Multichannel retailers need to understand how to allocate marketing budgets to customer segments and online and offline sales channels. We propose an integrated methodological approach to assess how email and direct mail effectiveness vary by channel and customer value segment. We apply this approach to an international beauty retailer in six countries and to an apparel retailer in the United States. We estimate multi-equation hierarchical linear models and find that sales responsiveness to email and direct mail varies by customer value segment. Specifically, direct mail drives customer acquisition in the offline channel, while email drives sales for both online and offline channels for current customer segments. A randomized field experiment with the beauty retailer provides causal support for the findings. The proposed reallocation of marketing resources would yield a revenue lift of 13.5% for the beauty retailer and 9.3% for the apparel retailer, compared with the 6.5% actual increase in the field experiment.
As stated in the mission of the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) (2022) and a recent editorial (Schmitt et al. 2022), JCR is a multi-disciplinary journal where consumer research provides insights about consumers and consumption in the marketplace in a way that meaningfully extends the knowledge from one of our core disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology, economics) about a consumer-oriented construct. Unfortunately, the labels “consumer research” and “consumer behavior” have come to connote far more than the focus of the work—just as, somewhere along the way, “consumer behavior” and “quant” came to imply a particular type of data source (and associated analysis methods) that is primarily used to study theory and phenomena of interest (experiments vs. “field data”). Why this strong association between consumer-relevant questions, data, and methodology? One reason may be that the field rewards specialization. Another may be due to the incentive structure in business schools (Stremersch, Winer, and Camacho 2021). Nevertheless, the rigid lines dividing the artificially created sub-disciplines are our own making, for better and worse. One way to address this divide and consequently expand the reach of our research beyond those who specialize in our particular sub-disciplines is to use more than one type of data source when addressing a consumer research question. Such data richness is the key theme of this article.
Omnichannel marketing is often viewed as the panacea for one-to-one marketing, but this strategic path is mired with obstacles. This article investigates three challenges in realizing the full potential of omnichannel marketing: (1) data access and integration, (2) marketing attribution, and (3) consumer privacy protection. While these challenges predate omnichannel marketing, they are exacerbated in a digital omnichannel environment. This article argues that advances in machine learning and blockchain offer some promising solutions. In turn, these technologies present new challenges and opportunities for firms, which warrant further academic research. The authors identify both recent developments in practice and promising avenues for future research.
You, Ya; Srinivasan, Shuba, Pauwels, Koen & Joshi, Amit (2020)
How CEO/CMO characteristics affect innovation and stock returns: findings and future directions
Investor stock market response has received a great deal of attention in the marketing literature. However, firms are not faceless corporations; individuals such as CEOs set their strategies. Upper echelon and strategic leadership theories hold that chosen strategies derive from these individuals’ opinions, which are a function of their personalities, demographics, experiences, and values. Building on recent literature, the authors propose how CEO characteristics can influence innovation and stock returns. Investors are motivated by cash flow expectations—in particular, the prospect of increasing and accelerating future cash flows, reducing associated risks, and increasing residual value. This systematic review focuses on four main characteristics—personality, demographics, experience and compensation—to arrive at a set of propositions on innovation and stock returns. After reviewing the extensive literature on CEO characteristics, the authors outline the emerging findings on CMO characteristics; propose future research directions on CEO and CMO characteristics, innovations, and stock returns; and offer implications for practice.
Soyer, Emre; Pauwels, Koen & Seggie, Steven H. (2019)
Big and Lean is Beautiful: A Conceptual Framework for Data-based Learning in Marketing Management
Rindfleisch, Aric & Malter, Alan J. (red.). Marketing in a Digital World
Many companies compete globally in a world in which user ratings and price are important drivers of performance but whose importance may differ by country. This study builds on the cultural, economic, and structural differences across countries to examine how app popularity reacts to price and ratings, controlling for product characteristics. Estimated across 60 countries, a dynamic panel model with product-specific effects reveals that price sensitivity is higher in countries with higher masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. Ratings valence sensitivity is higher in countries with higher individualism and uncertainty avoidance, while ratings volume sensitivity is higher in countries with higher power distance and uncertainty avoidance and those that are richer and have more income equality. For managers, the authors visualize country groups and calculate how much price should decrease to compensate for a negative review or lack of reviews. For researchers, they highlight the moderators of the volume and valence effects of online ratings, which are becoming ubiquitous in this connected world.
Ilhan, Behice Ece; Kubler, Raoul V & Pauwels, Koen (2018)
Battle of the Brand Fans: Impact of Brand Attack and Defense on Social Media
Fans of a brand attack fans of rival brands on social media. Given the nature of such rival brand fan attacks, managers are unsure about how much control they should exercise on brand-negative comments on their owned social media touchpoints, and what brand actions drive these Attack, Defense and Across (ADA) posts. Multimethod analysis identifies ADA's impact across industries of technology, fast food, toothpaste, beverages, and sports apparel. Sentiment analysis identifies that fans posting in both communities stimulate both brand-negative and brand-positive comments. Despite their relatively low prevalence (1–6% of all posts), ADA posts induce broader social-media brand engagement as they substantially increase and prolong the effects of managerial control variables such as communication campaigns and new-product introductions. Brand managers, thus, have specific levers to stimulate the positive consequences of rival brand fan posting on their owned media.
Academic Degrees
Year
Academic Department
Degree
2001
UCLA, Anderson Graduate School of Management
Ph.D.
1993
Institut d´Administration et de Gestion, Universite Catholique de Louvain