The document discusses customer empowerment and how companies can empower customers through feedback channels, soliciting feedback, and enabling customer participation in product design. It provides examples of how JCPenney created an "Ambrielle" influencer community and panel to obtain customer feedback. The key aspects of organizing and managing influencer panels are identified as understanding what is wanted from the panel, how much panel members are willing to do, and what incentives exist for panel members. Social media platforms can also be used to create communities and enable viral marketing.
Navigating Modern Marketing Challenges - The Power of Community-Minded Strate...printbenton
To reach the right consumers in today's cluttered advertising landscape, consider community-minded marketing. This approach involves supporting social causes, creating exclusive content for brand communities, and fostering direct communication with consumers. While it offers benefits like authentic marketing and access to valuable data, it may not be suitable for every business due to its challenges and difficulty in measuring ROI.
What industries does Influencer Marketing work best for?Partnercademy
Trying to understand what industries Influencer Marketing works best in? This guide covers it all.
To become a Partnerships certified expert, go to our highly acclaimed Udemy course here:
https://www.udemy.com/course/the-influencer-marketing-course-for-marketing-managers/?referralCode=19FC1D4798718EF94F55
Or sign up for our highly acclaimed Partnercademy Masterclass course...
https://partnercademy.thinkific.com/
How to leverage new ideas and engage customers
For more white papers and webinars, go to http://www.sldesignlounge.com
Or visit us at http://www.sld.com
Many CEO complain they do not see the value in marketing efforts. For them we suggest to use a simple and practical framework, PCCDIO, that has worked wonders for our clients,
Navigating Modern Marketing Challenges - The Power of Community-Minded Strate...printbenton
To reach the right consumers in today's cluttered advertising landscape, consider community-minded marketing. This approach involves supporting social causes, creating exclusive content for brand communities, and fostering direct communication with consumers. While it offers benefits like authentic marketing and access to valuable data, it may not be suitable for every business due to its challenges and difficulty in measuring ROI.
What industries does Influencer Marketing work best for?Partnercademy
Trying to understand what industries Influencer Marketing works best in? This guide covers it all.
To become a Partnerships certified expert, go to our highly acclaimed Udemy course here:
https://www.udemy.com/course/the-influencer-marketing-course-for-marketing-managers/?referralCode=19FC1D4798718EF94F55
Or sign up for our highly acclaimed Partnercademy Masterclass course...
https://partnercademy.thinkific.com/
How to leverage new ideas and engage customers
For more white papers and webinars, go to http://www.sldesignlounge.com
Or visit us at http://www.sld.com
Many CEO complain they do not see the value in marketing efforts. For them we suggest to use a simple and practical framework, PCCDIO, that has worked wonders for our clients,
Assignment Consumerism Affecting Innovation DUE 26As we contin.docxwilliejgrant41084
Assignment: Consumerism Affecting Innovation DUE 2/6
As we continue to explore the impact of emerging technologies on business and society, your second assignment is to prepare a discussion on how the new consumerism is affecting innovation in business. We discussed new consumerism last week (see lecture below pg 2-8). The assignment is as follows:
- Explain consumerism (in your own words!)
- Identify a specific aspect of new consumerism and provide detailed examples of how this new consumerism resulted in innovative responses by an organization of your choosing.
- Provide 3 or 4 bullets on ways that companies can 'listen' (and interact with) their customers in order to not miss innovative opportunities. Think like a consultant: if you had to provide 3 or 4 suggestions for an organization to do, what would you suggest?
_____________________________________________
All original writing please and provide your sources.
A business-like presentation / proper spelling, grammar is important.
“New Consumerism”
Overview
With the onslaught of disruptive technology, consumer behavior and ultimately decision-making is changing like never before. The new age consumers are taking control of their journey, discovering relevant product and service information and making decisions their way in real time. With Internet and social media as their weapon, consumers are making sure that businesses have no other way out, than to compete with each other in real time. The behavior of the interconnected consumers is not only changing, it is opening and closing traditional touch points, places, and ways to engage customers in real time and at the right time. Although we are talking about connected customers here, let’s also learn about the three categories that various consumers fall into –
Generation C is building an efficient human network where information and experiences serve as the ties that bind relationships. Therefore, it seems only fitting that firms apply a human touch in their marketing efforts. It is important that firms follow these four steps to connect with the customers:
1 Listen
2 Learn
3 Engage
4 Adapt
How do we manage the emerging trends being driven by these consumers?
Understanding the customers is the only way to develop effective and meaningful marketing, sales, and service strategies. This is the only way a company is able to develop or inspire a vision to provide their customers the satisfaction and experience they desire. Without this, the experience is left to the customer to determine and share.
This creates chaos and confusion in the market. Since connected consumers are the most influenced by those they know, the brand value of a product or service spirals down faster than one thinks.
This means organizations need to be on top of their products, brand - and customers.
The Dynamic Customer Journey
The Dynamic Customer Journey (DCJ) is about businesses building on existing experiences to retain customers. During the journey,.
Social Listening in Practice: Social SellingBrandwatch
This paper, one of the Social Listening in Practice use case series, is going to show you how social selling will bring your business into the sights of the 81% of consumers who are undertaking pre-purchase research online right now.
Not very long ago, social media was a diversion that most business leaders considered a time-waster. But today it's obvious that word-of-mouth has a momentous impact on brands and that social media can be a goldmine of customer insight.
This paper provides perspective on the growth of social interactions in business, Voice of Customer pitfalls, and the role of sentiment analysis to mine customer insight.
You'll learn:
How to capitalize on unstructured and unsolicited feedback
To translate insight into action by integrating social channels into your existing processes
The top business applications for social media
The age of Social Customer is here. Are you ready to engage?
Liminal - Customer Engagement in TransitionJohn Zell
The change marketers face today is different than what has come before, in both its pace and its potential, which is why we’ve used the term “liminal” as the title of this book. The word liminal isn’t just about change, but about being on the cusp of something new.
If marketers are to survive—and thrive—in this new world, they need to re-examine how to engage with customers, across generations and levels of technological savvy.
We undertook the research in “Liminal” from the ground up, so we could understand how people engage with companies, what they are looking to get out of those engagements, and what channels they prefer. It’s not enough anymore for marketers to have a top-down mentality, simply making sure they have a presence on multiple channels.
The findings in “Liminal” demonstrate that, in the future, marketers will need to find ways to sustain those engagements over time, regardless of channel, whether they are traditional, emerging or new.
10Responsible MarketingThree arrows in a circle representingBenitoSumpter862
10
Responsible Marketing
Three arrows in a circle representing sustainable development.
Petmal/Thinkstock
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
Discuss corporate social responsibility as a response to major criticisms of marketing.
Describe practitioners’ duty to the marketing discipline.
Discuss the impact of a green marketing strategy on the marketing mix.
Summarize the ethical obligations of individuals inherent in the employer–employee relationship.
List three marketing principles that apply to managing your personal brand for on-the-job success.
Describe three professional career paths in marketing.
Introduction
The moment you begin working in marketing, you assume responsibility for practicing high ethical standards with regard to your responsibility to the public, the marketing profession, the company that employs you, and the industry in which it functions. In addition, you must take responsibility for yourself—your individual performance on the job, your contribution to workplace teams, and your preparation for advancement. In this chapter you’ll learn to apply what you’ve learned about marketing to managing your personal brand while on the job.
This chapter approaches responsible marketing beginning with a wide-angle view of the effect of marketing practices on the public and the planet. Then the lens narrows with each section in turn to focus on concerns of the profession, organizational employers, and individual contributors.
The marketing field offers careers in many roles, suitable to a wide variety of personalities from analytical to creative. Where will you find your niche? This chapter ends with an exploration of the newest skills needed and the emerging locales where marketing practitioners will thrive. With an understanding of your role in responsible industry practices, this chapter concludes our study of the basic principles of marketing.
10.1 Responsibility to the Public
Over the past 50 years, the Super Bowl has become a shared American cultural experience, but not just because of love for football. Millions of people tune in to watch the advertisements. Since the rise of social media, Super Bowl advertising has become the centerpiece of integrated marketing campaigns that extend over many months (Sanburn, 2016). On social media, we’re drawn to the many ads that require our clicks to reveal a reward of some kind, whether it’s the punch line to a joke or our score on a game or quiz. We’ve grown accustomed to the blurring of the lines between entertainment and promotions, and not just on television.
As marketing communications move into new message channels, new forms of promotions have proliferated that bear little resemblance to paid advertising. The many forms of “advertainment” in today’s social media (branded videos, quizzes, and so on) place the burden on the public to decide whether products are being pitched—and in which instances that is appropriate ...
10Responsible MarketingThree arrows in a circle representingSantosConleyha
10
Responsible Marketing
Three arrows in a circle representing sustainable development.
Petmal/Thinkstock
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
Discuss corporate social responsibility as a response to major criticisms of marketing.
Describe practitioners’ duty to the marketing discipline.
Discuss the impact of a green marketing strategy on the marketing mix.
Summarize the ethical obligations of individuals inherent in the employer–employee relationship.
List three marketing principles that apply to managing your personal brand for on-the-job success.
Describe three professional career paths in marketing.
Introduction
The moment you begin working in marketing, you assume responsibility for practicing high ethical standards with regard to your responsibility to the public, the marketing profession, the company that employs you, and the industry in which it functions. In addition, you must take responsibility for yourself—your individual performance on the job, your contribution to workplace teams, and your preparation for advancement. In this chapter you’ll learn to apply what you’ve learned about marketing to managing your personal brand while on the job.
This chapter approaches responsible marketing beginning with a wide-angle view of the effect of marketing practices on the public and the planet. Then the lens narrows with each section in turn to focus on concerns of the profession, organizational employers, and individual contributors.
The marketing field offers careers in many roles, suitable to a wide variety of personalities from analytical to creative. Where will you find your niche? This chapter ends with an exploration of the newest skills needed and the emerging locales where marketing practitioners will thrive. With an understanding of your role in responsible industry practices, this chapter concludes our study of the basic principles of marketing.
10.1 Responsibility to the Public
Over the past 50 years, the Super Bowl has become a shared American cultural experience, but not just because of love for football. Millions of people tune in to watch the advertisements. Since the rise of social media, Super Bowl advertising has become the centerpiece of integrated marketing campaigns that extend over many months (Sanburn, 2016). On social media, we’re drawn to the many ads that require our clicks to reveal a reward of some kind, whether it’s the punch line to a joke or our score on a game or quiz. We’ve grown accustomed to the blurring of the lines between entertainment and promotions, and not just on television.
As marketing communications move into new message channels, new forms of promotions have proliferated that bear little resemblance to paid advertising. The many forms of “advertainment” in today’s social media (branded videos, quizzes, and so on) place the burden on the public to decide whether products are being pitched—and in which instances that is appropriate ...
at least 2 references in each peer responses! I noticed .docxcockekeshia
at least 2 references in each peer responses!
I noticed that there are many proposed policies on the agenda that are related to healthcare. Some of them are specific to the nursing practice. This creates the opportunity for the nurse to advocate for policies that impact nursing and healthcare directly by providing first-hand accounts and professional opinions supported by research. Nurses have insight on issues, such as patient safety and satisfaction, health disparities, access to care, and promoting positive outcomes (Abood, 2016).
The problem is that some nurses are unable to navigate through the politics of regulation and policy (Abood, 2016). This can create a challenge and become discouraging for nurses looking to make an impact or promote an agenda (Abood, 2016). Nurses can overcome this difficulty by participating in internships and workshops that provide the opportunity for a nurse to learn about the legislative process and the current issues being discussed (Abood, 2016). Understanding the political process is an essential method for effectively advocate for an issue. Nurses have to learn to play the game to promote change or obtain the scarcely rationed funding available.
According to Milstead and Short (2019), key opportunities to advocate for policy lies in knowledge and perception. Being knowledgeable on an issue can increase your influence as an advocate. Perception is a significant key in politics. Being perceived as a valuable collaborator or obtaining the support of a mentor that is respected can help push your agenda (Milstead & Short, 2019). Networking plays a significant role in politics. being introduced respected mentor or partner can help a nurse gain influence with rallying for support of a proposed agenda (Milstead & Short, 2019).
Probably the most significant opportunity for a nurse to advocate for a policy comes with becoming a member of a nursing association. Nurses associations like the American Nurses Association (ANA) are set up with the mission of influencing policy and advocating for the nurses and patients (ANA, 2019). The strength lies in numbers with the nursing association. Many of these organizations have built relationships with politicians and political parties to gain influence to support their agendas. For example, the ANA tends to favor and support democratic candidates (Milstead & Short, 2019). Nurses associations have enough members to get the attention of lawmakers. However, the nurse still has to task of advocating within the association to gain support from its members.
.
At least 2 pages longMarilyn Lysohir, an internationally celebra.docxcockekeshia
At least 2 pages long
Marilyn Lysohir, an internationally celebrated ceramic artist, started Cowgirl Chocolates to provide some funding support for a yearly published arts magazine, High Ground, that she and her husband, Ross Coates, started in 1995. Her love of chocolates and hot and spicy foods spurred the idea of making hot and spicy chocolates to be sold in creative, artistic tins and packaging, which she labeled Cowgirl Chocolates. Her small business, begun in 1997, had won a number of awards in fiery food competitions. While Cowgirl Chocolates had grown steadily over its four years in business, it still had only generated $30,000 in sales revenue in 2000, which was not enough to cover expenses. Marilyn had drained much of her personal savings to keep Cowgirl Chocolates in business. Her cash accounting methods and record keeping were not very sophisticated although she seemed to have a good sense of her costs in production and raw materials and the packaging. However, Marilyn had taken a shotgun approach to most of her marketing efforts and had tried a number of activities to increase product demand. She allowed herself to make one risky financial move each year in her pursuit of profitability and increased sales. She had just made her one risky move for year 2001: She had taken out a full-page ad in Chile Pepper magazine for $3,000.
Questions
1. The suggested retail price and wholesale prices of Cowgirl Chocolates products are displayed in Exhibit 2 (p. 491) along with the product and packaging costs. Based on this information, discuss the relative merits of using a cost-based, demand-based, and competition-based pricing method. (50 points)
2. What are four (4) options that Cowgirl Chocolates may consider as far as pricing? What would you recommend? (50 points)
.
More Related Content
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Assignment Consumerism Affecting Innovation DUE 26As we contin.docxwilliejgrant41084
Assignment: Consumerism Affecting Innovation DUE 2/6
As we continue to explore the impact of emerging technologies on business and society, your second assignment is to prepare a discussion on how the new consumerism is affecting innovation in business. We discussed new consumerism last week (see lecture below pg 2-8). The assignment is as follows:
- Explain consumerism (in your own words!)
