Adam Mills

Engaging Students with Social Media.

The importance of social media for marketing professionals has grown immensely as consumers turn to it to connect with products, brands, and brand communities. Yet limited research investigates the uses of social media to teach core marketing concepts. This article analyzes coursework in foundational marketing classes, with a specific focus on the effectiveness of social media for teaching core marketing concepts. Through the use of multiple social media platforms, the courses sought to engage students in active learning and provide a medium for the students to apply marketing concepts and market real companies to a public audience. Survey data provide insights into the effectiveness of social media as a tool for teaching core course concepts.

Reading between the vines: analyzing the readability of consumer brand wine web sites

Purpose – Many audiences might view wine brand web sites as complex or unapproachable. Wine drinking is no longer a pastime of the affluent and elite; rather, it is increasingly popular among younger consumer groups and those from broader socio‐economic backgrounds. In order to communicate effectively with newer consumer demographics, wine brand web sites must first and foremost be understandable and readable. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this issue, aiming to answer the question of whether the web sites of popular wine brands are readable or not.Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the readability of consumer brand wine web sites, web site copy from the 20 most popular wine brands in the USA was calculated across multiple readability indices employing content analysis.Findings – The findings suggest that, while certain target demographics may be assumed by grouping wine brand web sites based on readability measures, there are marked differences in readability across wine web sites ...

Managing the New Media: Tools for Brand Management in Social Media

Web 2.0 and social media have changed the ways in which brands interact with consumers. As organizations attempt to join the conversations in the online world, brand managers need to measure their firm’s visibility in social media, just as they would with traditional media. This study proposes a tool for collecting and analyzing data on social media brand visibility information. This tool is tested by looking at the visibility of various South African university brands from a social media perspective and using correspondence analysis to compare the brands in a multi-dimensional space. Findings indicate that South African university brands are not distinctly positioned in social media and that no single brand appears to have a specific social media strategy in place. Analysis highlights opportunities for those who manage these brands, as well as threats for organizations taking a laissez fair attitude to engaging in this new sphere.

iMedical: Integrating Smartphones into medical practice design

Smartphones particularly the iPhone and the multitude of applications that have been developed for users of the device is briefly described. The study investigates what makes Smartphones different from other more common Internet applications (via personal computer), and how these enhance the interactions the practice has with its patients while also increasing efficiency. U-Commerce is suggested as a theoretical framework that best explains the uniqueness of the iPhone. This article considers Smartphones (most notably the iPhone) as a device that can have a valuable impact on the medical practice, particularly from the perspective of the interaction that the practice has with its patients. Practice implications: A process is outlined for identifying apps within the medical practice, ensuring the applications take advantage of the iPhones unique features, and contribute to the efficiency of the practice.

Using Cartoons to Teach Corporate Social Responsibility: A Class Exercise.

Changing curriculum content requirements, based on shifting global perspectives on corporate behavior and capitalism as well as business school accreditation requirements, mean that many marketing instructors have attempted to introduce discussions of organizational ethics, corporate social responsibility, and corporate governance into their classes. How these issues are addressed will, of course, depend on the instructor, the course, the level of the students, and the time available during the course to discuss the issues. Whether ethical issues in marketing are introduced as part of an existing class discussion, as a separate weekly subject topic, or as an entirely dedicated course, we recognize that it can be difficult to get students actively engaged and involved. In this paper, we present an alternative and interactive in-class exercise using group analysis and discussion of imagery and symbolism—understood as a reflection of public sentiment—in political cartoons. We introduce theories of cartoon analysis as social commentary, describe the exercise and methods, and then illustrate an example of the exercise as conducted with our own students. We conclude by noting the method’s limitations and considering alternative pedagogical applications of the analytical framework.

An Alternative Conceptualization of the Self-Reference Criterion: An Abstract

Without realizing it, managers can often adopt their own cultural perspectives instead of those of the culture where they seek to market their products and services. Overcoming this natural perspective is seen as a critical element in achieving effective business adaptation as it enables the recognition of the uniqueness of foreign markets that may otherwise result in various manifestations of cultural conflict. Self-Reference Criterion (SRC) is defined as “the unconscious reference to one’s own cultural values” (Lee 1966: 106).

