Marketing Strategy

Innovations in Marketing Strategy

Innovations in Marketing Strategy – As a marketing graduate, I have been asked on a handful occasions on how best to outline innovations in marketing strategy. In today’s hyper-competitive business landscape, an effective marketing strategy is the key to unlocking success and sustaining growth. As graduate students of marketing, we understand the significance of formulating a well-thought-out marketing strategy that not only attracts customers but also builds long-term brand equity. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the intricacies of marketing strategy, exploring its fundamental concepts, elements, and how to craft a winning strategy that aligns with your business goals.

Marketing Strategy Dissertations

Understanding the Basics of Marketing Strategy

Before diving into the depths of crafting a marketing strategy, it is essential to grasp the foundational concepts that underpin innovations in marketing strategy.

Market Segmentation – Market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad target market into smaller, more manageable segments based on common characteristics. Graduate students of marketing must understand the importance of segmentation in tailoring their marketing efforts to the specific needs and preferences of different customer groups. Market segmentation and targeting are not static concepts but evolving strategies that adapt to changing consumer behaviors and technological advancements.

Market segmentation, a fundamental concept in marketing, involves dividing a diverse market into smaller, distinct segments based on shared characteristics or behaviors. This approach recognizes that not all consumers are alike and allows organizations to tailor their marketing efforts more effectively. Graduate students should explore various segmentation criteria, including demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral factors, each providing unique insights into consumer behavior.

Once segments are identified, targeting comes into play. Targeting involves selecting one or more specific segments as the focus of marketing efforts. This strategic decision is essential for resource allocation and message customization. By understanding the characteristics and needs of the chosen segments, organizations can create personalized marketing campaigns, increasing the likelihood of resonating with their audience and building stronger brand-customer relationships.

In today’s digital age, market segmentation and targeting have evolved with the availability of big data and advanced analytics. These techniques remain the cornerstones of successful marketing strategies, enabling businesses to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace.

Target Audience – Identifying a target audience is a critical step in marketing strategy development. By defining your ideal customer persona, you can tailor your marketing efforts to resonate with their unique needs, behaviors, and preferences.

Identifying the right target audience is a pivotal aspect of marketing strategy. It involves a comprehensive understanding of customer demographics, behaviors, and preferences. By honing in on a specific audience, organizations can allocate resources more efficiently, tailor their messaging to resonate with the intended recipients, and ultimately drive higher conversion rates.

Targeting enables businesses to build meaningful connections with their ideal customers, fostering brand loyalty and advocacy. In today’s data-rich environment, graduate students must grasp the significance of defining and reaching the right target audience, as it forms the foundation of effective marketing campaigns.

SWOT Analysis: A Crucial Starting Point

One of the first tasks in crafting a marketing strategy is conducting a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This analysis helps graduate students identify internal and external factors that can influence the success of their marketing strategy.

Strengths and Weaknesses – Evaluate your organization’s internal factors, such as your resources, capabilities, and market positioning. Identify your strengths, which you can leverage, and your weaknesses, which require improvement.

Opportunities and Threats – Examine external factors, including market trends, competition, and economic conditions. Identifying opportunities allows you to exploit market trends, while recognizing threats enables proactive mitigation strategies.

Crafting Your Unique Value Proposition

A compelling value proposition is the heart of any successful marketing strategy. It defines what sets your product or service apart from competitors and resonates with your target audience.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – Your USP should convey why your offering is superior or different from alternatives in the market. It should address the specific needs and pain points of your target audience. The Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a vital element in marketing strategy. It encapsulates the distinctive qualities or benefits that set a product or service apart from competitors.

A well-defined USP resonates with consumers by addressing their specific needs or pain points. Graduate students should understand that a compelling USP not only attracts attention but also builds brand identity and customer loyalty. Effective USPs communicate value and create a memorable brand perception, contributing to the success of marketing campaigns in a crowded marketplace. Crafting a unique, resonant USP is a strategic imperative for businesses seeking a competitive edge.

Clear Brand Identity -Building a strong brand identity is integral to your marketing strategy. Graduate students should ensure that their brand message, visual elements, and tone of voice are consistent and aligned with their value proposition.

