The role of customer experience in building brand loyalty within the service context

Customer experience theory, research, and practice represent an evolving area of study within the marketing discipline. Despite its importance, the customer experience concept remains vague and lacks a thorough theoretical foundation. This study addresses this gap in the literature and examines the antecedents and consequences of customer experience from customer perspectives. The study provides a conceptual framework building from a qualitative study and the existing literature. This article includes a formal test of the framework using a large-scale survey of British customers to examine their experience with resort-hotel brands. The results show price perception, core services, and word-of-mouth have a direct impact on how customers interpret their experiences with resort-hotel brands; perceived service quality plays a mediatory role in the relationship between servicescape, core service, and customer experience. Measuring validation strength of customer experience upon brand loyalty by best fit in combination with cross-sample predictive validity models is a valuable contribution of this study

Social Media Management Strategies for Organizational Impression Management and their Effect on Public Perception

With the growing importance of social media, companies increasingly rely on social media management tools to analyze social media activities and to professionalize their social media engagement. In this study, we evaluate how social media management tools, as part of an overarching social media strategy, help companies to positively influence the public perception among social media users. A mixed methods approach is applied, where we quantitatively analyze 15 million user-generated Twitter messages containing information about 45 large global companies highly active on Twitter, as well as almost 160 thousand corresponding messages sent from these companies via their corporate Twitter accounts. Additionally, we conducted interviews with six social media experts to gain complementary insights. By these means, we are able to identify significant differences between different social media management strategies and measure the corresponding effects on the public perception. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

An Exploratory Study of Patient Falls

Debate continues between the contribution of education level and clinical expertise in the nursing practice environment. Research suggests a link between Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing (BSN) nurses and positive patient outcomes such as lower mortality, decreased falls, and fewer medication errors. Purpose: To examine if there a negative correlation between patient falls and the level of nurse education at an urban hospital located in Midwest Illinois during the years 2010-2014? Methods: A retrospective crosssectional cohort analysis was conducted using data from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) from the years 2010-2014. Sample: Inpatients aged ≥ 18 years who experienced a unintentional sudden descent, with or without injury that resulted in the patient striking the floor or object and occurred on inpatient nursing units. Results: The regression model was constructed with annual patient falls as the dependent variable and formal education and a log transformed variable for percentage of certified nurses as the independent variables. The model overall is a good fit, F (2,22) = 9.014, p = .001, adj. R2 = .40. Conclusion: Annual patient falls will decrease by increasing the number of nurses with baccalaureate degrees and/or certifications from a professional nursing board-governing body

Analysis of Tourists Attending a Culinary Event: Motivations, Satisfaction, and Behavioral Outcomes

The study constructs a causal model of culinary tourist behavior from the theoretical framework of push and pull motivations and related concepts with regard to satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Respondents were distinguished with regards to socio-demographic characteristics, travel behavior, and importance of event attributes. Further, importance-performance hypothetical framework was utilized to measure pull motivations. The study proposed that culinary event attendees’ expenditures, word-of-mouth behavior, and repeat patronage intentions would be related to their overall event satisfaction. Culinary event attendees were segmented on the basis of push motivations. Using factor, cluster, and multiple regression analyses with data collected from an international culinary event, the study examined the above relationships. The results of the analyses can be summarized as: 1) food event, event novelty, and socialization were the push motivations identified for attending a culinary event, 2) motivations were clustered into two meaningful segments: Food Focusers and Event Seekers, 3) the two clusters statistically were different from each other based on gender, age, income, education, and expenditures, 4) on all event attributes, with the exception of nightlife, performance means were significantly lower than importance means, 5) food product, support services, and essential services had a significant predictive affect on overall satisfaction, and 6) overall satisfaction had a significant relationship with outcome variables (expenditures, word-of-mouth behavior, and repeat patronage). This research makes unique contributions to the area of consumer research in culinary tourism from both the theoretical and empirical perspectives. It is believed that results of the present study will be useful to organizers of culinary events and/or destination managers

Drivers of member advocacy and detraction in credit unions: key contributors to net promoter scores

