Empowering email marketing

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore an empowering email marketing strategy that marketers can use for effective, modern email marketing. It describes the strategic transformation of email marketing from one-way persuasive communication to customized two-way interaction using Pettigrew´s (1987) context, content, process (CCP) framework. Consumer empowerment is used as the specific context in which email marketing takes place, and the content and process of email marketing are examined in relation to it. Changes in the business environment, accelerated by the Internet, have shifted the power dynamic between consumers and organizations, transforming their relationship from reactive transaction to proactive collaboration. This has created a need to move beyond persuasive marketing to more interactive and tailored communication. Compared to other interactive marketing practices, such as social media or mobile apps, email seems to be stuck in old, inefficient ways of implementation. Consumers view marketing emails as annoying and irrelevant, even though marketers have better opportunities than ever before to use consumer data to tailor and target messages according to consumer expectations. The research consists of three sub-studies: a systematic literature review using inductive qualitative analysis, and two online controlled experiments using different deductive quantitative analysis methods. It evaluates real-world consumer behavior and seeks to answer the main research question: What are the implications of an organization’s adoption of an empowering email marketing strategy? The dissertation proposes that adopting an empowering email marketing strategy requires advanced first-party data management that enables interaction. Email marketing should be based on permission, and the contents of emails should be tailored to the preferences of the individual recipients, but by directly asking about their preferences rather than inferring them from observed data. According to the study’s empirical findings, content matters: relevant content and active engagement improve behavioral email marketing results (open rates, click-to-open rates, and conversion rates). The study also recommends testing email content in the marketer's own operational environment.Voimaannuttava sähköpostimarkkinointi Väitöskirjassa tutkitaan voimaannuttavan sähköpostimarkkinoinnin strategiaa, jota markkinoijat voivat käyttää tehokkaaseen, nykyaikaiseen markkinointiviestintään. Tutkimus kuvaa sähköpostimarkkinoinnin muutosta yksisuuntaisesta massaviestinnästä räätälöidyksi kaksisuuntaiseksi vuorovaikutukseksi käyttäen viitekehyksenä Pettigrew'n (1987) organisaatiomuutoksen kontekstia, sisältöä ja prosessia kuvaavaa mallia. Kontekstina on kuluttajien voimaantuminen, jonka puitteissa tarkastellaan sähköpostimarkkinoinnin sisältöä ja prosessia. Internetin kiihdyttämät muutokset liiketoimintaympäristössä ovat muuttaneet kuluttajien ja organisaatioiden välisiä valtasuhteita ja tehneet reaktiivisesta vaihdannasta aktiivista yhteistyötä. Muutoksen myötä on tullut tarve siirtyä suostuttelevasta massamarkkinoinnista vuorovaikutteisempaan ja räätälöidympään viestintään. Muihin interaktiivisen markkinoinnin muotoihin, kuten sosiaaliseen mediaan tai mobiilisovelluksiin verrattuna, sähköposti näyttää kuitenkin juuttuneen vanhoihin, tehottomiin toteutustapoihin. Kuluttajat pitävät markkinointisähköposteja ärsyttävinä ja turhina, vaikka markkinoijilla olisi aiempaa paremmat mahdollisuudet käyttää kuluttajatietoja viestien räätälöimiseen ja kohdistamiseen. Tutkimus etenee kolmen osatutkimuksen kautta. Systemaattisessa kirjallisuuskatsauksessa käytetään induktiivista kvalitatiivista analyysiä ja kahdessa koeasetelmassa käytetään deduktiivisia kvantitatiivisia analyysimenetelmiä. Työ arvioi kuluttajien käyttäytymistä todellisessa päätöksentekotilanteessa ja etsii vastausta kysymykseen: Millaisia vaikutuksia voimaannuttavan sähköpostimarkkinointistrategian omaksumisesta on organisaatioille? Väitöskirja esittää, että voimaannuttavan sähköpostimarkkinointistrategian omaksuminen edellyttää kehittynyttä, vuorovaikutuksen mahdollistavaa ensimmäisen osapuolen tiedonhallintaa. Sähköpostimarkkinoinnin tulee perustua lupaan ja sisältöön, joka on räätälöity yksittäisten vastaanottajien mieltymysten mukaan kysymällä suoraan heidän mieltymyksistään havaitun datan hyödyntämisen sijaan. Empiiristen tulosten mukaan uutiskirjeen sisällöllä on väliä: relevantti sisältö ja vuorovaikutus parantavat käyttäytymiseen perustuvia sähköpostimarkkinoinnin tuloksia (avauksia, klikkauksia ja konversioita). Tutkimus suosittelee sähköpostin sisällön testaamista markkinoijan omassa toimintaympäristössä