A clear brand identity is fundamental in conveying a brand’s values, personality, and promises consistently across all touch points. It involves defining elements such as the brand’s logo, color scheme, typography, and tone of voice. This identity acts as a visual and emotional anchor, allowing consumers to recognize and connect with the brand effortlessly. Graduate students should recognize that a well-defined brand identity builds trust, fosters brand loyalty, and sets the stage for effective, cohesive marketing strategies.

Developing Marketing Objectives and Goals

Effective marketing strategies are goal-driven. Establishing clear objectives and goals is crucial for tracking progress and measuring the success of your strategy.

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (SMART) Goals:
Graduate students must craft SMART goals that are specific, quantifiable, attainable, relevant to the strategy, and bound by a timeframe. These goals serve as benchmarks for success.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – Identify the KPIs that will be used to measure the performance of your marketing efforts. These may include metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, and customer retention.

Selecting Marketing Channels – Selecting the right marketing channels is essential for reaching your target audience effectively. Graduate students must consider the following:

Digital Marketing – In today’s digital age, online channels such as social media, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising play a pivotal role. Choose the channels that align with your audience’s online behavior.

Digital marketing encompasses a wide array of strategies and channels, from social media and content marketing to SEO and email campaigns. It leverages the vast online landscape to reach and engage target audiences effectively. In today’s digital age, graduate students must grasp the dynamism of digital marketing, where consumer behaviors, algorithms, and platforms continuously evolve.

By understanding this multifaceted field, marketers can harness the power of digital marketing to expand their reach, enhance brand visibility, and drive conversions in an increasingly interconnected world.

Traditional Marketing – Depending on your target audience and industry, traditional marketing channels like print advertising, direct mail, and television can still be effective. Evaluate their relevance to your strategy.

Traditional marketing comprises strategies that have been fundamental to the field for decades, including print advertising, direct mail, television, radio, and outdoor advertising. These methods, though considered “traditional,” remain relevant in certain contexts and industries.

For graduate students, it’s essential to recognize that traditional marketing channels offer unique advantages, such as broad reach and tangibility. Understanding when and how to integrate traditional marketing into a comprehensive strategy is crucial, ensuring a well-rounded approach that capitalizes on both digital and traditional channels to achieve marketing objectives effectively.

Implementation and Execution

Once your marketing strategy is in place, the execution phase is where the rubber meets the road. Graduate students should:

Create a Marketing Calendar – Develop a detailed timeline that outlines when and how each marketing activity will be executed. This helps ensure consistency and accountability.

Allocate Resources – Ensure that you have the necessary resources, including budget, personnel, and technology, to implement your strategy effectively.

Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation

Marketing strategy is not static; it requires continuous monitoring and adaptation to remain effective. Graduate students should:

Regularly Analyze Data – Use data analytics to track the performance of your marketing efforts. Adjust your strategy based on the insights gained from customer behavior and performance metrics.

Stay Informed – Keep abreast of industry trends, market shifts, and emerging technologies that may impact your strategy. Adapt and innovate to stay ahead of the competition.

***Innovations in Marketing Strategy Project***

Conclusion Innovations in Marketing Strategy

In the ever-evolving world of marketing, graduate students must master the art of crafting effective marketing strategies that drive business success. By understanding the basics, conducting a SWOT analysis, developing a compelling value proposition, setting clear objectives, selecting the right marketing channels, and executing with precision, you can create a strategy that resonates with your target audience and achieves your business goals. Remember that successful marketing is an ongoing journey, requiring continuous monitoring, adaptation, and innovation to stay ahead in the competitive landscape.

References

Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2017). Principles of Marketing. Pearson.

Payne, A., & Frow, P. (2014). Developing a wider perspective on corporate reputation management. Journal of Brand Management, 21(9), 693-699.

Pulizzi, J., & Barrett, N. (2015). Content Inc.: How Entrepreneurs Use Content to Build Massive Audiences and Create Radically Successful Businesses. McGraw-Hill Education.

Hsu, C. L., & Tsou, K. H. (2019). How social media influencers build a brand? Strategies and challenges. Sustainability, 11(7), 1868.

Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), 59-68.

Lee, M., & Youn, S. (2009). Electronic word of mouth (eWOM): How eWOM platforms influence consumer product judgment. International Journal of Advertising, 28(3), 473-499.

Smith, A. N., & Noble, S. M. (2014). The impact of social media usage on consumer purchasing behavior. Journal of Retailing, 90(3), 363-376.

Kim, A. J., & Ko, E. (2012). Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business Research, 65(10), 1480-1486.

