Nilewide Marketing Review articles from March 2005

Nilewide Marketing Review archives from March 2005

Researcher: observe thyself.(consumer research)
March 20, 2005... While researchers may have asked participants to observe their own behaviour in different situations, the role of self-observation of the researcher's behaviour seems to have been down played. However, it is likely that many researchers have...

Is quality in decline?
March 20, 2005... In the 1980s the quality of many Japanese products forced their American and European competitors to finally address their own poor quality. The process started with TQM and progressed through to Six Sigma. At least anecdotally, it appears...

Finding meaning in economics.
March 20, 2005... If there is one message in all the discussion of corporate social responsibility and ethics, it is that there is a fundamental lack of meaning in business life. That lack of meaning is on all sides: CEOs, employees, customers, social...

The customer in M&As?
March 20, 2005... Mergers and acquisitions have a high failure rate (60-80%) but, as with new product introductions, there are few clear reasons why. Often the rationale for an M&A is to make cost savings, but cost savings alone do not create a successful...

Luxury and the snob effect.
March 20, 2005... As people become more affluent, there is are increasingly more people who can afford to buy luxury goods. This introduces complexity because, for some people, seeing more people buying a luxury brand reduces its appeal. In a recent study,...

Clarity for the brand portfolio.
March 20, 2005... Managing the brand portfolio well has become an imperative, as companies acquire, extend and reposition brands at an increasing rate. These portfolios are often managed on an ad hoc basis, or brands receive management attention when it is...

What happened to Brand America?(Toiletries industry market research)
March 20, 2005... Brand America is probably the most famous brand in the world and people in most countries would claim to know what it stands for. Not only does it cross all commercial sectors, from technology to haircare, but it also dominates the world with...

How the cookie crumbles.(Brief Article)
March 20, 2005... Most marketers readily agree that cookies are beneficial, as they lead to accurate targeting of online messages, which suits the consumer and the marketer. However, there are increasing numbers of browsers, blockers and other forms of...

Same effort for same reward.(Frequent flyer programs in airlines)(Brief Article)
March 20, 2005... Given our knowledge that people respond negatively when they know someone is attempting to persuade them, it is surprising that we do not consider more seriously negative reactions to promotions (such as when people do the opposite of what is...

Both sides of brand slogans.(Brief Article)
March 20, 2005... Many people remember slogans, even though they may not remember the brands to which they belong. Marketers invest substantial sums in creating slogans and, in fact, one study suggested that changes in slogans could affect a firm's annual...

Smashing the illusion.(Brief Article)
March 13, 2005... Image branding, when it is done well, is a way of offering people something that enriches their lives. Yet it might also be argued that image branding simply tries to give back something they have already lost. If we look at life in terms of...

Time to recreate the 4Ps.
March 13, 2005... Many commentators have forecast the death of the 4Ps, but most have failed to offer a credible alternative. This is because the 4Ps are the undisputed backbone of marketing theory and practice and, even though the marketing environment has...

Using the Dirichlet model.(predict market)
March 13, 2005... Many models are used in marketing, but very often they are proprietary and few people can assess or benefit from them. The Dirichlet model is widely available and can predict how many customers will buy a brand, how often, and how much they...

Out of the big box.(manufacturing economics)
March 13, 2005... Some manufacturers feel that big box retailers are category killers but, despite their negative views, consumer goods manufacturers must continue to develop ways to succeed with these retailers if they are to survive. There is no doubt that...

Endless innovation.
March 13, 2005... As retailers' own brands have taken share from manufacturer brands in many categories, and retailers have moved to restrict the number of brands they stock, the key question is: how will the number 1 and 2 brands in a category maintain their...

Blogs are more than a labour of love.(Weblogs)
March 13, 2005... Blogs may have been one of the major technology stories of 2004, spurred on by the US presidential election, but it is only now that more serious consideration is being given to their commercial potential. The most obvious use of a blog is to...

Brands on the balance sheet.(Brief Article)
March 13, 2005... In the world of customer-centrics, it is not unusual to claim that the customer owns the brand. After all, she has an image of it, votes with her wallet, and passes on information about it to others. With this viewpoint, it is easy to argue...

Brands in the P&L.(profit and loss accounts)(Brief Article)
March 13, 2005... It is commonly argued that brands are intangible assets and should appear on the balance sheet. Unfortunately, describing brands as assets seems to aggravate the tension between marketing and finance departments. What does it mean if we claim...

We can't help seeing the difference.(Brief Article)
March 13, 2005... Salespeople are often skilled in demonstrating their products in a specific order to encourage their prospective customers to spend more than if they were shown in another order. For example, they will offer the high-priced item first, even...

Not your default.(Brief Article)
March 13, 2005... Most people would be familiar with the idea of default options, particularly as technology has made the concept more common. Customers are regularly given a default option when they purchase something. How they interpret that default depends...

Loyalty for the rest of us.(Discussion about Loyalty Programs)
March 6, 2005... A lot of the discussion about loyalty programs revolves around whether they have a positive impact on the bottom line. Examples, such as Tesco's Clubcard, are widely cited as proof that they do. But there are many examples of loyalty programs...

A veneer of knowledge.
March 6, 2005... A number of books and academic papers have recently challenged the way business is taught and, in particular, the basis of business theory and its most respected degree, the MBA. The most recent of these is a posthumous paper by an academic...

The trouble with numbers.
March 6, 2005... In the eyes and hopes of many marketers, the requirement to value brands on balance sheets will finally demonstrate the importance of marketing. Consultants in the brand valuation business have no doubt encouraged such a belief. However, a...

Playing impatience.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2005... The dubious results of short-term thinking are all around us, but in many respects, it is still widely encouraged. In business, particularly, there are too many pressures to act quickly and very little incentive to take a long-term...

A can of beans or worms?
March 6, 2005... In a "softer" world of relationship marketing, diversity, and worklife balances, it is almost guaranteed that the best way to sell business books is to take the "hard" line. Hardball, by James Stalk, is a new book that takes this perspective:...

Your identity is the judge.
March 6, 2005... When we form judgments about something we can do so in two ways. The first is based on our identity, for example, our perceived identity as an environmentalist, businessman, black woman etc; the second is by even-handedly reasoning, for...

Business or pleasure?
March 6, 2005... Psychological theory claims that most of us are driven by the pleasure principle - we want to do what makes us feel good. However, the way we do this is not as obvious as it might appear, particularly when making a choice between a hedonic...

Exploiting our connections.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2005... The idea that companies succeed or fail depending on the strength of their networks is not new, but the nature of those connections has changed. There are the arms-length, transaction-type connections and those based on personal, social...

Familiarity breeds contempt.
March 6, 2005... Naomi Klein's No Logo and its supporters may represent only one side of the anti-brand sphere. Another comes from William Gibson's novel, Pattern Recognition, and the apparent reluctance of many people whose lives revolve around brands or...

The consequences of ambivalence.(Brief Article)
March 6, 2005... It is very common to feel ambivalent about something, yet market research rarely allows for this in its scales. Ambivalent people may choose the midpoint of the scale, but this does not express the true nature of their attitude. A study...