- Identify a specific aspect of new consumerism and provide detailed examples of how this new consumerism resulted in innovative responses by an organization of your choosing.
- Provide 3 or 4 bullets on ways that companies can 'listen' (and interact with) their customers in order to not miss innovative opportunities. Think like a consultant: if you had to provide 3 or 4 suggestions for an organization to do, what would you suggest?
_____________________________________________
All original writing please and provide your sources.
A business-like presentation / proper spelling, grammar is important.
“New Consumerism”
Overview
With the onslaught of disruptive technology, consumer behavior and ultimately decision-making is changing like never before. The new age consumers are taking control of their journey, discovering relevant product and service information and making decisions their way in real time. With Internet and social media as their weapon, consumers are making sure that businesses have no other way out, than to compete with each other in real time. The behavior of the interconnected consumers is not only changing, it is opening and closing traditional touch points, places, and ways to engage customers in real time and at the right time. Although we are talking about connected customers here, let’s also learn about the three categories that various consumers fall into –
Generation C is building an efficient human network where information and experiences serve as the ties that bind relationships. Therefore, it seems only fitting that firms apply a human touch in their marketing efforts. It is important that firms follow these four steps to connect with the customers:
1 Listen
2 Learn
3 Engage
4 Adapt
How do we manage the emerging trends being driven by these consumers?
Understanding the customers is the only way to develop effective and meaningful marketing, sales, and service strategies. This is the only way a company is able to develop or inspire a vision to provide their customers the satisfaction and experience they desire. Without this, the experience is left to the customer to determine and share.
This creates chaos and confusion in the market. Since connected consumers are the most influenced by those they know, the brand value of a product or service spirals down faster than one thinks.
This means organizations need to be on top of their products, brand - and customers.
The Dynamic Customer Journey
The Dynamic Customer Journey (DCJ) is about businesses building on existing experiences to retain customers. During the journey,.
Social Listening in Practice: Social SellingBrandwatch
This paper, one of the Social Listening in Practice use case series, is going to show you how social selling will bring your business into the sights of the 81% of consumers who are undertaking pre-purchase research online right now.
Not very long ago, social media was a diversion that most business leaders considered a time-waster. But today it's obvious that word-of-mouth has a momentous impact on brands and that social media can be a goldmine of customer insight.
This paper provides perspective on the growth of social interactions in business, Voice of Customer pitfalls, and the role of sentiment analysis to mine customer insight.
You'll learn:
How to capitalize on unstructured and unsolicited feedback
To translate insight into action by integrating social channels into your existing processes
The top business applications for social media
The age of Social Customer is here. Are you ready to engage?
Liminal - Customer Engagement in TransitionJohn Zell
The change marketers face today is different than what has come before, in both its pace and its potential, which is why we’ve used the term “liminal” as the title of this book. The word liminal isn’t just about change, but about being on the cusp of something new.
If marketers are to survive—and thrive—in this new world, they need to re-examine how to engage with customers, across generations and levels of technological savvy.
We undertook the research in “Liminal” from the ground up, so we could understand how people engage with companies, what they are looking to get out of those engagements, and what channels they prefer. It’s not enough anymore for marketers to have a top-down mentality, simply making sure they have a presence on multiple channels.
The findings in “Liminal” demonstrate that, in the future, marketers will need to find ways to sustain those engagements over time, regardless of channel, whether they are traditional, emerging or new.
10Responsible MarketingThree arrows in a circle representingBenitoSumpter862
10
Responsible Marketing
Three arrows in a circle representing sustainable development.
Petmal/Thinkstock
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
Discuss corporate social responsibility as a response to major criticisms of marketing.
Describe practitioners’ duty to the marketing discipline.
Discuss the impact of a green marketing strategy on the marketing mix.
Summarize the ethical obligations of individuals inherent in the employer–employee relationship.
List three marketing principles that apply to managing your personal brand for on-the-job success.
Describe three professional career paths in marketing.
Introduction
The moment you begin working in marketing, you assume responsibility for practicing high ethical standards with regard to your responsibility to the public, the marketing profession, the company that employs you, and the industry in which it functions. In addition, you must take responsibility for yourself—your individual performance on the job, your contribution to workplace teams, and your preparation for advancement. In this chapter you’ll learn to apply what you’ve learned about marketing to managing your personal brand while on the job.
This chapter approaches responsible marketing beginning with a wide-angle view of the effect of marketing practices on the public and the planet. Then the lens narrows with each section in turn to focus on concerns of the profession, organizational employers, and individual contributors.
The marketing field offers careers in many roles, suitable to a wide variety of personalities from analytical to creative. Where will you find your niche? This chapter ends with an exploration of the newest skills needed and the emerging locales where marketing practitioners will thrive. With an understanding of your role in responsible industry practices, this chapter concludes our study of the basic principles of marketing.
10.1 Responsibility to the Public
Over the past 50 years, the Super Bowl has become a shared American cultural experience, but not just because of love for football. Millions of people tune in to watch the advertisements. Since the rise of social media, Super Bowl advertising has become the centerpiece of integrated marketing campaigns that extend over many months (Sanburn, 2016). On social media, we’re drawn to the many ads that require our clicks to reveal a reward of some kind, whether it’s the punch line to a joke or our score on a game or quiz. We’ve grown accustomed to the blurring of the lines between entertainment and promotions, and not just on television.
As marketing communications move into new message channels, new forms of promotions have proliferated that bear little resemblance to paid advertising. The many forms of “advertainment” in today’s social media (branded videos, quizzes, and so on) place the burden on the public to decide whether products are being pitched—and in which instances that is appropriate ...
10Responsible MarketingThree arrows in a circle representingSantosConleyha
10
Responsible Marketing
Three arrows in a circle representing sustainable development.
Petmal/Thinkstock
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
Discuss corporate social responsibility as a response to major criticisms of marketing.
Describe practitioners’ duty to the marketing discipline.
Discuss the impact of a green marketing strategy on the marketing mix.
Summarize the ethical obligations of individuals inherent in the employer–employee relationship.
List three marketing principles that apply to managing your personal brand for on-the-job success.
Describe three professional career paths in marketing.
Introduction
The moment you begin working in marketing, you assume responsibility for practicing high ethical standards with regard to your responsibility to the public, the marketing profession, the company that employs you, and the industry in which it functions. In addition, you must take responsibility for yourself—your individual performance on the job, your contribution to workplace teams, and your preparation for advancement. In this chapter you’ll learn to apply what you’ve learned about marketing to managing your personal brand while on the job.
This chapter approaches responsible marketing beginning with a wide-angle view of the effect of marketing practices on the public and the planet. Then the lens narrows with each section in turn to focus on concerns of the profession, organizational employers, and individual contributors.
The marketing field offers careers in many roles, suitable to a wide variety of personalities from analytical to creative. Where will you find your niche? This chapter ends with an exploration of the newest skills needed and the emerging locales where marketing practitioners will thrive. With an understanding of your role in responsible industry practices, this chapter concludes our study of the basic principles of marketing.
10.1 Responsibility to the Public
Over the past 50 years, the Super Bowl has become a shared American cultural experience, but not just because of love for football. Millions of people tune in to watch the advertisements. Since the rise of social media, Super Bowl advertising has become the centerpiece of integrated marketing campaigns that extend over many months (Sanburn, 2016). On social media, we’re drawn to the many ads that require our clicks to reveal a reward of some kind, whether it’s the punch line to a joke or our score on a game or quiz. We’ve grown accustomed to the blurring of the lines between entertainment and promotions, and not just on television.
As marketing communications move into new message channels, new forms of promotions have proliferated that bear little resemblance to paid advertising. The many forms of “advertainment” in today’s social media (branded videos, quizzes, and so on) place the burden on the public to decide whether products are being pitched—and in which instances that is appropriate ...
at least 2 references in each peer responses! I noticed .docxcockekeshia
at least 2 references in each peer responses!
I noticed that there are many proposed policies on the agenda that are related to healthcare. Some of them are specific to the nursing practice. This creates the opportunity for the nurse to advocate for policies that impact nursing and healthcare directly by providing first-hand accounts and professional opinions supported by research. Nurses have insight on issues, such as patient safety and satisfaction, health disparities, access to care, and promoting positive outcomes (Abood, 2016).
The problem is that some nurses are unable to navigate through the politics of regulation and policy (Abood, 2016). This can create a challenge and become discouraging for nurses looking to make an impact or promote an agenda (Abood, 2016). Nurses can overcome this difficulty by participating in internships and workshops that provide the opportunity for a nurse to learn about the legislative process and the current issues being discussed (Abood, 2016). Understanding the political process is an essential method for effectively advocate for an issue. Nurses have to learn to play the game to promote change or obtain the scarcely rationed funding available.
According to Milstead and Short (2019), key opportunities to advocate for policy lies in knowledge and perception. Being knowledgeable on an issue can increase your influence as an advocate. Perception is a significant key in politics. Being perceived as a valuable collaborator or obtaining the support of a mentor that is respected can help push your agenda (Milstead & Short, 2019). Networking plays a significant role in politics. being introduced respected mentor or partner can help a nurse gain influence with rallying for support of a proposed agenda (Milstead & Short, 2019).
Probably the most significant opportunity for a nurse to advocate for a policy comes with becoming a member of a nursing association. Nurses associations like the American Nurses Association (ANA) are set up with the mission of influencing policy and advocating for the nurses and patients (ANA, 2019). The strength lies in numbers with the nursing association. Many of these organizations have built relationships with politicians and political parties to gain influence to support their agendas. For example, the ANA tends to favor and support democratic candidates (Milstead & Short, 2019). Nurses associations have enough members to get the attention of lawmakers. However, the nurse still has to task of advocating within the association to gain support from its members.
.
At least 2 pages longMarilyn Lysohir, an internationally celebra.docxcockekeshia
At least 2 pages long
Marilyn Lysohir, an internationally celebrated ceramic artist, started Cowgirl Chocolates to provide some funding support for a yearly published arts magazine, High Ground, that she and her husband, Ross Coates, started in 1995. Her love of chocolates and hot and spicy foods spurred the idea of making hot and spicy chocolates to be sold in creative, artistic tins and packaging, which she labeled Cowgirl Chocolates. Her small business, begun in 1997, had won a number of awards in fiery food competitions. While Cowgirl Chocolates had grown steadily over its four years in business, it still had only generated $30,000 in sales revenue in 2000, which was not enough to cover expenses. Marilyn had drained much of her personal savings to keep Cowgirl Chocolates in business. Her cash accounting methods and record keeping were not very sophisticated although she seemed to have a good sense of her costs in production and raw materials and the packaging. However, Marilyn had taken a shotgun approach to most of her marketing efforts and had tried a number of activities to increase product demand. She allowed herself to make one risky financial move each year in her pursuit of profitability and increased sales. She had just made her one risky move for year 2001: She had taken out a full-page ad in Chile Pepper magazine for $3,000.
Questions
1. The suggested retail price and wholesale prices of Cowgirl Chocolates products are displayed in Exhibit 2 (p. 491) along with the product and packaging costs. Based on this information, discuss the relative merits of using a cost-based, demand-based, and competition-based pricing method. (50 points)
2. What are four (4) options that Cowgirl Chocolates may consider as far as pricing? What would you recommend? (50 points)
.
At least 2 citations. APA 7TH EditionResponse 1. TITop.docxcockekeshia
At least 2 citations. APA 7TH Edition
Response 1. TI
Top of Form
Dr. Joubert and colleagues, the study of leadership has developed, giving forth new theories and structures that explore the description of what it means to be a leader, and how to carry out the same effect. It would be pragmatic to note that one is not made a leader by a job title but through practical impact in. The situational theory is one such theory that can be effective in the medical field. This theory, often referred to as the Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership theory, suggests that no single leadership theory style is the best. However, Researchers and developers of leadership theories have not agreed on the leadership theories (Duggan et al., 2015)
.
Nursing leadership is a multidimensional concept. The nursing profession involves role model leaders that can transform their environment and leading their teams to succeed by overcoming obstacles. Situational leadership requires the leader to transform their leadership style to meet the followers' leadership needs (Marshall & Broome, 2017). Developing a single satisfying leadership theory has become problematic due to these phenomena. Leadership style has a direct impact on the quality of care administered by the nurse team. The leadership style defines the quality of the relationship between the leader and the followers and sets the tone and mood of the work environment (Laureate Education, 2018).
Our director of nursing practice a contingency leadership style. Aware of the different dispositions on our team, she treats each nurse based on their abilities and needs. At times, she exercises Laissez-fair leadership, dictatorial, transformational, democratic, and other transformational styles. I was amazed by the approach. It helped to manage the team. For instance, the recalcitrant nurse received warnings, punishment for mistakes, and reward for an excellent performance. These restrained her actions and caused her to develop positive behaviors and care towards patients.
In Addition to the application of situational leadership style, she had leadership characteristics such as charisma, honesty, communication skills, creativity, innovativeness, decision-making, and integrity. Combination of the style and the qualities facilitated leading our team initiatives. to create a leader that we were all revered. According to Calderon-Mafud and Pando-Moreno (2018), organizations experience cultures of flexibility, social support, innovation, an also increased personal confidence, and openness to change. Furthermore, the implementation of an authentic leadership style mostly behaved as a middleman in the organization as it increased work productivity, helped implement staff engagement, and improving job satisfaction.
References
Calderon-Mafud, J. L., & Pando-Moreno, M. (2018). Role of authentic leadership in
organizational socialization and work engagement among workers.
Psychology
, 9, 46-62. doi:10.4236/psych.2018.91.
At each decision point, you should evaluate all options before selec.docxcockekeshia
At each decision point, you should evaluate all options before selecting your decision and moving throughout the exercise. Before you make your decision, make sure that you have researched each option and that you evaluate the decision that you will select. Be sure to research each option using the primary literature.
.
At an elevation of nearly four thousand metres above sea.docxcockekeshia
A
t an elevation of nearly four thousand metres above sea
level, Comitancillo, a province in northwestern Guate
mala, was a formidable place to farm. The air was thin
and cold. I followed Rosa towards her home along a
well-trodden path on the side of the mountain. My lungs were
crying for oxygen, overworking like moth wings. Maya-Mam
communities had lived on these barren slopes in northwestern
Guatemala for nearly five hundred years. Before the arrival
of the Spanish in the 1500s, the Mam splintered off from the
Mayan Empire, which had chased them off the lush green flats
and up into the Sierra Madre. Looking down the mountainside,
I witnessed how the Mam adapted to live on their mountain
fortress: they'd carved steps into the mountainside, thousands
of terraces that cascaded down to the bottom of the valley. I
was awestruck by such architecture. "We've been cultivating la
milpa for hundreds of years," said Rosa. Milpa was a Spanish
word that summed up the three crops that had sustained the
Mam for centuries: maize, beans, and squash. Planting all three
crops together formed a sacrosanct principle of Mam farming.
