Resilience in the face of adversity

With the third anniversary of 9/11 just passed and the threat of terrorist attacks still ever-present, reflection both personally and professionally has become a greater part of our lives. In a dynamic marketing environment, now more than ever, it is important to value the personal characteristics that makes us rise above a crisis and forge new pathways. This reminds me of an outstanding conference presentation I heard at the Academy of Management annual conference two years ago. Dr Steven Freeman, of the University of Pennsylvania, won a prestigious Best Paper award for his presentation, which outlined how an investment bank located in the twin towers not only survived the crisis but increased its market share

A Comparison of Attitudinal Loyalty Measurement Approaches

The aim of this paper is to present the empirical tests of two measures of attitudinal brand loyalty to identify if they are items of a single construct or two distinct constructs. These two measures are an individual's propensity to be brand loyal, and attitude towards the act of purchasing a specific brand. This paper also seeks to determine which of these measures would be more useful for explaining purchasing behaviour. The results confirm the hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between the two measures in the business services market. This indicates that they are in fact not measures of the same concept but two separate concepts. Aggregating the scores from both measures to form a single score for attitudinal loyalty would reduce richness of explanation for marketing practitioners. in addition, the results suggest that the attitude towards the act of purchasing a brand can be used to explain or predict purchasing behaviour

Consumer Appraisals of Mobile Marketing Communications

This paper reports on a study that investigates the emotions elicited from appraising SMS-based mobile marketing (m-marketing) communications under three marketing conditions: product consistency, incentives and permission giving. Results from the experimental design show that appraising m-marketing communications elicits both single emotions and mixed emotions; that is, a mixture of positive and negative emotions in the same response. Additionally, the results show that the influence of specific marketing conditions may increase or reduce the intensity of the emotions elicited. This study contributes to marketing practice by examining consumer appraisals of m-marketing communications under different combinations of marketing conditions. The results provide insights into which emotions are likely to be elicited as a result, and how a specific marketing condition might influence their levels of intensity. The study contributes to marketing theory also through combining appraisal theory with Richins (1997) consumption emotion set

Commercial friendships between gay salesmen and straight female customers

Perhaps it is now sacrosanct in marketing to contemplate that many service encounters, especially those in retail settings, are social encounters in which bonds between and among customers and employees are critical drivers of consumption (Beatty et al., 1996; Rosenbaum, 2006). Indeed, within retail settings, it is often possible for salespeople and customers to form so-called “commercial friendships” (Price and Arnould, 1999). These friendships result in both salespeople and their customers having social interactions that are close to those experienced in personal friendships (Swan et al., 2001), and which are extremely satisfying for all parties. Outside of marketing, the social science literature (Grigoriou, 2004; Rumens, 2008; Russell, DelPriore, Butterfield, and Hill, 2013) and popular press (de la Cruz and Dolby, 2007; Hopcke and Rafaty, 1999; Tilmann-Healy, 2001, Whitney, 1990) is replete with knowledge regarding the “absolutely fabulous” friendships (Hopcke and Rafaty, 1999) that often form between gay men and straight women. In fact, Western culture regularly highlights the compatibility of gay men and straight women in film, television, and writing, to the extent that they have now influenced popular thinking on the topic, so that gay men and straight females are viewed as sharing common plights and interests (Rumens, 2008). Yet, thus far, marketing researchers have looked askance at the effect of friendships between gay male employees and heterosexual female customers in consumption settings, such as retail stores and boutiques. Indeed, with the exception of Peretz’s (1995) participant observation regarding how young and outwardly gay salesmen use their ambiguous gender to sell women’s clothing, in a Paris-based luxury boutique, any theoretical explorations regarding retail-based commercial friendships between gay salesmen and female customers are non-existent—until now. This research addresses this apparent chasm in the literature by putting forth an original framework that shows how the emotional closeness between gay salesmen and female customers, due to the absence of sexual interest and inter-female competition, results in an intense emotional closeness, that facilitates pleasurable retail transactions, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive word-of-mouth. In doing so, this work extends the commercial friendship paradigm by considering retail-based, commercial friendships between an under-researched marketplace dyad; gay men and straight females. It is worth noting here that some straight women may find the idea of commercial friendships with gay salesmen as undesirable, due to the very notion of having relationships with retail organizations or employees (Noble and Phillips, 2004), or a personal disdain for homosexuality

Back on the market: Understanding condom use behaviour in heterosexual adults 50 years+

