Marketing Commons^™

Scholarly Pursuits: It Takes A Community To Raise A Brand

Business Exchange

DePaul Marketing Professor Al Muniz's research on brand communities--people who, united by their loyalty to a particular brand, feel a responsibility to share brand narratives and offer support and solutions associated with the brand--has changed the marketing discipline. He is currently researching the LEGO brand community.

Faculty Focus: Marketing Professor Prepares Students To Embrace Big Data

Business Exchange

Assistant Professor of Marketing Marina Girju is preparing students to find new and better ways to analyze and predict consumer behavior using big data.

The Influence Of Instagram On Exercise And Eating Behavior, Bridgette Kosek

Honors Projects in Marketing

The use of social media, specifically Instagram, of 305 Bryant University students ages 18-28 was investigated through student completion of an online survey to examine how following exercise and food related Instagram accounts impacts behavior. Both male and females use Instagram fairly equally, though males are more responsive to food Instagram accounts than females, who have no significant difference in behavior. Both males and females who follow exercise Instagram accounts are significantly more active than those who do not follow exercise Instagram accounts. Given the recent explosive use of Instagram in the population, the implications for this study are enormous, …

Effects Of Online Sponsored Advertising On Consumer Attitudes, Cassidy Maksy

Honors Projects in Marketing

Effectively utilizing persuasion techniques in advertising is essential for businesses to master in order to stay ahead of its competitors. This research project investigates the ways in which marketers advertise brands and products in the online environment, specifically on the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook. More specifically, the implementation of different techniques and credibility of sources will be examined to help gauge the effectiveness of advertisements. By utilizing the constructs of the Persuasion Knowledge Model and source credibility, the attitudes toward brands and advertisements within the online environment was tested. The goal of this research is to evaluate the …

Valuing “Green” How “Going Green” Affects A Company’S Stock Price, Alexia Bayer

Honors Projects in Finance

Environmentally conscious decision making has become a prominent topic in business that has the potential to affect the public opinion and performance of companies. This project seeks to identify whether or not positive changes in excess return might offer an incentive for companies to adopt green initiatives. It examines the ways in which companies’ green initiatives, as measured by their annual Carbon Disclosure Project S&P 500 Climate Change Report score, impact their stock price. In other words, is there value in “going green”? It is hypothesized that companies exhibiting greater variance in their environmental initiatives from one year to the …

A Critical Analysis: Infusion Of Social Media And Traditional Media Strategies And Tactics In The Recipe For Success For Local, Main Street Usa Restaurants, Tori Partykevich

Senior Honors Projects

Restaurants can benefit greatly from carefully constructed public relations efforts. A strong plan and a dedicated use of both traditional and new media can help restaurants grow their business. It can be much more difficult for local, mom & pop restaurants to gain the attention that will boost their business than for large corporate chain companies who already have a well-known name. A positive public image of a restaurant is vital to its success and public relations strategies can help this to be achieved.

A solid social media presence, community involvement, local newspaper advertisements, special offers and public events can …

Evaluating E-Relationship Marketing Features On Hotel Mobile Apps, Xiaolin Lu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The advent of technology has changed the course of marketing in both the academic and the business field. Given the increasing number of mobile transactions, hotel companies have launched mobile applications (apps) as an alternative e-relationship marketing (e-RM) channel. This study modified a progressive five-level e-relationship building model. The model was employed to evaluate e-RM features of the top 10 hotel companies’ mobile apps. The results indicated that these hotel companies maintained e-RM feature sophistication at the lower levels (Basic and Reactive), but relatively speaking, they did not utilize e-RM features extensively at the higher levels (Accountable, Proactive and Partnership). …

Perspectives On Organization Of The Marketing Function In Higher Education, Susan Tams

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The current study was initiated to assess the organization of the marketing function in institutions of higher education and to measure the perceptions of higher education marketing officials about various aspects of marketing. The study is a modified replication of a study by Michael W. Mulnix (1996) and employed the questions developed by Mulnix to measure perceptions of current practitioners. Several demographic questions were added about the respondents and their institutions. An updated study is useful because of three categories of change in higher education since 1996: a) changes in the way higher education conducts its operations; b) changes in …

