The Curse Of The Original: How And When Heritage Branding Reduces Consumer Evaluations Of Enhanced Products, Minju Han, George E. Newman, Rosanna K. Smith, Ravi Dhar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Heritage branding is a common marketing strategy that has been shown to increase product appeal. Here, we find that certain forms of heritage branding can also have potentially negative consequences by leading consumers to react negatively to changes made to the brand’s original, flagship product—even if those changes objectively improve it. We demonstrate that when firms engage in heritage branding that emphasizes a brand’s longevity, consumers evaluate enhanced products less favorably than the original versions of those same products due to decreased perceptions of continuity authenticity. We demonstrate this effect across a variety of product domains (e.g., cosmetics, cookware, and …

Evaluation Of Recommended Modular Email Building Approaches, Palak Sadhwani

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Customer relationship management acts as the backbone of marketing. For any company marketing is the most important sector to promote a company and attract customers. Email marketing is one of the most effective ways of digital marketing. However, the cost of design and development is time consuming and redundant. Marketers and project managers are frequently unassertive about how to solve these issues. Although there are blogs, articles and services available for marketing email development, the lack of research in the effectiveness of email building architecture bolsters the need for this study. The project presents an architecture that modularizes the way …

The Customer Value Model And Mobile Banking: Evaluation Of Technology-Based Self Service (Tbss) Gaps, Justin A. Moist, Ismet Anitsal, Melek Meral Anitsal

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Mobile banking has become a prevalent part of everyday banking, and almost all banks have adopted its use. This form of self-service has seen wide adoption because of its ease of use, performance, reliability, and enjoyment of use. These attributes of technology-based self-service options help both customers and businesses determine the value of the service. The proposed customer value model aims to conceptually represent how companies and customers perceive the value of a product or service and pinpoint gaps between these values. This paper presents the customer value model in the context of mobile banking. This new context is part …

Building Connections In Co-Production Environments, Kimberly D. Grantham, Kimberly R. Mcneil, Gail Ayala Taylor, Roland L. Leak

Atlantic Marketing Journal

With the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic felt around the globe, consumers look forward to once again being able to engage in communal experiences where relationships with other customers and with service providers are integral parts of ongoing service experiences. The purpose of this study is to provide a framework for service establishments to better understand the communal approach to becoming a service co-creator, helping service providers create more meaningful relationships between their customers when customers are engaging in the service experience in a group and as an individual. We distinguish individual versus group influences that emerge as a result …

The Faculty Recruitment-Retention Connection: A Strategic Linkage Approach, Mary Mobley, Richard Easley

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) is clear about the worsening shortage of doctoral qualified faculty. It is the proposition of this paper that business schools should consider evaluating and perhaps reinvigorating recruitment strategies in both the short- and intermediate-term, as well as developing marketing management strategies that will help alleviate business faculty shortages in the long-term. Strategic marketing guidance is set forth in this paper with a focus on the development and institutionalization of managerial linkages between recruitment-retention connections. Our major premise is that leadership robustness is needed relative to the construction and implementation of strategic …

Impact Of Different Types Of In-Store Displays On Consumer Purchase Behavior, Yoonju Han, Sandeep R. Chandukala, Shibo Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research on consumer in-store shopping behavior does not account for the existence of different types of display locations (e.g. storefront, store rear, secondary, front end cap, rear end cap, and shelf displays). This article focuses on accounting for and understanding the impact of various displays on consumer purchase behavior based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory. Specifically, we study how displays closer to and farther from the main location of the focal category influence consumer purchase behavior. Furthermore, within the different types of displays we investigate the impact of specific types of displays on consumer's category purchase and brand choice and …

B Corps’ Social Media Communications During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Through The Lens Of The Triple Bottom Line, Manveer Mann, Sang-Eun Byun, Whitney Ginder

Department of Marketing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The COVID-19 pandemic and rising demand for transparency has heightened the importance of sustainability communications on social media to generate deeper stakeholder engagement. Although B Corporations (B Corps), businesses committed to the triple bottom line (TBL), could serve as a catalyst for sustainable development, little is known about how they communicate on social media during a crisis. Therefore, we examined social media communications of B Corps to (1) identify salient topics and themes, (2) analyze how these themes align with the TBL, and (3) evaluate social media performance against industry benchmarks. We focused on the apparel, footwear, and accessories (AFA) …

More Than Money: Establishing The Importance Of A Sense Of Purpose For Salespeople, Valerie Good, Douglas E. Hughes, Hao Wang

Peer Reviewed Articles

Much of the current research on salesperson motivation focuses on extrinsic reward expectancy related to compensation, contests, incentives, and quotas. We find that while salespeople want to make money, they also want to make a difference and contribute to society through their work. In Study 1, the qualitative findings reveal that a sense of purpose–the belief that one is making a contribution to a cause greater and more enduring than oneself–is a significant motivator for salespeople. Hence, in Study 2 we develop a measure for sense of purpose and distinguish it from related constructs. Finally, in Study 3 we use …

Proceedings Of The Global Conference On Services Management: Volume 2, Cihan Cobanoglu, Valentina Della Corte

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This is the second volume of the Global Conference on Services Management Proceedings Series.