Credit unions today face an uncertain future, with their very survival in question. This study sought to understand where credit union leaders should focus to foster growth and create lasting organizational success. Treacy and Wiersema (1995) proffer that the key to growth rests in customer intimacy and as others suggest, the creation of an exceptional customer experience (McConnell & Huba, 2003; Pine & Gilmore, 1999). As customers for credit unions are called members, an exceptional member experience is thus necessary. Customer (or member) satisfaction levels indicate the member experience. Member loyalty levels also reflect the member experience. This study sought to uncover the drivers of credit union member advocacy and detraction, and explored the existence of age, income, or gender differences. The study used the seminal SERVQUAL model (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, & Berry, 1990) of customer satisfaction as a framework for understanding the drivers of high member loyalty. Specifically, responses to the Net Promoter Score\u27s likelihood to recommend question (Reichheld, 2006a) were coded, first independently, and then to the five distinct dimensions of service quality: Tangibles, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance and Empathy (Zeithaml et. al, 1990). In so doing, this study led to greater understanding of what contributes to high and low NPS scores, and thus what credit union leaders can do to create an excellent member experience, and high loyalty, among current members. The study also led to a new, more complete banking-specific account holder experience assessment model, SQ+ , and five additional dimensions: Convenience, Rates, Fees, Products/Services and Relationship. Two key research tools were also developed: A new SQ+ questionnaire for use in assessing the member/customer experience, and a codebook to use in interpreting and utilizing NPS likelihood to recommend comments

CUSTOMER BRAND LOYALTY MODEL FOR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Identifying the relationship between user engagement, social media marketing, and word-of-mouth referrals to Gojek, an online transportation platform, was the objective of a study conducted in Indonesia. Using a quantitative causal method, researchers gauged the influence of factors like social media marketing and user engagement on customer loyalty. An exclusive group of 300 Instagram followers of Gojek, who had followed and liked their brand page for a minimum of six months, were handpicked for the research. Brand loyalty was identified as the most significant outcome produced through the use of structural equation modeling (SEM). The analysis highlighted a positive and significant effect from the exogenous variables on the endogenous variables. Social media marketing was the key factor contributing to this impact

Pilkada Amidst a Pandemic: The Role of The Electronic Word of Mouth in Political Brand and Voting Intention

The Regional Head Election campaign frequently uses electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) communication because of social media's growth and the Covid-19 pandemic that took place during the election year. In commercial brands, eWOM impact has influence brand equity and purchase decisions. However, in political brands, this has not been proven. Therefore, by using the regional head candidate of Purbalingga Regency as a political brand, this study examines the effect of eWOM on developing candidate brand equity and relates it to voting intention. Brand equity using a brand pyramid model with brand equity forming variables consisting of a candidate brand awareness, a candidate brand performance-imagery, a candidate brand judgment-feelings, and a candidate brand resonance. The study involved 260 respondents who are people of Purbalingga Regency who may vote and use social media. The sampling method used was purposive sampling by conducting direct interviews with respondents. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Model Partial Least Square (SEM PLS) analysis. The results showed that electronic Word of Mouth has a positive and significant effect on brand equity development variables. Developing brand equity affects the voting intention on candidate brand awareness and candidate brand resonance. The Result of this study found electronic Word of Mouth to have no direct influence on voting intention