Creating A Business Plan For Thin Air Reflections, Savanah Thompson

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Social Media Marketing Strategies To Engage Generation Y Consumers, Christopher Tingley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Consumers of the Generation Y cohort, also referred to as Millennials, include approximately 75 million Americans who have significant purchasing power. These consumers access social media on a daily basis, but they often ignore advertisements that are targeted to them. Previous studies on social media marketing to Generation Y consumers have focused on consumer input but lacked data from marketing professionals. The purpose of this phenomenological study of social media marketers in the United States was to determine successful strategies to engage Generation Y on social media. The study's conceptual framework was attitude toward the ad. The data were gathered …

The Project Shop, Lindsey Sullivan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Project Shop is a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) brand designed to promote a value-creating activity that impacts the lives and personal development for those who participate. The strategic culmination of research, marketing, and graphic design generated during the creation of this brand is intended to attract a target demographic of 18-24 year olds. This target market is identified as a transient population often typified by being civic-minded and pragmatically idealist.

The Project Shop caters to the needs of its target market by concentrating on habits and particular styles of living. This demographic often seeks DIY projects that are customizable due to …

The Impact And Interaction Of Music Familiarity And Congruency On Responses To Advertisements, Michael Blecha

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Music is commonly used by marketers to enhance the effectiveness of ads. Research shows that music can make ads more memorable and shape a viewer's response to the ad. This study explores the impact of three music characteristics, its likability, its familiarity and its "fit" with the ad (referred to as congruency), on consumer response to an ad. I hypothesized that all three music characteristics would positively impact responses to an ad. Additionally, I hypothesized that there would be a significant interaction between music familiarity and congruency with subjects responding the most positively to an ad when the music was …

Brand Planning—It's More Than Jingles, Chuck Beck

White Papers

A strong brand is important selling to consumers and building customer loyalty. This is just as true when you are seeking business in the government marketplace. A brand plan gives your company the right kind of visibility to attract contracting agents.

Student Health Benefits Plan Market Research And Analysis, Zachary William Doucette

Honors Theses and Capstones

The University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Durham, New Hampshire requires all full-time students to have health insurance meeting set requirements as a condition of enrollment. UNH offers its own health plan, entitled the Student Health Benefits Plan (SHBP) through its Health Services Center to students as a way to procure this insurance if they lack insurance, or if their current insurance is insufficient or does not meet the insurance requirements. Health Services at UNH is looking for market research on current attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of both students at UNH, and the parents of students who currently have a …

Depth Of A Salesman: Exploring Personality As A Predictor Of Sales Performance In A Multi-Level Marketing Sample, Colleen Rose Miller

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Despite its growing prevalence in the realm of sales occupations, multi-level marketing (MLM) and its primary participants are not very well understood. In particular, there is a dearth of understanding in terms of the differentiating characteristics of individual sellers who are financially successful in comparison to those who perform poorly. This study sought to fill in some of these research gaps by exploring the antecedents of sales success by examining the validity of personality as a predictor of sales performance in the context of MLM. While significant relationships were indeed observed between certain facets of personality (specifically components of conscientiousness, …

The Role Of Motives And Decision Rules In Restaurant Tipping, Jacob Lee Hiler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this research is to address critical deficiencies in our understanding on how bill size, service quality, motives, and decision rules affect tipping behavior. This research uses social norm and equity theories to define the role of motives and decision rules used in determining tipping behavior. Additionally, it provides further evidence of other operant motives and decision rules through qualitative analysis. A conceptual framework and operational model are developed and empirically tested.

