Dilip S. Mutum

A review of customer relationship management: successes, advances, pitfalls and futures

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide academics and practitioners working with customer relationship management (CRM) with a review of key topics, such as advances in CRM, the shifting role of consumers, issues with conceptualisation and consumer exploitation. The authors further integrate concepts of fairness, trust and paradoxes of one‐to‐one marketing, which are little researched within customer management. As a result, the authors suggest eight propositions for improving the CRM scheme.Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews extant literatures in CRM, with a particular emphasis on the pitfalls of CRM.Findings – The authors find that the risks of depleting customer trust as they perceive themselves being exploited by firms CRM offerings should be openly discussed, as it poses a significant threat to the CRM scheme if it is overly used and misused.Practical implications – It is proposed that the concept of dual value‐creation and win‐win relationships are fundamental to successful ...

Constructing online switching barriers: examining the effects of switching costs and alternative attractiveness on e-store loyalty in online pure-play retailers

Developing switching barriers to retain customers has become a critical marketing strategy for online retailers. However, research on the role of switching barriers in e-retailing is still limited. Recent trends show that when competitors are just one click away, it is questionable if customer loyalty can be achieved at all in online environments. This leads to the research question on whether switching barriers have any impact on e-loyalty in pure-play retailers. The paper examines the influence of switching barriers on customer retention (i.e., e-store loyalty) and further investigates the moderating effects of switching costs and alternative attractiveness. Data were gathered via a survey of 590 shoppers of online pure-play retailers in the UK. Findings show that customer satisfaction and the two dimensions of switching barriers (perceived switching costs and perceived attractiveness of alternatives) significantly influence customer loyalty. Contrary to findings in earlier studies, it was found that switching costs did not moderate the relationships between satisfaction and loyalty nor between perceived attractiveness of alternatives and loyalty. The paper makes imperative recommendations to develop switching barriers and to foster loyalty along with suggestions for future research.

Customer relationship management: advances, dark sides, exploitation and unfairness

As CRM schemes are getting increasingly sophisticated at personalising offers, there are both great benefits, but at the same time, also disadvantages that firms must consider. In this paper, CRM research is extensively reviewed with a particular focus on the advancements and their inherent dark sides. The danger of implementing CRM in a way that leads customers to believe that they are worse off requires more research. The risks of depleting customer trust are discussed and pose a significant threat to CRM. This is evident when customers perceive themselves as being exploited by firms CRM schemes if it is overly used and misused. Thus, advances in CRM must consider these issues of fairness and trust. Eight propositions are made about CRMs, advances, dark sides, exploitation and unfairness.

An exploratory study of the implementation of customer relationship management by Malaysian automobile distributors

The deregulation of the Malaysian automobile industry has resulted in intensified competition with the presence of more players in the market place. Customer relationships become important when there are many companies trying to satisfy their customer needs and create customer loyalty. The practice of customer relationship management (CRM) is relatively new in Malaysia and this exploratory study is one of the first to look into this area with regards to the automobile industry. The review of literature also presents a general overview of the development of CRM. This study compares the perspectives of two national and ten non-national car companies in Malaysia, with special reference to the various CRM programmes implemented by them. Despite the fact that CRM usage is still relatively new in Malaysia, the study concluded that it has indeed proven to be useful to Malaysian automobile marketers, especially in identifying the target customers and reaching specific customer segments, besides identifying various customer needs. The authors suggest some areas for future research.

Religious symbolism in Islamic financial service advertisements

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of increasing the intensity of religious cues in financial service advertisements on target and non-target groups. Design/methodology/approach To test the proposed hypotheses, a 2 (Religion: Muslims versus Non-Muslims) x 3 (Religious identity primes: Low versus Medium versus High) factorial design was used. Both target and non-target groups were randomly exposed to factitious advertisements of an Islamic bank embedded with low, medium and high intensity of religious cues. Findings The results of this study indicate that within target group the manipulation did result into a more favourable attitudes towards the advertisement (Aad) and attitudes towards the brand (Ab) for the medium intensity advertisement; however, for high intensity advertisement, only Aad was more favourable compared to low intensity advertisement. Relatively strong evidence was found in case of non-target group negative reactions in term of Aad, Ab and purchase intention. The direct comparison between target and non-target groups suggest a general pattern of more positive response from target group as compared to non-target group. Practical implications The findings of this study provide an important insight into the effectiveness of identity salience messages in financial service marketing. The study provide empirical evidence that intensifying the rhetoric beyond a certain point will generate negative results from both target and non-target respondents. Originality/value The authors integrated the research on symbolism, social identity and target and non-target effects to analyse the attitudinal and behavioural differences between and within target and non-target groups of financial service advertisements with different intensity of religious cues.

