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The article discusses the issue of Internet marketing from the perspective of the consumers. Using experimental design and conjoint analysis, the paper determines the risk perception of Internet shoppers and their responses to different types of risk reduction mechanisms available when shopping through the Internet. The results of the study show that consumers perceived Internet shopping to be of higher risk than in-store shopping and only those who are less risk averse are more likely to shop on Internet. The conjoint analysis shows that generally, the most preferred risk reliever is reference group appeal, followed by retailer's reputation, brand image and warranty. The risk perceptions of both parties need to be addressed in order to realize the full potential of Internet marketing. This study shows a close correlation between risk aversion and Internet shopping tendency. This implies that Internet marketers should focus on the less risk averse consumers as their initial target segment and work on using the appropriate risk relievers to lower the perceived risk of the mostly risk averse consumers.

Urban versus suburban shopping environments present unique opportunities and challenges for retailers. Retailers in both urban and suburban locations attempt to both attract outshoppers and retain their hold on shoppers in their immediate trade areas. To this end, it is incumbent on retailers to understand the dynamics underlying consumers' decisions to shop in urban versus suburban retailing settings. This is especially important for consumer shopping behavior during the December holiday selling season which accounts for a disproportionate share of many retailers' yearly revenues and profits. Reports on a three-year study conducted in a major metropolitan area which addresses shopping behaviour, intentions, retail satisfaction and its antecedents between urban resident shoppers and suburban resident shoppers. Implications are presented for retailers who have chosen to emphasize strategically urban or suburban locations as well as for those retailers who have branch stores in both geographic locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compares two of the largest and most recent examples of international franchising with Europe. Data collected from UK master franchisee personnel are used to illustrate how Friendly Hotels became the European master franchisee for Choice Hotels International and how Scotts Hotels became a major provider of Marriott International hotels in the UK. Focuses particularly on a comparison of the two relationships and on levels of product-system transfer. Concludes by drawing out the issues relating to the introduction and marketing of international franchise brands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigates the effect of five company-specific independent variables on the decision of professional business service franchisors to internationalize their operations. A model using resource-based theories and agency theories for its theoretical foundation is developed and tested. The results indicate that internal characteristics of the franchising system, especially the number of outlets, significantly influence the intention of domestic franchisors to seek franchisees overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of international business, combined with an increase in the number of service offerings, underscores the importance of understanding effective promotional strategies for services versus goods in international markets. The current study examines advertising appeals for services and goods across four different countries: Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico and the USA. Results of a content analysis indicate that the use of rational and emotional appeals differs across both product type and country. It is suggested that culture plays a role in the use of the appeals and that the product type × country interaction is strongly reflected in Taiwanese and US advertising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines consumer preferences for forthcoming technological innovations. Studies consumer response to different levels of technology over time. Looks at preferences for existing and intermediate technologies when future ones are expected. Focuses on technological consumer durables that are expected to evolve over time. The primary contributions of this research are: an understanding of how consumer preferences for a technology are affected by the time of adoption; an understanding of the value to consumers of obtaining different levels of a technology, at different points in time; and the utilization of parsimonious indices to assess consumer response to different levels of technology over time. An empirical examination is conducted for high definition television (HDTV). Using survey data, the study explores consumer preferences for HDTV, and for interim television technologies. Managerial implications to aid product design, and the timing of introduction of evolving technological innovations, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In developing pricing strategies for the global marketplace, sellers have to consider the differences in how their consumers process information on prices. One potential difference is in attributions: whether the consumer blames the seller for a negative outcome such as a price increase. Prior research suggests that in individualistically oriented groups such as Anglos (and perhaps males), causal attributions are egocentrically biased: the cause of a negative outcome tends to be attributed to the actions of another person. In collectively oriented groups such as Hispanics (and perhaps females), the bias is much less. Empirical results, however, reveal that all groups demonstrate biased attributions of price increases. As a result, they have a less positive attitude toward the seller. The difference is that Hispanics and females generally infer that sellers have behaved in a more socially approved manner than do Anglos and males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the method for identifying consumer or industrial product functions. The role played by marketing research in really new products is felt to be limited. Buyers simply cannot describe needs for products which do not exist. Traditional marketing research methods here are largely confined to asking people about problems with current products, watching them use these products, and asking them to use new prototypes in extended use tests. A test of the method among 30 middle-aged mothers regarding needs and opportunities for new food-related products indicated latent needs for products which will give them more education about food, enhance their enjoyment of food, and enable them to prepare foods which have healing and energizing properties. These suggested a level of interest in some unique new functions, if only among a subset of mothers. Subsequent depth interviews permitted researchers to imagine ultimate definitions and forms for these products. The purpose of qualitative research is to identify the existence of an attitude or behavior rather than its incidence.