The Mam were one of twenty-four indigenous cultures in
Guatemala, a country where nearly 50 per cent of the popu
lation were indigenous people, most of whom dwelled in rural
areas and depended on subsistence and small-scale agricul
ture for survival. Despite having a near majority of indigenous
people comprising its population, the country had never elected
an indigenous president. The mestizo elite owned politics and
power in Guatemala, while the Mam formed only a minus
cule fraction of the country's population. Marginalized to the
mountains in the northwest, they survived on growing food and
grazing livestock. Traditionally, men played a larger role in farm
management while women were responsible for grazing sheep,
grinding maize, cooking, cleaning, and nurturing the family.
The dusty husks of the harvest and the season past dried in
the slanted fields on the mountainsides. The bright sun caught
and illuminated their yellow leftovers into gold. Nothing
would be wasted on the mountains. Rosa would harvest the
dried crops for pig and sheep feed.
GUATEMALA 31
"Our seeds are hardy and meant for these mountains. The
seeds people try to sell us don't do well in Comitancillo. They
grow and the wind breaks them."
Years of living on the mountains had also ground Rosa into a
hardy woman. The fifty-year-old woman barely reached five feet.
She wore a striking turquoise blue huipil, a traditional blouse,
embroidered with magenta flowers. She parted her long black
hair in the middle and braided it down her back in a single
rope. Rosa was a widow. Her husband had died twelve years
earlier after falling from the rickety scaffolding on a construc
tion site and quickly dying of his injuries. He'd been working
as a migrant labourer in Xela, a city situated in one of the valley
flats, nearly th.
At a minimum, your outline should include the followingIntroducti.docxcockekeshia
At a minimum, your outline should include the following:
Introduction
Identify the topic
What makes this a global ethical dilemma
Why we should care about this
Thesis statement
Rationale for one side of dilemma
Evidence based support #1 (reason and resource)
Evidence based support #2 (reason and resource)
Evidence based support #3 (reason and resource)
Rationale for the OTHER side of the dilemma (at least three points)
Evidence based support #1 (reason and resource)
Evidence based support #2 (reason and resource)
Evidence based support #3 (reason and resource)
Compare this issue in different countries
Identify country #1 and how they view/experience this issue
Identify country #2 and how they view/experience this issue
Identify country #3 and how they view/experience this issue
Conclusion
References
Compose your work in a .doc or .docx file
.
At least 500 wordsPay attention to the required length of these.docxcockekeshia
At least 500 words
Pay attention to the required length of these assignments. These assignments consist of reading a newspaper article about a designated region of the world--specific for each assignment--and writing an essay about it.
Primary sources are documents or other materials such as photographs, art work, coins, tapestries, etc. produced at the time period under consideration. https://library.uncw.edu/guides/finding_primary_sources is a website that gives information on what a primary source is and how historians [or anyone writing about history] use them. Look at the attached file for questions to ask of any source that you would consider a primary source.
For these newspaper article and extra credit assignments you are to find a substantive newspaper article [most newspapers are available online--it must be from a newspaper, not a website only or cablenews organization--NOT yahoonews, not cnn.com, not foxnews, not msnbc--only a published newspaper.] about the region designated for that assignment. If the article you choose is too short you will have trouble doing the assignment. Also, note that if an article is about birds, or insects or any non-human source that is not connected to humanity, it is not appropriate for this assignment. Any good newspaper article is based on sources, which historians would designate as primary sources. So an important part of these assignments is to identify the primary sources used by the author of the article you choose. Primary sources are the building blocks of history. You can think of them like eyewitness accounts or physical evidence produced at the time of an incident or crime being considered in a courtroom proceeding or trial. Without evidence a jury couldn’t make a fair decision in a case. In the same way, without primary sources, history cannot be written--and good newspaper articles cannot be written. So part of this assignment is asking you to decide if the reporter writing the article you select has actually used good primary sources. Does he or she have real evidence and enough of it to write the article? Does the reporter have a particular viewpoint or bias? Could you imagine the article being used as a primary source by a historian in the future for writing history about this time period? How useful would the document be and does it have any weaknesses or drawbacks as a piece of evidence? What else might a historian need, besides the article you are analyzing, to give a more complete or balanced discussion of the topic?
Your assignments will be graded on:
Formatting: 1 inch margins; your name, course number & assignment number [first, second or third] on top of first page. No other information is needed for a heading, and no repeat headers allowed. Following this formatting, cite the author(s) of the article, the title of the article, the name of the newspaper in which it appears [the title of the newspaper should be underlined] and the date of its publi.
At a generic level, innovation is a core business process concerned .docxcockekeshia
At a generic level, innovation is a core business process concerned with renewing what the
organization offers the world and the ways in which it creates and delivers that offering. And
to do this they all need to carry out these activities:
• Searching – scanning the environment (internal and external) for, and processing relevant signals about, threats and opportunities for change.
• Selecting – deciding (on the basis of a strategic view of how the enterprise can best
• develop) which of these signals to respond to
• Implementing – translating the potential in the trigger idea into something new and launching it in an internal or external market. Making this happen is not a single event but requires attention to:
Acquiring the knowledge resources to enable the innovation (for example, by creating something new through R&D, market research, etc., acquiring knowledge from elsewhere via technology transfer, strategic alliance, etc.).
Executing the project under conditions of uncertainty which require extensive problem-solving.
Launching the innovation and managing the process of initial adoption
Sustaining adoption and use in the long-term – or revisiting the original idea and modifying it – reinnovation.
Learning – enterprises have (but may not always take) the opportunity to learn from progressing through this cycle so that they can build their knowledge base and can improve the ways in which the process is managed.
But they differ widely in the ways in which this is done and the importance of different elements.
In this exercise pick a sector – e.g. food retailing, airlines, chemicals, public administration – and draw a map of their particular version of this process. How does it work out in practice? Where are they likely to need or to place most emphasis?
.
Asymmetric Cryptography•Description of each algorithm•Types•Encrypt.docxcockekeshia
Asymmetric Cryptography•Description of each algorithm•Types:•Encryption•Digital Signature•Hashing Function•Key Distribution•Strengths/weaknesses of each algorithm•Relevant examples of modern applications/industry that utilize each algorithm•Public Key Infrastructure•Define•Discuss the components•How is it used with asymmetric cryptography
.
Astronomy HWIn 250-300 words,What was Aristarchus idea of the.docxcockekeshia
Astronomy HW/
In 250-300 words,
What was Aristarchus idea of the phases of Venus, and at that time when he presented his information was it rejected/ was it a big issue/ or did the issue never come up?
This has to be 100% original. I will check for plagirium. Furthermore, when after answering you can put your own input on why was it a big issue, or why do you think the issue never came up when Aristarchus present the idea of the phases of Venus.
If you cite something/someone, you have to make a reference page. And do the cited in MLA format.
.
Astronomy ASTA01The Sun and PlanetsDepartment of Physic.docxcockekeshia
Astronomy ASTA01:
The Sun and Planets
Department of Physical & Environmental Sciences,
UTSC
Fall 2018
Problem Set 3
DUE: Tuesday November 13, 2018
Where: Hand in your solutions in the mailbox marked for your tutorial,
on the 5th floor corridor of the Science Wing, near office SW506C in the
Physics & Astrophysics section.
Reminder: Write your name on your solutions. Also make sure you
carefully read the entire problem set policy that was distributed on
Quercus. It will help you avoid standard mistakes and score higher. We will
assume that you have read this policy document by the time you return your
solution.
How to write your solutions: Be precise and clear. Explain what you
are calculating. The method of calculation you adopt and your reasoning are
the most important. In case of a computational mistake, you will still get
credits if your method is right, so explain it clearly.
1
1. If the Solar System had formed right after the Big Bang, it would
have lacked oxygen (O), and therefore water (H2O). Using the solar
nebula theory, describe what would have been most different about
the planet formation process and the planets formed in this alternative
Solar System. [NO MORE than 15 sentences].
2. Halley’s comet is the only-naked eye comet that might appear twice in
a human lifetime (since it comes back every 76 years).
(a) Based on this comet’s orbital period, would you say that it is more
likely to have originated from the Kuiper belt or from the Oort
cloud? [A quantitative answer is expected to justify your choice]
(b) What other orbital feature, besides the comet’s orbital period,
could be used to distinguish its origin [NO MORE than 5 sen-
tences]
3. (a) Collect data on the mass and radius of Earth (made of rock) &
Jupiter (made of gas) and calculate the overall average density of
each planet, expressed in g/cm3.
(b) The density of water that we drink is about 1 g/cm3. Use your
everyday experience to describe the difference in density between
rock, air, and water. [State your answers in terms of “much
more/much less” or “a little more/a little less”].
(c) Is the mean density of Earth consistent with our everyday experi-
ence of similar composition material? What about Jupiter (same
question)?
(d) Propose a physical mechanism that might explain the discrepancy
between the mean density of a planet and the density of similar
composition material as we experience it in our everyday life.
4. Mean-motion resonances with Jupiter shape the Kirkwood gaps in the
main asteroid belt. A resonance written as “5:2” refers to the inner
body completing exactly 5 orbital revolutions when the outer body
completes exactly 2.
(a) Using Kepler law, find the orbital radius in AU of the following
important resonances for the Kirkwood gaps: 2:1, 3:1 and 5:2.
Compare your values to those shown in the diagram on Kirkwood
gaps in the class lectures (see lecture 12 slides).
(b) High-value mean-motion resonances, such as 2001:1000, are usu-
ally co.
Astronomers have been reflecting laser beams off the Moon since refl.docxcockekeshia
Astronomers have been reflecting laser beams off the Moon since reflectors were left there by Apollo astronauts. This has resulted in the conclusion that the Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of 3.8 cm per year. Discuss the specific cause of what is making the Moon recede, the likely end result for the Earth-Moon system, and what you think this might mean for life on Earth.
.
A strategic plan to inform emerging fashion retailers
about social media research and best practices.
2
Proposal Overview
Social media can take the form of various outlets, including, but not limited to: Instagram,
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, etc. Each social media platform has its specific use and
benefits, with a wide range of active users. It is important to note that successful retailers are
using these online strategies to penetrate new markets, to champion for social media
movements, and to effectively develop connections with consumers.
In this social media blueprint, we suggest using Instagram as our company’s main social media
platform. Our primary research examines H&M, Topshop, and Uniqlo’s Instagram accounts and
revealed the importance of using models, creating effective hashtags, and providing customer
service. The secondary research presents the best practices of social media and how the public
and specific individuals view social media. To conclude the proposal, we will provide a
comprehensive strategy that includes a detailed plan with suggestions for a stellar social media
presence.
Primary Research Summary & Key Takeaways
We have compiled the following key takeaways using Instagram. Our primary research includes
a variety of retailers who specialize in different products and promote to diverse markets.
These three key findings will provide an all-encompassing approach which will ultimately tie
into our strategic recommendations going forward.
#1: Using models to showcase the retailer's products increases follower satisfactions. Each one
of our retailers uses this form of posting. The following three pictures are example images used
by retailers to promote their products through outfit modeling. Our retailers provide
consumers with the option to directly purchase clothing, accessories, and shoes via online
portals. These types of posts provide followers with a visualization of how the products will look
once worn, which is part of the purchasing decision many consumers take into account. In
addition, these types of images also provide outfit inspirations when consumers are in need of
assistance with outfit coordination.
(Uniqlo) (H&M) (Topshop)
3
#2: The use of hashtags connects posts to a broader conversation and trend. Our retailers use
various hashtags that either connected their post to an on-going product line, style, event, or
motto and “catchphrase”. For example, Uniqlo wants to be known for their fashionable, yet
simple clothing. Their hashtag, #simplemadebetter, allows Uniqlo to actively promote the
company’s business strategy of revamping basic clothing to make it ‘better’ quality and more
fashion forward. London Fashion Week is one of the most prominent events in the fashion
industry, known to set the latest fashion trends. The #LFW (London Fashion Week) establishes
Topshop as a brand that is compatible against the haute couture f.
Asthma, Sleep, and Sun-SafetyPercentage of High School S.docxcockekeshia
Asthma, Sleep, and Sun-Safety
Percentage of High School Students Who Had Ever Been Told by a Doctor or Nurse That They Had Asthma, by Sex, Grade, and Race/Ethnicity,* 2017
*B > H, B > W (Based on t-test analysis, p < 0.05.)
All Hispanic students are included in the Hispanic category. All other races are non-Hispanic.
Note: This graph contains weighted results.
National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2017
Data for this slide are from the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. This slide shows percentages of high school students who had ever been told by a doctor or nurse that they had asthma.
The percentage for all students is 22.5. The percentage for Male students is 22.4. The percentage for Female students is 22.5. The percentage for 9th grade students is 22.9. The percentage for 10th grade students is 22.9. The percentage for 11th grade students is 21.2. The percentage for 12th grade students is 23.0. The percentage for Black students is 29.8. The percentage for Hispanic students is 21.1. The percentage for White students is 20.9. All Hispanic students are included in the Hispanic category. All other races are non-Hispanic. Note: This graph contains weighted results.
For this behavior, the prevalence for Black students is higher than for Hispanic students. The prevalence for Black students is higher than for White students. (Based on t-test analysis, p < 0.05.)
2
Series 1
Total Male Female 9th 10th 11th 12th Black Hispanic White 22.5 22.4 22.5 22.9 22.9 21.2 23 29.8 21.1 20.9
Percent
Range and Median Percentage of High School Students Who Had Ever Been Told by a Doctor or Nurse That They Had Asthma, Across 29 States and 20 Cities, 2017
State and Local Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, 2017
These are results from the state and local Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, 2017. This slide shows the range and median percentages of 29 states and 20 cities for high school students who had ever been told by a doctor or nurse that they had asthma.
The range across states was 19.3% to 33.4%. The median across states was 24.3%. The range across cites was 17.4% to 33.4%. The median across cities was 23.9%.
3
Min
States Cities 19.3 17.399999999999999 Max
States Cities 33.4 33.4 Med
States Cities 24.3 23.9
Percent
No Data
19.3% - 21.6%
21.7% - 24.2%
24.3% - 25.9%
26.0% - 33.4%
Percentage of High School Students Who Had Ever Been Told by a Doctor or Nurse That They Had Asthma
State Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, 2017
This slide shows the percentage of students who had ever been told by a doctor or nurse that they had asthma, 2017. The values range from 19.3% to 33.4%. Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Virginia, Wisconsin, range from 19.3% to 21.6%. California, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, range from 21.7% to 24.2%. Delaware, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, range from 24.3%.
