Meera Venkatraman

How global brands travel with consumers

Purpose – The brand management literature argues that the standardization of branding strategy across global markets leads to consistent and well‐defined brand meaning. The paper aims to challenge this thesis by empirically examining whether and how global brands travel with consumers. The paper studies how consumers create brand meanings at home and abroad as well as the impact of context (e.g. place) on the meaning of global brands for the same consumers.Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes a qualitative approach to examine brand meanings for two prototypical global brands, McDonalds and Starbucks, at home and abroad. Data were collected through photo‐elicited interviews, personal diaries, and essays with 29 middle‐class American consumers before, during, and after a short‐term trip to China. Interviews lasted from 30 to 90 minutes and the data were analyzed using a hermeneutic approach.Findings – Taking a cultural branding approach, the paper demonstrates that despite perceived standardized g...

Strategic marketing fit in manufacturer-retailer relationships: Price leaders versus merchandise differentiators

Abstract The traditional channels paradigm suggests increasing one s relative power within the manufacturer/ retailer dyad. Manufacturers should focus instead on increasing total marketplace power of their dyads against other manufacturer/retailer dyads. Retailers and manufacturers are interdependent, and can compete best by harnessing the interdependence. We propose and test a model of manufacturerretailer relationships based on interdependence, called the Strategic Marketing Fit (SMF) model. Our study confirms the relationships hypothesized in the SMF model. Retailers pursuing merchandise differentiation retail strategies are better partners than retailers pursuing price leadership strategies

Searching for information in marketspace: does the form ‐ product or service ‐ matter?

Posits that companies offering services that directly compete with products are particularly interested in whether the form of the offering ‐ service or product ‐ affects the behavior of consumers. Compares in two tightly designed and rigorously implemented experiments, consumers’ information search behavior for services that compete with products. Finds that: the critical difference between services and products is not that personal sources are used more for services but that impersonal sources are used less; there are similarities between products and services in search patterns; and with greater knowledge about the service, product and service search does not look very different. Finally discusses implications of these findings for managerial action.

Marketing Services that Compete with Goods

Argues that in today′s competitive marketplace, service providers have to compete with goods marketers in addition to other service providers in contexts where different brands of tangible goods serve as substitutes for services. Examines various mixed choice sets composed of goods and services alternatives. Describes various kinds of mixed choice sets and lists various factors that transform them. Draws implications for service providers for dealing with choice sets differing in the market position of services vis a vis goods alternatives.

Revitalizing the MBA for the New Millennium: A Collaborative Action Research Approach

Business schools are facing increased competition due to information technology innovations and customer dissatisfaction. In response, business schools are turning to a variety of solutions, such as team teaching, integrated curricula, and distance learning. This article presents the results of a collaborative action research project initiated by one business school faced with the need to revitalize its MBA program. The faculty engaged in this project learned much about the challenges of teaching an integrative course and the constancy of change. We share our conclusions and recommendations about an integrated curriculum, distance learning, adult learning, team teaching, revisions in program duration and structure, as well as advice on the necessary administrative support and compensation for business schools contemplating such changes.

The work of mapping and the mapping of work: prosumer roles in crowdsourced maps

ABSTRACT This paper presents an analysis of crowdsourcing work with a particular focus on exploring what forces and characteristics of the collaboration practices and technologies encourage and discourage prosumer work behaviours. Data were gathered through depth interviews with prosumers of a crowdsourced digital nautical map, observational netnographic research of prosumers on angling forums, and interviews and meetings with the map providers. Incorporating research on consumer work and prosumption, three distinct prosumer roles are identified based on how angling prosumers differentially produce and consume the crowdsourced maps. These roles show multiple behaviours along the prosumption continuum, and in so doing extend the continuum by introducing a second dimension – work as private versus public prosumer activity. It concludes by offering suggestions for marketers to engage with prosumers in crowdsourcing contexts.

Contrasting the impact of framing pain versus pleasure for high and low involvement consumers

In this paper we contrast the impact of positive and negative frames on brand attitude formation for an enjoyable product category. We are particularly interested in the role of involvement in this process. We find that (1) positive frames have a greater impact than negative frames on brand attitude formation and (2) enduringly involved consumers are more influenced by positive frames, while less-involved consumers are influenced by negative frames.