S-COMMERCE: HOW TO TURN # INTO $

First it was brick and mortar, then it came Internet and retail went online. Just as retailers became accustomed to possibilities of e-commerce, customers switched to their smartphones and m-commerce was commenced. With web advancement into web 2.0, social media gained new dimension thus enabling the emergence of social commerce or s-commerce. Nowadays, more and more consumers utilize social media in purchasing process, from recognizing the need to actual purchase and post purchase evaluation. Retailer who quickly adopts social media can gain multiple benefits. Moreover, if their target customers are young consumers, s-commerce is no longer an option but a must in order to strengthen their brand, tighten the relationship with customers and enhance sales. The purpose of the paper is to present major opportunities of social media for retailers, introduce the new trend in retailing and outline major drivers of s-commerce. The value of paper lies in numerous managerial implications that contribute to better understanding of the way today’s young consumers shop

Factors Motivating the Customers’ SNS Brand Page Behavior: Comparison between China and Korea

Purpose – The wide spread and usage of SNS brand pages in companies has renovated the brand strategy in the new era. Embedded in an organically grown network of social ties, SNS brand pages show great differences from the ordinary online brand community. Called upon by the new research opportunities, this paper investigates the motivating factors (functional benefits, hedonic benefits, economic benefits and intrinsic benefits) influencing customers’ SNS brand page behavior (participation/commitment) in the cultural context of China and Korea, so as to provide meaningful implications to the companies’ effective use of SNS brand pages, and help global companies in their development of brand strategies for the two countries. Design/methodology/approach – In all, 407 Chinese and 384 Korean SNS brand page users were surveyed to conduct the above research agenda by structural equation modeling. Findings –prior motivating factor constructs are valid in influencing the consumers’ participation in and commitment to SNS brand pages in both countries, yet with dissimilarities in the significance and strength. Information seeking is not significantly correlated with the SNS brand page behavior in China, and convenience is found not correlate in Korea. Brand reputation in China and reward in Korea are the most influential factors of participation behavior. Interaction plays an important role in affecting commitment behavior in both countries. Participation has a positive impact on purchase intention in two countries, but only Chinese samples’ commitment has a positive impact on purchase intention

The Obstacles in Social Media Engagement: the Need for an Overarching Management Process

The use of social media for marketing has become a common practice across all industries. However, practitioners are struggling to manage related social media activities, in particular, fan engagement. To address this, case study research method, involving seven case companies from a retail group, was conducted to understand practitioners’ difficulties in managing their social media campaigns. This study finds that, besides ROI and fan engagement, the nature of an industry, lack of well-defined standard procedures and insufficient financial resources present the fundamental obstacles in brand page engagement management. Based on the best practices from the case companies and together with professional literature, this paper (1) proposes a basic social media management process to guide businesses to unify their social media fan engagement management and performance evaluations; and (2) integrates various social media marketing tools, readily available in the market, to assist in social media performance monitoring and data analysis

The quest for growth in the German organic food retail market: historical trends, current strategies, and future outlook - the Alnatura case

This paper aims to provide strategies for the organic supermarket chain “Alnatura” to shape the demand and its market share of the organic food & beverage (F&B) market in Germany within the next five years. Through the historic evolution and the current market assessment of Germany, compared to a benchmark country (US), as well as prospective trends in Germany, reasons and opportunities for market growth are evaluated. In addition, an industry attractiveness, competitor and company analysis is executed. Based on those findings and a conducted survey, suggestions to adjust Alnatura´s current business strategies are deduced and finally examined on its risk and feasibility