The article presents a study that examined the effectiveness of using endorsers for marketing products. This article has significant implications regarding the choice of appropriate celebrities for product endorsements. Understanding the effectiveness of endorsers is an important issue for both practitioners and academics. Indeed, there have been a number of studies that have examined whether, and under what conditions, celebrities make appropriate endorsers for products. Most of the empirical work on the match-up hypothesis has focused on the physical attractiveness of the endorser. The argument is that attractive celebrities are more effective endorsers for products which are used to enhance one's attractiveness. Early research found that the effectiveness of endorsers varies by product. Although the match-up hypothesis has generally been framed within the context of physical attractiveness, the purpose of this article is to explore whether it is attractiveness or expertise which makes for a stronger match-up factor.

The article provides information on the use of continuing franchise fees in Australia. Australia provides a unique laboratory for the study of franchise fees because of the particular characteristics of its franchising sector. One particular characteristic of franchise fees in Australia, the use of flat continuing fees as opposed to the more common percentage based fees, is explored in this article. The frequency of use of flat continuing fees and the motivations of franchisers for using them are investigated. The method of data collection is explained and descriptive statistics are reported and then the reasons for using flat continuing fees are explored and hypotheses are developed and tested. Franchise contracts normally require the payment of fees from the franchisee to the franchiser at differing stages of the agreement. The franchiser often receives payment from the franchisee in the form of an initial fee for the right to enter the franchise, for providing initial start-up services and entitlement to participate in the reputation of the franchise.

The article focuses on a study which uses concepts of strategic adaptation with marketing concepts of customer needs, market segmentation, and services marketing to identify and describe the competitive advantages developed by firms pursuing emerging specialty franchising strategies. The increased use of franchising strategies include the growth in the service sector and the fast pace of today's society. Customers seek faster, more efficient ways of obtaining goods and services. Large bureaucratic organizations today have been accused of not being sufficiently responsive to customer concerns. Mobile franchises, by focusing their markets and driving their services/products directly to the customer, have executed the concept of being "close to the customer." Some franchisers offer multiple approaches to direct customer contact as customers can be quite sensitive to timing considerations regarding purchase decisions. The essence of competitive mobility is strategic adaptation of products/services to satisfy the changing needs of customer.

The article focuses on some implications for managers and executives. The solution for marketers is to accept that middle-age is a dead concept and endeavor to segment by lifestyle and attitude rather than chronological age. In accepting a lifestyle rather than a life-stage definition of age one can begin to see how marketers should address older audiences. The generation born immediately after the war are fitter, better educated and more confident than any previous older generation. They know they will dominate the next 20 years. They know the younger generation have little to teach them about rebellion or revolution. And they know they have more money than any previous generation. In any product category one cares to name, this generation will represent a significant chunk--if not always a majority--of the buyers. And that goes as much for youth-oriented products as it does for more mainstream products. Communications and marketing activity aimed at older people should incorporate four important elements in order to break away from the tired formulas of current thinking.

The article examines examples of successful direct marketing to market segments, in particular the Cohorts II system, and makes suggestions on how best to identify and reach market segments. Faced with a bewildering array of variables such as demographic characteristics, geographic idiosyncrasies, millions of branded products, and a growing number of advertising media, marketers rush to embrace systems that will allow them to predict consumer behavior reliably. Yet many advertisers, in alliance with their market research providers, act as though they were reaching a single market segment. Implicit in any marketing effort is the need to predict consumer behavior: to foretell that certain products or services, advertised in certain media, and sold through certain outlets, will appeal to the intended audience. Designing an appeal that optimized its impact on one group could very well diminish its attractiveness to or cause a negative reaction among, other groups of consumers. A Cohorts II analysis can be performed for any organization with a name and home address file of its buyers, prospects, members and contributors. Cohorts II analyses of these transactional, historical variables provide additional insights into customer behavior.