Integrating social media into the marketing mix : the determinants of success

The aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate how three different companies (Starbucks, Walmart and Hewlett-Packard) are integrating Social Media into their marketing mix. How Social Media is a changing trend and why it is becoming essential for companies to adopt it as a marketing strategy in order to gain competitive advantage. The main Social Media Platforms that will be analysed are; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. The literature review encompasses many different academic researchers’ and allows for the integration of ideas, opinions and insights on the importance of being active in Social Media, Social Media benefits, drawbacks and challenges, the analysis of Social Media data, and how to develop a Social Media strategy by providing guidelines. The conceptual framework is a honeycomb framework of seven building blocks, which is then used to highlight the importance of these different components in each case study. It is used to describe how each company can use different set of tools to position themselves, depending on their overall objectives. The case studies present an overview of each company and describe its main benefits, drawbacks and what each enterprise should adopt as a set of Social Media guidelines. The managerial benefits of discussing these cases will allow to comprehensively evaluate the trade-offs of integrating distinct Social Media tools into a company’s overall marketing mix. In the teaching notes, the main learning objectives, suggested assignment questions and respective answers are presented. Finally, the conclusions, limitations and future research of the study are outlined.O objetivo desta dissertação é demonstrar como três empresas diferentes (Starbucks , Walmart e Hewlett- Packard) estão a integrar as redes sociais no seu Marketing Mix. A introdução da dissertação explica como as redes sociais são uma tendência que está a mudar e que se está a tornar essencial para as empresas adotá-las como uma estratégia de marketing para obter uma vantagem competitiva sobre as suas rivais. As principais plataformas de redes sociais a serem analizadas são: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn e YouTube. Para abordar este tema, vários estudos académicos foram analisados. Obtiveram-se pontos de vista e opiniões diferentes sobre a importância de uma empresa estar ativa nas redes sociais, os benefícios das mesmas, as desvantagens e desafios, a análise de dados das ditas redes , e como desenvolver uma estratégia integrando as redes sociais ao Marketing Mix. A estrutura concetual é constituida por sete blocos que, posteriormente, são utilizados para realçar a importância das diferentes componentes, em cada estudo de caso. Os estudos de caso apresentam uma visão geral de cada empresa e descrevem as suas principais vantagens e desvantagens, assim como as linhas de orientação que cada empresa segue para desenvolver estratégias que englobem as redes sociais. Os benefícios principais de discutir os casos, permitirão a avaliação abrangente de integrar diferentes ferramentas sociais no Marketing Mix de cada empresa. Na seção ‘Notas de Ensino’ são abordados os principais objetivos de aprendizagem dos estudos de caso e questões relevantes. Finalmente, as conclusões, limitações e futuras pesquisas são delineadas

The impact of influencers in the consumer's purchase intention: The cosmetic industry

Social media is now part of people’s everyday lives. The digital era brought many opportunities, but also many challenges and queries as to what the best way to promote brands and products on social media is. Several businesses are now investing on influencer marketing, even though it is an intensely debated marketing strategy that is still lacking investigation regarding its application. In order to contribute towards this field of research, this study aims to evaluate the impact of social media influencers in the purchase intention of a cosmetic product and further understand which characteristics have a higher influence in the purchase intention. The literature review gives a comprehensive overview of social media marketing. A framework was developed based on the literature review which revealed the social media influencer’s characteristics that might impact the purchase intention of a cosmetic product. In order to test the framework hypothesis, an online survey was conducted which had 338 respondents. The results revealed that homophily and argument quality have a higher impact on the consumer’s purchase intention than popularity, expertise and interactivity. Additionally, it was also evidenced that the social media influencer’s trustworthiness and likability do not have an influence in the consumer’s purchase intention when considering a cosmetic product. Other relevant conclusions were established, suggesting that this them could bring several managerial, academic and marketing implications. With these contributes, managers can make conscious decisions when determining which characteristics to look for when deciding to collaborate with social media influencers.As pessoas passam muito do seu tempo nas redes sociais e a era digital trouxe muitos desafios e questões relativamente a qual a melhor forma de promover marcas e produtos nas redes sociais. Muitas empresas estão agora a investir em marketing de influência, apesar de ainda ser uma estratégia de marketing muito debatida e que ainda não tem muita investigação quanto à melhor forma de aplicação. Com o objetivo de prestar um contributo, este estudo pretende avaliar o impacto dos influenciadores digitais na intenção de compra de um produto de cosmética e investigar quais as características que têm mais impacto na intenção de compra. A revisão de literatura expõe uma visão geral sobre social media marketing. Foi desenvolvido um modelo com base na revisão de literatura, ilustrando as características dos influenciadores digitais que podem ter impacto na intenção de compra de um produto de cosmética. Para testar as hipóteses do modelo, foi desenvolvido um questionário online que obteve 338 respostas. Os resultados revelaram que a homofilia e a qualidade do argumente têm um impacto mais elevado na intenção de compra do consumidor que a popularidade, expertise e a interação. Adicionalmente, também foi possível retirar que a fidedignidade e simpatia do influenciador digital não têm impacto na intenção de compra de um produto de cosmética. Outras conclusões relevantes foram retiradas, sugerindo várias implicações a nível da gestão, investigação e do marketing. Contribuindo para que managers possam melhor selecionar as características que devem analisar quando decidirem colaborar com influenciadores digitais