ISSN: 2641-5062

Victoria's Secret, Rachel M. Granger

Journalism

Founded on June 12th, 1977 in San Francisco, CA by husband Roy Raymond and wife Gaye, Victoria's Secret has grown to become a renowned company in the fashion industry with a cult following for its lingerie, loungewear, activewear, and beauty products (Victoria's Secret, 2021).

Victoria's Secret aims to develop customer loyalty and an exceptional consumer experience through their high quality, sophisticated, and sexy products that appeal to every consumer's taste and budget with a variety of price points: bras from $19-$150, loungewear $29-$200, activewear from $20-100, and beauty products from $10- $21 (Victoria's Secret, 2021). Their products are designed "by …

All About Flowers : James Vick's Nineteenth-Century Seed Company, Thomas J. Mickey

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

A nineteenth-century entrepreneur’s bold, innovative marketing helped transform flower gardens into one of America’s favorite hobbies.

“There is much that is hard and productive of sorrow in this sin-plagued world of ours; and, had we no flowers, I believe existence would be hard to be borne.” So states a customer’s 1881 letter—one of thousands James Vick regularly received. Vick’s business, selling flower seeds through the mail, wasn’t unique, but it was wildly successful because he understood better than his rivals how to engage customers’ emotions. He sold the love of flowers along with the flower seeds.

Vick was genuinely passionate …

A Sweet Future For Sugar Makery: A Deeper Dive Into Small Business Consulting, Samuel Lauritsen

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This case study investigates a local candy store in Glenwood and Council Bluffs Iowa. Processes, consistency and concise planning promoted the rapid growth of Sugar Makery into two locations in three short years. Results from the analyses indicate that the main problem facing Sugar Makery is sustaining its differentiated strategy from new industry entrants, key recommendations to sustain its success are presented. Every company has its own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The key is identifying each to be able to capitalize on competitive advantages, mitigate the damage done by weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities and create plans to avoid …

Changing The Script: An Investigation Of How Gender Roles And Stereotypes Influence Women’S Career Choice In Marketing, Skylar Laine Read

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the portrayal of gender roles and stereotypes have influenced young women growing up and how this representation has affected women’s career choices—specifically in sales. This thesis will explore the evolution of the Disney Princess, how the gender roles of these characters have influenced young girls’ perception of their role models, career choices, and perceptions of themselves in the workplace. This exploration is done through three different studies. The first is a case study of three Disney Princesses and the portrayal of women in their respective eras. The second study consists of …

Walt Disney World As A Model For Brand Marketing: An Imc Approach To Build Brand Loyalty, Sarah Camille Blankenship

Honors Theses

The Walt Disney Company has an estimated brand value of $61.3 billion and a brand revenue of $38.7 billion according to Forbes’ 2020 World’s Most Valuable Brands (Swant, n.d.). As number seven in the world’s most valuable brands and the only leisure brand in the top fifty, the Disney brand is often used as a business model and inspiration for many companies (Swant, n.d.). Its success can be attributable to the high degree of brand loyalty they create among their customers. Among its approximately 157 million visitors who visited Disney Parks globally, there was a 70% return rate of first-time …

Brave New World Reboot: Technology’S Role In Consumer Manipulation And Implications For Privacy And Transparency, Allie Mertensotto

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Most consumers are aware that our data is being obtained and collected through the use of our devices we keep in our homes or even on our person throughout the day. But, it is understated how much data is being collected. Conversations you have with your peers – in a close proximity of a device – are being used to tailor advertising. The advertisements you receive on your devices are uniquely catered to your individual person, due to the fact it consistently uses our data to produce efficient and personal ads. On the flip side, our government is also tapping …