Internet and Social Networks as a Tool for The Contemporary Marketing Campaigns

Záměrem této práce je analyzovat nové praktiky používané při plánování marketingových kampaní. Zřetel je dán zejména na použití internetu a sociálních sítí, které zaznamenávají v posledních letech značný růst počtu uživatelů. Navíc například oproti televizním kampaním, náklady na ně jsou podstatně nižší. Jak si na tom tedy stojí internetové kampaně a je vůbec internetová kampaň úspěšná? Tato otázka je jedním z hlavních témat, kterými se bude práce zabývat. Další částí bude analýza význačných a originálních kampaní, které přispěli k dalšímu vývoji užívání nových médií.The goal of this paper is to analyze new practices utilized for the planning of marketing campaigns. It is focused on the usage of internet and related social networks, which have significant growth of number of users in recent years. Moreover, compared to television campaigns for example, their costs are substantially lower. How do the internet campaigns stand with and are they genuinely successful? This is one of the fundamental questions, which is going to be discussed in the thesis. Furthermore, there will be analysis of distinguished and original campaigns which contributed to the development of new media utilization.

Building Relationships between Fans and Teams in the National Basketball Association through Facebook: The Influence of Engagement on Relationship Quality and Consumer Behavior

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between National Basketball Association fans' engagement with their favorite teams' Facebook pages, fans' relationship quality with their favorite team, and their purchase and referral intentions using relationship marketing as a framework. Additionally, the types of content fans preferred teams post on Facebook were examined. Two convenience samples, one collected by posting a link to Facebook and the other by purchasing a Qualtrics panel, were collected. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and frequency tables. Results indicated in both samples that individuals who engaged more on Facebook also had greater relationship quality. Additionally, in the Qualtrics panel, a higher level of engagement with teams' Facebook page had a statistically significant, positive impact on purchase intentions. In both samples, the indirect effects of Facebook engagement on purchase and referral intentions as mediated by relationship quality were statistically significant and positive, suggesting more engaged individuals on Facebook had higher relationship quality and were more likely to intend to purchase tickets and merchandise in the future and refer others to do the same. Overall, respondents indicated they preferred content related to players, including injury and movement, as well as score-related posts, suggesting they might prefer using Facebook as another way to receive information instead of choosing to actively engage with their favorite team. However, because results from modeling suggest engaging individuals on Facebook has positive impacts on future behavioral intentions, sport marketers should consider engaging individuals on Facebook while still fulfilling their need for information about players and game results

Development of a marketing plan to launch the brand "Love your Dog"

The present project aims to be a Strategic Marketing plan for a lifestyle clothing brand, Love Your Dog. The main objective is to allow the successful launch of the brand in the market, thus claiming a relevant position in the Portuguese e-commerce market. Given that e-commerce has its particular characteristics, the company needs to develop a marketing strategy that allows for an effective adaptation to the digital environment. Love Your Dog was born with a clear mission: Create a better world for dogs. This mission will be translated to the donation of part of the sales profit to help save dogs needing medical assistance. Besides helping dogs, the company has the priority of making it easier for dog people to show how much they love and support dogs through their clothing. The brand will launch in February 2020 and, just like any other brand, faces entry barriers that are important to overcome. An external, industry and internal company analysis will be done, followed by a survey that will be made to characterize the broad profile of consumers. The branding strategy will be created as well as the Marketing plan implementation.O presente projeto pretende ser um plano estratégico de Marketing para uma marca de roupa “lifestyle”, Love Your Dog. O principal objetivo é permitir o lançamento bem-sucedido da marca no mercado, reivindicando uma posição relevante no mercado de comércio eletrónico Português. Tendo em conta que o comércio eletrónico tem as suas características particulares, a empresa precisa de desenvolver uma estratégia de Marketing que permita uma boa adaptação ao ambiente digital. A Love Your Dog nasceu com uma missão bastante clara: criar um mundo melhor para os cães. Esta missão será traduzida para o mundo através da doação de parte dos lucros das vendas para ajudar a salvar cães que precisem de assistência médica. Além de ajudar os cães, a empresa tem a prioridade de permitir às pessoas mostrar o quanto amam e estão dispostas a apoiar os cães através das suas roupas. A marca será lançada em Fevereiro de 2020 e, como qualquer outra marca, enfrenta barreiras de entrada que devem ser superadas. Será feita uma análise externa, da indústria e interna da empresa, seguida de um estudo de mercado para avaliar o perfil dos consumidores. A estratégia da marca será criada, assim como a implementação do seu plano de marketing