Tiziano Vescovi

Editorial: Special edition – ‘New developments in online marketing’∗

Welcome to this Special Edition of the Journal of Marketing Management on new developments in online marketing. Writing in this Journal more than a decade ago, one of the Guest Editors stated that the study and practice of marketing would be revolutionised by the rapid growth of the Internet and World Wide Web. The Web, according to the authors, represented a fundamentally different environment compared to offline marketing, and new marketing paradigms would need to be developed for the emerging electronic age (Hamill & Gregory, 1997). There can be little doubt about the profound impact that the Internet has had on all aspects of business since the publication of the 1997 paper. Indeed, it is now widely accepted that we have entered a new and even more revolutionary phase in the development of the Net as a global marketing and communications platform; a phase characterised by information ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’, user-generated content, openness, sharing, collaboration, interaction, communities, and social networking. Newgeneration Web-based communities and hosted applications, such as social-networking and social-content websites, blogs, wikis, podcasts and vodcasts, virtual realities, mash ups, RSS feeds, and mobile applications are beginning to have a major impact on customer behaviour across a diverse range of industries, both B2C and B2B. There is growing cynicism and resistance to supplier-led brand messages, with the collective knowledge and feedback of the network beginning to have a more important impact on purchasing decisions. These new applications (variously called Web 2.0 or the Social Web) represent a fundamental change in the way people use the Internet, their online expectations, and experiences. From a marketing perspective, the most distinctive feature is not the technology involved but rather the growth of a new global culture – a ‘Net generation’

EDITORIAL – New developments in online marketing

Welcome to this Special Edition of the Journal of Marketing Management on new developments in online marketing. Writing in this Journal more than a decade ago, one of the Guest Editors stated that the study and practice of marketing would be revolutionised by the rapid growth of the Internet and World Wide Web. The Web, according to the authors, represented a fundamentally different environment compared to offline marketing, and new marketing paradigms would need to be developed for the emerging electronic age (Hamill & Gregory, 1997). There can be little doubt about the profound impact that the Internet has had on all aspects of business since the publication of the 1997 paper. Indeed, it is now widely accepted that we have entered a new and even more revolutionary phase in the development of the Net as a global marketing and communications platform; a phase characterised by information ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’, user-generated content, openness, sharing, collaboration, interaction, communities, and social networking. Newgeneration Web-based communities and hosted applications, such as social-networking and social-content websites, blogs, wikis, podcasts and vodcasts, virtual realities, mash ups, RSS feeds, and mobile applications are beginning to have a major impact on customer behaviour across a diverse range of industries, both B2C and B2B. There is growing cynicism and resistance to supplier-led brand messages, with the collective knowledge and feedback of the network beginning to have a more important impact on purchasing decisions. These new applications (variously called Web 2.0 or the Social Web) represent a fundamental change in the way people use the Internet, their online expectations, and experiences. From a marketing perspective, the most distinctive feature is not the technology involved but rather the growth of a new global culture – a ‘Net generation’

Creativity and passion between global branding and country of origin roots

This special issue of the Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, “Creativity and Passion between Global Branding and Country of Origin Roots”, includes five articles selected from papers presented during the IMTC/KSMS Joint Symposium 2012 Global Marketing Conference held from 19 to 22 July 2012. The articles in this special issue consider recent issues in marketing theory, research, and practice which are of interest for marketing scholars and readers around the globe. Special issue topics embrace brand–consumer relationships in a global environment, country-of-origin impact on business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets, and creativity at the territorial level from a network perspective.

Strategie di marca per i prodotti italiani in Cina

This paper focuses on some aspects of brand strategy taking in the Chinese market new features, not found in previous studies and practices of international marketing, which can be attributed to three combined conditions: the presence of a very different cultural context; the existence of a writing system, signs and meanings, quite different than usual; an overload of information on brands to a population not accustomed to a consumer market. Through a qualitative research, were set out in-depth interviews with scholars, managers, contractors, officers, and consultants. The aim was to identify key aspects of diversity in brand and product policies between the Western and the Chinese markets in order to isolate the marketing factors that require the development of specific strategies. The answers to the interviews show a reference model for defining the brand name, with different possible managerial applications. The model consists of five basic alternatives: the similarity of sound, the construction of meaning, the search for cultural synchronization, integrated solutions of the different components, or maintaining the original brand without any amendments.