The Pandemic Intern Of Nestlé Usa, Brenna Rose Beck

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the summer of 2020, I had the privilege to intern with Nestlé USA (NUSA), a sector of the multinational food and beverage processing conglomerate corporation that is headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. As of 2014, Nestlé is known as the largest food and beverage company in the entire world. Over the course of ten weeks, I was able to learn from an immense number of opportunities that were available to me while working for this corporation. Nestlé was founded in 1866 by Henri Nestlé, originally as the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company that was aimed towards leveraging a safe, long shelf-life …

The Importance Of Assortment Discipline In The Retail Environment, Reed Fraser

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

The primary objective of this paper is to emphasize and explain the importance of assortment optimization while analyzing a plan to create a disciplined assortment in United States retail stores. Assortment optimization has a direct effect on consumer decisions as this paper looks at some examples of success and failure while demonstrating the use of data processing systems created to help assist with assortment optimization for companies. Finally, an independent study through the execution of an internship was conducted that completed an assortment optimization project within Walmart. All recommendations given to the company were accepted which led to increased customer …

The Bridge To Closing The Green Gap, Samantha Rife

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

In today’s society, we have seen the theme of green consciousness and sustainability become more prevalent as the years pass by. Even as this concept seems to increase in consumer engagement there is not a proportional increase in consumer behavior. This is what is referred to as the gap between green consciousness and green consumerism. Many believe the root of this issue can be solved by increasing regulations. However, I believe this gap can be narrowed by using brands to shift consumers behaviors through their message. The main question that I want to focus in on is, “Can a brand …

The Use Of Social Media For Marketing By Independent Musicians, Jessica E. Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many musicians have social media presences, but not many know how to begin or how to market their music. Instead, artists find themselves searching for other forms to help them market their music. This leads them to overspend on expensive services in hopes that they can get their names more known. Musicians may feel discouraged when they don’t see the results they hope for, especially online and with other competitors. Because of this, musicians feel less confident in their success in the music industry. There is an imbalance between what the musician wants to achieve and what they need. …

Beauty And Lifestyle Subscription Services: A Modern Retailing Format For The Vigilante Collaborative Consumption Consumer, Melisa Spilinek

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Advancements in technology and ease of use of online shopping via phone applications (apps) and subscription services have fundamentally changed how consumers shop. Now more than ever, consumers are turning to time-saving technological tools that are subscription services. Subscription services provide a multitude of benefits to consumers and contribute to collaborative consumption in nearly every product and service category from coffee to apparel. To investigate beauty and lifestyle subscription services and collaborative consumption this study will utilize a mixed methods convergent design to analyze user experience including price sensitivity, subscription service apps and ease of use. Anticipated contributions to the …

Content Analysis Of Hospital Reviews From Differing Sources: Does Review Source Matter?, Sayeedul Islam, Sara Mir, Caroline Defina, Carolina Silva

Journal of Excellence in Nursing and Healthcare Practice

Social media has had an impact on how patients find and evaluate medical professionals and their experiences of modern healthcare. Qualitative research in healthcare has increased its focus on social media. The present study examined 497 reviews of hospitals in the Pittsburgh area across three websites: Google, Yelp, and Healthgrades. Using computerized content analysis tools (CATA), we analyzed positive and negative comments to identify key themes. Key themes and words included “doctor,” “hospital,” “staff,” and “time.” These findings highlight the importance of medical staff to patient experience. Results indicated that Yelp had the lowest average rating. CATA also revealed that …

Price Optimization For Revenue Maximization At Scale, Nikhil Gupta, Massimiliano Moro, Kailey A. Ayala, Bivin Sadler

SMU Data Science Review

This study presents a novel approach to price optimization in order to maximize revenue for the distribution market of non-perishable products. Data analysis techniques such as association mining, statistical modeling, machine learning, and an automated machine learning platform are used to forecast the demand for products considering the impact of pricing. The techniques used allow for accurate modeling of the customer’s buying patterns including cross effects such as cannibalization and the halo effect. This study uses data from 2013 to 2019 for Super Premium Whiskey from a large distributor of alcoholic beverages. The expected demand and the ideal pricing strategy …

Three Essays On The Impact Of Cuteness On Consumer Behavior, Alexis Taeeun Yim

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Over the last decade, the world has seen a rise in the popularity of cute stimuli. Adorable baby pictures, fluffy puppy videos, and whimsical emojis seem ever-present in social media news feeds and friends’ posts. In addition, products marketed toward adults that feature cute characters drive sales worth billions of dollars. The growing presence of cute stimuli in our daily lives is accompanied by emerging research on their social and behavioral impacts. Correspondingly, the current dissertation consists of three essays that contribute to the literature on cuteness by empirically testing the impacts of cuteness in the marketplace. To extend the …

Escape For Boone & Crocket, William Foxx, W. Frank Thompson Jr., Joseph W. Giese, David Vanbuskirk

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Eber Crocket is the owner of Boone & Crocket Trapper Supply (B&C). He feels like the environmental forces that are impacting his business are like a trap slowing closing on him. He is considering ideas to improve his store’s profitability.

