Luxury brands and CRM, mutually exclusive? : developing a CRM strategy for Patek Philippe

Nowadays consumers get more demanding than ever before, marketing moves from the traditional transactional driven paradigm to the new, relational based paradigm. That is why customer relationship management (CRM) gains importance. Conventional brands were the first one’s that implement a CRM strategy in order to built strong long-life relationships with the most valuable customers. Luxury brands are just starting to realize the benefits of CRM. Whereas they are reluctant to use the usual and common techniques that have been proven successful for classic consumer goods because it involves the risk for luxury brands to loose its prestige status. Hence, luxury brands are facing the challenge to reconcile CRM and at the same time, keeping their luxury image. This work intents to answer the question if luxury brands and CRM are mutually exclusive or not based on the case study of developing a CRM strategy for the luxury brand watch company Patek Philippe. This case study is not conducted in cooperation with the company Patek Philippe that is why the type of case data used in this work is data available in the Internet, books, magazines or lectures. To answer the work’s question, theoretical knowledge gets applied to a real life situation by the reference of the case study of Patek Philippe. After presenting the theoretical knowledge necessary for the case study, an external and internal analysis of Patek Philippe will provide the basis to develop a CRM strategy for it. By means of two implementation models, the developed CRM strategy will be integrated in the business of Patek Philippe together with some real life examples. The evaluation of the CRM strategy will provide first insights and results to answer the work’s question if luxury brands and CRM are mutually exclusive or not. Moreover, the work opens a new door for future investigations.Hoje em dia os consumidores estão cada vez mais exigentes. O marketing transacional tem vindo a dar lugar ao marketing relacional ganhando deste modo cada vez maior importância o CRM (Customer Relationship Management). As primeiras marcas a implementar uma estratégia de CRM foram as mais convencionais visando obter relações duradoiras com seus clientes de maior valor. As marcas mais exclusivas (luxuosas) só agora tendem a apreciar os possíveis benefícios que um programa de CRM lhes pode aportar. No entanto, a estas últimas, ainda lhes subsiste a dúvida da aplicabilidade de uma réplica do modelo que tão bem serviu as marcas convencionais dado o receio que têm de perder a sua auréola de exclusividade e prestigio. Deste modo a conciliação entre os programas de CRM e a manutenção da imagem de marca exclusiva torna-se um desafio que merece ser estudado. Esta tese pretende dar um contributo no sentido de entendermos se os programas de CRM são ou não aplicáveis às marcas de luxo baseado-se para o efeito na aplicação de conceitos de CRM à Patek Philippe. De referir que todo este estudo foi conduzido de forma completamente autónoma, recorrendo a informação totalmente publica passível de ser encontrada em livros, internet, revistas e documentação académica e não em colaboração com a Patek Philippe direta ou indiretamente. Para responder á questão que o estudo levanta foi aplicado conhecimento teórico a situações quotidianas relacionadas com a realidade da Patek Philippe. Após a apresentação dos pressupostos teóricos, procedeu-se a uma análise externa e interna da Patek Philippe como base do desenvolvimento de uma estratégia CRM a aplicar. Usando dois modelos de implementação possíveis, foi desenvolvida uma estratégia passível de ser aplicada aos negócios da Patek Philippe complementada com exemplos da vida quotidiana. A avaliação da estratégia CRM providenciará alguns resultados e soluções para responder à questão posta neste estudo se há ou não compatibilidade na aplicação de CRM às marcas de luxo. Este estudo pretende ainda abrir novas perspectivas para futuras investigações

The Acceptability of Extraposition of PPs out of NP in German

Two acceptability judgment experiments are presented which investigate extraposition of PPs out of NP in German. The experiments are concerned with the weight of the extraposed constituent and the question of how to define weight, as well as with the definiteness status of the NP out of which the PP is extraposed. In both experiments, sentences with a PP in adjacent position to its NP were rated significantly higher than sentences with extraposed PPs. The number of phrasal nodes does not have an influence on the acceptability of extraposition, while the length of the constituent seems to play a role. The findings also suggest that there is a "soft'' definiteness constraint on the extraposition of PP out of NP in German

Autonome Sozialdialoge auf EU-Ebene: Zur Problematik der Implementation von "Texten der neuen Generation"