Escalas, J. E. (2007). Narrative processing: Building consumer connections to brands. Psychology & Marketing, 24(8), 713-741.

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Advertising and Ethical Contracting

Advertising and Ethical Contracting Project – In advertising it is possible to have organization promising more than they can offer. This is considered as unethical advertisement. However, organizations use attractive information to try and entice potential consumers into buying their products and services.

The main objective of an advertisement is to convey the intention of the advertising company. The information may be about a product or a service (Dobson et al, 2012). These are informative advertisements that are aimed at ensuring that the customers are informed on the contents of a product or a service and hence help them in making an informed choice.

However, an organization may include false information in the adverts. The information may be misleading making the customer to make a decision unwillingly. They may be following the promised item rather than consume the product being advertised. Most advertising organizations are warned against misleading consumers and luring them into choosing their products and services out of misleading information (Boundy, 2010).

On the other hand, customers are warned of their being conscious when responding to offers in advertisements. They should comprehend the information being conveyed in the advert and not just make haste into getting the promise in promotional adverts (Suprapto et al, 2015).

The organization that engages in such practices can be considered to be unethical in its advertising practices. This is because the customers might not specifically choose their products but rather the rewards promised in the promotions advert. The advert remains irrelevant in the promotion and the customer does not develop a liking for the main product or service but rather focuses on winning the promised item. However, some organization will reward a prolonged usage of a product through royalty points reward programs.

Case Review Advertising and Ethical Contracting

In the case, the Soft Drink Company intended to entice its consumers into taking more of the drink and accumulate points. It had placed a high figure on the points that one needed to accumulate by consuming the soft drink in order to be considered for the reward. The consumer would take a long time to earn the points and hence they had placed the reward of a Harrier Jet just as a motivation to make the consumers take more of the soft drink.

The organization had no intention to give the reward. They had projected that probably no one will be able to accumulate the necessary points before the promotion was over. As per the calculations one would have probably consumed 190 drinks a day for a period of 100 years in order to accumulate the points. Getting 7 million points was impossible and this is what the organization considered in placing the advertisement on the media.

On the other hand, the Harrier Jet cost over $ 23 million. It was therefore illogical to place a bet worth $700,000 for an item that is over 2000% worth of the value. This made the advert to be a joke as highlighted. However, the businessman’s focus was not from the customer’s point of view but rather from the business point of view. He had envisioned himself possessing the Harrier Jet worth over $23 million for a price that was merely less than a million dollars.

In evaluating the case, the judge argued that the advert was basically a joke and the organization had not meant to give the promised Harrier Jet. In addition, the advert was basically an offer and the organization had not entered a legal agreement with the businessman that upon completion acquisition of the points, the organization would provide the customer with the promise. There was therefore no legal obligation for the organization to provide the promised reward to the customer upon accumulation of the necessary point (Suprapto et al, 2015).

There are terms and conditions in every business undertaking. The organization must have stipulated that the advertisement was meant for enhancing the consumerism of their products and not necessarily the accumulation of points. The accumulation of points was a methodology of encouraging repeated consumerism. However, the allowance by the organization for the consumers to purchase points at a price of 10 cents each was a shortcoming and this triggered the businessman to use the same to accumulate points.

Valid Contract

An advertisement is considered lesser than an offer. It is an invitation to make a deal. The organization that advertises places an open invitation to make a deal. In a valid contract, two or more parties come to an agreement to provide a service, a product or commit an act and it is enforceable by law. For a contract to be enforceable, there must be an offer then followed by an acceptance (Dobson et al, 2012).

This is followed by the creation of a legally binding agreement where the two parties consent to an agreed terms and conditions. They enter the agreement with a free will after they have understood the terms. Where force or confusing statements are used during the dealing the contract is declared illegal and void (Silver & Hochberg, 2013).

A valid contract must contain several elements. They include;

An offer that provides the details of what is to be provided and at what condition.
Acceptance to show that the two parties have consented to the agreement.
A consideration which may be money or something of value that ensures there is interest in the parties to enter or have an exchange agreement.
The capability by the parties to be able to honor the contract. The parties have to be mentally, physically and economically able to honor the agreement as stipulated.
Intent is the will to carry out the promise in the agreement.
The legal entity where the agreement is sealed using legal terms and conditions and hence be capable of legal defense in case there is a breach and a resulting breach of contract.

