Marketing Commons^™

How Customer Shopping Motivation Influences Perceived Design Of The Retail Environment, Julie C. Steen

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Previous research shows that the decisions retailers make about the retail environment influence the amount of time customers spend in retail stores and the total amount of money spent in the retail store (Turley & Milliman 2000). One recent example of a retailer’s efforts to influence customers through the retail environment is Walmart’s Project Impact. In 2009, Walmart embarked on a five year plan to remodel seventy percent of its stores (Gregory 2009). Based on feedback from customers, Walmart sought to change several aspects of the retail environment, including reducing clutter, reducing crowding, wider aisles, clearer sight lines, brighter stores, …

Collegiate Competition And The Propensity For Gender Bias, Deborah H. Lester, Aberdeen Leila Borders, Terry W. Loe, Keith Tudor

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Since the dawn of time gender has played a starring role in human behavior. The behavioral implications of an individual’s sex have permeated research findings in a wide variety of academic disciplines. This preliminary investigation will explore the concept and definition of gender, gender bias, and gender stereotype on actions and conduct. Specifically, this inquiry will determine the scope and types of gender bias/stereotypes that exist in the business world with a primary concentration on the area of professional sales. The ultimate objective is to discover the type and level of influence a person’s gender contributes to evaluation, performance and …

The Impact Of Social Media On The Sales Cycle And Prospecting, Mike Serkedakis, Gary L. Selden, R. Keith Tudor

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Sharing information and networking with business contacts are the crux of social media in sales. The use of social media platforms (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) for all phases of the sales cycle is a relatively new technique, about 20 years since the arrival of the internet and associated technologies. Research to measure the impact of social media on the sales cycle time is not adequately addressed in the current literature. Our research highlights the impacts of social media on this important business function and examines individual performance aspects associated with the use of social media.

Using Incentive To Motivate Students During A Professional Selling Class Project, Ramon A. Avila, Scott. A. Inks

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Experiential learning methods are an important part of a robust sales curriculum. Sales call role-play, an experiential learning tool, is common in introductory and advanced sales call courses. While role-plays have several advantages, they are by definition, not “real-world.” Addressing this issue, some sales courses include sales projects/exercises in which students sell real products to real customers. This paper discusses how sales incentives were incorporated into a real-world sales exercise and the impact of those incentives on sales volume.

Authenticity In Music Performance: Evidence From The Singer-Songwriter Community, Jon Littlefield

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Experiencing music provides a unique lens to study identity. The alienation resulting from increased technological mediation in both music production and consumption might drive consumption (Potter 2010), hence authenticity may be an appealing positioning strategy for marketers. Singer-songwriters, for example, write and perform their own music with minimal technological interference. This represents a direct connection with the musician that we characterize as more historically authentic (Thornton 1996), however this characterization is not universal. In this paper, I seek to gather insight into the myriad expressions of authenticity within the music consumption environment by detailing a study of performance musicians.

Narrative Engagement And The Role Of Presence, Stef Nicovich

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Presence as a phenomenon has been studied for over 20 years with an identifiable progression as to how the field has matured. Initial research explored the physical nature of what conditions were necessary to produce presence focusing on the physical representations of the experience such as vividness and interactivity. This soon segued into more of an exploration into the psychological understanding of what is to experience presence focusing more on the actual “being there” phenomenon experienced by people as they engaged in a CM event. However as our understanding of presence has matured the focus has turned to exploring the …

Music As A Positional Good: Why Market Success Might Actually Drive Away Some Fans?, Timothy J. Schibik

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

The Oxford Dictionary of Economics defines “goods” as things that people (e.g., consumers) prefer to consume more of rather than less. Further, these “goods” overwhelmingly adhere to a relationship between price and quantity known as the Law of Demand wherein consumers will purchase more of a good at lower prices than at higher prices. How the demand for these “goods” reacts to non-price stimuli is also well known and yields a place in the market system for marketing. Traditionally, the adoption of marketing techniques to alter the consumer satisfaction process and thus consumer demand has predictable impacts on the market …

The Sensoryscape Of Theaters: A Case Of Two University Associated Theaters, Peggy O. Shields

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Live theater productions, must compete with other forms of entertainment offered in the experience economy (Barlow and Maul 2000). An impressive sensory experience that entertains and excites consumers is a key element that can differentiate and distinguish one experience from another (Gobe 2001). To be competitive theater productions should use their delivery facilities to provide an immersion experience in a theater’s sensoryscape.

