The Influence of Communication Channels on the Response of Customers in the Exploration and Maturity Stage of the Customer Lifecycle

Anne Vandenberk Saeid Vafainia
Persbericht

Personalization and interaction: a retailer’s road to success

Antwerp – A recent study indicates that consumers are more inclined to respond to a promotional message from a retailer, if they receive it via a personalized and interactive channel. As the brand becomes more established, other forms of communication gain in effectiveness.

In today’s digital revolution, retailers are overwhelmed with alternatives to communicate with consumers. They are continuously searching for ways to reach and communicate effectively with consumers. Effective communication is vital for retailers in building valuable relationships with their customers. A recent study conducted by a master student at KU Leuven indicates that personal relevance and interactivity are the key characteristics of a commercial communication channel.

Mobile channel to be avoided

The research is effectuated among 513 respondents and surveyed via which channels consumers would be more inclined to respond to a promotional message, taking into account the strength of their buyer-seller relationship. From the research it appeared that in general, in-store communication and personal selling are preferred the most. In contrast, retailers should be careful with the mobile channel, as consumers appear to dislike promotional messages via mobile the most, because of its obtrusive and impersonalized characteristics. Since personal selling is not always present or achievable, it is beneficial for retailers to improve the interactivity and personal relevance of their communication. The ongoing digitalization offers numerous alternatives and techniques to achieve this.

The impact of loyalty

As consumers become more familiar with brands, other forms of communication gain in effectiveness. Consumers that are more familiar with a brand are easier to convince than those who are still getting to know the brand. This implies that it is important for retailers to tailor their communication strategy to the relationship status with their customers. For consumers who are still getting to know the brand, personal selling is most appropriate because of its persuasive strengths and high personal relevance. Social media does the job for loyal customers thanks to its interactive capabilities and its high personal relevance. Also direct mail that touches upon the personal interest spheres of the receivers is appreciated by loyal customers.

Personal relevance, interactivity and relational strength are thus very important elements retailers should take into account when developing their communication strategy. A highly relevant and interactive communication that is adapted to the commercial relational status of the customer, can result in a high added value and satisfied customers for retailers.

Bibliografie

Anderson, N. H., 1971. Integration theory and attitude change. Psychological Review, 78(3): 171 – 206

Anderson, E., Robertson, T., 1995. Inducing Multi-Line Salespeople to Adopt House Brands. Journal of Marketing, 59(2): 16 – 31

Anderson, J. C., Narus, J. A., 1996. Rethinking Distribution: Adaptive Channels. Harvard Business Review, 74(4): 112 – 134

Anderson, E. W., Mittal, V. 2010. Strengthening the satisfaction-profit chain. Journal of service research, 3(2): 107 – 120

Arndt, J., 1979. Toward a Concept of Domesticated Markets. Journal of Marketing, 43(4): 69 – 75

Assael, H., 1998. Consumer Behavior and Marketing Action. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing

Ball, D., Coelho, P. S., Machás, A., 2004. The role of communication and trust in explaining customer loyalty. European Journal of Marketing, 38(9/10): 1272 – 1293

Bagozzi, R. P., Dholakia, U. M., 2006. Antecedents and Purchase Consequences of Customer Participation in Small Group Brand Communities. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 23(1): 45 – 61

Barwise, P., Strong, C., 2002. Permission-Based Mobile Advertising. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16(1): 14 – 24

Bauer, H. H., Reichardt, T., Barnes, S. J., Neumann, M. M., 2005. Driving consumer acceptance of mobile marketing: A theoretical framework and empirical study. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 6(3): 181 – 192

Baxter, L. A., 1979. Self-Disclosure as a Relationship Disengagement Strategy. Human Communication Research, 5(3): 215 – 222

Beer, D., Burrows, R., 2007. Sociology and, of and in Web 2.0: Some initial considerations. Sociological Research Online, 12(5): 17