The article focuses on the move by marketers and advertisers to ignore the individuality and diversity of older consumers. The most recent, most illuminating and most humbling examples of how mature individuals perceive advertising messages differently than other markets, emanates from research conducted with several of our clients, primarily American Express Financial Advisors Inc. (AEFA). The road to the final name and tag-line used in all AEFA's marketing materials targeted at older Americans was not smooth or direct. Remaining highly conditional while stating a clear, concise market position is perhaps the greatest conundrum advertisers and their agencies face in connecting with mature markets. The effect of always having the actual AEFA logo accompany the new "Journeys" theme was a major contributor to conjuring up images of the familiar among focus group participants. Most people want to do business with companies that have a positive outlook on things. AEFA's shift from acquisition marketing to retention marketing is a good example of focusing on long-term relationships. A quick scan of advertising award books, design annuals and stock photo and illustration annuals shows a serious drought of meaningful mature market messages and images.

The article highlights the key issues confronting marketers who contemplate targeting the older population, and provides guidelines for addressing these issues. The growth in the aging population is likely to affect businesses in a number of ways. First, companies will have to understand the consumption needs of older people and how the older market responds to various marketing activities of the firm. Businesses have already begun to respond to the needs of the aged population by developing new products or modifying existing ones. Market segmentation is a widely used marketing strategy. It involves the subdivision of the entire market for a product or service into smaller market groups or segments, consisting of customers who are relatively similar within each specific segment and maximally different from customers comprising other segments. Marketers or consultants who recommend the implementation of various strategies should be able to show the effectiveness of the contemplated or proposed programs. To summarize, because of the heterogeneity of the mature market, marketing strategies should be segment-specific.

The article highlights the general inattention to human development in marketing research and practice, especially in research and marketing concerned with older consumers. Marketing to older consumers largely operates against the backdrop of a grim tapestry of aging reinforced by gerontology. The marketing profession largely has not come to terms with aging in the marketplace, perhaps because many marketers have not come to terms with their own aging. It is time marketers deal with the considerable evidence that we are not completed specimens at any age. Researchers and practitioners would have a body of information to facilitate more accurate predictions of behavior and more successful campaigns. In real life situations, consumers primarily evaluate incoming information viscerally in terms of its personal implications. Less detailed and more nuanced messages allow older consumers to define a product in their own terms. This may perplex those who are accustomed to older consumers wanting more information than younger consumers.

This article focuses on a study of consumer perception of bonus pack, which examines the impact of types of users and buyers on perceptions of bonus pack offers. The bonus pack is one of the dozens of techniques used in sales promotion. This technique saves the producer from having to reduce prices in order to gain a competitive edge. In order to maximize external validity of the study, an actual brand and its bonus pack offers were used. Two bonus packs from Vaseline Intensive Care moisturizing skin lotion were selected because they lend themselves well to the experiment's manipulation. Students in two undergraduate marketing classes at a large university in the western U.S. were assigned to collect the data within a three-week period. Subjects agreed that the bonus pack offer was a good deal. Consumers appear not to give bonus pack offers too much credence. They slightly agree that the offer was hard to believe and that the offer would be more realistic at 20 percent more free. One managerial implication is that marketers need to find ways to boost a bonus pack's credibility.

The article presents an abstract titled "A New Look at One-Stop Shopping: A TIMES Model Approach to Matching Store Hours and Shopper Schedules," by Carol Felker Kaufman and Paul M. Lane. The authors say that one-stop shopping has been identified as a major goal of many contemporary shoppers in today's society. One-Stop shopping tends to imply that all of a shopper's needs can he filled in one step, all at one lime, suggesting that the proper assortment in each store is a must, and a desirable mix of stores should be assembled at one convenient location. A recent study conducted for the International Council of Shopping Centers revealed that the concept of one-stop shopping is also related directly to the match store hours with shopper schedules. It examines the hours and schedule matching aspect of one-slop shopping within a framework called the TIMES model, which considers specifically the relation between shoppers' resources and their choice of shopping centers. It presents the results of a study of perceived shopping-center problems and gives managerial recommendations for targeting consumers who seek one-stop shopping opportunities.

This article examines self-monitoring and its relationship to materialism and involvement with products and brands. In the article, authors first discuss some of the prior research on these constructs. Next, factors that might moderate the effect of self-monitoring on consumer behavior are outlined and the results of a study of self-monitoring are presented. Finally, high and low self-monitoring purchase behavior is discussed and implications for segmentation, product design and communication strategies suggested. Research on this topic should benefit marketers by adding to the understanding of variation in consumer marketplace behavior. Both materialism and self-monitoring seem to be logically connected to higher purchasing involvement. Under high-involvement purchasing conditions, buyer decision processes are thought to proceed through extended decision making, a series of sequential stages involving information search and evaluation of criteria. Greater understanding in combination with concern for accuracy of self-presentation could potentially increase the consumer's level of involvement and product-related emotion and cognition.