Older adults began their sexual lives with an unprecedented sense of freedom thanks to the development of the contraceptive pill and women’s liberation movement. However with divorce rates rising and marriage rates declining, older adults are increasingly ‘back on the market’. This is also accompanied by a rise in the incidence of sexually transmitted infections that could be prevented by using a condom. The current literature on condom use typically has a youth focus and in particular an emphasis on contraception. Given the differing nature of sexual encounters for older consumers, there is a need for alternative explanations of condom use behaviour that reflect key motivations and barriers in this age cohort. Therefore we propose a new conceptual model to explain heterosexual older adult condom-use behaviour by drawing on two theoretical frameworks; protection motivation theory and sexual scripting theory. The new framework contains four categories of factors; sexuality, gender roles, threat appraisal and coping appraisal

The microbiome associated with equine periodontitis and oral health

Equine periodontal disease is a common and painful condition and its severe form, periodontitis, can lead to tooth loss. Its aetiopathogenesis remains poorly understood despite recent increased awareness of this disorder amongst the veterinary profession. Bacteria have been found to be causative agents of the disease in other species, but current understanding of their role in equine periodontitis is extremely limited. The aim of this study was to use high-throughput sequencing to identify the microbiome associated with equine periodontitis and oral health. Subgingival plaque samples from 24 horses with periodontitis and gingival swabs from 24 orally healthy horses were collected. DNA was extracted from samples, the V3–V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene amplified by PCR and amplicons sequenced using Illumina MiSeq. Data processing was conducted using USEARCH and QIIME. Diversity analyses were performed with PAST v3.02. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) was used to determine differences between the groups. In total, 1308 OTUs were identified and classified into 356 genera or higher taxa. Microbial profiles at health differed significantly from periodontitis, both in their composition (p < 0.0001, F = 12.24; PERMANOVA) and in microbial diversity (p < 0.001; Mann–Whitney test). Samples from healthy horses were less diverse (1.78, SD 0.74; Shannon diversity index) and were dominated by the genera Gemella and Actinobacillus, while the periodontitis group samples showed higher diversity (3.16, SD 0.98) and were dominated by the genera Prevotella and Veillonella. It is concluded that the microbiomes associated with equine oral health and periodontitis are distinct, with the latter displaying greater microbial diversity

Silver surfers: proposing an e-servicescape framework for active ageing

lder consumers are ‘surfing’ the Internet and using technology to remain active as they age. Many of these ‘silver surfers,’ however, are rejecting services that reflect traditional, medical approaches to ageing. This trend creates a problem for researchers and service managers; there is no evidence base to inform the design of e-services that leverage consumer perspectives of ageing to help consumers remain active as they age. This paper therefore aims to a) conceptualise the issue of active ageing ‘in older people’s own terms’ as a foundation for designing e-services for active ageing, b) define a new five-dimensional approach to e-servicescapes and c) advance a framework that explains the response of ageing consumers to cues in the e-servicescape. The proposed framework can be tested in empirical studies to form an evidence base for service design and social marketing interventions aimed at promoting active ageing

A tri-dimensional approach for auditing brand loyalty

Over the past twenty years brand loyalty has been an important topic for both marketing practitioners and academics. While practitioners have produced proprietary brand loyalty audit models, there has been little academic research to make transparent the methodology that underpins these audits and to enable practitioners to understand, develop and conduct their own audits. In this paper, we propose a framework for a brand loyalty audit that uses a tri-dimensional approach to brand loyalty, which includes behavioural loyalty and the two components of attitudinal loyalty: emotional and cognitive loyalty. In allowing for different levels and intensity of brand loyalty, this tri-dimensional approach is important from a managerial perspective. It means that loyalty strategies that arise from a brand audit can be made more effective by targeting the market segments that demonstrate the most appropriate combination of brand loyalty components. We propose a matrix with three dimensions (emotional, cognitive and behavioural loyalty) and two levels (high and low loyalty) to facilitate a brand loyalty audit. To demonstrate this matrix, we use the example of financial services, in particular a rewards-based credit card

Emotions and Complaining Behavior Following Service Failure

One feature of a democratic society is voice, especially the freedom to dissent. One form of dissent of relevance to organizational scholars is complaining, whether it be complaints from employee stakeholder groups or customer stakeholder groups. Despite the increased ability that the knowledge economy provides for people of all walks of life and nationalities to voice complaint, little is known about the antecedents and consequences of complaining. This paper addresses this issue with respect to customers' response to service failures. Specifically, this paper develops a conceptual model for service settings building upon a model of emotional and cognitive response formation to an affective event (Hartel, McColl-Kennedy & Bennett, 2002), and its source theory, Weiss and Cropanzano's (1995) Affective Events Theory (AET). We argue that when a service failure occurs, a number of cognitive and affective responses take place in consumers. The proposed model aims to operationalize affective responses to service failures in the marketplace. 'Affective response' refers to cognitive, emotional, behavioral and neuropsychological responses to emotional events. As such, the model makes explicit the relationships between and factors within each of these domains of affect expression