To be a marketer or to do what marketers do? Using a mixed methods approach to explore the aspiring marketer mind-set

Both anecdotal and evidential testimonies posit marketing as a “wicked” endeavor, in thrall to sales and profit and at odds with society's needs. Using social identity theory as our primary frame of reference we look to obtain some foreground understanding of those flowing through the educational/occupational transition system and towards this occupation. We explore how aspiring marketers perceive both marketing and marketing practitioners and evaluate how those perceptions contribute to a sense of social-self at an early-stage of career formulation. Our aim is to evaluate the potential for a link between reported marketer behavior, occupational perceptions and group character. A qualitative/quantitative mixed-model research approach is adopted combining both projective techniques and personality testing. Results, derived from UK university cohorts spanning three levels of study, suggest respondents focus primarily on externally oriented aspects of marketing work, with occupational aesthetics and conspicuous representation seen as both object and subject of a marketer role. Respondents self-report as strong on traits associated with promotion and persuasiveness but less on those related to an espoused creativity. We conclude there is evidence suggesting the study group perceives being a marketer at least as important as doing what marketers do and discuss the implications this might have for how and why marketing is practiced as it is

Customer engagement : conceptualisation, measurement and validation

Understanding the dynamics of focal customer/brand relationships has gained the interest of both scholars and marketers in the last three decades. Particularly, identifying the means of building enduring relationships with customers has been a popular research stream. In recent years, the concept of engagement has been proposed to comprehensively reflect the nature of the customer/brand relationship. Customer engagement has been viewed as a valuable factor for gauging brand performance as well as a strategic imperative for establishing competitive advantage. Since 2010, an influential exploratory research stream has emerged to address the concept of engagement. However, despite the growing scholarly interest, the lack of empirical research regarding customer engagement has resulted in a limited understanding of the concept and its measurement. Following a systematic review of customer engagement studies, one limitation was apparent: the lack of a reliable and valid customer engagement scale. As such, the current research responds to the call made in two pioneering theoretical studies to develop a construct scale. Specifically, a two-stage research design, including three phases, was adopted to develop a reliable and valid construct scale.The first phase includes item generation from the existing literature and expert item judging. Two studies with two independent samples were conducted in the second and the third phases. The current research employed a numerous Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to purify the generated items obtained from the first phase. The analyses were performed to examine the internal consistency, and discriminant and convergent validity of the scale. The findings provided evidence for a second-order customer engagement construct comprising five first-order constructs as follows: socialising, learning, sharing, advocating and co-developing. The current research has also developed a model of customer engagement in the online brand community in order to test the nomological validity of the newly developed scale. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the proposed model includes community identification, brand identification, information quality and group norm as antecedents and brand loyalty and customer satisfaction as consequences.The current research contributes further insights into the nature of the engagement concept in four ways: first, it develops a valid and reliable scale that exhibits the multi-dimensional conceptualisation of the construct. Second, it applies the new measure to examine the relationships between customer engagement with potential antecedents and consequences. Third, managers can use the newly developed scale to measure the customer engagement level to have a better understanding of customer behaviour in the online brand community. Finally, the developed model of engagement can help managers to understand the factors that influence customer engagement in the online brand community and the important role of customer engagement in brand loyalty and customer satisfaction

Young voters UK: engagement, disengagement and re-engagement?

This study explores young voter behaviour in terms of engagement, disengagement and reengagement following the 2017 ‘snap’ UK General Election. This study builds on the work of Pich et al. (2017) who investigated how young voters engaged cognitively, emotionally and behaviourally with the 2016 UK-EU Referendum. Their findings revealed that young voter engagement is multi-faceted and varies enormously, particularly for behavioural engagement online. Although many respondents indicated that had voted in the 2016 EU Referendum they were uncertain to vote in future elections. This shift observed in young voters’ engagement highlights the need to understand in-depth 1) the underlying reasons for this engagement transition across different political events and 2) how current and future engagement relate to each other. Responding to this identified gap, this research aims to investigate why these young citizens were apathetic with the 2017-UK General Election however engaged with the 2016- EU Referendum. Semi-structured interviews were conducted June-July 2017. The sample comprised thirty respondents from the original Pich et al. (2017) study who voted in the 2016 EU Referendum yet highlighted uncertainty to vote in future elections. The findings have implications within and beyond the realms of political marketing

A framework to improve retail customer experience : a qualitative study exploring the customer journey

Purpose This study aims to construct an integrated retail customer experience framework with a single view across platforms and to suggest a new conceptualisation of the customer experience term. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was adopted. Thirty participants were asked to simulate their customer journey in an established UK department store retailer. Their experience was captured through focus groups and analysed by thematic analysis. Findings The findings indicate that the existence of personalisation and emotional attachment will enhance the customer experience. A new integrated retail customer experience framework is offered incorporating the traditional “7Ps” of marketing and a proposed eighth “P”, which is conceptualised as personal connection. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to use the notion of personal connection as a dialectic relationship between emotional attachment and personalisation as the central discussion in developing customer experience within a retail setting. This study captures this experience through a unique method of replication of the retail customer journey across multiple channels

Investing the customer journey and the impact of online and offline touchpoints on brand loyalty in the context of a UK retailer

Improving the customer experience has recently gained the attention of both scholars and practitioners. However, there has been limited research to date identifying how different touchpoints throughout the customer journey contribute to the overall experience and generate brand loyalty. Using a retail setting and adopting a mixed method research approach, this study will explore this journey and measure the impact of the touchpoints. The research is structured into two phases. Phase 1 involves focus group discussions, which will explore the customer touchpoints across a retailer's in-store and online channels and identify how the experiences along the touchpoints influence customer loyalty to the retailer brand. The second phase will measure the importance of the touchpoints. The initial findings from Phase 1 revealed that in an in-store setting, characteristics such as atmospherics, staff, and store signposting create a positive customer experience, while coherent content and navigation create experience online. These early findings suggest that a seamless shopping experience, both from channel to channel and within the specific channel, is key to driving customer loyalty