Assumption-Busting1. What assumption do you have that is in s.docxcockekeshia
Assumption-Busting
1. What assumption do you have that is in some way limiting? Please be specific.
2. What is the exact opposite of that assumption?
3. How can you start acting differently, based on the fact that the opposite of your assumption is true? Be specific.
Idea Presentation Form
1. Describe the idea in two-three sentences or bullets.
2. What need or desire does your idea address?
3. For whom is the idea intended (men age 45-50, punk rock fans in Philadelphia…)?
4. How is your idea better than other solutions that exist to address this need or desire?
.
Assuming you have the results of the Business Impact Analysis and ri.docxcockekeshia
Assuming you have the results of the Business Impact Analysis and risk assessment in hand, discuss in detail steps in selecting a strategy. Reference one additional article, in addition to the textbook itself.
Format: Times 12, 1 inch margin, minimum of 2.5 pages double spaced (not counting references and other information such as your name, etc.)
The attached content supports to navigate towards the core objectives of completing this paper
Text book :
Title:
The Disaster Recovery Handbook
Subtitle: **PLEASE SEE BOOKSTORE LINK BELOW TO PURCHASE REQUIRED MATERIALS
Authors: Michael WALLACE, Lawrence WEBBER
Publisher: AMACOM
Publication Date: 2017-12-28
.
Assuming you are hired by a corporation to assess the market potenti.docxcockekeshia
Assuming you are hired by a corporation to assess the market potential of a foreign country for their products.
Demographic Environment
1)
Population
2)
Gender Breakdown
3)
Life Expectancy
4)
Language
5)
Education
Cultural Environment
1)
Religion
2)
Lifestyle (segments by age)
3)
Values
4)
Customs
5)
Holidays
6)
Colors and Music (National Flag and Anthem)
.
Assuming that you are in your chosen criminal justice professi.docxcockekeshia
Assuming that you are in your chosen criminal justice profession, e.g. law enforcement officer, probation officer, or criminal investigator, examine the Fourth and Fifth Amendments and discuss the steps you would take to ensure that actions do not violate the citizen’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.
.
assuming that Nietzsche is correct that conventional morality is aga.docxcockekeshia
assuming that Nietzsche is correct that conventional morality is against our natural expression of passions, argue a case that suggests that while he is correct, the truth is that people must be restricted in their natural expression,
which moral statements clearly recognize dangerous natural inclinations and restrict them?
what benefits do these restrictions provide to the individual as well as to society as a whole?
how might Nietzsche react to your argument?
.
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Biological screening of herbal drugs: Introduction and Need for
Phyto-Pharmacological Screening, New Strategies for evaluating
Natural Products, In vitro evaluation techniques for Antioxidants, Antimicrobial and Anticancer drugs. In vivo evaluation techniques
for Anti-inflammatory, Antiulcer, Anticancer, Wound healing, Antidiabetic, Hepatoprotective, Cardio protective, Diuretics and
Antifertility, Toxicity studies as per OECD guidelines
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
2. about.
Today, technology is making it more possible for the customer
to do exactly that. In a survey, the
chief marketing officers of 250 top companies were asked about
the key factors that influence the
performance of their companies. The officers' response? A
company's ability to interact and
respond to its customers as well as empower them (Ramani &
Kumar, 2008).
Research shows that customer empowerment is a function of
three things: creating feedback
channels that are easy and widely available, asking for and
encouraging feedback about products,
and enabling customers to participate in the design of products.
You might think that a company as large as JCPenney would be
unable to give customers the
ability to create their own types of shopping experiences—that
standardizing the products and
services they receive would be necessary. But JCPenney is an
excellent example of how a firm can
use the Internet and other technology to engage its customers
and provide them with more
3. control over the products and marketing communications they
receive.
This week, we focus on those ubiquitous feedback channels, as
well as strategies to solicit and
encourage feedback. In Week 4, "Market Segmenting,
Targeting, and Positioning," we will discuss
how customers can participate in the design of products, or
offerings. This week, we will also
tackle customer relationship management (CRM), as well as
some of the ethical and legal issues
affecting customers.
http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Principles%20of%20Marke
ting.pdf
http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Principles%20of%20Marke
ting.pdf
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
2
2.1 Customers and Customer Communities
4. L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Define customer.
2. Understand strategies involving online and personal forms of
influencer marketing.
3. Relate influencer marketing to other forms of social
communities and marketing strategies.
The American Marketing Association defines customers as "the
actual or prospective purchaser of
products or services" (AMA, 2015). This definition implies that
a customer does not necessarily
have to have conducted an exchange with the company, but
could be a person in a potential pool
of customers who may have a need or an interest in the product
but have not yet acknowledged
that need and taken steps to fill it. This is a little more specific
that the term consumer, which is
anyone who has the resources to buy anything. The terms are
not interchangeable even though
they appear similar.
When do you go from consumer to customer? As soon as you
acknowledge you have a need and
you want to fill that need, and you have the resources to fill the
5. need. You may need a vacation,
but it doesn't turn into a want until you decide to take a
vacation and actively pursue steps to
make it happen. This begins the buying process, which we will
discuss in greater detail in Week 3.
Part of that process is seeking information about the product or
service you are considering.
If you decide you want a curved high definition television,
where do you go to learn about which is
best? Like many buyers, you probably turn to the Internet and
visit sites such as Epinions.com or
ConsumerSearch.com. You may visit the manufacturer's
website. Do you want to learn about the
products of a specific retailer? Do you check out the stores or
remember that you had a good
experience with that store the last time you bought a television?
Do you ask family and friends for
their opinions and share their experiences?
The point is that consumers talk. They talk to each other face to
face, and they post their thoughts
and opinions online. Word of mouth, or the passing of
information and opinions verbally, has a
6. powerful influence on purchasing decisions. You rely on word
of mouth prior to registering for
classes. You want to know from other students which professors
are best and how hard their
classes are. If you have no one to ask, you can look at online
sites such as ratemyprofessors.com.
Buzz refers to the amount of word of mouth going on in a
market. However, in addition to
traditional word of mouth, buzz includes blogs, articles, and
other information about an offering.
3
Companies try to create buzz about their products by sending
press releases, holding events,
offering free samples, writing blogs, or releasing podcasts.
Some marketing managers spend time
"trolling" the web looking for postings about their products. If a
negative posting appears to be a
legitimate complaint, then the marketing manager can take
action to fix the customer's problem,
and future complaints can be avoided. The company can also
assign someone to respond to
7. negative posts so that the opinions online become more
balanced. Some companies,
unfortunately, practice the unethical strategy of planting their
own favorable reviews of their
products to look like the opinions of real customers.
The point is that companies can adopt strategies to ethically
participate in the customer
conversations to truly understand their customers, how their
value proposition is being received,
what they can change, or what else they can offer to their
customers. Some of these strategies are
discussed next.
Influencer Panels
A marketing strategy being used increasingly often is influencer
marketing, or targeting
people known to influence others so that they will use their
influence in the marketer's favor.
These influencers are the lead users we will discuss in Week 5
on designing offerings. If you spend
some time on Procter & Gamble's (P&G) Crest toothpaste
website, you might be given a chance to
complete a survey. (Someone who is very interested in dental
8. care is more likely to take the
survey.)
The survey asks if you talk about dental care products, if you
research such products, and if you
influence others. These questions and questions like them are
used to identify influencers. P&G
then provides influencers with product samples and
opportunities to participate in market
research. The idea is that new offerings should be cocreated
with influencers because they are
more likely to be both lead users, early adopters of new
offerings, and influence other people's
decisions to buy them.
That was the idea behind JCPenney's Ambrielle lingerie
community. JCPenney executive Laura
Carros and other JCPenney employees on the Ambrielle
marketing team devised a strategy of
identifying women who would be willing to join a special
community. A community, in the
marketing sense, is a social group that centers its attention on a
particular brand or product
category. Another term for a community is a social network.
9. The social network for Ambrielle
lingerie is illustrated in Figure 2.1, "A Social Network."
4
Figure 2.1 A Social Network
Each circle represents a person in the social network, and the
arrows represent the ties between
them. You can see that some are JCPenney customers as
represented by the arrows between the
company (the star) and the individuals. Others are not, but are
in contact with JCPenney
customers.
Some communities are organized by companies. For example,
the Harley Owners Group (HOG), a
club for Harley motorcycle owners, was organized by Harley-
Davidson. But many communities
spring up naturally, without any help from a marketer. A local
arts community is an example. In
the case of Ambrielle, JCPenney created and manages the
10. group; in the case of HOG, Harley-
Davidson manages the group in conjunction with its members.
Another difference between the Ambrielle community and HOG
is that the Ambrielle community
is only composed of influencers. By contrast, anyone who owns
a Harley can be a member of
HOG. Ambrielle influencers provide feedback about products to
JCPenney and take an active role
5
in designing the company's offerings. In other words, the
influencers participate regularly in
marketing research activities. Another term for this type of
community is an influencer panel.
Organizing and Managing Influencer Panels
Table 2.1, "Characteristics Used to Qualify the Members of
Influencer Panels," lists the
characteristics used to qualify members of an influencer panel.
Note that there are multiple types
of influencers represented in the Ambrielle community. Because
JCPenney has also gathered
11. lifestyle, demographic, and psychographic information about
them, the firm has a fairly complete
picture of each member. This information is invaluable because
JCPenney can use the knowledge
to segment the group more precisely. Thus, when the company
test-markets communications or
offerings with the group, it can gain a better understanding of
how well those efforts will work
with different types of consumers.
Table 2.1 Characteristics Used to Qualify the Members of
Influencer Panels
Characteristic Definition
Active
Influencer
Willing to tell others, but more important, others listen and act
on the
influencer's opinion.
Interested Has a greater intrinsic interest in the product
category than the average user.
Heavy User
Actually uses or consumes the offering regularly, preferably
more than the
average user.
Loyal
12. Sticks to one brand when it works. Note, however, that this
category could
include someone who isn't loyal because the right offering
meeting his or her
needs hasn't yet been created.
Lead User
Willing to try new products and offer feedback. In some
instances, it's possible
to modify an offering to suit an individual consumer; when it is,
you want lead
users to suggest the modifications so you can see how and why
they do so.
An influencer panel does not necessarily become a community.
If the communication that occurs
is only between the marketer and the individual members of the
panel, no community forms. The
members must communicate with one another for a community
to exist.
As a marketing professional, how do you find influencers? They
have to be actively recruited. As
you learned earlier, P&G surveys people looking at its websites.
If you answer the survey
questions in a way that shows you meet the criteria listed in
Table 2.1, "Characteristics Used to
13. Qualify the Members of Influencer Panels," you might be asked
to join a P&G panel. Another
method is to ask a customer whose complaint you have just
resolved to take a survey. After all,
someone who has taken the time to complain might also be
motivated to participate on a panel.
Still another recruiting method is to send random surveys to
households to identify people who
would be good panel participants.
6
Once you create an influencer panel, you have to activate it.
After all, influencers do not want to
be singled out only to be ignored. However, marketing
professionals should be able to answer the
following three questions before they activate a panel:
1. What do we want from the influencer panel? Usually,
companies want feedback on
new offerings and new marketing communications, as well as
active word-of-mouth
promotions. Panelists need to know when you are merely testing
a new offering vs.
14. introducing it to the marketplace. You don't want word of mouth
about a new product that
isn't yet ready to be sold.
2. How much are the panel members willing to do? Companies
want to keep their
panelists actively engaged, which requires asking how often
they want to participate on the
panel, as well as giving them the right to "opt out" of a
particular activity if they must. In
some instances, you may put out a general call for help, such as
posting a notice on an
online bulletin board that you need volunteers to test a product.
Or, you might just simply
send influencers product samples, ask them to try them, and
respond to a questionnaire. In
addition, the processes by which they engage have to be easy to
complete. For example,
asking a lot of information up front makes the sign-up process
more difficult. If all you
need is an e-mail address, just ask for the e-mail address. Any
additional information can
be gathered later.
3. What's in it for the panel members? What do they get out of
15. participating? They of
course get to try free, new products that might improve their
lives—or will one day improve
their lives if a company heeds their advice. For many
influencers, the product category is
one that was already important to them. The chance to try a
product before anyone else
does and provide feedback to a manufacturer who has singled
them out for their opinion
might be all these people want.
Social Networking Sites and Other Social Media
As we have indicated, communities spring up naturally. Online,
social networking sites such
as Facebook and MySpace are used to create communities.
Everyone you are friends with on sites
such as these are people that you already know. The sites are
simply the communication medium.
What is interesting is that Facebook and other social networking
sites often can't tell the
difference between close friends and acquaintances. From a
marketing perspective, since each tie
or relationship is treated the same, social networking sites
provide interesting ways to reach
16. people. One, perhaps not so interesting way, is as a broadcast
medium for advertising. A company
targets consumers by placing ads on a person's site based on
what Facebook knows about the
person—just as ads are placed on a radio or television station
and matched to certain audiences.
7
The social network sites receive revenue from these ads, which
allows them to provide the service
free to users.
The more interesting way is by consumers sending other
consumers links and other information.
For example, when a marketer creates a Facebook page for an
offering such as a movie, a
community can form around the movie. Then if you join the
group that loves the movie, Facebook
notifies all of your friends that you are promoting the movie. A
community such as this might not
be as enduring as the Ambrielle or HOG groups, but it serves its
purpose—at least until the movie
is old news and newer movies come out and get attention. When
17. you become a "fan" of something
like a movie, you are part of the buzz.
Marketers are looking at many ways to use Facebook and other
social networking sites to create
buzz. Facebook has a "gift-giving" application that allows
people to give "gifts" to each other. The
gifts are really just icons (pictures) within Facebook. Enter
GiveReal, an online service that allows
people to give one another real gifts online. GiveReal developed
a promotion with Bombay
Sapphire, a leading premium gin, and Facebook. The promotion
allows Facebook users to give
their friends electronic coupons (downloadable to a credit card)
for mixed drinks that use Bombay
Sapphire. These coupons can then be redeemed at restaurants
and bars that accept credit cards
(Marketing Weekly News, 2009).
One result of social networking is viral marketing, or the spread
of the company's message (like
a computer virus) through the community. Some companies
have enhanced the viral marketing of
their offerings with interactive websites that might feature, say,
18. a game built around an offering.
Consumers then e-mail their friends with links to the game or
website. Examples include the viral
campaign by Nine Inch Nails for its concept album, Year Zero.
An online alternate reality game
was created involving characters and situations drawn from the
music on the album. The album
and game were so popular that HBO considered creating a series
around the dark, futuristic tale
told on the album.