Theater venues offer a sensory experience that contributes to the service offering and also provide an opportunity to contribute to the achievement of numerous marketing goals. By consciously developing the sensoryscape, not only will consumer enjoyment and satisfaction …

Motivations In The Fine-Art Market: A Self-Determination Theory Approach, J. Paul Leavell

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Fine-art marketing research experiences friction that other arenas for marketing research do not. The product moved within this arena has subjective value with many drivers that can be difficult to quantify: The motivations of sellers and buyers may be different from what other marketing arenas experience (Marshall and Forrest 2011). The end price of fine art may have no relationship to the cost of inputs relying more on the demand driven by the artist’s reputation (Throsby 1994). Due to such challenges, the Academy has struggled in its contemplation of the marketing concept within this arena.

This paper will investigate the …

Rembrandt Versus Van Gogh: A Qualitative Contrast Study Applying A Visual Arts Valutation Model, Rene Desborde, Kimball P. Marshall

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Few marketing scholars have explored the field of fine arts marketing despite its significance as an area of economic activity and human creativity. Billions of dollars change hands annually in the worldwide visual fine arts industry (Velthuis, 2007; Clark and Flaherty, 2002), defined here to include various paintings, sculptures, and ceramics. This lack of academic attention might be because marketing scholars perceive that issues related to fine arts have little to do with marketing. It could also be that the unique characteristics of fine arts marketing are thought not to lend themselves to a traditional analytical approach to explain a …

Pricing In Opaque Markets: Paintings Old And New, Sharon V. Thach

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Pricing is one of the more difficult aspects of marketing management and poses interesting problems for economists trying to account for what are really a collection of microsales that are not well reflected in aggregate macroterms. The developed models and processes work best for mass produced products but grow increasingly problematic when products are intangible services or unique goods. This paper looks at paintings as a product within a specific “industry” , but many of the issues are similar to those in the professional services (law, medicine, education) and auxiliary services (consulting, IT outsourcing, insurance). There are also aspects of …

Is Indoor Tanning The Next Tobacco?, Suzeanne B. Benet, Frederic B. Kraft

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Marketers of indoor tanning services have directed major promotional efforts toward young adults, and their tactics in pursuing this market segment have been limited by only weak regulation (Greenman and Jones 2010). Although most young indoor tanners acknowledge the link between skin cancer and tanning, they desire the immediate benefits of a tan and regard skin cancer as a distant threat, something as hard for them to imagine as old age itself (Hillhouse 2011). The authors compare the marketing practices of the indoor tanning industry with the practices of the tobacco industry prior to present day regulations.

A Typology Of Co-Branding Strategies, Suzanne B. Walchli

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

This presents a typology of co-branding (brand alliance) strategies. It reveals the complexity that is represented by the topic of co-branding, which has been researched to a relatively limited degree although the practice began to be commonplace in the early 1990s (Gibson, 1993; Helmut, Huber and Leeflang, 2008). Since then, academic research has been published on the subject, but has been somewhat limited in scope (Rao and Ruekert, 1994; Park, Jun and Shocker, 1996; Simonin and Ruth, 1998; Washburn, Till and Priluck, 2004; Voss and Gammoh, 2004; Walchli, 2007). This may in part be because most studies have interpreted co-branding …

Updating A Research Tradition By Examining The Effect Of New High Tech Channels On Consumer Search And Integrated Marketing: A Framework For Teaching, Deborah Fain, Mary Long

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

As computers became more powerful in the late 80s and early 90s, large marketers began to try to push what became known as customer relationship management . Specifically, they began to evaluate various channels and how consumers navigated among them when making purchase decisions. Most of the examples at that time were anecdotal, and obviously considered traditional channels, both retail and direct. These included retail, direct mail, print, television, radio, telephone, early email, and a small amount of Internet. The impact of the Internet on new ways consumers navigate among the channels to collect information and make purchase decisions was …

Greening An Integrated Marketing Communication's Course: An Assessment Of Sustainability Literacy, Pia A. Albinsson, G. David Shows

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

This article showcases efforts of incorporating Sustainability Issues in an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) class during three semesters during the academic years of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015. The course was re-designed using Fink’s (2013) course recommendations of designing significant learning goals. In addition to the way the course was delivered (both face-to-face and online), the instructor worked with a Higher Ed publisher to customize a textbook to include sustainability issues related to the course content (i.e., reflecting IMC topics). The course re-design included sustainability assignments such as Virtual Field Trips (visiting corporate websites and other organizations to study their CSR statements …

College Students Use Social Networking Sites For Sharing With Friends, But Guess Who Else Is Looking?, Liz Alexander, Fred Mader, Deanna Mader