Demand for furs as fashion goods is a multi-million dollar industry. Twenty percent of this demand is met by wild fur which is harvested by trappers. Trapping suppliers serve as the middleman between small individual trappers and auction houses. These auction houses collect the raw fur pelts from trappers and trapping stores and hold them until one of their auctions. …

Enterprise Feedback Management (Efm): What Lies Beyond The Hype?, Lerzan Aksoy, Sabine Benoit, Shreekant G. Joag, Jay Kandampully, Timothy Lee Keiningham, An L. Yan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: The needs of CMOs to utilize a firm's data productively in order to support decision-making combined with the reported benefits of enterprise feedback management solutions has resulted in a rapid rise in usage and valuation of EFM providers. The explicit promise of EFM providers is improved financial performance, whereas there is no scientific research investigating this link. To investigate the link between EFM usage and financial performance is core of this research. Design/methodology/approach: To gain insight into this link survey data from 127 US-based firms on their usage of EFM platforms was linked to their stock market performance over …

Ethical Use Of Beauty In Advertising, Koca Chan

Honors Theses and Capstones

The use of beauty images in advertising has been generally deemed to be unethical in society, based on the general negative presupposition in modern western culture. The ethicalness of the display of high standards of beauty in advertisements is especially controversial and questionable in the advertising industry. Advertising watchdogs, social groups, and individuals have investigated the possibility of banning the display of high standards of beauty to be displayed in advertisings and publications. This paper argues that image advertising of high beauty standards may not be necessarily unethical in all situations. And under certain conditions, by considering and combining image(s) …

Implementation Of Green Marketing Concept Throughsocial Media Activities: A Systematic Literature Review, Elnur Nabivi

Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets

The last century’s industrial and technological development has led to the growth of environmental problems such as global warming, climate changes, water, air, and ground pollution. The awareness of modern consumers about these issues is growing, and companies respond by using “green marketing” strategies. Green marketing refers to the development and marketing of products that are considered environmentally safe. Furthermore, the extensive use of the Internet and increasing social media’s importance in recent years forced brands to communicate with consumers in this way. In this study, these two mega-trends influencing contemporary consumer behavior were combined: social media and green marketing. …

Influence Of Convenience, Time-Savings, Price, And Product Variety On Amazon Prime Members And Non-Prime Shoppers’ Online Apparel Purchase Intention, Md Rashaduzzaman

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The number of internet users and online shoppers in the United States has grown at an incredible rate over the past few decades. Greater convenience and availability of a wide assortment of apparel products at a cheaper price made online shopping very enticing to consumers. Amazon.com (Amazon) gained unprecedented popularity among consumers with its Amazon Prime program. Amazon’s retail revolutions changed consumer’s way of shopping and expectations. Both online and physical store retailers are facing tremendous pressure to fulfill that level of expectation. Thus, it is essential for retailers clearly understand the shopping expectations and preferences of Amazon Prime members …

Restrict, Clean And Protect: Signaling Consumer Safety During The Pandemic And Beyond, Liliana L. Bove, Sabine Benoit

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers fear for their health when interacting with service providers. To mitigate this fear service providers are using safety signals directed to consumers and other stakeholders who make organizational assessments. The purpose of this article is to synthesize the range of safety signals in a framework that integrates signaling theory with servicescape elements so as to provide guidance for service providers to assist in their recovery. Design/methodology/approach: The authors extracted examples of how service providers signal safety to their consumers that the risk of infection is low in exchanging with their service. …

Tree-Based Algorithm For Stable And Efficient Data Clustering, Hasan Aljabbouli, Abdullah Albizri, Antoine Harfouche

Department of Information Management and Business Analytics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The K-means algorithm is a well-known and widely used clustering algorithm due to its simplicity and convergence properties. However, one of the drawbacks of the algorithm is its instability. This paper presents improvements to the K-means algorithm using a K-dimensional tree (Kd-tree) data structure. The proposed Kd-tree is utilized as a data structure to enhance the choice of initial centers of the clusters and to reduce the number of the nearest neighbor searches required by the algorithm. The developed framework also includes an efficient center insertion technique leading to an incremental operation that overcomes the instability problem of the K-means …