Blogs are one form of online communication that helps spread
viral marketing messages. Some
blogs are written by corporate marketing officers who "spin" the
information. But blogs can be
written by anyone. Blogs can serve as a "voice" for a
community. For example, the chief executive
of the National Thoroughbred Horseracing Association (the
NASCAR of horseracing) writes a
blog for the organization that is posted on its website. However,
anyone can leave a comment on
the blog. Blogs have become much more like dialogue in a town
hall meeting than a one-way
marketing message.
19. 8
Figure 2.2
Ashton Kutcher was the first person to
have over a million followers on Twitter.
Source: Photo by Andrew Mager. (2008). Wikimedia Commons.
Used under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Generic license.
Twitter is another application that facilitates viral marketing by
enabling people to "follow"
someone. When an organization or a person posts something on
Twitter, the post—called a
"tweet"—is sent as a text message to all followers of that
organization or person. Ashton Kutcher
made headlines by being the first person to collect a million
followers. However, the first
company to generate a million dollars in revenue through
Twitter is probably Dell. Dell uses
20. Twitter to communicate special deals via its tweets—offers that
are extremely limited. Followers
can then contact the company to place their orders for the
products. Dell estimated that in 2009,
it would earn more than $3 million through Twitter (Abell,
2009).
Social media is a catchall phrase for the online channels of
communication that build
communities. Social media includes social networking sites,
blogs, podcasts, wikis, vlogs (video
blogs), and other Internet-based applications that enable
consumers to contribute content. Social
media spending for marketing purposes doubled in 2008 and
continued to rise in 2009 despite
the poor economy. In fact, Forester, a respected research
company, predicts spending to top over
$16.2 billion in 2019. This represents a 10-fold increase from
2009 levels when social media
spending was only $1.6 billion (Beal, 2009).
21. 9
2 . 1 K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Customer communities form around social networks, which
marketers can use to both promote offerings
and gather market information. Companies create influencer
panels that provide insight into effective
offerings and provide word of mouth. Customers can speak to
one another and to companies through a
variety of communication channels known as social networking
sites.
2.2 Loyalty Management
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Understand the value of customer loyalty.
2. Distinguish attitudinal loyalty from behavioral loyalty.
3. Describe the components of a successful loyalty program.
It's 8 p.m. and you're starving. You open the refrigerator and
find a leftover chicken breast, half
an onion, and some ketchup. But what can you do with these
ingredients? You could search online
for recipes that contain them, or post a question about what to
do with them at a website such as
Kraft.com.
22. Companies like Kraft build websites in order to create the types
of communities we discussed
earlier. If you posted your question at Kraft.com, you might
have an experience like one woman
did—in 24 hours, 853 people viewed the question, and she had
22 answers to choose from.
Another question had 3,341 viewers over 10 days. Why has
Kraft's web marketing team worked so
hard to create an environment in which people can do this?
One important reason is loyalty. Kraft wants loyal customers—
customers who buy Kraft products
instead of other brands, who recommend its products to their
friends, and are willing to pay a
little more to get Kraft quality. Early research on loyalty
showed that loyal customers were less
expensive to market to, more willing to pay a premium for a
particular brand, more willing to try
new products under the brand name, more likely to recommend
the brand to their friends, and
more willing to overlook a problem related to the brand
(Reicheld & Teal, 2001). That said, more
research shows that the benefits that come from loyal customers
are not automatic, and that it
23. takes careful management for those benefits to be sustained
(Reinartz & Kumar, 2003).
Loyalty has two dimensions. One dimension of loyalty is
behavioral loyalty, meaning that the
customer buys the product regularly and does not respond to
competitors' offerings. The second
10
dimension is attitudinal loyalty, which is the degree to which
the customer prefers or likes the
brand.
Behavioral Loyalty
Most marketers would be happy with behavioral loyalty because
it does, after all, result in sales.
Yet behavioral loyalty doesn't mean that the customer is
immune to your competitors' offerings.
Nor does it mean the customer is willing to pay more for your
brand. For example, a
businessperson might regularly book trips on American Airlines
because it flies to the one or two
destinations the traveler has to visit regularly. But a lower price
24. on another airline or one
scheduled at a more convenient time might persuade the flier to
switch to another carrier.
Habitual purchases are a form of behavioral loyalty.
Comparison shopping takes time and effort,
so buyers are often willing to forego looking for substitute
products. Habitual purchases are
commonly made for low-involvement offerings. You might
regularly purchase a Coke at a drive-
thru restaurant near your house rather than take the time,
energy, and gasoline to look for a Coke
that's cheaper.
Marketers engage in many activities to both encourage and
discourage behavioral loyalty. Loyalty
programs, such as an airline offering travelers frequent-flier
miles, can encourage behavioral
loyalty. But coupons and other special price promotions can
break behavioral loyalty patterns.
We'll discuss loyalty programs in more detail later.
Attitudinal Loyalty
As we explained, attitudinal loyalty refers to how much
someone likes a brand and is willing to act
25. on that preference. Keep in mind, however, that a person's
willingness to act on a preference
doesn't necessarily mean he or she will purchase your product:
If you sell Ferraris, and the
potential customer is unemployed, he or she might be unable to
afford one.
Cause-related marketing, which we will discuss in Week 7,
"Integrated Marketing
Communications," can foster attitudinal loyalty among a
company's community of customer.
Companies that engage in cause-related marketing choose
causes that are important to the
customer communities in which they operate. American Airlines
sponsors the Susan G. Komen
Foundation, an organization that is working to cure breast
cancer. KitchenAid sponsors Cook for
the Cure, which also benefits the foundation. Both companies
support breast cancer awareness
because the cause is important to their female customers.
11
26. Figure 2.3
American Airlines is a Lifetime Promise Partner, a program
designed to support breast cancer
awareness and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The company
has painted Komen's signature
pink ribbon on planes as a way to support the foundation.
Companies support charities that are
important to the communities in which they operate.
Source: Photo by Maarten Visser. (2001). Wikimedia Commons.
Used under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
Generic license.
Note, however, that cause-related marketing should be sincere.
You can probably quickly tell
when a person or organization is insincere. So can your
customers. Sincerity also breeds trust. For
example, when Eunice Azzani volunteered for the San Francisco
AIDS Foundation, she did so
because the cause was important to her and Korn/Ferry
International, the executive search firm
for which she is a managing director. While working for the
27. cause, Azzani met executives with
Mervyn's, Wells Fargo, and other major corporations who later
engaged her company to conduct
executive searches. They knew they could trust her to do high-
quality work and that she was
sincere about her place in the community (Van Yoder, 2008).
Of course, there are many other methods of building attitudinal
loyalty. As we mentioned,
advertising can create feelings for a brand, as can sponsoring a
sports team or cultural event. In
the next section, we discuss loyalty programs, one way that
companies try to manage both
affective and behavioral dimensions of loyalty.
12
Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are marketing efforts that reward a person or
organization for frequent
purchases and the consumption of offerings. For example, Lone
Star Park's Star Player Rewards
28. program awards members points for each dollar they spend at
the track. The more points they
earn, the better the prize is for which they can redeem their
points.
The data a firm collects from a loyalty program can be very
useful in terms of designing and
improving the company's offerings, especially when merged into
a comprehensive customer
relationship management program, which we will discuss later.
When members initially sign up
for a loyalty program, they provide a great deal of demographic
information to the organization.
Their behavior can then be tracked as well. For example, Lone
Star Park can determine who sits
in what section of the track by what tickets members purchase,
as well as where they purchase
their refreshments or place their bets. The track can also
determine members' preferences for
food and drink products or services such as betting clerks and
betting machines. When the track
has nonracing events, such as a concert, the events can be
promoted to members. Depending on
how the members respond, additional offers can be made, or not
29. made, to them.
Lone Star Park could also team up to create an offering with
American Airlines. For example, the
track and the airline could compare customer lists and
determine which Star Player members are
also members of American's AAdvantage frequent-flier
program. These individuals could then be
offered discounts on trips to Louisville, Kentucky, where the
Kentucky Derby is held. Such an
offer is called cross-promotion marketing. A cross-promotion
can be used to introduce new
marketing members to a community; in this case, Lone Star
Park would be introducing American
Airlines to the horse racing community. The cross-promotion
creates credibility for the new
member, just as you are more likely to accept a recommendation
from a friend.
The Positive Effects of Loyalty Programs
When loyalty programs work, they result in one or more of the
four effects of loyalty: the blocker
effect, the spreader effect, the accelerator effect, and the
longevity effect. We'll start by describing
30. the longevity effect.
13
Figure 2.4 The Positive Effects of Loyalty Programs
The Longevity Effect
The longevity effect is lengthening the lifetime value of a
customer. One result of a good loyalty
program is that your buyers remain your customers for longer.
Because a loyalty company has
better information about its customers, it can create offerings
that are more valuable to them and
keep them coming back. Consider a loyalty program aimed at
customers as they progress through
their life stages. A grocery store might send diaper coupons to
the mother of a new baby and then,
five years later, send the mother coupons for items she can put
in her child's school lunches.
Loyalty programs also affect the longevity of customers by
31. increasing their switching
costs. Switching costs are the costs associated with moving to a
new supplier. For example, if
you are a member of a frequent-flier program, you might put up
with some inconveniences rather
than switching to another airline. So, if you are a member of
American's AAdvantage program,
14
you might continue to fly American even though it canceled one
of your flights, made you sit on a
plane on the ground for two hours, and caused you to miss an
important meeting. Rather than
starting over with a different program, you might be inclined to
continue to book your flights on
American so you can take a free trip to Europe sooner.
The Blocker Effect
The blocker effect is related to switching costs. The blocker
effect works this way: The personal
value equation of a loyalty program member is enhanced
because he or she doesn't need to spend
32. any time and effort shopping around. And because there is no
shopping around, there is no need
for the member to be perceptive to competitors' marketing
communications. In other words, the
member of the program "blocks" them out. Furthermore, the
member is less deal-prone, or
willing to succumb to a special offer or lower price from a
competitor.
The blocker effect can be a function of switching costs—the
costs of shopping around as well as
the hassles of having to start a new program over. However, the
effect can also be a function
of relevance. Because the loyalty marketer has both information
on whom the buyer is and data
on what the buyer has already responded to, more relevant
communications can be created and
aimed at the buyer. In addition, because belonging to the
program has value, any communication
related to the program are already more relevant to the buyer.
The Spreader Effect
The spreader effect refers to the fact that members of a loyalty
program are more likely to try
33. related products offered by the marketer. For example, an
American Airlines AAdvantage
member who also joins the company's Admiral's Club airport
lounge creates additional revenue
for the airline, as a does the member's purchase of a family
vacation through American's Vacation
services.
The spreader effect becomes even more pronounced when a
cross-promotion is added to the mix.
Earlier, we mentioned Lone Star Park might team with
American to offer a trip package to the
Kentucky Derby. Another example is Citibank offering you
AAdvantage miles if you get a Citibank
Visa card through American's AAdvantage program. Cross-
promotions such as these encourage
loyalty program members to try even more products from more
producers.
The Accelerator Effect
When rats running in a maze get closer to the cheese, they speed
up. Like rats in a maze,
consumers speed up, or accelerate, purchases when they are
about to reach a higher award level
34. 15
in a loyalty program, called the accelerator effect of a loyalty
program. In American's
AAdvantage program, for example, a member gets "Platinum"
status after flying 60 flights or
50,000 miles. Platinum members get special awards, such as
more frequent upgrades to first
class, boarding ahead of everyone else, not having to pay for
luggage and other fees, and double
mileage toward free flights. Someone who has 50 flights and
just needs 10 more to become
Platinum will start to fly American more frequently until the
Platinum level is reached. Then,
American hopes that the other effects (blocker, spreader, etc.)
will occur.
Companies can capitalize on the accelerator effect by making it
easy for members to track their
progress and notifying them when they are close to reaching
subsequent levels. American helps its
Advantage fliers track their progress by sending them monthly
updates on their levels. Couple
35. such a notification with a special offer, and a company is likely
to see even greater acceleration.
The accelerator effect can also be used with promotions that
create short-term, loyal behavior.
Pepsi created a promotion with Amazon in which purchasers
could accumulate points toward free
music downloads. The promotion, launched with a Justin
Timberlake Super Bowl ad, was a
knock-off of Coca-Cola's MyCokeRewards.com. Although they
weren't formal loyalty programs,
both promotions led to an accelerator effect as customers got
close to the award levels they
needed to redeem prizes.
Criteria for Successful Loyalty Programs
Just having a loyalty program is no guarantee of success,
though. Eight studies of more than a
dozen grocery-store loyalty programs in the United States and
Europe showed that five programs
had no impact on the loyalty of customers, two increased sales
but not profits, two had mixed
results, and five had positive results (Tanner Jr. & Morris,
2009). There are, however, several
characteristics of loyalty programs that can make them
36. effective, each of which is discussed next.
Good Performance by a Company
The first characteristic of an effective loyalty program is
performance. No loyalty program can
overcome a company's poor performance. Even the most loyal
buyer can put up with subpar
performance for only so long.
Responsiveness by a Company
Responsiveness is how well a company can take customer
information (such as complaints) and
alter what it does to satisfy the customer. Loyal customers are
more willing to complete surveys
and participate in market research, but they expect companies to
use the information wisely. For
example, when customers complain, they expect their problems
to be fixed and the company to
16
use the information so that the same problems don't reoccur.
Likewise, the members of influencer
37. panels expect to be listened to. If you ignore their input, you are
likely to alienate them, causing
them to switch to other brands.
A company's responsiveness—or lack thereof—also becomes
evident to buyers when they spot a
better offer. Precisely at that moment, they realize that the
company that created the better offer
was more responsive and worked harder to meet their needs.
Shared Identity Among Participants
Loyal customers are like sports fans—they wear their "team's"
colors. That's why loyalty programs
have names that sound prestigious, such as American's
"Executive Platinum" program. Loyal
customers also want to be recognized for their loyalty. Hampton
Inn, which is part of the Hilton
family of hotels, is one company that could do a better of job of
recognizing its customers—
literally. One of the authors of this text stays regularly at the
same Hampton Inn, only to be
greeted every time on arrival with the question, "Is this your
first stay with us?" The author is not
only a regular guest at that hotel but a member of Hilton
38. Honors, the hotel's loyalty program. But
apparently the Hampton Inn's reservation system doesn't provide
that information to its front
desk clerks. If you fail to recognize customers who are loyal,
you are essentially telling them that
their business isn't that important to you.
Clear Benefits
What are the benefits of being loyal? A loyalty program should
make those benefits clear. For
example, many airlines have a special boarding lane for
members. Travelers who are not
members can easily see the special treatment members receive.