The parties to a contract agree on the terms after fully understanding their role in effecting their side of the contract. One may be the recipient of what the other party has to offer. For instance, in a service provision contract, the service provider is expected to agree to provide a service at an agreed level (Jones, 2022). The client will consent to pay the client upon complete provision of services. However, if the client fails to pay or the service provider fails to honor the agreement, the legal process may be induced by the arising conflict.

There are several types of contract. An express contract is a common type where the elements such as offer, acceptance and consideration are specifically stated (Silver & Hochberg, 2013). This helps the parties to understand the terms and regulation regarding the contract. An example is a tenant – landlord agreement where the tenant agrees to pay the landlord some given amount at the end of their stay.

Most buying occurs in environments where the customer and the client negotiate on an oral platform. In these kind of contract there are less formalities and its only at the end of the agreement when the client provides the customer with a receipt or invoice to cement an agreement. When the agreement is reached a document to document the acceptance may be used to make sure that the promise is honored (Fehr et al, 2011).

The goods are then not returnable after the customer has left the premise. An example of an oral contract is where a buyer negotiates the buying of a car with a car dealer. At the end of the sale the buyer get the documentation and leaves with the car and cannot return the vehicle to the dealer. The buyer will provide the payment immediately they reach an agreement and will exchange with the car documents.

***Advertising and Ethical Contracting***

Another kind of contract is an implied contract. In this type of contract, one of the parties will put themselves in a position that suggests they are ready to honor what the other may be offering. Their position is deemed as readiness to negotiate and accept the terms of the contract. For instance, when a person visits a restaurant and sit, the waiter or waitress will approach the customer and ask for their order. This is because the customer is assumed to be willing to eat or drink and pay for the same upon service.

However, the problem arises where one of the parties may not be ready to enter an agreement with the other. For instance when one is not ready to eat but still enters a restaurant. The service provider may still serve the customer and if they fail to pay after consuming the product. Such a case means that the hotel operator can sue the customer under the Quasi-Contract terms since the actions of the customer implied they were ready to be given some service (Fehr et al, 2011).

Illegal and Void Contracts

In a case like the one of the businessman, there was no contractual agreement with the soft drink company that after they accumulate the points, they would receive the reward. This was not even an offer but an invitation to deal. The businessman did not even bother to consult from the soft drink company on whether he would receive the reward upon complete accumulation of the desired points (Fehr et al, 2011). Instead he went ahead and accumulated the points disregarding additional information for him to avoid his uninformed decision.

For illegal contracts there is lack of efficient components to validate the same to make it an enforceable contract. However, when one party fails to perform their part of the contract, the other may proceed and have a legal claim for damages and hence the facts are used to enforce the contract and have the recovery of damages. This occurs for the purposes of recovering an interest or a consideration that one party had honored and the accused failed.

Recommendation and Conclusion

Looking from all aspects of a valid contract, the advertisement failed to reach the threshold. The Federal Judge at the Southern District of New York evaluated the advert and considered it a joking one. He ruled out that the firm intended to reward those that reached the said points. If the reward was based on a recorded accumulation of points, the case could have been different.

In a reward mechanism, the parties will have a written document to show parties agreed on some terms to comply with (Emerson, 2010). The customer or the user will receive a registration number or an account into which the points will be accumulated as they consumed the product. Every time they enter the customer consumes the said product points are added to their account. This is common with supermarkets, filling stations and other businesses.

Nonetheless, the kind of advertisement that was used by the company was misleading and unethical. It is always important to apply ethics and not be superstitious like the organization did. The man might have justified the ultimate action of the businessman. Organization should uphold that advertisements meet an advertisement ethical threshold (Emerson, 2010). The firms should be restricted from placing the life of a consumer at heart.

They cannot promise consumer that they are going to reward them and fail the same upon successful completion of the points’ accumulation. The desired level is stipulated at the beginning and the willing person is then registered so as to have their points added upon consumption.

Luring and misleading advertisement should attract some penalty. The firms or individuals who use false and enticing details, so as to coerce consumers into buying products or services should be held accountable to unethical and illegal practices. Nonetheless, when an organization practices such, their credibility in the market gets affected. Some of the practices may as well lead to consequences that may include expulsion by regulatory bodies.

References

Boundy, C. (2010). Business contracts handbook. Farnham, Surrey: Gower Pub.