The article investigates how AIDS could affect organizational agendas. The authors anticipate that consumer response to the AIDS epidemic may prompt increased demand for certain products offered by some industries while other products may be threatened. Some of these manufacturers of both types of products may need to reposition themselves with respect to the changing landscape caused by the spread of AIDS. The national news has been saturated with stories about the AIDS crisis. Millions of people throughout the world have tested positive for HIV and the number of confirmed cases of fully developed AIDS will reach one million. None of these individuals is expected to live to their pre-disease life expectancy. Unlike other threats, surprisingly little has been written about the impact of the disease on the landscape of business. The purpose of this paper was to identify the consequences of the disease on various industries. By understanding the relationships and direction marketing managers can cope better with the way AIDS will affect human life and life styles, and in turn, the environment for business.

The article examines whether an athlete's sport is important in endorsing a non-sport product. For non-sport products the rationale for using athletes to endorse products is the same as for using other types of celebrity endorsers. When a celebrity endorses a product successfully consumers will evaluate the endorsement positively feeling it is credible, believable, and appealing. When this happens at least some of the following objectives will he accomplished--the credibility of the product's message is increased, people tend to pay attention to the ad, people tend to like the ad, brand and ad recall is enhanced, product liking may increase, and other positive effects may occur. Celebrity endorsers, including athletes, are effective because they bring to the endorsement a host of characteristics that the audience uses in evaluating the ad. A large body of literature exists that has explored the nature of those spokesperson characteristics. Choosing which athlete to endorse a product is a critical decision.

The article reports on fostering an innovation mindset. An innovation mindset is an attitude that should be adopted throughout an organization by virtually every employee, from the CEO to hourly workers. It is a pervasive spirit that stimulates individuals, as well as teams, to endorse holistically a belief in creating newness across all dimensions of the company. Some executives espouse a belief that innovation is a major factor in creating competitive advantage for their organizations and can serve as the fuel for future growth. Yet the U.S. business is still struggling to develop a successful approach for managing innovation effectively. Too often, the task of developing new products is delegated to middle-level management ranks simply because senior managers are not knowledgeable about the whole process of innovation and new product development. Beyond that, they are uncomfortable with the very concept of innovation.

The purpose of this article is to suggest an agenda by which serious researchers can begin to contribute to the general understanding of the appropriate role and use of customer databases in implementing marketing strategy. The implementation of marketing databases has not been without difficulty. Like many other breakthrough technologies, database marketing often lures organizations to anticipate tremendous returns, only to produce no measurable bottom-line impact. Organizational learning theory also suggests some important questions for the design of customer databases. One theorist has predicted that older and larger organizations tend to amass information passively rather than actively and that organizations typically neglect both to store and interpret much of the information they have acquired.

The article discusses the use of promotional messages to manage the effects of brands and self-image on brand evaluations. Marketers and advertisers recognize that products have symbolic images that are often more important to a product's success than are its actual physical attributes and characteristics. Marketers try to create images for their brands so that they are positioned to fit a distinct market segment occupied by no other brand. They strive to create a brand image that is similar to the self-image of the target consumers. In this context it gives the example of the beauty products brand, Revlon that had long targeted older women with advertising campaigns featuring celebrities such as the late Audrey Hepburn to reposition the image of their cosmetics to appeal to younger women. In today's highly competitive business environment, a well positioned brand image is very important. Furthermore, research has shown that the ability of consumers to recognize and identify consumption symbolism, in other words brand images is almost fully developed by the sixth grade. As the marketplace becomes more crowded, consumers often make purchase decisions relying more on a brand's image than on its physical characteristics.

The article reports on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and what it implies for consumer products marketing. It provides marketers with both a broad-based and an industry-specific understanding of the marketing implications of GATT. It presents background information regarding GATT, followed by an overview of the key provisions of the agreement. Provides an analysis of a number of consumer product industries to help assess the potential industry specific impact of GATT on the "offensive" and "defensive" marketing strategies, which are described in the study.