An exploration of big data practices in retail sector

Connected devices, sensors, and mobile apps make the retail sector a relevant testbed for big data tools and applications. We investigate how big data is, and can be used in retail operations. Based on our state-of-the-art literature review, we identify four themes for big data applications in retail logistics: availability, assortment, pricing, and layout planning. Our semi-structured interviews with retailers and academics suggest that historical sales data and loyalty schemes can be used to obtain customer insights for operational planning, but granular sales data can also benefit availability and assortment decisions. External data such as competitors’ prices and weather conditions can be used for demand forecasting and pricing. However, the path to exploiting big data is not a bed of roses. Challenges include shortages of people with the right set of skills, the lack of support from suppliers, issues in IT integration, managerial concerns including information sharing and process integration, and physical capability of the supply chain to respond to real-time changes captured by big data. We propose a data maturity profile for retail businesses and highlight future research directions

Business model: what should be the strategy used by Smart Galp to implement and potentiate its value proposition in the Portuguese market?

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsFor a long period, energy has been seen as an invisible good. In the users' mind, choices and costs related to energy are not connected. However, for consumers to change their behavior these two may be connected and consumers should become aware of the consequences of their actions and motivated to adjust them. Through the development of Smart meters, the next generation of gas and electricity meters which offer a range of intelligent functions and provide consumers with more accurate information, Galp Energia created Smart Galp - a revolutionary service that allows the consumer to control, monitor and influence the energy consumption of his household and automobile. This work project studies the best strategy to implement and potentiate Smart Galp value proposition in the Portuguese Market. The objective is to launch the service in the market. Thus, after all the internal and external analysis, it was defined the business model and the competitive strategy. A risk assessment and recommendations were conducted in order to achieve a successful implementation

Multiple criteria approach applied to digital transformation in fashion stores: the case of physical retailers in Spain

This research is funded by the Spanish State Research Agency, as part of the project PID2019103880RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and by the Andalusian Government, as part of the project P20_00673.In a very open competitive context where pure online players are consistently gaining market share, the use of digital devices is a steady trend which is penetrating physical retail stores as a tool for retailers to improve customer experience and increase engagement. This need has increased with the COVID-19 pandemic as electronic devices in physical stores reduce the contact between people providing a greater sense of health safety, hence improving the customer experience. This work develops a multiple-criteria decision-making model for retailers who want to digitize their physical stores, providing a systematic approach to manage investment priorities in the organization. Important decisions should involve all different areas of the organization: Finance, Clients, Internal Processes and Learning & Growth departments. This strategic decision can be made hierarchically to obtain consistent decisions, also the use of the Order Weighted Average operator allows for alternative scenarios to be presented and agreed among the different areas of the business. The authors develop a use case for a Spanish fashion retailer. In the most widely agreed scenario the preferred devices were more technologically complex and expensive, while in the scenarios where the head of Finance is more predominant, cheaper and simpler devices were selected.Spanish Government PID2019103880RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033Andalusian Government P20_0067

UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN FORECASTING THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRY 4.0 AND THE WAVE OF DIGITAL DISRUPTION DRIVING INNOVATION IN RETAILING

Industry 4.0 technologies and business practices are expected to radically transform the competitive landscape and society. Retail industries which make up approximately one third of global GDP will be particularly affected by these changes. This paper, guided by the literature concerning the wave of digital disruption brought about by new technology, changes in consumer demand and new forms of business competition are discussed. The drivers of innovation in marketing and the critical role of understanding the consumer value chain. A model of consumer value and the impact of digital disruption and how retail impact can be better understood is discussed. Implications for industry and macroeconomic policy makers and calls for further research based on this research are discussed