België Federale Overheidsdienst Economie, 2013. Structuur van de bevolking.

http://economie.fgov.be/nl/statistieken/cijfers/bevolking/structuur/. (23/03/2016)

Bernoff, J., Li, C. 2008. Harnessing the power of the oh-so-social web. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(3): 36 – 42

Berry, L. L., Bolton, R. N., Bridges, C. H., Meyer, J., Parasuraman, A., Seiders, K., 2010. Opportunities for Innovation in the Delivery of Interactive Retail Services. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 24(2): 155 – 167

Biong, H., Selnes, F., 1996. The Strategic Role of the Salesperson in Established Buyer-Seller Relationships. Marketing Science Institute, Cambridge, 96 – 118

Bleier, A., Eisenbeiss, M., 2015. The Importance of Trust for Personalized Online Advertising. Journal of Retailing, 91(3): 390 – 409

Breugelmans, E., 2015. Marketing Engineering. KU Leuven: Campus Carolus Antwerp

Bridges, E., Briesch, R. A., Yim, C. K., 2006. Effects of prior brand usage and promotion on consumer promotional response. Journal of Retailing, 82(4): 295 – 307

Brodie, R. J., Ilic, A., Juric, B., Hollebeek, L., 2013. Consumer engagement in a virtual community: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Business Research, 66(1): 105 – 114

Bruner, G. C., Kumar, A., 2007. Attitude toward Location-based Advertising. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 7(2): 3 – 15

Bucklin, L. P., Sengupta, S., 1993. Organizing Successful Co-Marketing Alliances. Journal of Marketing, 57(2): 32 – 46

Burgess, R. L., Huston, T. L, 1979. Social Exchange in Developing Relationships.  New York: Academic Press Inc.

Cleeren, K., 2015. Onderzoeksmethodologie MM. KU Leuven: Campus Carolus Antwerp

Deighton, J., Kornfeld, L., 2009. Interactivity’s Unanticipated Consequences for Marketers and Marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(1): 4 – 10

De Pelsmacker, P., Geuens, M., Van Den Bergh, J., 2008. Marketing communicatie. Amsterdam: Pearson Education Benelux BV

Dholakia, U. M., Durham, E., 2010. Harvard Business Review, 88(3): 26

Dictionary.com, 2015. Intrusive.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intrusiveness. (05/12/2015)

Dodds, W. B., Monroe, K. B., Grewal, D., 1991. Effects of Price, Brand and Store Information on Buyer’s Product Evaluations. Journal of Marketing Research, 28(3): 307 – 319

Dolnicar, S., Jordaan, Y., 2013. A Market-Oriented Approach to Responsibly Managing Information Privacy Concerns in Direct Marketing. Journal of Advertising, 36(2): 123 – 149

Dwyer, F. R., Schurr, P. H., Oh, S. 1987. Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships. Journal of Marketing, 51(2): 11 – 17

eMarketer, 2012. Social Media Marketing Can Get Out of Sync with Consumers.
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009515 . (21/11/2015)

Gao, T. T., Rohm, A. J., Sultan, F., Pagani, M., 2013. Consumers un-tethered: A three-market empirical study of consumer’s mobile marketing acceptance. Journal of Business Research, 66(12): 2536 – 2544

Gázquez-Abad, J.C., De Canniére, M.H., Martínez-López, F.J. 2011. Dynamics of Customer Response to Promotional and Relational Direct Mailings from an Apparel Retailer: The Moderating Role of Relationship Strength. Journal of Retailing, 87(2): 166 – 181

Godes, D., Silva, J. C., 2012. Sequential and temporal dynamics of online opinion. Marketing Science, 31(3): 448 – 473

Hennig-Thurau, T., Malthouse, E. C., Friege, C., Gensler, S., Lobschat, L., Rangaswamy, A., Skiera, B., 2010. The Impact of New Media on Customer Relationships. Journal of Service Research, 13(3): 311 – 330