The article reports on the use of aspect of defensive marketing called post-purchase telecommunications with the aim of creating a competitive edge. The abstract titled "Defensive Marketing's Use of Post-Purchase Telecommunications to Create Competitive Advantages: A Strategic Analysis," considers the impact of defensive marketing on a firm's competitive ability in the marketplace. It examines telecommunications as an important means through which many companies are creating several competitive advantages for themselves through a defensive marketing strategy and defines defensive marketing in the context of its counterpart, offensive marketing.

The article focuses on marketing information systems for use by consumer products companies. The last century has been one of major changes within most sectors of society. Technological advances, increased customer service requirements, and the globalization of the marketplace are but a few of the factors that have contributed to greatly intensified business competition. For organizations competing in today's rapidly evolving business environment, information has become a critical resource. Indeed, market intelligence has become the cornerstone of any successful marketing plan. A company must be able to keep a close strategic fit with its environment. Current knowledge about the external environment is essential for a firm to stay competitive. This knowledge must be accumulated, structured, and organized efficiently and effectively as the base for marketing decision-making. Toward this end, a marketing information system is an essential tool for translating raw data into useful information.

The article focuses on the future of consumer branding. The future of branding can best be determined by examining the state of branding today. While branding is too big a subject to examine in its entirety, these findings offer some good indications of what the global branding picture probably is. Six of the largest multinational corporations (MNCs) were selected for inclusion in this study. Each operates in almost every part of the world. They were picked because they have many different brand names instead of primary usage of the company name. Originally, a listing of their brand names, appropriate products, and their distribution was sought from the literature and/or from the companies concerned. It was found that the former does not exist in the detail required. Contacts with the MNCs brought a confidentiality of information when they asked, legitimately, which other MNCs were in the study. Each of these giant companies manufacture branded products which are very competitive with those of another in this grouping. The primary example is toiletries, which are now marketed by four of the six MNCs.

The article focuses on the measurement of customer-based brand equity. Brand equity is regarded as a very important concept in business practice as well as in academic research because marketers can gain competitive advantage through successful brands. The competitive advantage of firms that have brands with high equity includes the opportunity for successful extensions, resilience against competitors' promotional pressures, and creation of barriers to competitive entry. An indication of the importance of well-known brands is the premium asset valuation that they obtain. In conceptualizing how customers evaluate brand equity, it is viewed as consisting of two components, brand strength and brand value. Brand strength constitutes the brand associations held by customers. On the other hand, brand values are the gains that accrue when brand strength is leveraged to obtain superior current and future profits. Basically, brand equity sterns from the greater confidence that consumers place in a brand than they do in its competitors. This confidence translates into consumers' loyalty and their willingness to pay a premium price for the brand.

This article explores the relationship between objective product quality and price, based on a research paper by marketing theorist F. Alpert and his coauthors which was published in an earlier issue of the "Journal of Consumer Marketing." Alpert and his colleagues have investigated what strategic marketing elements help to distinguish price signalers who succeed from these who fail. Furthermore, the study underscores the need and the importance for consistency and cohesiveness in the application of strategic elements. With exploring the relationship between price signaling and the objective product quality, three important conditions are suggested to be necessary for signaling, which are: information asymmetry, that means, there is no point in signaling if there is no information gap; benefits of signaling must outweigh the cost of signaling, otherwise the firm would be better off without signaling; and that there must be a signaling equilibrium which prevents signals from being mimicked by so-called "bad" firms, because in the absence of a signaling equilibrium, "bad" firms will enjoy a tree ride at the expense of so-called "good" firms, and signals will cease to be meaningful.

This article cites a study which presents illustrative examples of two approaches to adjusting the income statement for earnings shocks and estimating the earnings of core operations and examining the impact of strategic marketing decisions on core earnings performance. This study, reportedly, is the second part of a two-part study which examines the implications of this core earnings problem for marketing managers. The earlier study demonstrated that the core earnings problem is conducive to the preparation of grossly inaccurate evaluations of core earnings performance by those who are unaware of/or are unable to adjust for earnings shocks. According to this study, since marketing managers' ability to evaluate profit and loss performance accurately is crucial to the development of sound marketing strategies, this problem is likely to contribute to flawed or failed strategic marketing decisions. The presents study is centralized at assessing: challenges by upper management regarding the wisdom and effectiveness of the marketing strategy; marketers' reduced ability to execute the marketing plan due to cost-cutting campaigns that result in reduced marketing expenditures; and higher projected rates of return required for investment proposals before they are considered acceptable.