Folgers: The New Era Of Coffee, Anthony J. Jakubowski, Danielle Hickman, Annie Pang, Adrianna Hartman, Alex Naragon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss the repositioning of the Folgers brand through a new and improved Brand Pyramid and two strategic recommendations. In order to come to these conclusions, the group utilized secondary research to gain a background on the coffee industry as a whole, the acquisition of the Folgers brand by Smucker’s, the competition relative to Folgers in the coffee market, a social media analysis focusing on the competitors, and finally research regarding the Millennial generation. The conclusions from this secondary research led to the methodology used in order to come up with the new …

Small Seasonal Business Strategies To Increase Profits Through Community Collaboration, Kevin B. Gibbons

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Seasonal small business owners (e.g., boating and golf industries), primarily within the upper and Midwestern United States, face challenges for profit and growth because of a brief business potential year and limited time to establish a reliable and committed customer base. The purpose of this case study was to explore strategies that seasonal small business owners in Oakland County, Michigan may use to collaborate with local associations and charitable organizations to increase profits. Stakeholder theory served as the conceptual framework for this study. A purposive sample of 4 successful small seasonal business owners in Oakland County, Michigan participated in face-to-face …

Beneath The Kiss: Unearthing The Ideological Underpinnings Of Kay Jewelers Advertisements, Chelsea Nedlyn Hill

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Advertising is a frequently used influential and persuasive means of communication, such as Kay Jewelers, a corporation whose advertising methods have been superficially appealing to a female audience. However, this study sought to investigate the ideological underpinnings associated with Kay Jewelers advertisements, employing an ideological criticism to argue through feminist theory that Kay Jewelers utilizes key elements of heteronormative love as a means to persuade and influence men to purchase their jewelry products. Through this underpinning of heteronormative romance, Kay Jewelers emphasizes the notion that an artifact, like a piece of jewelry, is necessary in order to properly express …

Managing Negative Comments Posted On Social Media, Darci Wagner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Consumers use social media to share their service experiences, positive and negative. Some organizations lack strategies to respond to the negative comments, which can inhibit service recovery and harm the success of the organization. The purpose of this case study was to explore strategies used by social media managers to manage negative comments posted on social media sites. The study's conceptual framework was social exchange theory. Participants in Central Ohio were recruited through e-mail. Data were gathered by observing 2 social media marketers manage social media and by interviewing social media managers. Secondary data from the organization displayed the engagement …

Marketing Strategies Of Mobile Game Application Entrepreneurs, Talaya Waller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mobile game application entrepreneurs can offer many benefits to the U.S. economy; however, 80% of the entrepreneurs in this study stated that marketing their mobile applications was a major business challenge. Successful strategies that entrepreneurs have used to overcome their mobile game application marketing challenges may be beneficial to other entrepreneurs. Based on Schumpeter's theory of economic development and new value creation of technological innovation, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the strategies that entrepreneurs have used to market their mobile game application development businesses successfully. Twenty mobile game application entrepreneurs from northern California, who successfully sustained …

Marketing Strategies To Increase Profits From Retailing Fair Trade Coffee, Emily Christine Knowles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low consumer loyalty threatens the sustainability of the fair trade (FT) coffee market and corporate social responsibility investment. To provide business owners with strategies and decision-making processes to market FT coffee products successfully in the United States, this phenomenological study explored the lived experiences, perceptions, and insights of 20 FT coffee marketing managers. Planned behavior theory served as the conceptual framework. Face-to-face or Skype interviews were conducted with each of the 20 purposefully sampled FT coffee marketing managers. The data from these interviews were analyzed using Moustakas' modified van Kaam method and qualitative analytic software to collect, group, reduce, validate, …

Social Media Strategies Used In Marketing Custom Bicycle Framebuilding Companies, Angela Au

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social media is a cost-effective marketing tool, and in a 2014 survey, 75% of small business owners reported that they used social media to market. However, many of these businesses merely set up social media profiles and do not use social media to its full potential. Microenterprise owners face barriers such as lack of time, financial resources, and marketing knowledge, preventing them from adopting social media as a marketing tool. This multiple case study explored what strategies microenterprise owners in the artisan economy need to market using social media. Data were collected from 5 custom bicycle framebuilders in a Southwestern …

The More Things Change: Reflections On The State Of Marketing In Continuing Higher Education, James D. Campbell, James L. Narduzzi