Ho, S. Y., 2012. The effects of location personalization on individuals' intention to use mobile services. Decision Support Systems, 53(4): 802 – 812

Holger, E., Hoyer, W.D., Kraft, M., Krieger, K., 2011. Customer relationship management and company performance – the mediating role of new product performance. Academy of Marketing Science Journal, 39(2): 290 – 306

Jap, S. D., Anderson, E., 2007. Testing a Life-Cycle Theory of Cooperative Interorganizational Relationships: Movement Across Stages and Performance. Management Science, 53(2): 260 – 275

Jinyoung, M., Byoungsoo, K., 2015. How are people enticed to disclose personal information despite privacy concerns in social network sites? The calculus between benefit and cost. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66(4): 839 – 857

Kaplan, A. M., Haenlein, M., 2009. The fairyland of second life: Virtual social worlds and how to use them. Business Horizons, 52(6): 563 – 572

Keller, K. L., 1993. Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity. Journal of Marketing, 57(1): 1 – 22

Kopalle, P. K., Lehmann, D. R., 1995. The Effects of Advertised and Observed Quality on Expectations about New Product Quality. Journal of Marketing Research, 32(3): 280 – 289

Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J., Wong, V., 2009. Principes van marketing. Amsterdam: Pearson Education Benelux

Laerd Dissertation, 2012. Sampling strategy.

http://dissertation.laerd.com/sampling-strategy.php. (22/03/2016)

Leeflang, P.S.H., Verhoef, P.C., Dahlström, P., Freundt, T., 2014. Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era. European Management Journal, 32(1): 1 – 12

Li, H., Edwards, S. M., & Lee, J.-H., 2002. Measuring the intrusiveness of advertisements: scale development and validation. Journal of Advertising, 31(2): 37–47

Neslin, S. A., Grewal, D., Leghorn, R., Shankar, V., Teerling, M. L., Thomas, J. S., Verhoef, P. C., 2006. Challenges and opportunities in multichannel customer management. Journal of Service Research, 9(2): 95 – 112

Neslin, S. A., Shankar, V., 2009. Key Issues in Multichannel Customer Management: Current Knowledge and Future Directions.  Journal of Interactive Marketing, 23(1): 70 – 81

Macneil, I.R., 1978. Contracts: Adjustment of Long-Term Economic Relations Under Classical, Neoclassical and Relational Contract Law. Northwestern University Law Review, 72: 854 – 902

McAlexander, J. H., Schouten, J. W., Koenig, H. F., 2002. Building Brand Community. Journal of Marketing, 66(1): 38 – 54

McCall, G.J., Simmons, J.L., 1966. Identities and Interactions. New York: The Free Press

Micheaux, A. L., 2011. Managing e-mail Advertising Frequency from the Consumer Perspective. Journal of Advertising, 40(4): 45 – 66

Miles, R. E., Creed, W. E. D., 1995. Organizational forms and managerial philosophies: A descriptive and analytical review. Research in organizational behavior, 17: 333 – 372

Milne, G. R., Boza, M. E., 1999. Trust and Concern in Consumers’ Perceptions of Marketing Information Management Practices. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18(3): 15 – 29

Mobile Marketing Association, 2009. MMA Updates Definition of Mobile Marketing.
http://mmaglobal.com/news/mma-updates-definition-mobile-marketing. (07/11/2015)

Muñiz, A. M., O’Guinn, T. C., 2001. Brand Community. Journal of Consumer Research, 27(4): 412 – 432

Paavilainen, J., 2002. Mobile Business Strategies. Boston: Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc.