This article cites a study investigating whether consumers' time availability is an important segmentation variable in the convenience and fast food markets and if so, which elements of marketing strategy need to be adapted to attract different segments. Two broad dimensions of convenience are discussed here. The first dimension concerns the type of convenience, including saving lime, physical energy, and/or mental energy. The second dimension concerns the timing of convenience, that is, the stage of the consumption process at which convenience is obtained. These stages include: deciding what to eat, purchasing, preparation, consumption, and clearing up. Data for this study were collected in 1991, using a probability sample of suburban households. Based on results, it has been noticed that the multidimensional nature of convenience suggests several different reasons why the very time-poor may use more fast foods for weekday dinners than others but not more frozen dinners or ready-to-oat foods. First, the very time-poor may place greater emphasis on all aspects of convenience and fast foods be perceived as providing greater overall convenience. Alternatively, specific types of convenience may be particularly important to the very time-poor and fast foods may be superior to convenience foods only for these types of convenience.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the transition from product focus to brand orientation. The model of the brand-oriented company is gradually presented along with the case of Phamacia Nicorette. As a background the article starts with three driving forces of brand orientation with examples from different companies. In the future, managements capable of exploiting the potential of brands can gain a long-term competitive advantage, which for a growing number of companies may become a strategy for survival. The transition from focusing on products to concentrating the company's activities around brands often results in a new strategic outlook. This was the experience encountered by the business unit Pharmacia Nicorette, which made the transition from product focus to brand orientation during 1991-1993. The author and his colleague Frans Melin have closely followed the management team during this process with an action-based empirical research approach. AB Leo was acquired by Pharmacia in 1990.

This article recommends the use of aggregate complaint analysis. Aggregate complaint analysis is a natural precursor to Total Quality Management (TQM). It provides the information necessary to improve products and related services over time. While the TQM literature refers to reacting to complaints, a method to aggregate this data into a useful form is needed. The procedures discussed in this article are designed to help a firm to acquire accurate and actionable complaint data for the express purpose of reducing complaints. The complaint-handling function is designed to address individual complaints in an attempt to immediately redress consumer dissatisfaction. While a poorly handled complaint results in negative effect toward either the product or the retailer, well handled complaints might alter the consumer's final disposition toward the complaint encounter in a positive direction. Positive evaluation of the complaint encounter by consumers might even help to build consumer loyalty. Consumer satisfaction at the complaint encounter has also been shown to yield higher levels of repurchase intention.

Numerous researchers have investigated the relationship between price and consumers' perception of product quality. However, the relationship between price and objective product quality has received less attention from researchers, moreover, the empirical evidence which does exist presents an ambiguous picture. For example, a study correlating quality ratings with brand prices found significant variation in both the strength and the direction of the relationship between price and objective product quality. An inescapable conclusion from these studies is that higher price does not always reflect superior product quality. One interpretation of these counterintuitive findings is that given similar cost structures, some producers seem to set prices artificially high to suggest a higher level of product quality than actually exists. This approach assumes that certain consumer segments are either unwilling or unable to find more objective indicators of quality. Hence, this practice, called price signaling, represents a conscious effort by manufacturers to use price as a surrogate indicator of superior quality when relative quality is not commensurate with the price.

Many firms have recognized that success in the current consumer marketing environment requires better coordination between brand "pull" and sales "push" programs, with consequent impacts on the activities of brand managers. But little research has been devoted to identifying dimensions of required co-ordination between these groups, market developments that affect their interactions, or how managers can usefully evaluate organizational changes aimed at improving performance of their joint activities. This study found that the factors affecting marketing-sales coordination requirements in consumer goods firms go way beyond the oft-documented fact of increased spending on trade promotions, and that companies are responding to these requirements with a variety of organizational initiatives. In most consumer goods firms, product marketing and field sales have historically been managed as separate but complementary activities, with the emphasis on brand development efforts targeted at consumers.

