Tag Archives: Marketing

  • Effective Marketing Science Applications: Insights from the ISMS Practice Prize Papers and Projects

    Lilien, Roberts, Shankar 2013

    by Gary L. Lilien, John Roberts, and Venkatesh Shankar

    This article is forthcoming in Marketing Science.

    From 2003 to 2012, the ISMS Practice Prize/Award competition has documented 25 impactful projects, with associated papers appearing in the Marketing Science. This article reviews these papers and projects, examines their influence on the relevant organizations, and provides a perspective on the diffusion and impact of marketing science models within the organizations. We base our analysis on three sources of data—the articles, authors’ responses to a survey, and in-depth interviews with the authors. We draw some conclusions on how marketing science models can create more impact without losing academic rigor, while maintaining strong relevance to practice.

    We find that the application and diffusion of marketing science models are not restricted to the well-known choice models, conjoint analysis, mapping, and promotional analysis—there are very effective applications across a wide range of managerial problems using an array of marketing science techniques. There is no one successful approach and, while some factors are correlated with impactful marketing science models, there are a number of pathways by which a project can add value to its client organization. Simpler, easier-to-use models that offer robust and improved results can have stronger impact than academically sophisticated models. Organizational buy-in is critical and can be achieved through high-level champions, in-house presentations and dialogs, doing pilot assignments, involving multi department personnel, and speaking the same language as the influential executives. And we find that intermediaries often, but not always, play a key role in the transportability and diffusion of models across organizations.

    While these applications are impressive and reflect profitable academic-partnerships, changes in the knowledge base and reward systems for academics, intermediaries and practitioners are required for marketing science approaches to realize their potential impact on a much larger scale than the highly selective sample that we have been able to analyze.

    Key words: marketing models, decision-making, marketing analytics, implementation.

  • Determinants and Role of Trust in E-Business: A Large Scale Empirical Study

    Bart_Shankar_Sultan_Urban_JM_2005

    by Yakov Bart, Venkatesh Shankar, Fareena Sultan, and Glen Urban

    This research investigates the determinants and role of consumer trust in e-business. It examines consumer perceptions of trust in a Web site and addresses the following key research questions: What factors influence consumer trust in a Web site and what specific Web site trust cues are associated with these factors? How does trust affect consumer behavioral intent on a Web site? To address these questions, we develop a conceptual model that links consumer perceptions of Web site characteristics, consumer characteristics and demographics to perceptions of trust in a Web site, and trust to behavioral intent related to a Web site. We also examine whether trust mediates the relationship between Web site and consumer characteristics and behavioral intent related to the Web site. We test our hypotheses in a large-scale empirical study that estimates this model from 6831 consumers across 25 Web sites and eight industry categories. We validate the model using a holdout sample. The results show that Web site, consumer, category and demographic variables can explain 76% of the variance in trust. Web site characteristics such as privacy and security, navigation, presentation, brand, and advice account for as much as 98% of this explained variance in Web site trust. Surprisingly, over 80% of the explained variance in Web trust is due to factors other than privacy and security—mainly navigation, brand, advice, absence of errors, and presentation. We also find that trust mediates the relationships between Web site and consumer characteristics and behavioral intent related to Web sites. The results offer important implications for Web site strategies that include the manipulation of factors influencing Web site trust to favorably impact consumer behavior at the Web site.

    Determinants of Trust in e-Business

  • Digital Business Strategy

    This course is designed to give you a good understanding of strategic digital business thinking for start-ups and bricks and mortar corporations (bricks and clicks businesses). It will cover digital business strategy formulation and implementation of programs to meet with the needs of the customers, while achieving the business objectives. The focus will be on understanding of the basic digital business concepts and frameworks and application of the concepts in the form of case analysis, discussion of real-world examples, and development and presentation of digital business ideas and plans. The course will emphasize the following key elements: 1. Strategic analysis of digital business opportunities: Issues of focal concern include analysis of the e-business space including markets, business models, company, competitors and customers, segmentation analysis, target segment selection, and product positioning. 2. Digital business steps: The important elements include digital business vision, digital strategy, digital business model, marketing, and organization in the digital environment. 3. Digital business plan: This includes the process of writing and presenting a business plan for a digital business venture. It involves your team coming up with a digital business idea or concept, writing and presenting a detailed business plan based on that concept. The course will also highlight special topics in marketing such as B2B, B2C and wireless in the form of cases and several industry examples. An innovative feature of this intensive course is a presentation of your business plan summary to venture capitalist(s) and to other digital business experts and an ability to receive feedback from them.

    Digital Business Strategy SYLLABUS Winter 2003

  • A Model for Managing Multicategory Brand Equity

    by Venkatesh Shankar, Pablo Azar, and Matthew Fuller

    This work won a finalist award for the 2006 ISMS-MSI Marketing Science Practice Prize.

    http://techtv.mit.edu/collections/isms:1134/videos/7433-allstate

    We develop a model for estimating, tracking, and managing brand equity for multicategory brands based on a combination of customer survey and financial measures for each product category. We apply this model to measure the equity of the flagship brand of a leading insurance company and its leading competitor with the same brand name in multiple product categories, allowing for spillover effects of the brand from one category to another. Furthermore, we examine the relationships between advertising and brand equity and between shareholder value and brand equity, using longitudinal data on advertising, brand equity, and shareholder value, and build a decision support simulator. Our model provides reliable estimates of brand equity and our results show that advertising has a strong long-term positive influence on brand equity. This brand equity model and simulator has enabled the company reallocate its advertising resources to improve brand equity and shareholder value, and offer better guidance to managers, analysts, and investors.