Tag Archives: customer

  • An Across Store Analysis of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Cross-Category Effects

    Shankar_Kannan_CNS 2014

    by Venkatesh Shankar and P.K. Kannan

    This article appeared in Customer Needs and Solutions.

    An important part of the rapidly growing shopper marketing practice is cross-category retail management. In managing two related product categories,
    retailers face some important questions: which category should be stocked more? How close to each other should they be stocked in the store (aisle adjacency)? which category should be promoted more often? and when should the two categories be sold as a bundle? To address these questions, we examine how purchases of related product and sub-product categories influence one another, and how the relative aisle locations of two related product categories influence their respective purchases. We consider both extrinsic (aisle location based) and intrinsic (affinity based) cross-category effects. Using aggregate store-level data together with store descriptor and store shopper demographic data, we estimate a simultaneous system of models for two related product categories, soft drinks and salty snacks. We also estimate a system of salty snack sub-category purchase models. We find that both extrinsic and intrinsic cross-category effects are asymmetric, that is, different categories and sub-categories have different effects on one another. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.

     

  • Are Multichannel Customers Really More Valuable? The Moderating Role of Product Category Characteristics

    Kushwaha and Shankar 2013

    by Tarun Kushwaha and Venkatesh Shankar

    The article is forthcoming in Journal of Marketing.

    How does the monetary value of customer purchases vary by customer preference for purchase channels (e.g., traditional, electronic, multichannel) and product category? The authors develop a conceptual model and hypotheses on the moderating effects of two key product category characteristics—the utilitarian versus hedonic nature of the product category and perceived risk—on the channel preference–monetary value relationship. They test the hypotheses on a unique large-scale, empirically generalizable data set in the retailing context. Contrary to conventional wisdom that all multichannel customers are more valuable than single-channel customers, the results show that multichannel customers are the most valuable segment only for hedonic product categories. The findings reveal that traditional channel customers of low-risk categories provide higher monetary value than other customers. Moreover, for utilitarian product categories perceived as high (low) risk, web-only (catalog- or store-only) shoppers constitute the most valuable segment. The findings offer managers guidelines for targeting and migrating different types of customers for different product categories through different channels.

  • Customer-Oriented Strategic Thinking

    The objectives of this course are to enable the participants: (1) Better appreciate the importance of strategic (“out of the box”) thinking and customer-focused strategy; (2) Understand the essentials of strategy formulation and a proactive strategic orientation; (3) Apply a framework of customer-focused strategy formulation; (4) Understand best practices in customer affiliation and in attracting and retaining the right customers; and (5) Apply a framework for managing customer relationships. The key topics covered include: strategic mission and vision, aligning vision with strategy, planning for customer-based growth, formulating a customer-driven marketing strategy, understanding customer value and needs, customer segmentation, customer satisfaction and loyalty, profitable customer relationship management, and organizational change to customer orientation.

  • Customer Value Management

    This course is designed to give you a good understanding of how marketers develop an understanding of customer value and use that understanding to make sound marketing decisions. The focus will be on understanding the basic concepts and application of marketing for customer value in the form of case analysis, discussion of real-world examples, and development and presentation of marketing strategies. The course will emphasize the following key elements: (1) Customer Analysis: Issues of focal concern include analysis of customer value, segmentation analysis, target market selection, and value proposition or product positioning, and customer satisfaction; and (2) Marketing Decision Making Process: This process enables the marketing manager to systematically organize the relevant issues to make appropriate marketing strategy decisions based on analysis of the market situation. The major emphasis of this process will be on application of the relevant marketing tools of analysis to the marketing decisions. Financial analysis of marketing decisions will be stressed.

  • Keys Issues in Multichannel Customer Management: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

    Neslin Shankar JIM 2009

    by Scott A. Neslin and Venkatesh Shankar

    This article was published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23 (2009), 70-81.

    Multichannel customer management is “the design, deployment, and evaluation of channels to enhance customer value through effective customer acquisition, retention, and development” (Neslin et al. 2006).  Channels typically include the store, the Web, catalog, sales force, third party agency, call center and the like.  In recent years, multichannel marketing has grown tremendously and is anticipated to grow even further. While we have developed a good understanding certain issues such as the relative value of a multichannel customer over a single channel customer, several research and managerial questions still remain. We offer an overview of these emerging issues, present our future outlook, and suggest important avenues for future research.

  • Challenges and Opportunities in Multichannel Customer Management

    Neslin et al. JSR 2006

    by Scott A. Neslin, Dhruv Grewal, Robert Leghorn, Venkatesh Shankar, Marije L. Teerling, Jacquelyn S. Thomas, and Peter C. Verhoef

    This article was published in Journal of Service Research, 9 (November 2006), 95-112.

    Multichannel customer management is the design, deployment, coordination, and evaluation of channels through which firms and customers interact, with the goal of enhancing customer value through effective customer acquisition, retention, and development.  The authors identify five major challenges practitioners must address to manage the multichannel environment more effectively: (1) data integration, (2) understanding consumer behavior, (3) channel evaluation, (4) allocation of resources across channels, and (5) coordination of channel strategies. The authors also propose a framework that shows the linkages among these challenges, and provides a means to conceptualize the field of multichannel customer management.  A review of academic research reveals that this field has experienced significant research growth, but the growth has not been distributed evenly across the five major challenges.  The authors discuss what has been learned to date, and identify emerging generalizations as appropriate.  They conclude with a summary of where the research-generated knowledge base stands on several issues pertaining to the five challenges.

  • Inferring Market Structure fom Customer Response to Competing and Complentary Products

    Elrod_Shocker__- Shankar_MLetters_2002

    by Terry Elrod, Gary Russell, Allan D. Shocker, Rick L. Andrews, Lynd Bacon, Barry L. Bayus, J. Douglas Carroll, Richard M. Johnson, Wagner A. Kamakura, Peter Lenk, Josef A. Mazanec, Vitala R. Rao, and Venkatesh Shankar

    This article was published in Marketing Letters, 13 (3), 219-230, 2002.

    We consider influences on market structure, arguing that market strucure should explain the extent to which any given set of market offerings are substitutes or complements. We describe recent additions to the market structure analysis literature and identify promising directions for new research in market structure analysis. Impressive advances in data collection, statistical methodology and information technology provide unique opportunities for researchers to build market structure tools that can assist “realtime” marketing decision-making.