If the elements of scarcity and
status can be created by a loyalty program, the benefits of
belonging to it will be obvious to
customers.
Community Development
Finally, marketers who can put loyal customers together with
other loyal customers are likely to
build a community around the common experience of
consumption. At Lone Star Park or
39. American Airlines, common consumption is obvious—people
are actually together. Building a
community in which people don't actually consume goods and
services together can be a bit more
difficult, but recall that Kraft has done so with its online
presence. Members of Kraft.com still
share their experiences, their recipes, their questions, and their
answers, thereby creating a sense
of "we're in this together." Some of the postings might be
related directly to Kraft products,
whereas others might only be indirectly related. Nonetheless,
they all provide Kraft with insight
17
into what its customers are thinking. Meanwhile, its customers
become more loyal as they
participate on the website.
Keep in mind that a loyalty program isn't necessary to create
loyalty. Lexus doesn't have a formal
loyalty program. Yet studies show that Lexus owners are the
most loyal luxury car buyers. Over
half of all Lexus owners buy another Lexus. (The brand's slogan
40. is "Once a Lexus buyer, always a
Lexus buyer.") By contrast, Mercedes-Benz has a loyalty
program, but only 40 percent of its
buyers purchase another Mercedes (Ireson, 2008).
A company can also offer its customers loyalty benefits that are
not a part of a formal loyalty
program. For example, Mercedes-Benz gives loyal buyers an
opportunity to suggest new features
via a contest, for which there is no prize other than the
recognition the winner gets because his
idea was selected. And like many other car manufacturers,
Mercedes offers owners special trade-
in deals. The challenge with loyalty promotions that lie outside
loyalty programs is collecting the
information marketers need to target customers.
2 . 2 K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Customer loyalty is both behavioral and attitudinal. Habitual
purchases are a form of behavioral loyalty.
Cause-related marketing can foster attitudinal loyalty among a
company's community of customers, as
can loyalty programs. Loyalty programs can have four positive
effects: they can increase the longevity, or
lifetime value, of customers; block competitors' marketing
efforts; encourage customers to buy related
41. offerings; and accelerate their purchases. Loyalty programs
don't automatically create loyalty among
customers, though. Loyalty is created when a company performs
well, responds to its customers,
identifies its loyal customers, makes the benefits of its loyalty
program transparent (obvious), and when
the firm builds a community among its customers.
2.3 Customer Satisfaction
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Understand satisfaction and satisfaction strategies.
2. Design a customer satisfaction measurement system.
3. Describe complaint management strategies.
Customer Satisfaction Defined
What comes to mind when you hear someone say, "A satisfied
customer"? Perhaps it is an image
of someone smiling with the pride of knowing he or she got a
good deal. Or perhaps it is the
childlike look of happiness someone exhibits after purchasing a
new pair of shoes that are just the
18
right color. Whatever your picture of a satisfied customer is,
customer satisfaction is typically
42. defined as the feeling that a person experiences when an
offering meets his or her expectations.
When an offering meets the customer's expectations, the
customer is satisfied. When an offer
exceeds customer's expectations, the customer is delighted.
Improving customer satisfaction is a goal sought by many
businesses. In fact, some companies
evaluate their salespeople based on how well they satisfy their
customers; in other words, not only
must the salespeople hit their sales targets, they have to do so in
ways that satisfy customers.
Teradata is one company that pays its salespeople bonuses if
they meet their customer
satisfaction goals.
Customer satisfaction scores have been relatively stable for the
past few years as illustrated
in Table 2.2, "Industry-Average Customer Satisfaction Scores,
2000–2008." You might think that
if increasing the satisfaction of customers were, indeed, the goal
of businesses, the scores should
show a steady increase. Why don't they? Maybe it's because just
satisfying your customers is
43. a minimal level of performance. Clearly customer satisfaction is
important. However, it isn't a
good predictor of a customer's future purchases or brand
loyalty. For example, one study of
customer satisfaction examined car buyers. Although the buyers
rated their satisfaction levels
with their purchases 90 percent or higher, only 40 percent of
them purchased the same brand of
car the next time around (Lambert-Pandraud, Laurent, &
Lapersonne, 2005).
Table 2.2 Industry-Average Customer Satisfaction Scores,
2000–2008
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Appliances 85 82 82 81 82 80 81 82 80
Computers 72 74 71 71 72 74 77 75 74
Electronics 83 81 81 84 82 81 80 83 83
Cars 80 80 80 80 79 80 81 82 82
Keep in mind, though, that satisfaction scores are a function of
what the customer expected as
well as what the company delivered. So the flat scores in Table
2.2, "Industry-Average Customer
44. Satisfaction Scores, 2000–2008,"reflect rising customer
expectations as well as improved
products. In other words, the better products get, the more it
takes to satisfy consumers.
There is also a downside to continuously spending more to
satisfy your customers. Research
shows that firms that do so can experience higher sales
revenues. However, after the additional
spending costs are factored in, the net profits that result are
sometimes marginal or even
negative. Nonetheless, satisfaction is not unimportant. A
company's performance on key factors is
19
critical both in terms of the loyalty and satisfaction it generates
among its customers (Souki &
Filho, 2008).
Customer Satisfaction Strategies
So what or how much should you do to improve the satisfaction
of your customer? If customer
satisfaction can be defined as the feeling a person experiences
when an offering meets his or her
45. expectations, then there are two critical ways to improve
customer satisfaction. The first is to
establish appropriate expectations in the minds of customers.
The second is to deliver on those
expectations.
We know that dissatisfied customers are likely to tell many
more friends about their negative
experiences than satisfied customers are about good
experiences. Why? Because there's more
drama in unmet expectations. A story about met expectations—
telling a friend about a night out
that was average, for example—is boring. Jan Carlson, a former
Scandinavian Airlines executive,
was famous for promoting the concept of "delighted" customers.
Carlson's idea was that
delighting customers by overexceeding their expectations
should result in both repeat business
and positive word of mouth for a firm. The fact that stories
about plain old satisfaction are boring
is also why influencer communities, such as JCPenney's
Ambrielle community, are so important.
Influencers have new offerings to talk about, which are
interesting topics, and other buyers want
46. to know their opinions.
Establishing appropriate expectations in the minds of customers
is a function of the prepurchase
communications the seller has with them. If you set the
expectations too low, people won't buy
your offering. But if you set the expectations too high, you run
the risk that your buyers will be
dissatisfied. A common saying in business is "under promise
and over deliver." In other words, set
consumers' expectations a bit low, and then exceed those
expectations in order to create delighted
customers who are enthusiastic about your product. A seller
hopes that enthusiastic customers
will tell their friends about the seller's offering, spreading lots
of positive word of mouth about it.
One customer satisfaction strategy that grew out of Carlson's
idea of delighting customers is to
empower customer-facing personnel. Customer-facing personnel
are employees that meet and
interact with customers. In a hotel, this might include desk
clerks, housekeepers, the bellmen, and
other staff. Empowering these employees to drop what they're
47. doing in order to do something
special for a customer, for example, can certainly delight
customers. In some organizations,
employees are even given a budget for such activities.
20
Ritz-Carlton employees each have an annual budget that can be
spent on customer service
activities, such as paying for dry cleaning if a customer spills
red wine on a dress in the hotel's
restaurant. Sewell Cadillac in Texas is famous for how its
employees serve its customers. An
employee will even pick up a customer up on a Sunday if a
Sewell-purchased car breaks down.
Other dealers might delegate such a service to another company,
but at Sewell, the same
salesperson who sold the car might be the person who handles
such a task. To Sewell, customer
service is too important to trust to another company—a
company that perhaps won't feel the same
sense of urgency to keep car buyers as satisfied as Sewell does.
48. Empowerment is more than simply a budget and a job
description—frontline employees also need
customer skills. Companies like Ritz-Carlton and Sewell spend
time and effort to ensure that
employees with customer contact responsibilities are trained
and prepared to handle small and
large challenges with equal aplomb.
Another customer satisfaction strategy involves offering
customers warranties and guarantees.
Warranties serve as an agreement that the product will perform
as promised or some form of
restitution will be made to the customer. Customers who are
risk-averse find warranties
reassuring.
One form of dissatisfaction is post-purchase dissonance, which
we will describe in Week 3,
"Consumer Behavior: How People Make Buying Decisions." It
is also called buyer's remorse.
Post-purchase dissonance is more likely to occur when an
expensive product is purchased, the
buyer purchases it infrequently and has little experience with it,
49. and there is a perception that it is
a high-risk purchase. Many marketers address post-purchase
dissonance by providing their
customers with reassuring communications. For example, a boat
dealer might send a buyer a
letter that expresses the dealer's commitment to service the boat
and that also reminds the buyer
of all the terrific reasons he or she purchased it. Alternatively,
the dealer could have the
salesperson who sold the boat telephone the buyer to answer any
questions he or she might have
after owning and operating the boat for a couple of weeks.
Measuring Customer Satisfaction
To measure customer satisfaction, you need to able to
understanding what creates it. Just asking
customers, "Are you satisfied?" won't tell you much. Yet many
companies often measure the
satisfaction of their customers on the basis of only a few
questions: "How satisfied were you
today?" "Would you recommend us to your friends?" and "Do
you intend to visit us again?"
50. 21
Effective customer satisfaction measures have several
components. The two general components
are the customer's expectations and whether the organization
performed well enough to meet
them. A third component is the degree of satisfaction, or to put
it in terms we've used to describe
exceptional performance, is the customer delighted?
To figure out if a customer's expectations were met and he or
she is delighted, more detail is
usually required. Companies might break the offering into major
components and ask how
satisfied customers were with each. For example, a restaurant
might ask the following:
• Were you greeted promptly by a host? By your server at your
table?
• Was your order taken promptly?
• How long did you wait for your food?
• Was the food served at the appropriate temperature?
51. These questions assume that each aspect of the service is
equally important to the customer.
However, some surveys ask customers to rate how important
they are. Other surveys simply
"weight," or score, questions so that aspects that are known to
be more important to customers
have a greater impact on the overall satisfaction score. For
example, a restaurant might find that
prompt service, good taste, and large portions are the only three
factors that usually determine
customers' overall satisfaction. In that case, the survey can be
shortened considerably. At the
same time, however, space should be left on the survey so
customers can add any additional
information that could yield important insight. This information
can be used to find out if there
are customer service problems that a firm wasn't aware of or if
the preferences of consumers in
general are changing.
You will still find customer satisfaction survey cards that just
ask, "How satisfied were you
today?" "Would you recommend us to your friends?" and "Do
you intend to visit us again?" The
52. information obtained from these surveys can still be useful if
it's paired with a more
comprehensive measurement program. For instance, a sample of
customers could be given the
opportunity to provide more detailed information via another
survey, and the two surveys could
be compared. Such a comparison can help the company pinpoint
aspects that need improvement.
In addition, the company has given every customer an
opportunity to provide input, which is an
important part of any empowerment strategy.
22
Complaint Management Strategies
When buyers want to complain about products or companies,
they have many ways to do so. They
can complain to the companies they're upset with, tell their
friends, or broadcast their concerns
on the Internet. People who use every Internet site possible to
bash a company are called verbal
terrorists. The term was coined by Paul Greenberg, a marketing
53. analyst who authored the wildly
popular book CRM at the Speed of Light.
Should companies worry about verbal terrorists? Perhaps. A
study indicates that customer
satisfaction scores could be less important to a firm's success or
failure than the number of
complaints it gets (Lou & Homberg, 2008). To measure the
tradeoff between the two, customer
satisfaction guru Fred Reicheld devised something called the
net promoter score. The net
promoter score is the number of recommenders an offering has
minus the number of complainers
(Reicheld, 2006). The more positive the score, the better the
company's performance. According
to another study, a company with fewer complaints is also more
likely to have better financial
performance.
Studies also show that if a company can resolve a customer's
complaint well, then the customer's
attitude toward the company is improved, possibly even beyond
the level of his or her original
satisfaction. Some experts have argued, perhaps jokingly, that if
54. this is the case, a good strategy
might be to make customers mad and then do a good job of
resolving their problems. Practically
speaking, though, the best practice is to perform at or beyond
customer expectations so fewer
complaints will be received in the first place.
Customers will complain, though, no matter how hard firms try
to meet or exceed their
expectations. Sometimes, the complaint is in the form of a
suggestion and simply reflects an
opportunity to improve the experience. In other instances, the
complaint represents a service or
product failure.
When a complaint is made, the process for responding to it is as
important as the outcome. And
consumers judge companies as much for whether their response
processes seem fair as whether
they got what they wanted. For that reason, some companies
create customer service departments
with specially trained personnel who can react to complaints.
Other companies invest heavily in
preparing all customer-facing personnel to respond to
55. complaints. Still other companies
outsource their customer service. When the service is technical,
marketers sometimes outsource
the resolution of complaints to companies that specialize in
providing technical service. Computer
help lines are an example. Technical-support companies often
service the computer help lines of
multiple manufacturers. A company that outsources its service
nonetheless has to make sure that
23
customer complaints are handled as diligently as possible.
Otherwise, customers will be left with a
poor impression.
Handling the Complaint Process
A good customer complaint-handling process involves the steps
listed below. Note that one step is
to acknowledge the customer's feelings. A customer who is
angry or upset due to a failure does not
want to be patronized or have his or her problems taken lightly.
The situation is important to the
customer and should be important to the person listening and
56. responding to the complaint.
• Listen carefully to the complaint
• Acknowledge the customer's feelings
• Determine the root cause of the problem
• Offer a solution
• Gain agreement on the solution and communicate the process
of resolution
• Follow up, if appropriate
• Record the complaint and resolution
Note that the complaint-resolution process involves
communicating that process and gaining
agreement on a solution, even if the customer sometimes might
not like the outcome. He or she
still needs to know what to expect.
Finally, the complaint process includes recording the complaint.
We stated earlier that a firm's
best strategy is to perform at or beyond the customer's
expectations so as to minimize the number
of complaints it receives in the first place. Analyzing your
company's complaints can help you
57. identify weak points in a service process or design flaws in a
product, as well as potential
miscommunications that are raising customers' expectations
unreasonably. To conduct this
analysis, however, you need a complete record of the
complaints made.
A complaint record should reflect the main reason an offering
failed. Typically, the failure can be
attributed to one (or more) of the following four gaps (Levy &
Weitz, 2009):
1. The communication gap. Overstating the offering's
performance level, thereby creating
unrealistic expectations on the part of customers.
2. The knowledge gap. Not understanding the customer's
expectations or needs, which then
leads a company to create a product that disappoints the
customer.
