Co-experience Network Dynamics: Lessons from the Dance Floor.

Experience and socialization are key factors in determining customer commitment and renewal decisions in the service sector. To analyse the combined effect of experience and socialization, in this paper we introduce the concept of co-experience networks. A new methodological approach, originally applied in the field of social ethology, is devised to study reality-mined co-experience networks. By analysing a network of health club members over four years, we find that long-experienced clients have a lower chance to renew their contracts. On the other hand, central members in the co-experience network are stable and tend to renew their memberships. Further, since the members of the same reference group align their levels of commitment, renewal decisions are clustered in a small-world network. These findings contribute to our understanding of social dynamics and localized conformity in customer decision-making that can be used to plan marketing strategies to improve customer retention.

O comportamento do consumidor em contexto de promoções de venda

Mestrado em MarketingOs responsáveis pela gestão de centros comerciais têm a necessidade de compreender como se comportam os seus consumidores num contexto real de compra. Esse desafio surge porque, cada vez mais, um crescente número de pessoas opta por realizar compras pela internet, levando a uma diminuição, não só do fluxo de consumidores, como também do volume de compras efetuadas nos centros comerciais. Atualmente, existem ferramentas que conseguem recolher, organizar e analisar como as pessoas se movimentam num determinado espaço, permitindo que se saiba quantos consumidores entram nesse espaço, que zonas visitam, quanto tempo dura a sua visita, entre outras informações. Esses dados revelam-se indispensáveis na hora de se delinear estratégias promocionais que visem contrariar fenómenos como o showrooming. O objetivo principal desta dissertação consiste assim em analisar o comportamento do consumidor, num centro comercial, num contexto de promoções de venda, utilizando uma tecnologia de contabilização e posicionamento de pessoas. Foram escolhidas as semanas promocionais do Dia dos namorados (entre 8 e 14 de Fevereiro de 2014) e do Dia da mãe (entre 28 de Abril e 4 de Maio de 2014). Realizou-se uma análise quantitativa dos dados recolhidos num teste piloto que a empresa AroundKnowledge se encontra a realizar num centro comercial do norte do país. Os dados utilizados reportam-se ao período entre 1 de Abril de 2013 e 4 de Maio de 2014. O tratamento e análise dos dados permitiu que se retirassem conclusões quanto à evolução anual do número de visitantes no centro comercial; quais as horas que registam mais visitas; que zonas são mais visitadas; quais os acessos mais utilizados; qual o tempo médio de permanência de um visitante no centro comercial e quanto tempo passa, em média, um consumidor dentro das lojas. No cruzamento das variáveis é explorado o efeito de crowding no comportamento do consumidor.Shopping Centres’ Managers have a need to understand how their consumers behave in a real context of purchase. This challenge arises because a growing number of people choose to make online purchases. This leads to a decrease not only in the flow of consumers, but also on the volume of purchases in shopping centres. Currently, there are tools that can collect, organize and analyze how people move in a given space, learn how many consumers enter that space, which areas they visit, how long is their visit, and other information. These data is indispensable when there is the need to think and execute promotional strategies aimed at acquiring phenomena such as showrooming. The main goal of this dissertation is to analyze consumer behavior in a shopping centre, in a context of sales promotion, using a technology that is used for the accounting and positioning of people. The promotional weeks of Valentine's Day (between 8 and 14 February 2014) and Mother's Day (between April 28 and May 4, 2014) were the weeks chosen for this study. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of data collected in a pilot test that the company AroundKnowledge has in place in a Shopping centre in the north of Portugal. The data used refers to the period between April 1, 2013 and May 4, 2014 The processing of these data allowed to withdraw conclusions about the evolution of the annual number of visitors at the shopping centre; which hours recorded more visits; areas with most visits; which are the accesses most often used; what is the average length of stay of a visitor at the shopping centre and how much time, on average, a consumer spends within the stores. At the intersection of these variables it is explored the effect of crowding on consumer behavior

Wireless RFID Networks for Real-Time Customer Relationship Management

Abstract. A new system for real-time customer relationship management is proposed. The system is based on deploying a network of RFID readers throughout an environment. Information about the presence or lingering of participating customers at different times of day is collected providing valuable marketing information for better service provision. The implementation of the proposed system includes a database management program and an intuitive user interface allowing real-time access to the data acquired by the network.