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Jobvite, a recruiting platform for the social web, reports from their annual 2012 survey of recruiters that 92% of U.S. companies are using social networking sites (SNS) for hiring purposes (Jobvit, 2012). Career Builder reported in 2009 that 45% of employers were using SNS to screen and research applicants (CareerBuilder, 2009). It is important that faculty and support staff working to place students, and the students themselves, understand the developments and practices in the use of social networking sites for job search and recruiting and the best methods, as well as detriments when marketing themselves. This study examines corporate recruiters’, …

Municipal Tourism Promotion: Mid-Size Cities In The United States, Peggy O. Shields

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

The competitive environment in the tourism industry requires municipalities interested in attracting tourists’ dollars to strategically manage city resources. Often public and private sector bodies cooperate and combine their efforts and resources to promote visitation to a city emphasizing the desire to maximize the limited resources of each available for tourism promotion. To succeed cities are challenged with finding an identity, or ‘personality’ that has a unique combination of functional and symbolic attributes to differentiate themselves from countless other destination options (Hankinson 2001). A city’s distinctiveness can be built on many different characteristics, such as cultural events and institutions, sporting …

A Sad Clown Story: Mcdonald's Lack Of Support For Ronald Mcdonald Houses, Cheryl Ward, Diane R. Edmondson

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) was created in 1974 to “provide housing for the families of sick children and for children receiving outpatient care” (“McDonald’s gives little,” 2013). RMHC currently has locations in more than 60 countries and regions around the world (“Ronald,” 2015). Each Ronald McDonald House establishes their own policies, budget, and fundraising goals; therefore, assets from each house are not co-mingled (Morran, 2013).

Considering RMHC is named after Ronald McDonald from the McDonald’s Corporation, one would expect that McDonald’s makes extensive financial contributions to RMHC; however, this is not the case. The company has recently come under …

Analyzing The Effect Of Advertising On Hospital Choice And Selection: Advancing A New Truth For Hospital Selection And Its Implication For Other Service Providers, Michael A. Petrochuk, Trish Berg

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Consumerism has long-been an important driver in other industries across the globe, as industries have embraced the importance of meeting customer and consumer expectations (Bennett and Mandell, 1969; Oliver, 1980; Bolton and Drew, 1991; Peyrot, Cooper, and Schnapf, 1993; Taylor and Cronin, 1994). Firms have attempted to understand consumer expectations prior to the delivery of service or product purchase.

Within the last ten years, this consumerism movement has infiltrated into the field of global health care (Herzlinger, 2002; Grazman, & Leifer, 2007). Tenets of the consumer-driven health care include increased demands for high performance, flawless quality, data analytics to support …

Exploring Motivations And Usage Patterns Of Social Media Users, Anita Whiting

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Social media is an important aspect of marketing today. According to Hanna et al (2011), social media is not an optional part of marketing strategy but a mandatory component for most companies today. Social media usage is rapidly growing. Facebook, the largest global social network, has over 1.19 billion users with an annual growth rate of eighteen percent (Aichner & Jacob 2015).

A Systematic Review Of Anti-Brand Website Literature: What We Know And What We Need To Know, David L. Williams, Ellen Kolbas

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

The emergence of Web 1.0 began an evolution in electronic communication. This platform resulted in a unidirectional communication flow (e.g. firm to consumer) that featured firms generating messages for public consumption. Web 1.0 gave rise to Web 2.0 and 3.0 platforms that facilitate bi-directional communication between firms and the public. This new method has resulted in an increase in consumer empowerment to create and disseminate marketing messages of their own (Williams, Crittenden, Keo, & McCarty, 2012). Third party stakeholders are disseminating electronic word-of-mouth communications about companies through the use of video, reviews, forums, microblogs and multiple other channels (Gil-Or, 2010). …

An Application Of Social Media Marketing For Community Sustainable Development, Lei Huang, Amelia Clarke, Wen Tian, Natalie Heldsinger

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Though the social marketing approach has been developed from commercial marketing, it is a holistic approach from various social sciences disciplines like marketing, psychology, sociology, mass communication and economics. It is basically an art to explore new ways of analyzing problems and solving them effectively. For instance, social marketing influences sustainability through the use of marketing principles to increase awareness, understanding, change attitudes, and motivate the society to change, adopt, or sustain a particular behavior. This paper attempts to explore a framework of social media in light of disseminating the knowledge of a community-wide sustainability plan among various stakeholders. Policy …

Profile Of Corporate Social Media Consumer Segments, Beverly Wright, Aberdeen Leila Borders, Paul H. Schwager, S. Scott Nadler