24
3. The standards gap. Setting performance standards that are too
low despite what is known
58. about the customers' requirements.
4. The delivery gap. Failing to meet the performance standards
established for an offering.
You can attribute the complaints your company receives to one
of the four gaps and then use the
information to figure out what must be done to fix the problem,
assuming you have one. If the
problem is overstating the performance, then perhaps your
firm's marketing promotions
materials should be reviewed. If it appears that the offering is
simply not meeting the needs of
your customers, then more work should be done to identify
exactly what they are. If your firm is
aware of the needs of its customers but there is a gap between
their requirements and the
standards set for your firm's performance, then standards should
be reviewed. Finally, your
company's processes should be examined to ensure that
standards are being met.
When the Smokey Bones chain of barbecue restaurants (owned
by Darden Restaurants) noticed
falling profits, managers cut costs by eliminating some menu
59. items. Unfortunately, these were the
items that made the chain unique; once they were gone, there
was nothing distinctive about the
chain's offerings. When customers complained, servers replied,
"Yes, a lot of people have
complained that those products are no longer available." But
apparently, there was no process or
way to get those complaints to register with the company's
management. As a result, the company
didn't realize why it was losing customers, and its profits
continued to spiral downward. Many
locations were closed and the company filed for bankruptcy.
Keep in mind that the complaint-handling process itself is
subject to complaints. As we
mentioned, customers want a process that's fair, even if the
outcome isn't what they hoped for.
Consequently, monitoring your firm's customer satisfaction
levels also means you must monitor
how satisfied customers are with how their complaints were
handled.
2 . 3 K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Measuring customer satisfaction is an important element of
60. customer empowerment. But satisfaction
alone is a minimal level of acceptable performance. It means
that the customer's expectations were met.
Getting positive word of mouth requires exceeding those
expectations. To minimize the number of
complaints, a company needs an effective process of both
handling complaints and understanding their
causes so any problems can be corrected. Because the complaint
process itself is subject to complaints,
monitoring your firm's customer satisfaction levels also means
you must monitor how satisfied customers
are with your company's complaint-handling system.
25
2.4 Customer Relationship Management
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Define customer relationship management.
2. Identify and describe three levels of customers.
3. Calculate customer lifetime value.
4. Describe best practices for CRM implementation.
5. Identify CRM metrics.
Peter Drucker, management guru of the mid-twentieth century,
said, "The purpose of a business
61. is to create customers." What he didn't say is it is even more
important to retain those customers.
As most businesses experience, it is easier and cheaper to keep
a customer than to continually
have to replace an existing customer by finding a new one and
convince him or her that the
product meets his or her personal value equation. That means
companies need to develop
strategies for creating, maintaining, and expanding profitable
customers.
Customer relationship management (CRM) is not just customer
service, although that is certainly
a part of it. CRM includes the systemic collection and analysis
of customer data and the strategies
employed to use that data to understand, recruit, and retain
satisfied (or delighted) customers.
Sometimes the term is used to describe the software used in a
CRM program, but a true CRM
program is much more than software; it is a systematic effort to
keep and retain customers. The
software helps compile the data.
The goal of CRM is to increase a customer's lifetime value
(LTV) to the company, or the
62. aggregate total of all the exchanges between the company and
the customer over the customer's
lifetime. To calculate LTV, take the revenue you earn from a
customer, subtract the money spent
on filling his or her needs, and adjust all of the payments for
time value of money. Suppose you
spend $100 every time you buy a pair of running shoes. You are
an avid runner, so you purchase
two pairs of shoes each year. You expect to run the rest of your
life, but practically, let's look at it
for the next 10 years. Therefore, the revenue you will generate
for the shoe company is $2,000.
Now, suppose the shoe company spent $35 in customer
acquisition costs to get your first
purchase of its shoes. That means you have a LTV of $1,165 to
the shoe company. This doesn't
even account for price increases or buying up to higher-priced
shoe models. It does get more
complicated in that the LTV is adjusted to account for the time
value of money, but we'll keep it
simple.
63. 26
Why is LTV important? Marketers use this information in a
number of ways. First, it identifies
their most valuable customers (MVCs), that group of regular
and loyal purchasers who do
not make up the majority of the company's customers, but the
customers who produce the most
profit per customer. MVCs are the customers that should receive
the company's highest level of
customer service and communication. MVCs are most often the
ones that sign up and participate
in loyalty programs discussed earlier. Most companies probably
have at least two other categories
of customers, and some of these customer groups may not be
worth the marketing expenses.
Let's take our shoe example again. Suppose the cost of
producing and distributing the running
shoe was $50. Add in the $35 acquisition cost, and certain
customers who only buy once are
worth only worth $15 LTV. That is a big difference from the
$1,165 noted above. Yet, the bulk of a
company's customers will most likely be the largest percentage
64. of customers, so they can't be
ignored. Figure 2.5 illustrates the most typical profile of
customer groups in consumer markets.
Figure 2.5 Levels of Customers Based on Profitability
Although initial and one-time transactions make up the bulk
of a company's customers, they represent the least profitable
per customer, and they must be constantly replaced
with new customers.
In other words, not all customers are created equal. To treat all
customers equally might be too
expensive for a company, or at least much less profitable.
Identifying customer groups in terms of
their long-term profit potential is greatly aided by CRM
software technology, which allows
companies to capture relevant information about customers,
track customer purchases, and all
customer communications.
Level 1
MVCs
65. Level 2
Repeat customers
Level 3
Initial and one-time
transactions
27
A second question that can be answered using LTV is how much
should the company spend in
customer support. With our running shoe example, if the
company hears from a one-time
purchaser of its running shoe either because he or she needs
clarification, has a complaint, or
wants to return the product, that cost needs to be subtracted
from the already low LTV of $15.
When computers first appeared in the marketplace, customer
service was a major issue for
technology companies because they were essentially creating
primary or new demand for a new
product category. There was a lot consumers didn't know about
computers. The cost of the
66. computers was relatively high, so customer service costs were
already factored in. But, as the cost
of the computers decreased, competition increased, and brand
loyalty to certain manufacturers
eroded, the profit margin on a computer sale decreased.
Something had to give. The computer
companies changed their customer service model.
For MVCs, it is likely that the computer company offered one-
on-one training and made it easier
to access phone support technicians and the like. For non-
MVCs, help took the form of websites
with endless clicking to find the information needed, and that
assumes customers could frame
their concerns in the form of a question. The company's goal is
to solve all issues with automated
phone and web-assisted systems. And, if a person rarely buys a
computer, customer service for an
old model could disappear completely.
A third benefit of CRM is the company's ability to know how to
best serve each customer group.
Indeed, as relationships are built, so also is the company's
knowledge of customer needs and
67. wants. This translates into the modification of offerings or
development of new offerings to serve
specific needs of specific customer groups, and likely a higher
LTV calculation.
A fourth benefit is cost savings from ensuring the right product
reaches the right consumers at the
right time. Additionally, relationships with customers allows the
company to cross-sell other
products, have a means to quickly offer sales promotions, seek
consumer input, and reduce
overall marketing communication costs. CRM reduces the need
for costly advertising because you
know your customers and how to reach them.
Unfortunately, there is no one best model of a good CRM
program. It is highly dependent on the
company's management philosophy, the industry, financial, and
human resources, price
structure, and the product or service itself. However, we can
identify best practices in CRM that
companies with productive customer relationships follow.
Business Week provides a useful list of best practices to
implement a CRM program (Thompson,
68. 2015).
28
First, involve top management in the design of a CRM program.
As Bill Brendler of Brendler and
Associates says, "If they don't lead the charge, CRM won't
happen (Thompson, 2015). Second,
restructure employee compensation to reinforce CRM priorities.
If a company wants MVCs, it has
to empower all employees with incentives to perform in a
customer-centric manner. Cisco
Systems, for example, rewards employees on whether the
company hits its customer satisfaction
targets (Thompson, 2015). Third, manage cultural change and
people issues carefully. The
company implementing CRM will face a whole new set of rules
and responsibilities. Involve as
many affected employees in the design and implementation
process, Brendler says (Thompson,
2015). Fourth, concentrate on customer lifetime value. This is
how customer groups are identified
and CRM strategies designed to serve each group. Fifth,
69. bulldoze paths, don't pave them. The
CRM technology is very powerful, and may be too powerful for
many companies to quickly adopt
and find useful. This may cause errors in the acquisition and
analysis of CRM data or cultivating
the wrong information that ultimately may be more damaging
than no CRM program. Technology
is the means to an end, it is not the end itself. But a CRM
program has to start somewhere and if
resources require a small effort, then get that up and running;
you can always add components to
CRM (Thompson, 2015). Sixth, push the project. Identify a
project leader who has enough clout
with employees to be the change agent, and continue to be the
change agent as the CRM program
takes shape, encounters problems, and needs modifications.
Lastly, provide training and support
and prepare for continuous improvement. Successful CRM is an
ongoing process requiring the
right people and the right training. CRM is also organic; it will
grow and change over time as the
company reaps the results of successful customer relationships
(Thompson, 2015).
70. How does a company know if its CRM program is successful? In
general, there are three
categories of metrics to consider. The first are the traditional
business performance metric such as
number of retained customers, renewal rates, or the amount of
new revenue from current
customers. The second category is user adoption metrics such as
number of visits and time spent
on websites, completeness of customer provided information.
The third category is customer
perception metrics such as customer satisfaction rates.
2 . 4 K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process for
creating, maintaining, and expanding
profitable customer relationships. CRM programs differ
depending on many factors both inside and
outside the company, but all CRM programs divide customers
into levels and focus most of their attention
on the company's most valuable customers (MVCs). CRM is
high data driven, but the data is only one
piece of the CRM puzzle. The other pieces include the analysis
of the data and the strategies the company
develops in response to that analysis. The goal of CRM is to
increase a customer's lifetime value (LTV) by
offering superior products and services as identified by the
customers.
71. 29
2.5 Ethics, Laws, and Customer Empowerment
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S
1. Apply general ethical principles and concepts to online
marketing.
2. Explain the laws that regulate online and other types of
marketing.
While we are discussing customers, now is a good time to
introduce the concept of marketing
ethics and laws government marketing practices. Ethics has
become even more relevant than
truth in advertising now that we have customer communities
that are virtually unedited.
You are about to graduate and move to another city to start a
new job. Your employer is paying for
your moving expenses, so you go online to see what people have
to say about the different moving
companies. One company has particularly good reviews, so you
hire it. Yet what actually happens
72. is vastly different—and a complete disaster. Little surprise,
then, when you later discover that the
company actually paid people to post those positive reviews!
Unfortunately, such an experience has happened so often that
the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) is now considering rewriting rules regarding
endorsements and whether companies need to
announce their sponsorships of messages.
Once upon a time, before the days of the Internet, any form of
selling under another guise or a
phony front was called sugging (a word created from the first
letters of selling under the guise,
or SUG). The term was primarily applied to a practice in which
a salesperson would pretend to be
doing marketing research by interviewing a consumer, and then
turn the consumer's answers into
reasons to buy. Some companies have hired young, good-
looking, outgoing men and women to
hang out in bars and surreptitiously promote a particular brand
of alcohol or cigarettes. Sugging
seems to be a good term to apply to fake reviews, as well.
73. Truly, in no other marketplace should the term caveat emptor
apply as strongly as it does on the
Internet. Caveat emptor means, "let the buyer beware," or "it's
your own fault if you buy it and it
doesn't work!" Product reviews can be posted by anyone—even
by a company or its competitors.
So how do you know which ones to trust? Often, you don't. Yet
many of us do trust them. One
study found that over 60 percent of buyers look for online
reviews for their most important
purchases, including over 45 percent of senior citizens (Neff,
2007).
30
While sugging isn't illegal, it isn't fair. Not only is the content
potentially misrepresented, but the
source certainly is. As you already know, a marketer cannot
make promises about an offering's
capabilities unless those capabilities are true. Sugging is
similar—it involves misrepresenting or
lying about the source of the information in an effort to gain an
74. unfair advantage.
The consequences of being caught while sugging can be high.
Even if the information posted was
actually an accurate depiction of the offering's capabilities and
benefits, consumers will be less
likely to believe it—or any of the other the company's
marketing communications, for that matter.
The loss of trust makes building any kind of lasting relationship
with a buyer extremely difficult.
Legal Requirements
So far, there are no regulations regarding sugging, although that
may change if the FTC decides a
crackdown is needed. There are, however, regulations affecting
how one uses e-mail to sell.
Specifically, the CAN-SPAM Act prohibits the use of e-mail,
faxes, and other technology to
randomly push a message to a potential consumer. Spam is a
term for unwanted commercial e-
mail similar to junk mail. Using e-mail and other forms of
technology to sell is legal if the seller
and the buyer have a preexisting relationship or if the buyer has
given his or her permission.
75. Permission marketing is a term that was created to suggest that
marketers should always ask for
permission to sell or to offer buyers marketing messages. The
idea was that when permission is
granted, the buyer is willing to listen. Now, however, anything
"free" online requires that you sign
up and give "permission," not just to get the freebie but also all
kinds of future spam and
annoying messages. You might also inadvertently give a seller
permission or allow it to sell your
name and contact information. When you sign up for contests or
agree to the seller's privacy
statement when you order something online, you may have
given the seller permission to resell
your contact information to one of its "partners."
Because of trust issues and the overuse of permission
marketing, many consumers
create dump accounts, or e-mail addresses they use whenever
they need to register for
something online. The dump account is used only for this
purpose, so that all spam goes to that
account and not the person's personal account. Many consumers
find it easier to use dump
76. accounts rather than read every privacy policy and try to
remember which vendors won't sell the
e-mail addresses to their "partners" for marketing purposes.
Therefore, when you are a marketing
manager, don't expect all the e-mail addresses you collect from
a free offer to be valid.
31
Figure 2.6
Attendees to the LinuxWorld trade show agree when they buy
their tickets to allow the
exhibitors to send them e-mail, postal mail, and marketing
messages through a variety of
channels. Some companies use preshow e-mails to get attendees
to visit their booths.
Postshow e-mails might be part of a follow-up campaign.
Source: Photo by Arnold Reinhold. (2006). Wikimedia
Commons. Used under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
77. Unported license.
In the B2B world, when attendees sign up for a trade show, they
often give the show's exhibitors
permission to send them e-mails and other information. Most
sellers won't send marketing
communication to fax machines because they are often shared
by a number of people, and there is
no guarantee that the intended person will receive the fax.
Using e-mail, however, is acceptable
because the buyer gave permission.