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

All of us can readily identify the major changes that have occurred in society over the past several decades and, more important, the manner in which these changes have affected the way we conduct the business of continuing higher education. For example, the telephone has been replaced by e-mail, which is now the most prevalent way we communicate with each other in the workplace. Social media and the web now dominate how we market our programs and communicate with our various constituencies. Instruction, once delivered primarily face-to-face in a classroom setting, is now routinely delivered utilizing various digitally mediated formats, …

The Power Of Brand Love, Marc Fetscherin, Ryan Barker, Jeffery Peacock

Faculty Publications

In this article we would like to respond to Romaniuk’s (2013) Viewpoint article "What’s (brand) love got to do with it?" and provide our point of view regarding brand love. While we agree with some of the limitations she points out in Batra et al.’s (2012) article, and acknowledge them, we disagree with her statement that there is ‘no evidence that building brand love leads to higher market share, sales or profitability’ (Romaniuk 2013, p. 185). It is conceivable that there was no evidence when she wrote the article in 2013. However, as this article illustrates, we have since 2013 …

Case Study: Sexism In Advertising And Airlines, Tamilla Curtis, Anke Arnaud Ph.D., Blaise Waguespack

Publications

This case study outlines an ethical dilemma faced by a young female student who is planning to buy airline tickets. Her purchase decision is influenced by cost and advertising strategies. The case discusses advertising ethics, ethical moral philosophies, including teleology and deontology, and sexist advertising with examples from the airline industry. This case will be beneficial for marketing students to discuss the topic of advertising ethics, and for business students to discuss the topic of organizational ethics. Students enrolling in aviation related classes will also benefit from this case. The teaching notes for instructors are available upon request.

Let Them Make Art: Why Unified Arts Festivals Are Beneficial For Independent Artists, Anton Gress

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Artistic disciplines typically have two markets: corporate, and independent (mainstream and underground, if you will). The corporate market accounts for a small fraction of all artists and reaches the largest audience, while the independent market accounts for the vast majority of working artists, yet remains niche. The issue is marketing. Even the most successful independent artists cannot match the selling power of large companies. This project seeks to illustrate the potential of unified arts festivals to facilitate greater audience exposure for independent artists, and how this may benefit the artistic community.

The arts communities at Chapman University have a similar …

Viral Hollywood: How Social Media & Other Emerging Technologies Have Molded The Modern Moviegoing Landscape, Benjamin P. Conniff

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

There’s no denying that the rise of the internet has brought about change in the Hollywood landscape. Fans now use social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to share word-of-mouth about movies both good and bad. In a sense, anyone can use these new “spreadable media” to be a critic. I myself took it one step further and started my own film review blog. I was even published in the College Heights Herald student newspaper for over a year! In gauging my audience’s tastes in social media usage and in film, I have uncovered the fact that the hot-button marketing issues …

Corporate Event Planner’S Marketing Strategy: An Assessment Of Effective Website Design, Hayley V. Bauarschi

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

Marketing is a key element in a company’s development. Remaining in the public eye helps ensure business as well as generate new clients. A continuous marketing tool companies use to remain visible is a website. In order to be effective, a website needs to engage and encourage users to connect with a company. The purpose of this study was to analyze the visual appeal and aesthetic design of websites for selected corporate event planning companies. The researcher studied certain components that reflect a successful website and then created a matrix based off research to collect data. The data helped to …

Social Media Marketing For The Medical Industry: Best Practices To Avoid Legal And Ethical Issues, Jessica Padilla

Journalism

This study analyzes the best social media practices for medical industry professionals and the proper and ideal uses for social media. It analyzes the public relations functions of social media—relationship building, reputation management, and crisis communication. With the constant rise of social media as a widely-used medium for marketing comes increased potential for damage to a medical business’ reputation, loss of medical licensing, or lawsuits if practitioners do not act within the lines of legal and ethical standards. Medical offices must have an online presence to remain relevant and build and keep relationships with new and current patients. This study …