David C. Arnott

Internet, interaction and implications for marketing

Looks at the ways in which firms are currently using the Internet and examines the extent to which these uses are informational or facilitate relationship building. A study shows that the majority of fims still use the Internet for informational purposes. Relationship facilitating and transactional uses of Internet are found – particularly for larger firms and for those that have internationalised via the Internet. A question over the ability of the Internet to facilitate and sustain this type of relationship is raised by the failure of the mature US Internet market to show a significant progression to more sophisticated Internet usage. This may relate to underlying uncertainty of customers or to the security of transacting via the Internet. Similarly, firms that are already international will have to contend with a number of serious challenges that arise from the open and global nature of information exchange on the Internet before they maximise its potential.

Trust – current thinking and future research

Purpose – The primary purpose of this article is to introduce the special issue on trust in marketing and the selected papers. However, it has a secondary objective of acting as a brief introduction to the concept of trust, of highlighting the scope and scale of research into the concept in a range of disciplines, and of stimulating more research in areas identified as still being under‐explored.Design/methodology/approach – This is a discursive paper based on analysis and synthesis of trust literature and of submissions to the special issue.Findings – This paper finds that despite a broad spectrum of disciplines that investigate trust, and despite this special issue in the area of marketing, there are still areas open for research into trust in marketing, for example the role of trust in a B2C context, the impact of indirect (referent) experience versus direct experience of levels of trust, and exploring the concept using more interpretivist or phenomenological approaches.Research limitations/implication...

Management of Financial Services Marketing: Issues and Perceptions

The aim is to identify those areas of marketing in the financial services sector that deserve to be given priority attention. A number of marketing areas are identified and assessed on their scope for improvement, the ease with which they can be changed and also on the sensitivity of the performance of the organisation to an improvement in the area. The perspective is that of senior financial services marketing managers. The managers picked out pricing policy as one factor deserving to be given the highest priority. Improvements here are possible and, in addition, will show up in better company performance. Two other factors considered to be worth priority attention are the customer interface and marketing influence, although both are thought to be more difficult to change than pricing policy. Improvements in the new product development strategy area, whilst likely to produce significant improvements in company performance, were the hardest of all to achieve.

Priorities in Services Marketing

An attempt is made to identify those areas of marketing activity in the services sector that deserve to be given priority attention. A number of marketing areas are identified and assessed on their scope for improvement, the ease with which they can be changed and also on the sensitivity of the performance of the organisation to an improvement in the area. The perspective is that of senior marketing managers in the services sector. The managers picked out “pricing policy” as one factor deserving to be given the highest priority. Improvements here are possible and, in addition, will show up in better company performance. Three other factors were also thought to deserve priority attention: customer interface, marketing department influence and new product development strategy. The marketing managers considered that these too would produce better company performance if improved, although somewhat more difficult to change. Overall the managers indicated the importance they attach to those of their activities that affect the quality of the customers′ interaction with the company and its employees.

Understanding demographic effects on marketing communications in services

Points out that research into the use of demographics as a segmentation variable has waned in favour of other variables, noting that research is sparse into links between membership of demographic segments and perceptions and reactions to marketing communications. Describes how, in many service sectors (e.g. airlines), the demographic profile of the consumer base has changed radically in recent years. Investigates differences between the perceptions and responses of demographic and product usage segments to the marketing communications of airlines, and demonstrates several key differences. Concludes that the importance of these segmentation bases appears to be undervalued in services, as findings indicate that changes in gender, age, culture, usage frequency, etc. affect perceptions of advertising, sales promotions and publicity ‐ with consequent effects on purchase behaviour.

Understanding Consumers’ Technology Adoption: a Micro-cultural Perspective on Internet Retail Transactions

Integrating the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Technology Readiness concepts, this research models Internet transaction activities, relating them to attitude, social influences, facilitating conditions, self-efficacy, optimism and innovativeness. The study argues for moderation by cultural dimensions and for the need to explore such influences across multi-cultural societies within a particular nation of interest.

Brand Africa: We and They

Research on consumer-brand interactions is often dedicated to the scrutiny of how consumers relate to their brands and other users within the context of tangible product (goods) brand usage, e.g., in subcultures of consumption (Schouten and McAlexander 1995), consumer tribes (Cova and Cova 2002), brand communities (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001; Schau et al. 2009), and online communities (Kozinets 2010), inter alia. The tendency to focus on goods may be due to the capacity of such tangible products to embody and convey meanings more effectively than intangible, service brands. However even in this latter case, studies on consumer collectives appear to assume that intra-group brand interactions are voluntary, thereby neglecting the analysis of “forced” bonds. Investigating the less conventional but increasingly popular label “brand Africa,” this chapter looks at how members of online African diaspora communities relate to the “brand” and make sense of other members’ emotions and perceptions. Based on the conceptualization of brands as socially constructed phenomena, a netnographic, inductive theory development approach is adopted in this chapter.

Network Development: An Exploration of a Collector Community

Increasingly consumers participate in virtual communities to share and exchange their knowledge and experiences. Through interaction in this virtual setting, relationships are established as members develop an understanding of communal norms, values and practices. Virtual communities thus contribute to consumption culture, justifying a better understanding of participation and interactions, and its impact on consumers. The reciprocal relations along with member conflicts are inherent aspects of virtual community culture that arise from shifts in power. How individuals participate and interact with other virtual community members has been substantially studied across e-marketing, consumer behavior and communication research. Drawing from concepts and theories outside of these research disciplines, this study extends existing thinking by exploring the development of networks in light of reciprocal relations, member tension and conflict, influenced by the characteristics of the virtual community and its focal consumption activity.