Adam Lindgreen

Projecting authenticity through advertising: Consumer judgments of advertisers' claims

Authenticity is a cornerstone of contemporary marketing. Yet how do firms develop brand positions based on authenticity when marketing, and in particular, advertising, is believed to be antithetical to such positioning? We examine how consumers assess the claims of Trappist and Abbey beer brands. We identify three forms of authenticity: pure (literal) authenticity, approximate authenticity, and moral authenticity. In each case, consumers draw on either indexical or iconic cues to form judgments of authenticity, although the type of cue and degree of abstraction differ across the three types. We also find that the informants are duped by careful advertisements, and explain this by proposing that the relationships between indexical and iconic cues are closer than previously thought.

Developing supply chains in disaster relief operations through cross‐sector socially oriented collaborations: a theoretical model

This study seeks to provide insights into corporate achievements in supply chain management (SCM) and logistics management and to detail how they might help disaster agencies. The authors aim to highlight and identify current practices, particularities, and challenges in disaster relief supply chains. Both SCM and logistics management literature and examples drawn from real-life cases inform the development of the theoretical model. The theoretical, dual-cycle model that focuses on the key missions of disaster relief agencies: first, prevention and planning and, second, response and recovery. Three major contributions are offered: a concise representation of current practices and particularities of disaster relief supply chains compared with commercial SCM; challenges and barriers to the development of more efficient SCM practices, classified into learning, strategising, and coordinating and measurement issues; and a simple, functional model for understanding how collaborations between corporations and disaster relief agencies might help relief agencies meet SCM challenges. The study does not address culture-clash related considerations. Rather than representing the entire scope of real-life situations and practices, the analysis relies on key assumptions to help conceptualise collaborative paths. The study provides specific insights into how corporations might help improve the SCM practices by disaster relief agencies that continue to function without SCM professional expertise, tools, or staff. The paper shows that sharing supply chain and logistics expertise, technology, and infrastructure with relief agencies could be a way for corporations to demonstrate their good corporate citizenship. Collaborations between corporations and disaster agencies offer significant potential benefits.

Industrial global brand leadership: a capabilities view

We examine the global branding programs of five New Zealand industrial firms and identify the salient components and capabilities underpinning these programs. The cases built their respective brand identities around adaptability to customer needs and the provision of a total solution. This identity was built around five capabilities: relational support, coordinating network players, leveraging brand architecture, adding value, and quantifying the intangible. Underpinning these identity promises were five organizational level supportive capabilities: entrepreneurial, reflexive, innovative, brand supportive dominant logic, and executional capabilities. This approach resulted in global brand leadership, but also reflected the fundamental differences between the B2C and B2B realms.

Relationship marketing: schools of thought and future research directions

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to challenge the applicability of the traditional micro‐economic framework for analysing marketing situations and actions in the contemporary marketing environment. To assess the validity and value of relationship marketing as an alternative paradigm. To identify fruitful directions for further research.Design/methodology/approach – The literature of relationships and relationship marketing was systematically reviewed and thoroughly analysed, and a conceptual framework built from the findings.Findings – Three key schools of thought are identified, examined and discussed, and their main components explained and examined. Various perspectives on exchange relationships are discussed. Two specific tools for implementation of relationship marketing are evaluated. With a clear conceptual frame of reference thus established, the second part proposes a number of fruitful directions for further research. These include a bibliometric study to assess whether or not a consiste...

Strategically Leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is changing the rules of branding but it is unclear how. While the literature offers a range of approaches seeking insight to how to manage CSR-related issues, practitioners are left in a state of confusion when having to decide on how to tackle CSR in a way that benefits both the corporate brand and society at large. Based on qualitative empirical research, this article offers a framework for companies to address CSR and their brands strategically, whether as entrepreneurs, performers, vocal converts, or quietly conscientious. We define these categories according to the level of involvement, integration, and the key initiator of the CSR focus. This article concludes with suggestions practitioners should keep in mind when aiming to balance stakeholder tensions and to achieve consistency in their corporate branding and CSR efforts.

