Thinking strategically about customers: a view from the health and fitness industry

Customer retention is considered to be one of the key areas for most service providers in the UK Health and Fitness Industry. Much of the existing research and activity concerning customer retention is considered at a tactical, operational level with little emphasis being placed on the strategic considerations that an organisation needs to consider in order to move toward a customer-centred philosophy. This paper suggests that customer retention levels can be improved by thinking more strategically about the organisational purpose, its resources and customers

Making the case for action learning as an effective framework for strategy making.

Competitive businesses are complex and unpredictable environments. Often this forces strategy makers to adopt a trial and error approach with little time to reflect on the success or failure. Action learning may offer a solution

Dynamic capability and superior firm performance in the UK Media Industry

The past decade has seen a transformation in the way television broadcasters have managed their businesses. This paper examines the ‘dynamic capability’ of two UK television broadcasters, BskyB and ITV, and their ability to adapt and transform themselves into multi-product, multi-platform media companies. Using Comparative Financial Analysis and Content Analysis of company Annual Reports, it compares and contrasts operating ratios in a time series, to gauge each company’s historical performance over time, whilst also providing inter-company comparisons. It also illustrates how the strategic management of media firms can be significantly different for two companies operating in the same sector. This research demonstrates an original contribution to knowledge in two areas. Firstly, it provides evidence of the dynamic capability performance effects of significant players in UK television broadcasting. Secondly, it extends the limited debate in literature on how to measure dynamic capability performanc

Dynamic Capabilities; exploring media industry level capabilities

The competitive dynamics of many industries have changed considerably over the past decade, and perhaps, none more so than in the Media Industry. Industries have long been examined by researchers from a strategic perspective with various themes of inquiry relating to; industry structure and positioning, industry evolution and development, industry lifecycle, industry change and industry consolidation. Fundamentally, this body of knowledge emphases the importance of an organisation’s strategic fit with their competitive environment. This paper extends our knowledge of industry analysis into the domain of dynamic capabilities. As such, it examines the notion of dynamic capabilities existing at industry level and in doing so it presents the findings from a survey of UK media executives into the existence dynamic capabilities in the UK Media Industry

Media Outlook 2015: A Survey of UK Media Trends and Firm Capabilities

The aim of this survey is to understand the changing nature of the UK media environment, emerging trends and the management practices of media executives. This is the third year that the survey has run, and already we are seeing immense changes in the way media firms are adapting to a changing competitive landscape. Over the past three years we have asked media executives to comment on their outlook for the UK Media Industry in the year ahead. Overall, their outlook has been optimistic, but continued economic uncertainty still casts a shadow over the operating environment. This year, 89% of media executives were positive in their outlook for the industry in 2015 – down from 94% last year. The majority of media executives (62%) also commented that the industry was experiencing a high rate of turbulence and that it was difficult to protect their core business whilst building new revenue streams. In the previous two years we have identified the management tools that media companies were using and how satisfied they were with them. This year, the focus of the survey has been on assessing media firm capabilities and the ability to adapt media strategy, business models and capabilities to new industry dynamics. All of which has provided some interesting insights! The survey sample again included senior media executives who have responsibility for developing strategy (Head of Strategic Planning, Director of Strategy and Head of Segments Planning) and a number of functional areas (Head of Commercial Policy, Head of Business Development, Vice President Marketing, Director of Programming, Chief Technologist, General Manager, Senior Vice President, Director of Operations, Head of Customer Insight and Director of Sales)

Media Management Trends and Tools 2012

Businesses increasingly find themselves competing in highly dynamic markets, making visibility of the future limited and the strategic way forward ambiguous. This report presents the findings from a survey of UK media executives and identifies their outlook for the industry, and an evaluation of their usage and satisfaction with the tools that they use to manage their businesses. The survey found four strong themes amongst media executives. These were related to the launch of new products and services, seeking innovation through collaborative partnerships, leveraging their brand and content through new platforms, and uncertainty regarding the future direction of the industry

Relationship marketing: the need for convergence in conceptual thinking and validation in practice