L'adattamento di prodotto nel mercato cinese. Imprese italiane di minore dimensione e processi di internazionalizzazione

This paper analyses product strategies adopted by Italian companiesin the Chinese market, particularly with regard to adaptation policies. The purpose of this study arises from the perception of the cultural distance that characterizes this market, where there are macroeconomic, social and cultural specific and peculiar aspects to be considered, if compared to the Western ones. The main objective was to assess whether Small and Medium Italian companies (Smes) adapt their products in order to make them more suitable to the demand of Chinese customers and, if so, to identify the specific factors submitted to adaptation, the changes, their pervasiveness, and the reasons underlying the decision to adapt. In some cases the adaptation dilemma is a decision to take when you have to cope with certain mandatory conditions; in other cases it is a discretionary choice of the company considering market opportunities and their strategic importance. Smes should compete in international markets having limited resources and skills that we normally think they overcome using speed, flexibility and greater adaptability. Through an empirical study on a sample of Italian Smes, operating in the Chinese market, we have tried to identify the main behavioural trends in deciding if adapting the product to the foreign market.

The Geox: The Shoe that Breathes

Geox is the largest shoe company in Italy in terms of sales and number of stores, making it one of the leading shoe brands in the world. In 2015, Geox made 874 million euros in net sales, more than 68% of which was accounted for by foreign sales. The brand is sold in 1161 retail stores, consisting of both directly operated stores and franchise stores, across 101 countries. This case study shows how new technology and continuous innovation can be implemented in a market in which fashion and design typically dominate. Describing and analyzing the company’s marketing activities in recent years, we demonstrate that Geox’s success rests in its ability to innovate, define and maintain a strategic position in the footwear industry. Recognized by consumers for its patented innovation, the “shoe that breathes,” Geox has the largest number of patents in the industry.

The challenge of publishing research about a never-ending subject for marketing scholars: The country of origin

Abstract The country of origin (COO) represents one of the main topics in the marketing literature and a large body of knowledge about it has already been published. This commentary essay tries to explain why it seems to be a never-ending subject for marketing scholars and the reason why the paper we published in this Journal few years ago contributed to the literature and has achieved the Google i-10 high citation-impact ranking. Analysing the effect of COO on a specific factor such as brand associations, the use of a methodology that cope with the critics of some scholars about the overstressed of COO in the past research, and the selection of an emerging market – the Chinese one – as country in which testing the COO have helped our paper to be cited. Based on these elements, some future research topics are also suggested.

The Beauty Ideal in Chinese Luxury Cosmetics: Adaptation Strategies of Western Companies

The aim of this paper is to determine if the standardization strategies, widely implemented by the luxury companies in international markets, can successuflly adopted in the Chinese Markets. In order to verify this statement, we analyse the luxury cosmetics industry in a market characterized by evident cultural differences. The cultural differences have been studied in term of beauty ideals and consumersO behavior and expectations. We study four western luxury cosmetics companies. Although the first moves were mainly shaped on replication and standardization, the cultural differences force the four western companies to transform their orientation towards adaptation. This finding was partially unexpected and suggests that for specific type of luxury products the adaptation and flexibility are required despite the drift to replicate the standardized marketing strategies. These results are consistent with those of other studies suggesting the need for a balanced approach of standardization and adaptation in managing the international strategies.

Europe goes Chinese? The impact of Chinese globetrotters on European luxury shops

As they travel more, the Chinese consumers are making a rapidly-growing share of their luxury purchases outside the Mainland. There are several reasons that exhort Chinese luxury consumers to have their expenditures outside their home country, being economic, cultural and social. With so many Chinese visiting elegant store on their travels, luxury brands must try to provide consistent positioning in the outlets around the world. In order to analyze the impact of Chinese globetrotters on European luxury retailing, a research was made inside a Christian Dior shop in Venice, by mean of the observation of 346 consumer behaviors in a period of four months. The evidences from the observation of the Chinese consumer behaviors in the DiorOs retail store in Venice underline some aspects should be analyzed and considered in facing the Chinese consumer going global. Despite the event limitations this research disclosed an additional aspect in the luxury goods buying behavior that is strictly connected with the globalization of the Chinese customer, influencing the sales strategy of western companies not only in China but also in their domestic markets.

Internationalisation strategies of medium-size multinational firms: when size matters in Chinese markets

Abstract: This chapter provides a framework and gives empirical results of an investigation to understand how and why MMNE (medium-size multinational enterprise) internationalisation strategies deviate from the more established strategies of multinational and global companies (MNCs). We study a sample of Italian MMNEs, analysing the strategic and governance models adopted in Chinese businesses and markets and the relationship between the headquarters and overseas branches in China. We investigate two specific factors: ‘mirroring effects’ and ‘acquainted markets’. Mirroring effects relate to adaptation, innovative governance forms of which in our sample are strongly affected by such features as size failing to fit the potential or actual dimension of the market (size factor). Acquainted markets have the effect of decreasing difficulties in accessing countries’ institutional externalities and gaining marketing competitive advantages. Our results show that MMNEs tend to replicate their existing business models when they enter ‘informed’ and ‘experienced’ markets. Our study explains these differences as an evolutionary path driven by internal capabilities to replicate organisational and business models facilitated by the availability of accustomed and informed markets.