The article discusses the effectiveness of senior citizen discount as a marketing tool. Discount programs for elderly consumers vary in application and structure. Some programs are sponsored by governmental agencies, which recruit merchants to offer these discounts. Public transportation facilities frequently offer senior discounts. The Dallas Area Transit Agency offers bus transportation for 15 cents rather than the standard 75 cents. Social responsibility is not the only motive behind these discount programs. Retailers use them as a promotional tool in order to generate sales from elderly consumers. Many senior citizen discount programs exist in the service industries, especially the travel and leisure areas. Older consumers possessing higher levels of education tend to use discounts for travel and entertainment more often than those who are less educated. An analysis of the differences among the types of consumers who use senior citizen discounts suggests that different marketing strategies are needed for each consumer type. The article suggests that marketers should segment the older consumer market and strategically position their promotional messages differently toward each segment.

Since its introduction, much has been written on the various aspects of Marketing Myopia. It appears that Marketing Myopia pertains to several types of narrow-mindedness. The purpose of this article is to organize the types of Marketing Myopia in a classification scheme. The analysis suggests a new perspective, which can result in cross-fertilization of ideas and, in turn, produce innovative marketing strategies. This article will briefly review the different explanations of Marketing Myopia and then classify the types along two dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights the importance of target marketing on the basis of a case study of a company. When a company is relatively small, or starting out with limited resources, and yet wants to make a major impact against much bigger players with greater resources, the best approach may well be one of intensive focus against highest potential market segments, i.e. target marketing. The firm Combat Insecticide succeeded in just this way. It rewrote the flies of the game by just doing what was logical. First, management studied the market and then did everything possible to focus on the market opportunity. Combat outdoor and transit advertising was similarly focused against an urban, lower-income, and heavily ethnic market. The brand advertised in New York City subway cars as well as on buses, on billboards, and even on the sides of buildings in the high-potential, densely populated, urban markets, with Spanish language copy where appropriate. Combat grew consistently following its 1985 launch, reaching a marketshare of 21 percent in 1989 and 23 percent for 1990. The only disadvantage of this focused segmentation approach was that while the business was clearly stronger where advertising was focused, it was also clearly less strong where it was not focused.

This article provides marketers of high-technology consumer products with ideas for gaining widespread market penetration. First, we will identify what we found to be the demographic and lifestyle profiles of people who are avid buyers and users of high-technology consumer products and of people who are not. Second, we will assess the importance of technologically-related concerns in the buying decisions of consumers, who range from sophisticates to neophytes about high-technology products and services. Finally, we will suggest some ideas on incorporating our findings into marketing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a current overview of the issues, challenges, and available knowledge regarding our understanding of how to reach older consumers. Contradictory beliefs about older consumers and methods of marketing to them are presented. Reasons for these contradictions are given, and a blueprint is presented to help decision makers evaluate information in the field and formulate effective strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on some important areas related to pricing. The author remarks that marketers first and foremost need to learn to be as independent of price as possible and still generate good profits. Marketers should always be looking for new channels to leverage revenue up. One of the ways to diversify revenue is to get into services. A final idea for diversifying revenues is to market new products. New products are a sure fire way to boost margins and diversify revenues so that marketers don't need to depend solely on price increases. According to him market share strategy cannot be separated from a pricing strategy. The two just go together. Having a cost strategy is very necessary to survive in a price competition. A cost strategy is the defining of unit cost targets for the core products. Unit cost targets are those unit costs marketers must hit in order to hold onto their share. Another reason cost strategy is a key part of pricing is that the firm has to decide how much of the cost improvement is going to lower prices to the customer versus flowing directly to the bottom line.

While many companies within long-time, traditional industries are well-equipped with marketing research expertise, many in emerging industries are floundering. This has been particularly true of firms in several of the burgeoning service-related and hi-tech areas. When research does enter such industries, it often does so in dribs and drabs, brought in for a very specific capacity and then limited to that finite role. Unfortunately. this ad hoc approach is contrary to the true value of the discipline, which is as a process, providing a continuous flow of information that delivers valuable insights at crucial marketing junctures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the role of economic, social, political, demographic and all sorts of other trends in guiding the organizations through the ups and downs of marketing. The author remarks that trends are not truths, they are general directions, tendencies. If marketers seriously want to find market opportunities for new products, then they need two things, that are, insightful analysis and interpretation of the data and a willingness to break new ground, a determination to be different, and a commitment to be a winner. The most reported trends are not really trends at all. They are simply the movement of demographics over time, such as the baby boomers' maturation and extended life of older Americans. There are older Americans that fit the stereotype, and they merit special marketing focus. But a whole new, older class of businessmen and women want to keep working, to start something new. This older group now controls perhaps three quarters of the country's wealth and half of its discretionary income.