Pradhan, S., 2009. Retailing Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited

Pura, M., 2005. Linking perceived value and loyalty in location-based mobile services. Managing Service Quality, 15(6): 509 – 538

Reinartz, W., Krafft, M., Hoyer, W. D. 2004. The Customer Relationship Management Process: Its Measurement and Impact on Performance. Journal of Marketing Research, 41(3): 293 – 305

Rigby, D., 2011. The future of shopping: successful companies will engage customers through "omnichannel" retailing: a mashup of digital and physical experiences. Harvard Business Review, 89(12): 64

Rouse, M., 2007. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) definition.

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Multimedia-Messa…. (05/12/2015)

Rousseau, D. M., Sitkin, S. B., Burt, R. S., Camerer, C., 1998. Not so different after all: A cross-discipline view of trust. Academy of Management, 23(3): 393 – 404

SAS HBR, 2010. The New Conversation: Taking Social Media from Talk to Action. Harvard Business Review Analtytic Services, 1 – 24

Sevenedge, 2014a. De Samsung Visual Style.

http://readyforthedevils.sevenedge.be/case-study/samsungvisualstyle. (07/11/2015)

Shanker, V., Carpenter, G., 2012. Handbook of Marketing Strategy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited

Smits, T., 28th of September 2015. Lecture Informatieverzameling – Experiment. KU Leuven: Campus Carolus Antwerp

Spekman, R.E., Strauss, D., Smitch, R.B. 1985. Antecedents of Collaborative Relations Between Buyers and Sellers: An Exploratory Investigation from the Buyer’s Perspective. Mimeo, University of Maryland

Srivastava, R.K., Shervani, T., Fahey, L. 1998. Marketing-Based Assets and Shareholder Value: A Framework for Analysis. Journal of Marketing, 62 (1): 2 – 18

Techopedia, 2015. Mobile Device.

https://www.techopedia.com/definition/235 86/mobile-device. (05/12/2015)

Unni, R., Harmon, R., 2007. Perceived Effectiveness of Push vs. Pull Mobile Location Based Advertising. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 7(2): 28 – 40

van der Veen, G., van Ossenbruggen, R., 2015. Mapping Out the Customer’s Journey: Customer Search Strategy as a Basis for Channel. Journal of Marketing Channels, 22(3): 202 – 213

van Doorn, J., Hoekstra, J. C., 2013. Customization of online advertising: The role of intrusiveness. Marketing Letters, 24(4):339 – 351

Van Doorn, J., Lemon, K. N., Mittal, V., Nass, S., Pick, D., Pirner, P., Verhoef, P. C., 2010. Customer engagement behaviour: theoretical foundations and research directions. Journal of Service Research, 13(3): 253 – 266

Van Rompuy G., 2014. Lecture Onderzoeksmethoden voor economen – Multicollineariteit. KU Leuven: Campus Carolus Antwerp

Venkatesan, R., Kumar, V., 2004. A Customer Lifetime Value Framework for Customer Selection and Resource Allocation Strategy. Journal of Marketing, 68(4): 106 – 125

Venkatesh, S., Carpenter, G. S., 2012. Handbook of Marketing Strategy. Cheltenham, Northampton: Edward Elgar.

Verhoef, P. C., Kannan, P. K., Inman, J. J., 2015. From Multi-Channel Retailing to Omni-Channel Retailing: Introduction to the Special Issue on Multi-Channel Retailing. Journal of retailing, 91(2): 174 – 181

Verhoef, P. C., Neslin, S. A., Vroomen, B. 2006. Multichannel customer management: Understanding the research-shopper phenomenon. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 24(2): 129 – 148

Weitz, B. A., Bradford, K. D., 1999. Personal Selling and Sales Management: A Relationship Marketing Perspective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27(2): 241 – 254

White, T. B., Zahay, D. L., Thorbjørnsen, H., & Shavitt, S., 2008. Getting too personal: reactance to highly personalized email solicitations. Marketing Letters, 19(1): 39 – 50

 

Universiteit of Hogeschool
Master in de handelswetenschappen, Marketing Management
Publicatiejaar
2016
Promotor(en)
Els Breugelmans
Kernwoorden
Share this on: