Lewis Hershey

The Strategy‐performance relationship revisited: The blessing and curse of the combination strategy

This study considers the viability of the combination strategy with regard to the Porter and Miles & Snow generic strategy typologies. Within each framework, it is possible to pursue a “combination strategy,” whereby dimensions of two or more pure strategies are incorporated simultaneously. The present study presents findings from a recent assessment of perceptions of 415 American and Mexican managers regarding their firms’ strategies and levels of performance. Data suggests that combination strategies can be associated with either inferior or superior performance. This paper also suggests that additional research should considerre‐visit the I/O versus resource‐based schism and seek to integrate the two schools of thought into a broader consensus.

Using the CPPD Method of Analysis for Teaching Case Studies in the Marketing Management Class

Teaching and research in marketing draw on tools from a number of disciplines. This paper adapts a framework from literary criticism, the CPPD Method, for use in teaching case study and demonstrates its role in enhancing the development of critical thinking skills. Following a review on the use of case study in marketing pedagogy and the usefulness of the methods of literary criticism for insight and innovation in the development of marketing theory and pedagogy, the epistemological value of this heuristic is discussed. Specifically, the CPPD is shown to be a mechanism for bridging the inductive-deductive gap in the structured-unstructured continuum of case methods as developed by Klebba (1999) and expanded on by Greiner, Bhambri, and Cummings (2003). Finally, a guideline for integrating the use of this teaching method into an MBA-level marketing management case course is described.

A Case Study Using a Patient Satisfaction Survey to Improve the Delivery and Effectiveness of Drug Addiction Treatment Services: Marketing Implications and Organizational Impact

ABSTRACT Drug abuse and addiction continues to negatively impact many lives in this country. The United States health care system has grappled with how to best serve this vulnerable population. Since the personal and societal costs of addiction are high, all recent iterations of the United States strategic health plans (such as Healthy People 2010) have prioritized this area for improvement. At the local level, health care providers who care for those with addictions are challenged with shrinking insurance coverage for services, a difficult patient population, lack of treatment options, growing ranks of indigent patients, as well as a plethora of additional management challenges. It is known that successful treatment is integrally linked with patient satisfaction with services. The most critical factors in successful addiction treatment (from a patients perspective) are (1) their belief that the counselor cares about them and, (2) their belief that they can recover. This paper reports a case study in the use of a patient satisfaction survey as a quality management/service refinement tool within a methadone treatment setting. Results indicate that the use of the survey itself provides patients with a tangible cue supporting the presence of the critical success factors. Further, the use of a survey provides a baseline for future measurements and trending. The paper concludes with a discussion of the marketing and organizational implications of incorporating the patient satisfaction survey into the ongoing delivery program for addiction services.

Using a Sponsorship to Improve the Success of Blood Drive Donations

ABSTRACT Promoting the idea of blood donation as well as the successful recruitment of blood donors represents substantial marketing challenges. For example, blood products have a short shelf life, donation is invasive, the industry is heavily regulated, and safety issues restrict the number of eligible donors. Moreover, many organizations that collect blood are non-profit services that are not equipped to make use of many of the tools of marketing and promotion. In the for-profit world, organizations are increasingly using sponsorships to enhance the effectiveness of their marketing expenditures. This paper reports on the use of a sponsorship to increase blood drive donations. The sponsorship used a standing annual holiday promotion/stakeholder appreciation campaign conducted by a large local group of gastroenterologists. Linkage of the sponsorship to a local blood drive resulted in increased response rates from donors and in the number of units of blood collected. Implications of the use of sponsorships for future blood drives are discussed.

The 3D Writing Heuristic: A Meta-Teaching Technique for Improving Business Writing

The 3D Writing Heuristic is afunctional approach to writing that can be used with any standard method of organization. This approach is summarized by what each thought-development passage of business writing should do: Define, Describe, and Defend. The reasons why this approach is particularly important for marketing students are discussed. Benefits to students include clear, functional directions on how to develop and improve writing content. Benefits to instructors include ease-of-use and compatibility with existing pedagogical approaches. The paper concludes with a discussion of how to implement the 3D Writing Heuristic for a term marketing plan project.

A Comparison of the Incidence of Advertising Strategies in Business-Related Magazines

Abstract Knowledge of services marketing has evolved over the last twenty years. However, promotion of services has not received as much attention from researchers as have other areas of services marketing, especially in the business service area. Some studies have compared advertising of services and goods, and this study seeks to add to that body of knowledge. Specifically, service and good advertisements are compared on three dimensions of advertising strategy: creative message strategy, message appeal, and executional framework. A content analysis of 515 magazine advertisements from business-related magazines found little differences in the advertising strategies between services and goods; both extensively using cognitive message strategies, rational message appeals and an informative execution style.

Lexicon Rhetoricae: the narrative theory of Kenneth Burke and its application to marketing

The purpose of this article is to propose Lexicon Rhetoricae, the narrative theory of Kenneth Burke from the discipline of literary criticism, as a comprehensive model which helps to explain how symbolism and nonconscious processes influence the consumption experience, and which helps to reconcile the psychology of the consumption experience with the more observable stimuli of the marketing environment.

The Role of Sales Presentations in Developing Customer Relationships

Abstract Personal selling and personal sales professionals use a number of tools to develop customer relationships. Among these, the sales presentation offers a number of advantages to the sales representative, including strategic advantages. Yet a review of the sales literature reveals that most research on personal selling tools tends to view the sales presentation as a tactical, not strategic, tool. Moreover, very little attention has been given to the special needs of services marketing and how sales presentations can add strategic value to the service marketing mix. This article reviews the literature on the role of sales presentations in relation to trust, relationship development, and communication theory and suggests that sales presentations may be used as a strategic tool for developing customer relationships. The value of this new strategic view of sales presentations for the marketing of services is also explored.