Starting off with an apology : paving the way to consumer persuasion?

Apologies usually follow a notable mistake. However, recently companies have started to apologize in their persuasive communications for committing nothing but a trivial mistake. This article examines whether and why the use of trivial apologies can serve as an effective persuasion technique in direct e-mail campaigns. A field experiment reveals the beneficial impact of a trivial apology on consumers’ behavioral responses. Furthermore, results from three studies show that (1) trivial apologies have a persuasive impact on attitudes and behavioral intentions, (2) a lack of persuasion knowledge activation explains this impact, and (3) disclosing trivial apologies as a persuasion tactic can attenuate this impact. Implications for both marketers and public policy makers are discussed

Pengaruh faktor teknologi terhadap hubungan antara faktor organisasi dengan penerimaan media sosial dalam pemasaran penginapan bajet

Social media has been accepted as a new marketing medium for survival of various industries in Malaysia, especially in budget accommodation. However, its adoption among small and medium enterprises in the tourism industry is still at the initial stage. Previous studies showed that organization’s internal and external factors determine the success of budget accommodation marketing, yet technological factor was less emphasized. Accordingly, this study was conducted to identify the influence of the organization’s internal and external factors, and the technological factor on the adoption of social media in the budget accommodation marketing. The theoretical framework of this study was developed by combining the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT). The method used in this study was cross-sectional survey involving budget accommodation operators in Kedah, Perlis and Penang. A total of 112 respondents answered the questionnaires and the data were analyzed by using multivariate techniques of Structural Equation Modeling. Path Analysis showed that a large variance in the adoption of social media in the budget accommodation marketing was contributed by the organization’s internal factor, external factor and technological factor by 71.6 percent. The findings also revealed that organization’s external factor and technological factor have significant direct influences towards the social media adoption. Technological factor was also found to be significantly mediating the relationship between organization factors and social media adoption. This study contributes to the application of TAM and IDT in the context of adoption of social media for budget accommodation marketing, as well as a guide to the operators as a new marketing strategy in the current tourism sector

The Internet as a Small Business E-Commerce Ecosystem.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse how the ecosystem concept can be applied to small businesses and how the Internet and e-commerce can help SMEs harness the required resources to enhance their competitive performance in the marketplace. The chapter will investigate the wide variety of e-commerce applications that are available to small businesses to help address the issue of limited resources. It will provide an ecosystem map illustrating how each functional area of a small business can utilise Internet e-commerce applications to enhance their resource base. The chapter also explores the opportunities and threats that the e-commerce ecosystem model poses for small, medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is based upon empirical research consisting of three focus group interviews undertaken with small and medium-sized retail service firms located in the Herefordshire and Worcestershire regions of the United Kingdom in January–February 2014

Modelado de la efectividad en el e-mail marketing – Una aproximación basada en la teoría de jerarquía de efectos

[EN] Despite the importance and pervasiveness of e-mail marketing, improving the effectiveness of e-mail marketing programs continues to be a priority for most businesses due to their revenue-generating potential. However, the study of e-mail marketing has been mostly neglected by academic research. More notably, the lack of holistic approaches and conceptual frameworks to tackle this challenge stand in the way of helping companies to better plan and deploy their e-mail marketing strategies and campaigns. This study addresses this issue by proposing a comprehensive model for the study of e-mail marketing effectiveness based on the hierarchy-of-effects theory. The effectiveness model is built by linking the stages of the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model to the sequence of steps that consumers undergo when they interact with promotional e-mails. This approach allows identifying different partial effectiveness metrics associated with the cognitive, emotional and conative stages, which are later operationalized through key performance indicators with widespread adoption in the industry (open rate, clickthrough rate, retention rate and conversion rate). Thus, attention is linked to open effectiveness, interest is linked both to click effectiveness and subscriber retention effectiveness, and action is linked to conversion effectiveness. The stage of desire is dropped from the model because it usually takes place outside the e-mail marketing process. The study includes a practical illustration of the adequateness of the framework based on data and results from prior studies.[ES] Pese a la importancia y difusión del e-mail marketing, la mejora de su efectividad continúa siendo una prioridad para la mayoría de anunciantes dado su potencial para la generación de ingresos. Sin embargo, el estudio del e-mail marketing ha sido en gran parte ignorado por la comunidad científica. En concreto, la ausencia de enfoques holísticos y marcos conceptuales de estudio impiden a las compañías mejorar la planificación y ejecución de estrategias de e-mail marketing. Este estudio responde a este problema mediante la propuesta de un modelo general de efectividad de e-mail marketing basado en la teoría de jerarquía de efectos. Así, cada una de las fases del modelo AIDA (Atención, Interés, Deseo, Acción) se vincula a las diversas etapas del proceso secuencial experimentado por los consumidores en su interacción con los correos electrónicos promocionales. Esto permite identificar diferentes métricas parciales de efectividad asociadas a las etapas cognitiva, afectiva y conativa, que a su vez pueden ser operacionalizadas a través de tasas habitualmente utilizadas por la industria (apertura, clic, retención y conversión). En concreto, la etapa de atención queda vinculada a la efectividad de apertura, la etapa de interés a la efectividad de clic y de retención de suscriptores, y la etapa de acción a la efectividad de conversión. El modelo no asocia ninguna métrica a la etapa de deseo dado que ésta ocurre habitualmente fuera del proceso del e-mail marketing. El estudio incluye un ejemplo de la adecuación del modelo conceptual a partir de datos y resultados de estudios previos

