The influence of marketing logistics networks on organisational performance in Australia and New Zealand

Predictions concerning the influence of traditional and online marketing logistics network competency on organisational performance were tested via structural equation modelling employing a sample of Australian and New Zealand companies. The study finds a significant influence of the use of traditional marketing logistics networks on organisational performance, but that the use of the Web in this regard is yet to have such an influence.<br /

An exploration of the marketing readiness of websites

The aim of the reported study was to assess the marketing readiness of websites using a tool developed from studies in the late 1990s. The research hypotheses suggest that, in line with earlier studies, government websites are more marketing ready than commercial service organisation sites in Australia. The paper reports findings that commercial service organisation websites are not as marketing ready as might be expected. The research hypotheses are partially supported in that Victorian local government websites show evidence of more sophisticated marketing capability than those of commercial service organisations in Australia and that the service organisations sampled are less likely to employ the Web as a marketing channel than local government.<br /

Social networking, social harassment and social policy

This paper reports on the misuse of social networking sites (SNS). It was based on a study of 226 students in UK, Sweden, Turkey and France and a panel survey of 1068 Australian adults. Although only a minority of people experienced social harassment and abuse, the distressing nature of the bad experiences suggested that social marketing was needed on several fronts -self-regulation, regulation, education and personal responsibility - in order to minimise these behaviours.<br /

Managing contactability in telephone surveys

The Australian market research industry relies on telephone interviewing as one of its major data collection methods. Through Its LIST initiative, the industry has committed to best practice In research methods in order to address various concerns, especially the decline in response rates for telephone interviews. Response rates are determined by the co-operation of eligible respondents and their degree of contactabllity. The reported study is concerned with the way the industry attempts to manage contactabiIity. A study of fieldwork managers responSible for over 75% of all phone interviews in Australia revealed a limited use of contact enhancing strategies such as longer fieldwork periods and more callbacks. Commercial imperatives for timely surveys and a lack of end-user concern for response rate issues, along with cost issues, were believed to be responsible.<br /

Service recovery in a service guarantee context

This study employed a 2 x 2 full-factorial, between-subjects design experiment examining the influence of service failure severity and fix on hotel guests&rsquo; satisfaction following invocation of a service guarantee. The study involved a sample of 130 online panel members. As expected, guests are less dissatisfied following a minor (versus a major) service failure while satisfaction is enhanced when the problem is corrected. Surprisingly, fix has a stronger influence on satisfaction when a severe failure occurs, and satisfaction evaluations are approximately equal regardless of the severity of the failure when the problem is fixed.<br /

Consumer response to unit pricing for mobile telephony

This project is a co-operative study between ACCAN and Deakin University. It focuses on Unit Pricing, the practice of displaying the price of goods or services based on a standard quantity, to allow a direct comparison between competitive offers. This study aimed at gauging whether the new unit pricing information for mobile phone contracts assists consumers in assessing and comparing the value provided across alternative contracts within and between suppliers. Some 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with consumers who had recently bought or renewed a mobile phone contract. The research showed that most consumers could use unit pricing information and some found it useful. Where consumers&rsquo; plans had unlimited or infinite capacity, unit pricing information was not relevant. Many consumers preferred voice allowances to be expressed in minutes, rather than in dollar allowances. Data was the most problematic category, as consumers typically had only limited understanding of the amount of data that various applications used. Most did have a broad understanding of what total capacity in data they would need, typically expressed in gigabytes. Consumers commonly sought simplicity in deciding on which plan they would purchase or renew. A key issue for consumers was not &ldquo;going over&rdquo;, that is not exceeding their call, text or data allowances. For that reason, they were prepared to choose a plan that commonly resulted in them not using their full allowances each month. Some consumers used Apps on their smartphones to monitor their usage. Not all consumers had experienced advisory messages about nearing the limits of their plan&rsquo;s allowances.The Report recommended that:R1. Unit pricing should be maintained R2. Where unit pricing is provided for call costs, these should be expressed in terms of a one-minute call. R3 Unit pricing for data should be expressed in terms of gigabytes or part thereof. R4 In advertising mobile phone plans and at point of sales, customers should be provided with three levels of information &ndash; 1) overall plan features, 2) unit pricing information and 3) a data calculator.R5 Level 2 and 3 information should be provided in a standard format across the industry, enabling consumers to make ready comparisons between plans and between competitive offers from different providers.R6. Continuing public education is needed. R7. Warnings about going over should always include the date when the allowance period ends and tell consumers what the rate will be if they &ldquo;go over&rdquo; based on the Level 2 information. R8. The Consumer Protection Code should be reviewed in the light of these findings and recommendations.<br /

The relationship between business unit strategy and the use of market research

A study of 42 Australian marketing managers was conducted linking strategy to the use of market research, with a measure known as USER. It was expected that the Miles and Snow strategic typology with its greater emphasis on internal organisational culture, practices and structure would be more powerful than the Porter strategic dimensions in determining the motivation and actual use of market research. The findings showed that neither strategic typology was superior in predicting market research practice. In the study, the USER characteristics most linked to strategy were &ldquo;the misuse of market research for political purposes&rdquo; and &ldquo;internal improvements based on market research.&rdquo; Two other USER factors &ldquo;rational use of market research findings&rdquo; and &ldquo;use of market research to confirm decisionmaking&rdquo; were not found to be related to marketing strategy.<br /

The research buyer\u27s perspective of market research effectiveness

This study examines the views of research buyers about the efficacy of market research used within their firms. A sample of research buyers from Australia&#039;s top 1000 companies was asked to evaluate the research outcomes of their most recent market research project in terms of their overall business strategy. Specialist market research buyers (insights managers) believed their commissioned research was very effective. This was in contrast to research buyers in generalist roles who did not believe in the effectiveness of the research outcomes to the same extent. The overarchlng strategic direction adopted by the buyer&#039;s firm did not make a difference to the type of research conducted (,action orientated&#039; vs. &#039;knowledge enhancing&#039;). However, entrepreneurial firms were more likely to rate their research as effective and to have dedicated research buyers generating insights into their markets. The results of this study are inconsistent with earlier studies and indicate that the market research function within Australian firms stili plays an ambiguous role