Case Study 14: Air Asia: Using Social Media to Reach Out to New Customers

With the tag line “Now everybody can fly” AirAsia has revolutionised air travel in the Asian region by offering incredibly low fares and innovative marketing techniques. The airline is one of the most innovative companies in the World, which has successfully deployed and expanded on the latest marketing/promotion practices. From August to December 2010, the airline ran their ‘Real People, Real Stories’ campaign where customers were encouraged to share their experiences on social media for a chance to win free tickets.

Avoidance of sponsored posts on consumer-generated content: a study of personal blogs

Purpose This study aims to conceptualise and empirically examine how blog users engage with the sponsored posts on consumer-generated content, specifically blogs. Design/methodology/approach This paper empirically tested the proposed hypotheses using the structural equation modelling using a sample of 399 blog users. Findings The need for cognition, perceived interactivity and perceived credibility of blogs has been found to directly influence consumers’ attitude towards blogs. Innovativeness has been found to have a weak negative link with the attitude towards blogs. Blog users were more favourable towards the sponsored posts if the blogs were more interactive. Attitude towards blogs has been found to mediate the relationship between users’ perceived interactivity and their avoidance of the sponsored posts and also between perceived credibility and avoidance of the sponsored posts on blogs. The most significant finding of this study is that the positive attitude towards a blog results in a higher avoidance of the sponsored posts. Research limitations/implications This study focuses on the sponsored posts on blogs. It does not look at other forms of advertising on blogs such as banner ads, or other forms of consumer-generated content. Practical implications Marketers and bloggers should carefully consider the suitability of the sponsored posts on blogs as they risk alienating the regular users of the blogs. Sponsored posts which are perceived as honest reviews (as opposed to paid advertorials) might be more acceptable to blog users. Social implications This study highlights the importance of credibility of bloggers to blog users. There are some serious ethical issues related to the sponsored posts which have not been discussed here but need to be examined further. Originality/value This study represents one of the first attempts to conceptualise and empirically examine how blog users engage with customer-generated advertising – sponsored posts. It contributes to marketing literature by enhancing the understanding of how consumers perceive consumer-generated content and more specifically, with regard to consumer attitudes towards online consumer-generated advertising. This study enhances the theoretical and empirical knowledge on how consumers react to advertisements on social media, with important suggestions for future research and implications for practitioners.

Introduction to Service Branding and Servicescapes

The importance of branding services has been highlighted by various researchers. Research has also shown that servicescape quality has an impact on determining customer affective and behavioural responses to services. This section presents five very unique cases that cover service branding and servicescapes.

Islamic Marketing: Compatibility with Contemporary Themes in Marketing

Abstract Purpose This chapter discusses whether marketing can ever be Islamic given the common view of marketing functions as unsustainable and sometimes unethical, for example, how marketing promotes materialism. Methodology/approach This chapter reviews extant literatures in Islamic marketing, with a particular emphasis on stakeholder orientation in marketing. Findings We argue that Islamic marketing is indeed compatible with the concepts of ethical and sustainable marketing encompassing social, environmental as well as economic perspectives and encourages ethical behaviour. Originality/value This chapter highlights that discussions on Islamic marketing should include sustainable marketing and emphasises the growing importance of stakeholder orientation in marketing.

Social marketing: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

This chapter looks at social marketing in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Despite their cultural similarities and historical ties, each country has their unique challenges. Diversities and issues are explored with special reference to the contraceptive social marketing programmes in these three countries. The aim is to enable readers to comprehend how organisations organise and manage social marketing in these countries. Furthermore, the chapter presents important aspects of decision-making processes, influencing consumers’ perceptions towards social marketing. Theories on social marketing are reviewed and extant research presented.