Mobile phones purchases and consumer decision making process: the role of Facebook online advertising

Facebook has been one of the popular social network sites (SNS) in recent years. With an increasing number of consumer groups using SNS, an understanding of how it is perceived by consumers and consumer attitudes and behaviours towards its advertising becomes useful for businesses, in particular for those mobile phone companies that encounter consumer tastes in favouring technologically innovative products. Furthermore, greater attention needs to be paid to the function of online advertising in terms of influencing the purchasing process. The study in this chapter contributes to our understanding of consumer behaviours towards SNS advertising, by revealing that consumers response variously to Facebook advertising in the mobile phone purchase decision making process. The differing behavioural segments identified, show that Facebook advertising impacts on the pre-purchase stages of the consumer decision making process in mobile phone purchasing, a process analysed in this paper. In addition, Facebook advertising has the potential to influence other stages in the buying decision making process. Furthermore, our findings show that whilst social networking amongst peers is recognized as a key determinant of online engagement, formal networking enabled by technical mechanisms on Facebook can also be a key reason for using the site

Pengaruh indikator daring: Surel dan layanan pelanggan terhadap kesetiaan pelanggan (Studi empiris: Anggota Fitness First di Jakarta)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahuiPengaruh Indikator Daring: Surel dan Layanan Pelanggan Terhadap Kesetiaan Pelanggan pada anggota Fitness First di Jakarta. Simple random sampling digunakan dalam penelitian ini sebagai teknik pengambilan sampel dan kuesioner digunakan sebagai metode pengumpulan data.Teknik analisis data dilakukan dengan studi kausal yaitu mencari pengaruh antara variabel terikat dan variabel bebas.Analisis data dilakukan terhadap 200 responden yang merupakan anggota yang menjadi Fitness First di Jakarta.Jenis penelitian yang digunakan menurut tingkat ekspalansi/penjelasan, maka jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian asosiatif.Dalam penelitian ini jenis data yang dikumpulkan mengunakan teknik pengumpulan data berupa kuesioner (angket) dengan memberikan pertanyaan-pertanyaan tertulis kepada responden untuk dijawab. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kedua variabel email marketing dan layanan pelanggan secara bersama-sama memiliki pengaruh terhadap kesetiaan secara signifikan

Pengaruh indikator daring: Surel dan layanan pelanggan terhadap kesetiaan pelanggan (Studi empiris: Anggota Fitness First di Jakarta)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahuiPengaruh Indikator Daring: Surel dan Layanan Pelanggan Terhadap Kesetiaan Pelanggan pada anggota Fitness First di Jakarta. Simple random sampling digunakan dalam penelitian ini sebagai teknik pengambilan sampel dan kuesioner digunakan sebagai metode pengumpulan data.Teknik analisis data dilakukan dengan studi kausal yaitu mencari pengaruh antara variabel terikat dan variabel bebas.Analisis data dilakukan terhadap 200 responden yang merupakan anggota yang menjadi Fitness First di Jakarta.Jenis penelitian yang digunakan menurut tingkat ekspalansi/penjelasan, maka jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian asosiatif.Dalam penelitian ini jenis data yang dikumpulkan mengunakan teknik pengumpulan data berupa kuesioner (angket) dengan memberikan pertanyaan-pertanyaan tertulis kepada responden untuk dijawab. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kedua variabel email marketing dan layanan pelanggan secara bersama-sama memiliki pengaruh terhadap kesetiaan secara signifikan

Pengaruh indikator daring: Surel dan layanan pelanggan terhadap kesetiaan pelanggan (Studi empiris: Anggota Fitness First di Jakarta)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahuiPengaruh Indikator Daring: Surel dan Layanan Pelanggan Terhadap Kesetiaan Pelanggan pada anggota Fitness First di Jakarta. Simple random sampling digunakan dalam penelitian ini sebagai teknik pengambilan sampel dan kuesioner digunakan sebagai metode pengumpulan data.Teknik analisis data dilakukan dengan studi kausal yaitu mencari pengaruh antara variabel terikat dan variabel bebas.Analisis data dilakukan terhadap 200 responden yang merupakan anggota yang menjadi Fitness First di Jakarta.Jenis penelitian yang digunakan menurut tingkat ekspalansi/penjelasan, maka jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian asosiatif.Dalam penelitian ini jenis data yang dikumpulkan mengunakan teknik pengumpulan data berupa kuesioner (angket) dengan memberikan pertanyaan-pertanyaan tertulis kepada responden untuk dijawab. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kedua variabel email marketing dan layanan pelanggan secara bersama-sama memiliki pengaruh terhadap kesetiaan secara signifikan.</p

Interactive digital media and impact of customer attitude and technology on brand awareness: evidence from the South Asian countries

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of interactive digital media channels such as social media, email marketing, and mobile marketing in creating the brand awareness. We have assimilated three behavioral factors including perceived value, trust, and word of mouth as mediating factors, and the Internet and smartphone as moderating variable. Total 2565 responses have been taken to investigate the role of digital media channels, and impact of mediating and moderating variables on the brand awareness. This research has used SEM-based multivariate approach including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and conditional process technique for examining the direct and indirect influence of variables. The results of the study exhibited that the interactive digital media channels have a positive and significant direct impact on brand awareness. Results further revealed that the perceived value, trust, and word of mouth as mediating factors, and the Internet and smartphone as moderating variables have a significant and influential impact in a relationship of interactive digital media tools and the brand awareness