As organizations evolve from multi-domestic to transnational they need to develop new ways of obtaining sharing and acting upon marketing information. The technological advances that led to the marketing information revolution now provide firms the opportunity to develop new approaches to creating strategic and competitive marketing intelligence. This paper describes how Henkel has generated a vision for knowledge management designed to create new sources of competitive intellectual capital. Apart from benchmarking the current processes of knowledge management the creation of a transnational data warehouse as the foundation is key. The process of creating competitive knowledge by generating integrated (i.e. across sources) and international (i.e. across countries) insights is described. The paper describes steps from standard reporting of one information source to data mining across many information sources and the consequences these changes represent both for marketing and market research functions inside a company
The TRUE power of knowledge lies in its role of informing and guiding a brands future marketing plans. Usually knowledge is retrospective: marketers and advertisers learn from their success as well as mistakes; they seek to project the future by understanding the past. In this era of accelerated change retrospective knowledge or even knowledge of the present is no longer sufficient. Managers of brands require forward- looking knowledge as failure to look forward costs brands their lives. This paper describes an approach to qualitative research which helps companies shape the future brand and advertising landscape. It explores the definition of leading edge and argues that for any one brand there is a multiplicity of leading edge targets depending on whether design advertising product development or product usage is the subject of the study. It dispels the myth that the leading edge exists as an entity relevant across categories (a view particularly prevalent in the youth market) and looks at how each brand must define its own leading edge.
This paper addresses the difficulties faced by food retailers in recent years. Category management is the latest magic formula but the success of category management is completely dependent on the quality and relevance of the information provided. Customer focus is far from being a matter of course in practice. Efficient consumer response (ECR) is the key to success in retailing. A case study utilizing Tengelmann focusing on shopper patterns based on household panel data in Germany is provided.
The present research makes an analysis of the worlds situation at the end of the millennium - marked by decadence and determined by an overvalued emphasis placed on material things sinking mankind to an empty vacuum - and seeks the importance of resistance that subtly emerges as mans most inner hope to rescue himself. This paper reviews mankinds grief fears and symptoms of this era: loneliness and hunger as a pressing need to fill emptiness; and further develops the crisis in Mexico and the future of mankind and new generations. Finally it establishes a humanist proposal in marketing research based on creativity.
This paper provides a psychological and economic analysis of the development of ecology in a free market as observed in Germany in the last decade. The problems involved in simply defining what ecology means and the resulting question of how to measure corresponding market shares are discussed. The analysis continues with recent findings about the purchasing process of products with special ecological quantities addressing the special meaning of social influence on decisions in that area. Further this paper offers a summary of the most important findings for planning in countries and companies which must face the question of how to make the beauty of nature and the nature of their business a happy couple again.
Marketing research does promote product and service innovation. The key is development of tools and techniques that direct managers to the source of emerging customer needs and wants - the kinds of needs and wants that if fulfilled have the potential to excite customers promote brand preference and loyalty and keep a brand or firm a step ahead of its competitors. One such tool is attribute life cycle analysis. To date a method introduced by Kano and his colleagues has been the primary technique for attribute life cycle analysis. While the Kano method furnishes marketing managers with some important benefits it has some limitations that warrant development and application of alternative attribute life cycle analysis techniques. This paper describes two alternatives to the Kano method. It reports research indicating that these alternative techniques yield highly comparable results. Also presented is a recommended approach to and case illustration of how managers can use attribute life cycle analysis to identify opportunities for product and service innovation.
If we say that a certain brand may represent the values and lifestyle of an individual or a group of consumers why not extend this idea to include all the brands perceived by society? This paper presents and discusses the findings of an experimental study conducted in Russia and Spain with the aim of exploring to what extent the perception of different brands in both societies could reveal characteristic traits of the consumption culture of each one and serve as the starting point to measure their respective evolution.