"Die aktuellste Phase des sozialen Dialogs zwischen Arbeitgeberverbänden und Gewerkschaften auf EU-Ebene ist durch einen ,,autonomen sozialen Dialog“ gekennzeichnet. Charakteristisch sind hierbei gemeinsame, ,,umsetzungsorientierte“, jedoch rechtlich unverbindliche Dokumente der Sozialpartner, die durch ihre jeweiligen nationalen Mitgliedsverbände selbst implementiert werden sollen. Die Kommission bezeichnet diese Dokumente als ,,Texte der neuen Generation“. Wie ist es um die Implementation dieser Texte bestellt und welche Faktoren spielen dabei eine Rolle? In einer ersten Analyse werden sowohl der sektorübergreifende soziale Dialog (Vereinbarung zu Telearbeit 2002) als auch die sektoralen Sozialdialoge (Elektrizitätswirtschaft und Handel) mit einem Fokus auf Deutschland untersucht. Die Analyse zeigt, dass eine Implementation bislang in geringem Umfang stattfindet. Neben Merkmalen des nationalen Systems der Arbeitsbeziehungen müssen die Strategien der beteiligten Akteure sowie die spezifische Thematik des Dokuments in die Erklärung einbezogen werden. Das Hauptproblem besteht in bislang fehlenden Implementationsstrukturen, da eine ausreichende Verknüpfung der verschiedenen beteiligten Ebenen inter- wie auch intraverbandlich noch wenig gegeben ist." (Autorenreferat)"The most recent years in the social dialogue between employers’ associations and trade unions at EU level are characterised by ‘autonomy’. Autonomous social dialogue means that a joint ‘implementation-oriented’ but legally non-binding social partner document is due to be implemented by the social partners themselves, i.e. by their respective national member organisations. These documents are called ‘new generation texts’ by the European Commission. How does the implementation of these voluntary agreements work? Which factors play a major role for this kind of autonomous implementation? The analysis focuses on Germany and takes into account the cross-sectoral agreement on telework (2002) and the sectoral social dialogues in electricity and commerce. The results point to a rather limited implementation of ‘new generation texts’. Characteristics of national industrial relations systems do not suffice to explain the result; the strategies of involved actors and the specific subject of the documents have to be taken into account. The main problem is found to be the lack of adequate implementation structures as an inter- and intra-organisational ‘level linkage’ is not yet given." (author's abstract

Differential Response of Female Deer Mice to Short Photoperiod

Author Institution: Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State UniversityIndividual male deer mice (Perotnyscus maniculatus} respond to inhibitory (short) photoperiod with gonadal responses that range from azoospermia to normal spermatogenesis. We undertook the present study to determine if female deer mice exhibit similar variation in reproductive response to inhibitory daylength. Following 8 wk exposure to short days, reproductive tract weights of 25% of all individual females did not differ from those displayed by mice housed on stimulatory (long) photoperiod; reproductive tracts of all remaining short day mice weighed significantly less. Short photoperiod also significantly reduced body weight, albeit only in those mice with regressed reproductive tracts. These results demonstrate that female deer mice respond differentially to the inhibitory effects of short photoperiod. Taken together with previous results, the present findings indicate that populations of deer mice are composed of subsets of males and females that differ in reproductive response to short daylength

Measurement of heat flux in multi-layer insulated helium cryostats after loss of insulating vacuum

The dimensioning of pressure relief devices (PRD) for cryogenic pressure equipment requires knowledge on the heat input at the maximum credible incident. In helium cryostats, this situation is typically defined by the loss of insulating vacuum (LIV), where the heat load is induced by desublimation and condensation of atmospheric air on the cryogenic surface. This surface is often covered with multi-layer insulation (MLI) in order to reduce the thermal radiation heat load in standard operation. During loss of insulating vacuum, the MLI represents a diffusive barrier for the air to reach the cryogenic surface, reducing the heat flux as well. Experimental reference data for the heat flux in case of LIV exist mainly for blank surfaces; only few data are published for MLI-covered helium surfaces. Therefore, the effect has been investigated in the cryogenic safety test facility PICARD at KIT. This paper presents the results of venting experiments carried out with different numbers of layers and different types of MLI

Thermal Structure of Supra-Arcade Plasma in Two Solar Flares

In this work, we use Hinode/XRT and SDO/AIA data to determine the thermal structure of supra-arcade plasma in two solar flares. The first flare is a Ml.2 flare that occurred on November 5, 2010 on the east limb. This flare was one of a series of flares from AR 11121, published in Reeves & Golub (2011). The second flare is an XI.7 flare that occurred on January 27, 2012 on the west limb. This flare exhibits visible supra-arcade downflows (SADs), where the November 2010 flare does not. For these two flares we combine XRT and AlA data to calculate DEMs of each pixel in the supra-arcade plasma, giving insight into the temperature and density structures in the fan of plasma above the post-flare arcade. We find in each case that the supra-arcade plasma is around 10 MK, and there is a marked decrease in the emission measure in the SADs. We also compare the DEMs calculated with the combined AIA/XRT dataset to those calculated using AIA alone

Pax6 regulates the formation of the habenular nuclei by controlling the temporospatial expression of Shh in the diencephalon in vertebrates

The aim of this study was to describe epidemiologic characteristics of intestinal parasites in a population in south of Tehran, Iran. A retrospective cross-sectional study of patients with suspicious intestinal parasitic infections referred to the Zakaria Razi Laboratory in Shahre-Ray, southern Tehran, Iran, was conducted from April 21, 2004 to October 20, 2005. All stool samples were examined and socio-demographic informations were retrieved. Of 4,371 referred patients, 466 (239 males and 227 females) were laboratory diagnosed with intestinal parasites, with a period prevalence of 10.7. Blastocystis hominis (B. hominis) and Giardia lamblia (G. lamblia) were the most frequent intestinal parasites. More than half of patients aged � 18 years had a low level of educational attainment (e.g. illiterate, primary school, high school) (170/331, 54.1). Further, majority of patients were homemakers (42.3, 140/331) or workers (28.1, 93/331) employed in various business settings such as food industry and construction. Findings of this study showed that intestinal parasitic infections are still a major public health challenge in Iran that needs to be addressed. We believe that public education, improving sanitation conditions of underdeveloped areas/communities, community involvement, and supporting evidence-based practice/programs are the major keys to success in preventing the spread of intestinal parasitic infections in Iran