Privacy Laws
US privacy laws apply to both Internet marketing and other
forms of commerce. The laws limit
the amount and type of information a company can collect about
a consumer and also specify how
that information can be used or shared. In the EU, the types of
data a company can collect are
fewer, and the sharing of information is far more restricted. For
example, a company cannot share
information about customers in one division with another
division. (Sending out unsolicited e-
mails to potential buyers is also restricted in Europe.)
78. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 requires financial
institutions to provide written notice
of their privacy policies. Privacy policies are statements
regarding how a company will use and
protect a consumer's private data. The law was broadened in
2003 to apply to a wider array of
companies and consumer information.
32
The FTC requires a company to follow its policy or face severe
penalties, even if the company is
not required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to have a privacy
policy. So, if you own a bookstore
and you have a privacy policy, even though the law doesn't
require you to have one, you have to
follow the FTC's rules. And if you decide to change your
privacy policy (for example, you decide to
sell your customer list to Amazon), you have to notify your
customers of the new policy.
What kind of data do companies want on you? (Refer to Week 3,
79. "Consumer Behavior: How
People Make Buying Decisions," and Week 4, "Market
Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning.")
They want to know where you live so they can apply data to
know you better and create marketing
messages more likely to persuade you to buy something. They
want to know how much you make
to see if you can afford a higher-priced product. They want to
know about the other things you
buy, because that will likely affect what you buy in the future.
If you own a boat, for example,
you're more likely to buy fishing gear in the future. If you buy
fishing gear, you're more likely to
buy clothes from Columbia. And so on. The more they know,
the more they can create offers
tailored to fit your lifestyle and to entice you to buy.
Figure 2.7
Your university may know a lot about you, including your
health history, your financial
situation, and even the car you drive—not just the make and
model, but the specific car. The
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act requires your school to protect that
80. data so your privacy is protected.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Some organizations also have data, such as your social security
number, that criminals could use
to steal your identity. For example, think about how much
information your university has on
you. It not only has your social security number, but your
university may also have your financial
information (through financial aid), your health information
(through the campus health center),
and your vehicle information (through parking fees). Protecting
that information so you aren't
harmed is a huge responsibility for the university.
33
Privacy policies and privacy laws apply to both business
customers and individual consumers. As
we will discuss in Week 6, "Using Marketing Channels to
Create Value for Customers," many
81. business buyers require vendors to sign nondisclosure
agreements (NDAs) that specify what
information is proprietary, or owned by the customer, and how,
if at all, the seller can use that
information. NDAs are not an online tool specifically but are
often used in the normal course of
business.
What about the offering itself? When you buy something online,
you don't get to see it first, so
how do you know it is what the seller says it is, and what can
you do if it isn't?
The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is a group of laws that
govern commercial practices in
the United States. The UCC defines many aspects of sales, such
as when a sale actually takes place
and what warranties buyers can expect.
Warranties and Promises
A warranty is a promise by the seller that an offering will
perform as the seller said it would. The
UCC makes a distinction between two types of warranties. The
first is an expressed warranty,
which is an oral or written statement by the seller regarding
82. how the product should perform and
the remedies available to the consumer in the event the offering
fails.
An implied warranty is an obligation for the seller to provide an
offering of at least average
quality, beyond any written statements. For example, when you
buy a new car, there is an implied
warranty that it will run as promised after you drive it off the
lot. You also have the right to expect
average quality for any characteristic of a product that you buy
online, except for those
characteristics specifically described in the online material. If
you were able to inspect the product
before you bought it, such as looking at it in a store, the implied
warranty only applies to those
aspects you couldn't inspect or observe in the store.
Where the law gets tricky is when it comes to other forms of
writing. Marketing messages,
whether written in a brochure or advertisement or stated by a
salesperson, are considered implied
warranties. Any written statement about what the offering does
has to be true, or it violates the
83. UCC's definition of an implied warranty (and is therefore
punishable by law).
Keep in mind that a salesperson can create an implied warranty
in an e-mail or during an online
chat session if he or she makes a promise. Even if the
salesperson says something that contradicts
a company's written material elsewhere, the consumer has the
right to believe what the
salesperson says. As such, the salesperson's promise is legally
binding.
34
Protecting Your Company
As a marketer, you have an obligation to protect your company
from consumers who might not
have honest intentions. For example, have you noticed how you
sometimes have to reproduce a
strange-looking set of letters or words before you are allowed to
make a purchase when buying
something online? That simple step prevents automatic ordering
by bots. A bot, which is short
for robot, is a kind of program that performs automatic
84. functions online. One of those functions
could be to purchase products, such as tickets to a highly
desirable sporting event, which the
buyer can then resell at a higher price. Or a bot could be used to
obtain many units of a freebie
that someone can then resell. Bots can be used for many illicit
purposes; a good marketer
anticipates their uses and creates barriers to prevent being taken
advantage of.
A legal tool to help protect your company is the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act. This act is
designed to prevent copyrighted material from being pirated
online. While prominent cases
involve downloading music, your marketing information is also
included. When you find a good
way to market your offerings online, a competitor can't just
steal your communications and insert
its name. You are protected by this act.
What is very difficult to protect against is phishing, or
soliciting personal information in order to
steal an identity and use it to generate cash fraudulently.
However, you may find it reassuring to
85. your customers to remind them of your privacy policies and
your customer contact practices. For
example, a bank may remind its customers that it will never ask
for a social security number by e-
mail. Making sure your customer contact policies protect your
customers can also help protect
them against phishing from someone pretending to be you or
your company.
2 . 5 K E Y T A K E A W A Y
Sugging is selling under any phony type of front. It includes
posting fake reviews about products online.
Sugging damages a seller's trust among buyers and should never
be done. US laws govern how products
can be marketed, both those that are sold electronically and
through more traditional channels.
Companies must have permission before they can send you
spam, and they have to tell you how they will
gather and use your personal information. Warranties—
expressed and implied—are binding no matter
how companies deliver them. Good marketers anticipate less-
than-honest activities by individuals and
take steps to prevent them. Bots are online robots that some
people use to take advantage of marketers.
W E E K 3 P R E V I E W
Week 3 continues with our focus on the customer. Next week,
we are going to uncover how consumers
think when making purchase decisions—or decisions not to
86. purchase. This is called consumer behavior.
We will be looking at the process we use in our heads (and
sometimes on a napkin) to outline our criteria
for a purchase decision, how we seek information, and how we
evaluate our criteria. We will discover that
some of our thought processes are rational and some are very
irrational. Also explored during Week 3 are
35
the things that go on inside consumers' minds as they process
the information and move through the
stages of the buying process. These can be social or
psychological. Since we are all consumers, you should
enjoy this material and gain greater insight into your own
buying decisions.
Week 2 References
Overview
Ramani, G., & Kumar V. (2008). Interaction orientation and
firm performance. Journal of Marketing, 72
(1), 27–41.
Section 2.1
Abell, J. C. (2009, June 12). Dude—Dell's making money off
Twitter.
Wired. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/06/dude-%E2%80%94-
dells-making-money-off-twitter
American Marketing Association (AMA). Dictionary. Retrieved
January 29, 2015, from marketing-
87. dictionary.org.
Beal, A. (2009, April 24). Forrester predicts huge growth for
social media marketing. Retrieved August 26,
2009, from
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/04/forrester-social-
media-growth.html
Marketing Weekly News. (2009). Give real; Leading online
gifting service Givereal.com partners with
Bombay Sapphire to serve up the perfect summer cocktail
through the web. 225.
Section 2.2
Ireson, N. (2008, September 3). Lexus first in owner loyalty
survey, Saab last. Retrieved July 13, 2009, from
http://www.motorauthority.com/jd-power-lexus-first-in-luxury-
owner-loyalty-saab-last.html
Reicheld, F., & Teal, T. (2001). The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden
Force Behind Growth, Profits and Lasting
Value. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Reinartz, W. J., & Kumar, V. (2003). The impact of customer
relationship characteristics on profitable
lifetime duration. Journal of Marketing, 67(1), 77–96.
Tanner Jr., J. F., & Morris, D. (2009, March). Customer
empowerment. BPT Partners, LLC.
Van Yoder, S. (2008). Cause-related marketing. Retrieved
October 10, 2008, from
http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/5529/marketing/ca
use_related_marketing.html
Section 2.3
88. Lambert-Pandraud, R., Laurent, G., & Lapersonne, E. (2005).
Repeat purchasing of new automobiles by
older consumers: Empirical evidence and interpretations.
Journal of Marketing, 69(2), 97–106.
Levy, M., & Weitz, B. (2009). Retailing management (7th ed.).
Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill.
Lou, X., & Homburg, C. (2008). Satisfaction, complaint, and
the stock value gap. Journal of
Marketing, 72(3), 29–43.
Reicheld, F. (2006). The ultimate question: Driving good profits
and true growth. Boston: Harvard Business
Press.
36
Souki, G., & Filho, C. G. (2008). Perceived quality, satisfaction
and customer loyalty: An empirical study in
the mobile phones sector in Brazil. International Journal of
Internet and Enterprise Management, 5(4),
298–314.
Section 2.4
Thompson, B. (2015, January 21). Best principles to practice for
effective CRM. Businessweek.com.
Retrieved January 21, 2015, from
http://www.businessweek.com/adsections/care/relationship/crm_
effective.htm
Section 2.5
89. Neff, J. (2007). Spate of recalls boost potency of user reviews.
Advertising Age, 78(43) 3–4.
Week 2Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, Empowerment, and
Management2.1 Customers and Customer
CommunitiesInfluencer PanelsOrganizing and Managing
Influencer PanelsSocial Networking Sites and Other Social
Media2.1 KEY TAKEAWAY2.2 Loyalty
ManagementBehavioral LoyaltyAttitudinal LoyaltyLoyalty
ProgramsThe Positive Effects of Loyalty ProgramsThe
Longevity EffectThe Blocker EffectThe Spreader EffectThe
Accelerator EffectCriteria for Successful Loyalty
ProgramsGood Performance by a CompanyResponsiveness by a
CompanyShared Identity Among ParticipantsClear
BenefitsCommunity Development2.2 KEY
TAKEAWAYCustomer Satisfaction DefinedCustomer
Satisfaction StrategiesMeasuring Customer
SatisfactionComplaint Management StrategiesHandling the
Complaint Process2.3 KEY TAKEAWAY2.4 Customer
Relationship Management2.4 KEY TAKEAWAY2.5 Ethics,
Laws, and Customer EmpowermentLegal RequirementsPrivacy
LawsWarranties and PromisesProtecting Your Company2.5 KEY
TAKEAWAYWeek 3 Preview
Writing Assignment 2 Due March 31st
Part 2 - Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, Management and
Empowerment
Product Selection:
Ford F-150 pickup trucks
Trucks have been gaining in popularity and this brand is an
powerhouse with its evolution reflecting USA culture since
1948. People tend to buy truck brands that reflect their own
personality traits. If you don't believe me, just compare the
commercials.
90. Learning Outcomes
1.Customer empowerment. Student can identify how their
chosen product or service offering uses social networks to
communicate and empower customers to be part of the
marketing process.
2.Customer satisfaction. Student can identify how customers
communicate their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the
chosen product or service offering.
3.Customer Relationship Management. Student can explain
customer lifetime value and how a customer relationship
management program can have a role in attracting and retaining
most valuable customers.
4.Customer privacy. Student can identify the product or service
offerings privacy policy and analyze its effectiveness in
protecting their customer’s information.
Directions
•You may want to find a Most Valuable Customer (MVC) of the
product or service if you are not one yourself, or alternatively
think like an MVC. What is the evidence of an MVC of your
product or service? It isn't just that the customer regularly buys
the product or service. It means that the customer is treated
differently -- better -- than other customers. It means that the
MVC represents about 20% of the company's revenues. These
are the customers with whom the company regularly
communicates, offers special deals, and other ways as outlined
in the text and as you can find with just a little bit of googling
on the internet.
•You may want to calculate the lifetime value of a most
valuable customer. See the discussion of the lifetime value
calculation in the week's reading, and calculate the LTV using
this simple equation: LTV = (Price - cost to produce the
product) * number of annual purchases * number of years
expected to purchase - initial acquisition costs. For simplicity
sake, you can assume your customer will have a relationship
with you for ten years and you can make an educated guess as to
91. how much the initial acquisition costs were to get him as a
customer in terms of advertising or other types of promotion
efforts. If you are not an MVC yourself, make and share your
assumptions about your calculation. If you are not an MVC, you
might want to find someone who is and ask them why they are
loyal to the product or service and what they feel the company
does for them that is special that they don't do for other
customers.
•You may need call or visit a store to take a look at your
product or service if the website does not provide you
everything you need to evaluate the company's product or
service privacy policy. Usually the privacy policy is available
on the website.
•Answer the following four questions in order and number the
beginning of your response to each question.
1.Customer Empowerment. How does your product or service
offering empower its customers as discussed in the course
readings this week? In other word, how are customers part of
the marketing for the company? Identify the feedback vehicles
they may use, especially social media. Do the social media
efforts seem to be creating buzz marketing? If not, what could
they do to generate more ‘buzz’?
2.Customer satisfaction. How does your product or service
offering communicate ways for customers to express their
dissatisfaction? If possible, outline what remedies the product
or service may be taking to ensure satisfaction.
3.Customer Relationship Management. Does it appear that your
product has a customer relationship management strategy? In
other words, do they treat the top tier of customers differently
than other customers? If so, what is your evidence? If not,
should they have a CRM strategy? Or, are there compelling
reasons why your product or service should treat all customers
the same? Refer to course content concepts in your response.
4.Customer privacy. Review your product or service offering's
privacy policy (usually published on its website). Analyze
whether you think they do enough to protect the customer’s
92. privacy or what steps you might suggest they take to protect
customer's privacy. Refer to the privacy policies or the
information on warranties and guarantees. The company's
customer support page might also be useful. Do they publish a
remedy should the customer's privacy be breached? Should
they?
General Submission Requirements
•Prepare as a word processed document (such as Microsoft
Word). Use Times New Roman 12-point font. Use black ink for
majority of your work and only use colors if it enhances your
ability to communicate your thoughts.
• Your assignment should be the equivalent of approximately
five pages of double-spaced text, approximately 1/2 page for
each of the eight questions (four in Part 1 and four in Part 2).
You may attach exhibits that will not be counted towards the
page count of double-spaced text. The cover page and
Bibliography page are not part of the five pages of written
analysis.
• Be sure your name, writing assignment number, and the name
of your product or service are on the cover page of your writing
assignment.
• Include a bibliography, which includes at least four
references.
•Use APA style, or any other college-level style guide.
Refer to the grading rubric associated with the assignments. Be
sure to note that 20% of your grade on this assignment will be
based on your grammar, composition, adherence to the
submission requirements, and use of an appropriate college-
level style guide for writing and referencing.