Strategically leveraging corporate social responsibility to the benefit of company and society: a corporate branding perspective

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is changing the rules of branding but it is unclear how. While the literature offers a range of approaches seeking insight to how to manage CSR-related issues, practitioners are left in a state of confusion when having to decide on how to tackle CSR in a way that benefits both the corporate brand and society at large. Based on qualitative empirical research, this article offers a framework for companies to address CSR and their brands strategically, whether as entrepreneurs, performers, vocal converts, or quietly conscientious. We define these categories according to the level of involvement, integration, and the key initiator of the CSR focus. This article concludes with suggestions practitioners should keep in mind when aiming to balance stakeholder tensions and to achieve consistency in their corporate branding and CSR efforts.

Using fourth‐party logistics management to improve horizontal collaboration among grocery retailers

Purpose – There is a paucity of literature considering horizontal collaboration among grocery retailers, suppliers, and third‐party logistics (3PL) providers. This paper seeks to investigate benefits of and barriers to the use of fourth‐party logistics (4PL) management as a catalyst for horizontal collaboration.Design/methodology/approach – Three suppliers, three logistics service providers (LSPs), and one grocery retailer participated in semi‐structured interviews for this exploratory qualitative study.Findings – Large LSPs can establish 4PL management but the significant investment required to do so is a deterrent. Interviewees believed 4PL would negatively influence the grocery retailer‐supplier dynamic but simultaneously would provide key potential benefits. Retaining supply chain control means more to grocery retailers than cost efficiencies realised through horizontal collaboration.Research limitations/implications – Fierce competition among major grocery chains means that most are unwilling to part...

The importance of brand in the industrial purchase decision: a case study of the UK tractor market

Purpose – With brands being an important source of competitive advantage, knowledge of branding is needed to inform their management. After reviewing the literature, the article aims to report the findings of a case study that investigated the role of branding in the industrial purchase of agricultural tractors in the UK. The studys overall conclusion is that branding can play an important role in industrial purchase decisions.Design/methodology/approach – Various attributes, together with levels of these attributes, were identified from the literature and a series of semi‐structured interviews with three farmers and farm contractors. Subsequently, conjoint analysis was employed to reveal how purchasers made their purchase decision. A total of 428 farmers and farm contractors (a 28.7 per cent response rate) ranked 25 cards that had been constructed to profile various hypothetical tractor designs.Findings – Five attributes appeared from the literature review and interviews – brand name, price, dealer prox...

Customer relationship management: the case of a European bank

Purpose – To convert the principle of customer relationship management (CRM) into practical guidelines for best practice in the implementation of a CRM programme in the real world.Design/methodology/approach – The findings of an extensive review of the literature provide the foundations for a general CRM paradigm, which is applied to a case study of a large European banks specification, development and implementation of CRM over a five‐year period. Data for the case study were collected in 1‐2 h long depth interviews with executives of the bank and a consultancy firm collaborating in the design of the programme, and were analysed by a formal coding procedure.Findings – The design and implementation phases of CRM programme development are described in detail, the latter organised into 18 initiatives in five categories: testing, founding, building doing and ongoing.Research limitations/implications – Because of the stage of development of the banks programme at the time of writing, it was not possible to ...

The design, implementation and monitoring of a CRM programme: a case study

Few published empirical studies have examined the design, implementation, and monitoring of customer relationship management (CRM) programmes at a practical level. The article develops a single embedded case study on Dagbladet Borsen (http://www.borsen.dk), the largest publisher of business‐related materials in Scandinavia. The article first introduces the reader to the philosophy behind CRM. Following that, it considers key areas of a four‐year long CRM programme and offer insights into the procedure that has been developed by SJP (http://www.sjp.dk), the consulting firm that was brought in to assist. The procedure is organized around eight areas: commitment of senior management, situation report, analysis, strategy formulation, implementation, management development, employee involvement, and evaluation of loyalty‐building processes. Over the four‐year long CRM programme, Dagbladet Borsen increased its newspaper circulation by 40 per cent and advertising revenue by 50 per cent, while total revenue more than doubled.