Mobile Marketing Tools And The Consumer Decision-Making Process

This paper explores the influence of mobile marketing tools in the consumer decision-making process. The aim is to provide a better understanding of consumer mobile shopping behaviour. There is limited research on this topic, which mainly explains the use of qualitative method in this study. The dining industry in Lebanon provides the respective service and geographic research contexts for this exploratory study. In-depth interviews conducted with a purposive sample of service providers and consumer opinion leaders. Their views were contrasted. The results show that there is limited use of the traditional mobile marketing tools and a shift from traditional mobile tools to modern or more trendy ones was noticed (e.g., Push Notifications instead of SMS). Moreover, it is found that mobile tools influence consumer shopping differently and their effect varies given the customer type. The decision-making process of loyal customers and influencers is more affected by mobile marketing tools than the regular or ordinary customers. In addition, in some cases mobile marketing may speed up the shopping process and may encourage impulse purchases. Marketers should be aware of the different mobile tools and know how and when to use them to develop effective targeting campaigns

Using big data for customer centric marketing

This chapter deliberates on “big data” and provides a short overview of business intelligence and emerging analytics. It underlines the importance of data for customer-centricity in marketing. This contribution contends that businesses ought to engage in marketing automation tools and apply them to create relevant, targeted customer experiences. Today’s business increasingly rely on digital media and mobile technologies as on-demand, real-time marketing has become more personalised than ever. Therefore, companies and brands are striving to nurture fruitful and long lasting relationships with customers. In a nutshell, this chapter explains why companies should recognise the value of data analysis and mobile applications as tools that drive consumer insights and engagement. It suggests that a strategic approach to big data could drive consumer preferences and may also help to improve the organisational performance.peer-reviewe

Infusion of Smartphone Technologies in Hospitality Service Experience

This study explored the infusion of smartphone technologies into hospitality service experience from a phenomenological approach. In-depth interviews were conducted with smartphone users who had firsthand hospitality service experience. Data analysis revealed four unique patterns within smartphone-equipped customers’ service experiences: the extended control facilitated by smartphone technologies, the functional gap between mediated and interpersonal services, the infusion of solitude into a communal experience, and the interactions among different service processes. Based on these results, this study developed a conceptual framework of the infusion of smartphone technologies in hospitality service experience. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings were also discussed

Increasing Food Safety Compliance With Online Resources

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCEFood-borne illness is a top concern for public policy and public health in the U.S., causing nearly 48 million incidents yearly. The number of confirmed food-borne illness outbreaks has declined over recent years as regulation and control measures of the Food and Drug Administration have increased. However, despite increased regulations and decreased outbreaks, there are still a large number of food safety violations, and it is imperative that food service employers continue to encourage good food safety practices. Mandated training has produced varying results on the improved inspection scores of restaurant establishments, but understanding the barriers to food safety and employing food safety intervention measures has had positive results on improving the employees’ food safety compliance behaviors. There is an opportunity to explore new interventions and mediums to increase safe food handling behaviors. This project describes the development of a food safety resource, FoodSafetyKmowledge.org. The site exists as a singular location for managers to find all of the necessary safety and sanitation resources in one accessible and convenient place. The discussion and analysis includes feedback from other food service professionals, and I offer recommendations to improve the site for future use.Signature Page / Title Page / Abstract / List of Figures / Acknowledgements / Introduction / Literature Review / Method / Discussion / Conclusion / Reference

The Mobile Revolution Is Here: Are You Ready?

With the rise of smartphones and tablets, travelers now have remarkable connectivity that allows them to make travel arrangements and share information before, during, and after their trips. A 2014 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 58 percent of adults in the United States owned a smartphone.1 With that rapid expansion of mobile devices, one concern is that the hospitality industry might not be ready for the level of mobile accessibility and functionality that customers expect. In that regard, an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that although most travel companies recognize that mobile is increasing in importance, they do not yet understand its full reach and impact.2 Compared to PCs, mobile use patterns, behaviors, and expectations are different, and each phase of the travel cycle requires a distinctive approach for mobile

Turning meals to digital : Levoo : market strategy and impact on the consumer habits

The main objective of this thesis is to understand the responsiveness of people regarding Levoo, a new app launched in Portugal. The new app which was launched in 2016 promises to be a revolutionary app in Portugal, helping people saving time in their lives, giving to them the chance of order their meals via app and after receiving an alert in their smartphones to pick up the meal in the restaurant they chose. In order to understand the responsiveness and the best way to promote the app to the customers, some primary and secondary data were done. Firstly, Literature Review was collected in order to get more close to the subject. Secondly, an interview to the company was made as also a continuously touch to them during the entire thesis. Then, some primary data was collected with market research, in order to prove some secondary data collected, but also to extract some insights that helps to understand the behaviour of the people about Levoo. To conclude, it was possible to understand that the possible clients were able to download and use the new app. However, more studies can be done in order to get more conclusions and information. Once, due to the time and way that survey was distributed (mainly via social networks) there was a bias regarding ages and also the gender of the respondents.O principal objectivo desta tese é perceber a receptividade da população em relação à Levoo, uma nova aplicação em Portugal. A nova aplicação que foi lançada em 2016 promete ser revolucionária em Portugal, ajudando as pessoas a poupar tempo no seu dia-a-dia , dando a oportunidade de pedirem as suas refeições através da app, e de seguida receberem uma notificação no smartphone para irem buscar a refeição que pediram ao restaurante que escolheram. Por forma a perceber a receptividade e a melhor maneira de promover a aplicação aos possíveis consumidores, foi necessário recorrer a duas fontes de informação: primária e secundária. Primeiramente, de modo a entender o assunto de estudo, foi feita uma revisão da literatura. Foi feita uma entrevista aos responsáveis da empresa mantendo o contacto durante todo o período da tese. Por último, foi recolhida informação primária, fazendo um estudo de mercado, de forma a provar informação secundária, mas também para recolher informação que ajudou a perceber o comportamento das pessoas em relação à Levoo. Para concluir, foi possível perceber que os possíveis clientes estariam dispostos a descarregar e utilizar a nova aplicação. No entanto, mais estudos podem ser feitos de modo a ter mais conclusões e informação porque, devido ao tempo disponível e à forma como o questionário foi distribuído (maioritariamente via redes sociais), houve enviesamento em relação às idades e ao género dos participantes

Data-driven decision making in Critique-based recommenders: from a critique to social media data

In the last decade there have been a large number of proposals in the field of Critique-based Recommenders. Critique-based recommenders are data-driven in their nature sincethey use a conversational cyclical recommendation process to elicit user feedback. In theliterature, the proposals made differ mainly in two aspects: in the source of data and in howthis data is analyzed to extract knowledge for providing users with recommendations. Inthis paper, we propose new algorithms that address these two aspects. Firstly, we propose anew algorithm, called HOR, which integrates several data sources, such as current user pref-erences (i.e., a critique), product descriptions, previous critiquing sessions by other users,and users' opinions expressed as ratings on social media web sites. Secondly, we propose adding compatibility and weighting scores to turn user behavior into knowledge to HOR and a previous state-of-the-art approach named HGR to help both algorithms make smarter recommendations. We have evaluated our proposals in two ways: with a simulator and withreal users. A comparison of our proposals with state-of-the-art approaches shows that thenew recommendation algorithms significantly outperform previous ones