their identity. Current research looks to reposition those energy-dense foods (commodity vegetables) that can often times be left unbranded, to see if immediate interest in the food items changes. Results found no significance to confirm nor deny a positive correlation in interest …

Corporate Sponsorship And The Consumer Socialization Of African American Women Athletes: A Qualitative Study, Tahla Monique Wade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

African-American consumption is a unique feature of the American consumer market. A characteristic of African American consumers is their participation in conspicuous consumption. A look into the sociological concept of consumer socialization can drive insight to what initiates purchases of this group. However, this is not studied as an evolving process. Over time, individuals may encounter several new influences that affect their consumer socialization and purchase behavior, including the possibility of corporate sponsorship. To explore this evolution, I examine if corporate sponsorships affect the consumer socialization of African-American women collegiate athletes. Fifteen NCAA Division I African-American women athletes from a …

Essays On The Role Of Product Characteristics In Information Source Importance, Saeed Tajdini Tajdini

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The goal of this Dissertation is to contribute to our understanding of relative importance of different information sources that consumers use to guide their purchasing behavior. Specifically, this work aims to model the product characteristics affecting the importance of each information source to consumers as they seek to purchase a given product. Although the extant literature has examined this topic, the efforts have not been cohesive and a comprehensive model of the phenomenon has yet to be developed, limiting our understanding of the topic. Gaining insight into the effects of product characteristics on the importance of different sources of information …