Endings and Beginnings: Transitioning to the First Year of a Tenure Track Job

This special session includes assistant professors with varying levels of experience, discussing several topics outlining what to expect from the final year in the doctoral program, the first semester as an assistant professor, and the first few years on the job. Discussants will speak on topics such as: The Job Market Conference: focusing on how to go about applying for jobs, what resources are most useful, tips to improve your success, navigating the conference interviews, following up after the conference, etc. Balancing the Job Search and Finishing the Dissertation: focus here is on how to manage one’s final year in the program between potentially flying out for job interviews, teaching classes, and also finishing the dissertation, which is of paramount importance. The First Semester Expectations vs. Reality: The focus here is on effectively balancing the transition from doctoral school to assistant professorship. Considering how overwhelming it may be to discover a new town and understand the workings of the new job, while also working that job, this topic is important to pass along helpful tips. The First Year, Expectations, and Reality, Where Has the Time Gone: This continues the theme from the previous discussion, but extends it to include understanding the realities of the first year on the job. Effectively Managing Your Time: The focus here is intertwined with the advice been put forth in the previous two topics. Managing one’s time is essential in order to successfully navigate the first semester and year. Tenure Clock: The focus here lies in understanding the necessary steps to take, in order to avoid the panic as the dreaded tenure clock ticks away.

Accepted, Rejected, or Withdrawn: A Content Analysis of Reviewer Feedback and Some Advice for Marketing Educators

Within the academic community, the peer review process is infamous. Many, if not most, scholars who have submitted their work to scholarly journals have first hand experience of submitting what they believe to be theoretically grounded, methodologically rigorous, and important contributions to a journal, only to hear from reviewers that the paper is theoretically unsound, methodologically flawed, and does not contribute sufficiently to the existing literature. This study attempts to ease the pain of navigating the peer review process through an analysis of reviewer feedback for all papers submitted to a marketing journal over a 5-year period. Thus the contribution of this research is to shed light on the publication and peer review process through an analysis of reviewer judgments. Marketing educators can use the findings herein to aid future generations of marketing academics in understanding (and successfully navigating) the peer review process.

Going Under the Needle for Your Brand: Tattooing as the New Market Medium

This conceptual paper proposes Carnival as a relevant and useful theory with which academics and practitioners can better understand concepts such as consumer generated advertisement and how to better engage consumers in positive brand communications. We propose that the Internet can provide the necessary conditions for modern day Carnival to take place. Consumer generate advertising is becoming an increasingly popular form of caricature and ridicule. Individuals in society with traditionally low societal power have access to the Internet and are able to upload videos and caricatures mocking brands, politicians and individuals. Prior to the Internet, individuals would not have had access to the mass distribution capabilities of YouTube, Facebook, My Space and more. Russian philosopher and theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1976) explores themes related to communication and protest through the concept of carnival. In today’s society, similar themes are increasingly prevalent in modern communication channels, specifically the Internet. With the increasing popularity of consumer- generated content related to brands, consumers often engage in mass public dialogues like those originally developed and discussed by Bakhtin.

No Joke: Understanding Public Sentiment Toward Selling and Salespeople Through Cartoon Analysis

Unflattering representations of salesmanship in mass media exist in abundance. In order to gauge the depiction of selling in mass media, this article explores the nature and public perceptions of salesmanship using editorial cartoons. A theory of cartooning suggests that editorial cartoons reflect public sentiment toward events and issues and therefore provide a useful way of measuring and tracking such sentiment over time. The criteria of narrative, location, binary struggle, normative transference, and metaphor were used as a framework to analyze 286 cartoons over a 30-year period from 1983 to 2013. The results suggest that while representations of the characteristics and behaviors of salespeople shifted very little across time periods, changes in public perceptions of seller–buyer conflict, the role of the customer, and selling techniques were observed, thus indicating that cartoons are sensitive enough to measure the portrayal of selling.