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

The trade and academic literature is replete with commentary about the need for companies to develop promotional strategies and to adopt media platforms that are more engaging and conversational with customers than the traditional top-down company directed one-way communication strategies of the past (Thomas, Peters, Howell and Robbins, 2012; Foster, West and Francescucci 2011; Deighton and Kornfeld, 2009). This viewpoint is supported by Christodoulides (2008) who reported that many customers view information about a company or brand that they obtained from blogs, social networking sites and the like as being more relevant, believable and important to them in their interactions …

An Exploratory Analysis To Understand Organic Food Market In The United States In Comparison To Europe, Alfiya Ansar, Ismet Anitsal, M. Meral Anitsal

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

To meet the increasing continuous demand of food, many techniques are used for mass production food but these techniques in turn have diminished the quality of many products. The negative effects associated with such production methods make them controversial in nature and thus requires discussion. One such method is the use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), which involves genetically modifying the Deoxyribose Nucleic Acids (DNA) of plants or animals of interest to introduce certain traits such as resistance to pests or diseases. Food allergies are on a rise and researchers estimate that up to 15 million Americans suffer from vast …

Being Green And Social Responsibility: Basic Concepts And Multiple Case Studies In Business Excellence, Alan D. Smith, Steven R. Clinton, William T. Rupp

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Through a qualitative business case approach, three major manufacturing firms in Pittsburgh, PA were reviewed for their eco-friendly sustainability strategic initiatives and products/services. Undoubtedly, use of green best practices are value adding steps for a company may be initially difficult to justify to spend the time and resources developing such a process. This is especially true when other core business needs are present, such as driving revenue, product development and meeting governmental or consumer expectations. However, green and sustainability initiatives may not be currently dictated needs, but many companies feel strongly that charting such a course would be to their …

An Exploratory Investigation Of The Public's Attitude On The Effects Of Global Warming: The Media's Role In Influencing Opinions As Moderated By Having Lived Through A Major Storm, George W. Stone, Percy Willians, Britney Hamilton

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

While the debate over changing global weather patterns and the negative role mankind plays in altering the earth’s climate continues to rage, there appears to be no real movement in the views of entrenched participants on either side of the argument, or, for that matter, in the culture at large (Whitmarsh 2011). Even though global warming advocates claim the debate is now “settled science” and that a consensus of climatologists has emerged indicting mankind as one of the prime culprits in changing global climate patterns, an equally compelling argument has been made that naturally occurring phenomenon (e.g., such as volcanic …

The Clothing Swap: Social, Sustainable, And Sacred, Mary M. Long, Deborah Fain

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

While there is much focus on recycling household waste such as paper, plastic, and metal, there is less focused attention on the waste produced by clothing and textiles. As noted by Joung (2013), consumers dispose of clothes by recycling, donating to charities, or giving to friends and family. But when individuals are not motivated to do this or are unaware of recycling options, they simply discard unwanted clothing where it ends up in landfill sites.

Motives for recycling clothes can range from altruistic (e.g., donating to a clothing drive for the poor or victims of a natural disaster) to economic …

What Drives Conspicuous Consumption? - The Case Of Chinese Consumers, Y. Henry Xie

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Conspicuous consumption refers to a type of consumer behavior that people display wealth by spending a large proportion of their incomes on luxury products and services (Trigg, 2001). Different from other goods, the satisfaction that conspicuous goods provide buyers often comes from audience’s reaction, as opposed to product’s actual use (Wong, 1997). In other words, consumers exhibit certain conspicuous consumption behaviors due to their hopes to be seen more favorably in the greater social hierarchy (Podoshen, Li, & Zhang, 2011).

Can Scalability Be A Marketing Liability For Sustainability?, Dennis F. X. Mathaisel, Clare L. Comm

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

A common principle of modern business marketing is that growth is good. It is usually thought that all businesses should market themselves with the goal of increasing their revenues and gaining market share. Scalability is developing products or services that people want and figuring out how to produce and promote many of them for lower costs while selling more of them (Dudnik 2010). It is the purpose of this paper to show that some businesses, especially small ventures with unique value propositions, should not necessarily seek to grow or scale up. There are numerous examples of new ventures failing for …

Taking The Plunge: Online Data Collection Using Mturk, L. Jean Harrison-Walker

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

Mechanical Turk, an online crowdsourcing service created in 2005 by Amazon.com, is gaining in popularity among academics as a source of subjects for survey research. The initial attraction is based on access to a very large pool of participants who can be accessed online producing rapid response at low cost with minimal effort on the part of the researcher. For the uninitiated, however, the task of designing and running a research project on MTurk is rather daunting.

This paper begins with an introduction to MTurk. We review the language of MTurk and explain how a researcher goes about setting up …