The strategic use of Gamification in brands’ CRM

The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze the strategic impact of Gamification in brands’ and retailers’ CRM strategy, with a deep focus on loyalty and reward programs. Having this in mind, the main research questions of this dissertation aim to understand if there are certain characteristics in Gamification that generate value for the end-user and if Gamification can be a source of sustained competitive advantage for firms in the retailing industry. With a view to be able to answer the two research questions, a “Gamification in CRM processes” is proposed, aiming at enumerating the main functionalities of Gamification that may have an impact in a CRM strategy. Through an online survey, taken by 191 people from 25 different nationalities, it is possible to confirm that consumers are interested in participating in a gamified platform and in providing relevant data to brands and retailers in order to receive personalized offers. Moreover, it is also ascertained that Gamification has a potential to increase brand loyalty levels. Gamers’ Tacit Knowledge is then identified as a strategic resource that can be obtained by a gamified application. When applying the RBV framework it is possible to conclude that Gamers’ Tacit Knowledge is a VRIN resource, since it is related to a deep organizational learning and to continuous innovation. This is mainly explained by the nature of a Gamified application - based on human interaction and subject to network externalities, which increases the switching costs to current and potential competitors, and provides companies with a knowledge advantage over their competitors. Gamification can, indeed, create value for brands and be a source of sustained competitive advantage.O principal objectivo desta dissertação é analisar o impacto estratégico de Gamification nas estratégias de CRM (Customer Relationship Management) de marcas e retalhistas, tendo especial enfoque em programas de fidelidade e recompensas. Deste modo, as principais questões da investigação pretendem compreender se existem características numa estratégia de Gamification capazes de geral valor para o consumidor final, e se Gamification pode ser uma fonte de vantagem competitiva sustentável para as empresas que operam na indústria retalhista. Tendo em vista a resposta a estas duas questões de investigação, é proposto o modelo “Gamification em processos de CRM”, que visa enumerar as principais funcionalidades de Gamification que podem ter um impacto numa estratégia de CRM. Através de um questionário online, respondido por 191 pessoas de 25 nacionalidades distintas, é possível confirmar que os consumidores estão interessados em participar em plataformas gamificadas e em providenciar informação relevante a marcas e retalhistas, de modo a receberem ofertas personalizadas. Adicionalmente, é ainda verficado que Gamification possuir potencial para aumentar os níveis de fidelidade a uma marca. Conhecimento tácito é identificado como um recurso estratégico que pode ser extraído de uma plataforma gamificada. Com a aplicação do modelo RBV é, então, possível concluir que o conhecimento tácito é um recurso VRIN, uma vez que se encontra relacionado com um processo de aprendizagem organizacional e com inovação contínua. Isto é maioritariamente explicado pela própria natureza de uma plataforma gamificada - baseada na interacção humana e sujeita a efeitos de rede,o que aumenta os custos de mudança para concorrentes existentes e potenciais, e faz com que as empresas tenham uma vantagem no conhecimento face a concorrentes. De facto, Gamification pode criar valor para marcas e ser uma fonte de vantagem competitiva sustentável

Audience Responses to Gender Stereotypes in Advertising

Advertising has demonstrated linguistic, contextual, and sexual gender stereotypes since its inception; it seems poised to continue doing so as advertising’s presence in society proliferates. Upon analyzing these stereotypes, examples can be found throughout media, especially in television. All this begs the question: Are these stereotypes actually effective at selling products or services to their intended audience? Do men react positively to stereotypes of men or women; and vice versa, how do women react? If gender stereotypes are employed in advertising purely through force of habit and not evidenced prudence, then the advertising landscape stands to gain immensely from taking a more progressive view; otherwise, stereotypical advertising is defensible if only from a financial perspective

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

Repositioning of the brand TV cine & séries online: strategic analysis of the own means of social networks and online platform

This Work Project, conducted within a direct research internship at NOS, aims to propose a reposition of the brand TVCine & Séries online, focusing on a strategic analysis of the own means of social networks and online platforms. Through secondary data provided by NOS and collected online, in-depth interviews of current and past clients of the service and the author’s experience on the matter, recommendations were developed based on blue ocean strategy. On analyzing the most relevant attributes in the Pay TV industry’s strategy canvas, a new value curve is reconstructed for TVC&S. Over the elimination of static website, reduction of offline marketing expenditures to raise SEO design and social content tools usage, a new video on demand service must be created alongside with customer interactivity in the new user friendly website, which provides a flexible subscription fee scheme and a recommendation and customized service. These recommendations try to deliver a more focus, unique and clear message for the industry, enhancing TVC&S’s value innovation

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

An Energy-Efficient and Reliable Data Transmission Scheme for Transmitter-based Energy Harvesting Networks

Energy harvesting technology has been studied to overcome a limited power resource problem for a sensor network. This paper proposes a new data transmission period control and reliable data transmission algorithm for energy harvesting based sensor networks. Although previous studies proposed a communication protocol for energy harvesting based sensor networks, it still needs additional discussion. Proposed algorithm control a data transmission period and the number of data transmission dynamically based on environment information. Through this, energy consumption is reduced and transmission reliability is improved. The simulation result shows that the proposed algorithm is more efficient when compared with previous energy harvesting based communication standard, Enocean in terms of transmission success rate and residual energy.This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation by Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology(2012R1A1A3012227)

Report of the Working Group on the Assessment of Demersal Stocks in the North Sea and Skagerrak (WGNSSK) [5 -11 May 2010 ICES Headquarters, Copenhagen]

Contributors: Otte Bjelland, Irene Huse, Tore Jakobsen, Espen Johnsen, Knut Korsbrekke, Guldborg Søvik