A generation has passed since the term relationship marketing was first defined, yet this concept remains illusive, fragmented, and dominated by isolated theoretical frameworks. As this paradigm moves uneasily into its second generation, it is now increasingly characterised by a polarization of opinion and would be better served by focusing on resolving two fundamental issues. Firstly, there needs to be some form of consensus and convergence in thinking regarding the actual nature of the paradigm in order to direct future research activities toward common ground and replication among its various conceptualisations. Secondly, this convergent position in the paradigm needs to be communicated to the practitioner more coherently in an attempt to move it from being an academic discipline and into the jurisdiction of the practitioner and implementable validity. The purpose of this paper is to articulate a new, but more importantly, convergent conceptual framework for relationship marketing. It draws on a range of traditional and contemporary theory, and importantly, considers how this theoretical base was used in a practitioner environment when developing a relationship marketing strategy. The convergent framework presented in this paper comprises of three fundamental elements, from which past and future research can be (re)focused, developed and extended to produce a paradigm that can be subjected to more rigorous and extensive interrogation. This paper takes a strategic, reflective and organisational look at relationship marketing and contributes to existing knowledge by proposing three fundamental elements, (Organisational Customer Focus, Customer Management Focus and Customer Knowledge Focus) which if successfully integrated by organisations, will converge to produce an effective relationship marketing strategy

Exploring the role of music on young health and fitness club member loyalty: an empirical study

The importance of music in the advertising industry has been long established and is well known to induce consumer emotion, enjoyment, attention and recall. This research aims to develop this positive association theme by investigating whether the type of music played in studio classes would have any impact on the loyalty attitudes of young health and fitness club members toward classes and their service provider. This study was exploratory in nature and thus employed a qualitative research methodology were 18 in-depth interviews were conducted. A non-probability, judgment sample of 16-24 year old health and fitness club members who had a particular interest in studio classes was conducted. The findings indicated that young health and fitness club members were music conscious and that current studio class music was considered by respondents to be standardised. Furthermore, incorporating different music genres in classes can act as a point of consumer differentiation between service providers, therefore, resulting in higher levels of customer loyalty. As the research is based on a non-probability sample, the findings of this paper need to be considered with caution. However, the research may provide some insight or inspiration for future researchers to develop, and or, replicate the findings in order to produce generalisations on the role that music in studio classes can play in developing young consumer loyalty

Making Media Strategy in Times of Uncertainty

The future of the media industry has never been more uncertain. The rise of digital content generation and delivery has resulted in unpredictable and unfamiliar market conditions and encouraged an invasion of new, non traditional entrants which has increased competition and choice for the public. In such a turbulent competitive environment, visibility of the future is clouded and the strategic way forward for media organisations remains unclear. The process of making strategy in media organisation may well be compounded by constantly shifting competitive conditions. Existing literature on the process of strategy making in such unfamiliar and complex environment conditions is concentrated within the ‘Learning’ School’ of strategic management. This school of thought suggests that strategy making is a process of emergent learning over time, where strategy makers critically reflect on past experience, and current events, and adapt their strategies accordingly. Learning from action, change and reflection, is therefore, considered to be more useful in strategy making than formal analysis and subsequent strategy formulation. This paper proposes that conceptualizing the strategy making process as one of ‘learning’ from uncertainty. It further argues that action learning can be used as a tool that can be used effectively to develop media strategy, particularly as many media organizations are operating in competitive environments that are characterized by change, complexity and unpredictability

Making the case for action learning as an effective framework for strategy making

Action learning encourages individual reflection, insightful questioning and assumption breaking that result in changes in attitude and behaviour. This learning process provides the potential to explore and solve complex organizational problems, such as, the question of how to develop a future business strategy. Existing literature on the process of strategy making presents a multi-faceted debate, with the ‘Learning School’ of strategic management being one of the main approaches to conceptualise strategy formation. This school of thought suggests that strategy making is a process of emergent learning over time, where strategy makers critically reflect on past experience and adapt their strategies accordingly. Learning from action, change and reflection, is therefore, considered to be more useful in strategy making than formal analysis and subsequent strategy formulation. The premises of the Learning School of strategy making are similar to the premises of action learning, yet, the action learning paradigm has made little or no impact in strategic management literature. This is particularly surprising since the fundamental tenets of action learning could enable it to make an important contribution to strategy makers and business strategy development. This paper makes the case for action learning to feature more prominently in strategic management literature, and particularly, in the Learning School. It proposes that using an action learning methodology can effectively contribute to the development of business strategy, particularly for those organizations operating in competitive environments that are complex and unpredictable. In this type of environment, strategic responses tend to evolve from a process of experimentation, trial and error. Action learning is advocated as a suitable framework to encapsulate this emergent and experimental process and provide a platform for the development of effective strategy making