Retailers differ in the way they communicate attributes of their products. Whereas some retailers choose to present only technical specifications, others try to communicate the benefits of each attribute. We explore the mechanism by which positive (vs. neutral) attribute framing influences shoppers' perceived price fairness and their preference for premium products. Customer inspiration is introduced as a new construct which comprises the realization and processing of a new idea or insight and is proposed to mediate these effects. Our findings support the mediating role of customer inspiration. We further present evidence that involvement moderates the effect of positive attribute framing on customer inspiration. Implications for shoppers and retailers are discussed.
Using an extensive field study in furniture retailing, we compare the effectiveness of abstract and concrete messages for active and passive personalization in stimulating consumer response. Results suggest that abstract messages are more effective for active than passive personalization. This effect is qualified by the message's fit to consumers' preferences.
We conceptualize and introduce a new form of one-to-one marketing using lifestyle content. Three consecutive field studies in the context of furniture retailing explore this new type of individualization. Our results suggest that (1) a link between products and lifestyle segments exists, (2) this link enables marketers to infer customers' lifestyle segments by analyzing their purchase behavior using machine learning algorithms, and (3) that companies can benefit financially from tailoring ads with lifestyle content to customers' individual lifestyles. Specifically, we find that individualized lifestyle marketing not only increases click rates but might also lead to higher purchase probabilities, larger number of products bought, and increased customer spending. Furthermore, we explore the effect of different individualization methods using either customers' self-stated preferences or preferences inferred from loyalty card data using a machine learning algorithm. We compare individualized lifestyle marketing to individualized product recommendations and discuss implications for marketing theory and managerial practice.
This research merges the conceptualization of inspiration with goal systems theory to analyze the effect of novelty on inspiration for experts and non-experts in the context of physical exercising. The results indicate that the effect of novelty depends on the interplay of the content (goals vs. means) with participants' expertise.
While inspiration plays an essential role in everyday consumer language and marketing practice, practitioners often lack a clear understanding of the drivers of inspiration. Scientifically, inspiration challenges established categorizations as it combines cognitive and motivational aspects of human behavior. By integrating inspiration with goal systems theory, this paper proposes a framework for the psychological processes which drive inspiration in marketing. Across three experimental studies, we test the ability of a goal-systemic perspective to predict effects on inspiration. Study 1 reveals that inspiration can result both from the addition of new means as well as new goals and depends on participants' pre-existing goal-systems. Study 2 replicates these findings and shows that the effects on inspiration are largely mediated by the strength of new goal-means associations. Finally, study 3 explores the effect of participants' mindsets on inspiration through new goals and means. Overall, these results provide evidence that the effects of realizing new goals and new means on inspiration depend on pre-existing goal systems and mindsets in a way that is consistent with goal systems theory. Therefore, goal systems theory can provide a useful framework for the analysis of inspiration in consumer research.
In the age of cross-channel commerce, successful firms must identify, develop, and
implement the right cross-channel services to attract and satisfy their target customers. This book aims to assist multi-channel players to increase their company's Performance and enhance their overall value proposition by showing how to select the appropriate cross-channel strategy and how to establish synergies between online and offline channels.
. Outstanding holistic management approach
. Only book on the topic that is suitable for both retailers and manufacturers around the world
. Valuable insights for academics and practitioners
Wie schafft man es heute, ein Handelsunternehmen erfolgreich zu managen? Die Antwort klingt einfach: 1.) Man ist näher am Kunden dran und erfüllt dessen Bedürfnisse besser als die Konkurrenz, 2.) ist stärker vernetzt und hat 3.) seine Geschäftsprozesse im Griff. Doch warum schaffen es nur wenig Händler, diesen Dreiklang erfolgreich zu spielen? Einige dieser Virtuosen der Handelslandschaft möchten wir in der Folge vorstellen. Darauf aufbauend legen wir einen Ansatz zur Ausgestaltung der entscheidenden drei Schlüsselkompetenzen im Handels-management dar. Doch zunächst die zentrale Herausforderung, die zur Beschäftigung mit den besagten Schlüsselkompetenzen auffordert.
This paper uses a comparative case study approach to explain how multichannel firms adapt their organizational design to adequately respond to a disruptive change in the environment - the so-called research shopping phenomenon. Although there is significant research on how firms adapt their organizational design to facilitate innovations driven by incremental contingency misfits with the environment, there still is a relatively limited understanding of how firms adjust their organization design to foster innovations based on disruptive changes in the environment. Based on 69 interviews with 63 top and middle managers from eight multichannel retailers, we extend previous research on organizational design adaptation as well as multibusiness organization and propose a framework consisting of four ideal routes of organizational design adaptation multichannel retailers can adopt to structurally cope with the disruptive change in consumer behavior. We focus on a) changes in organization structure, b) cross-channel collaboration, and c) locus of decision-making of multichannel incumbents to derive these four distinctive routes of organizational design adaptation. Our results show how each route differs in its capacity to promote the adoption of the research-shopping phenomenon and illustrate the four identified routes with examples of German and Swiss multichannel retailers.