Dobson, A. P., Stokes, R., & Dobson, A. P. (2012). Commercial law. London: Sweet & Maxwell.

Emerson, R. W. (2010). Business law. Great Claredon Street, UK: Oxford University

Fehr, E., Hart, O. D., Zehnder, C., & National Bureau of Economic Research. (2011). How do informal agreements and renegotiation shape contractual reference points? Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Silver, T., & Hochberg, S. (2013). The Glannon guide to contracts: Learning contracts through multiple-choice questions and analysis. New York: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.

Jones, S. (2022) Advertising and Ethical Contracting: Marketing Consulting Project. Study-Aids Research

Suprapto, M., Bakker, H. L., Mooi, H. G., & Hertogh, M. J. (2015). How do contract types and incentives matter to project performance? International Journal of Project Management. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.08.003

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Evaluate the Psychographic Segmentation Method as a Basis for Effective Marketing in the UK Car Industry

Marketing segmentation is an important part of the marketing process. In order to be effective, firms must know who they want to target and what their customer needs and wants are. The UK car industry has a very large market and in order to serve it efficiently, it needs to segment its market and select a target market. Several methods may be used to segment the market but this essay will focus on evaluating the psychographic segmentation method as a basis for effective marketing in the UK car industry.

This essay will first define several terms, and then it will explain the benefits and the limitations of psychographic segmentation. It will then show how psychographics are used in the UK car industry and identify if other segmentation techniques are used, with or without psychographics, in this same industry.

Market segmentation is an essential part of the marketing process. It allows firms to allocate their market into groups that have the same similarities, which are relevant for decision making in the marketing strategy (Jobber, 2001). Then firms can target their market to serve it effectively, they can differentiate the market, define the opportunities and threats and tailor the marketing mix.

To be useful, segments selected should be measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable and actionable (Jobber, 2001). The market can be segmented in different ways; the three most popular techniques used are: behavioural segmentation which analyse benefit sought, purchase occasion, purchase behaviour, usage and perception and beliefs; the second is psychographic segmentation which analyse the lifestyle and the personality of consumers and the third is profile segmentation which base its researches on demographic, socio-economic and geographic variables (Jobber, 2001).

Researches show that there is no exact definition for psychographics but Emanuel H Demby (1989 p 26). said that “psychographics allow us to view a population as individual with feelings and tendencies addressed in compatible groups (segments) to make more efficient use both of mass media and those that targeted to particular potions of the population”. The basis of psychographic research is that the more a firm know and understand about their customers the more effectively they can communicate to them (Heath, Piirto, 1995).

Psychographic Segmentation Research

Psychographic research can identify similar values, attitude, and lifestyle or personality groups, but the two main variables used in psychographic segmentation are the lifestyle and the personality of the customer: Personality is an individual’s pattern of character that influences behavioural responses such as self-confidence, dominance, sociability. This variable is important to be understood because people tend to see themselves in a way and purchase products to satisfy their self-concept so people see them in the way they want.

Lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living as expressed in this or her interests, opinions and activities. It is considered to be a rich descriptor of people buying patterns. Often, people buy brands because those brands relate to their way of living (Morgan, Doran, 2002-2003). For example, a successful businessman in his late thirties will buy a BMW because the image the brand shows in its advertisement is power, success and high standard of living. Psychographics are necessary to firms because they can investigate into specific product category and brand decisions by consumers and can be used to paint the big picture of consumer lifestyle (Heath, Piirto, 1995).

Psychographics has proven to be a very useful tool for organisations in their marketing research. It identifies target markets that could not be isolated using only demographic variables. According to Wells (1974), psychographics is designed to measure the consumer’s predisposition to buy a product, the influences that stimulate buying behaviour, and the relationship between the consumer’s perception of the product benefits and his/her lifestyle, interests and opinions (Heath, Piirto, 1995).

Often researchers have turned to psychographics because of the limitation encountered in demographics. An advantage of psychographics is that it describes segments in terms directly relevant to advertisement campaign and market planning decisions of organisations (Heath, Piirto, 1995). It has also appealed marketers for its power to combine the richness of “motivational research” with the statistical sophistication of computer analyses and, provide corporate strategists with rich descriptive details for developing marketing strategy; (Lesser, Hughes, 1986) it has the ability to give marketers a big image of the consumer’s lifestyle.

There is also the appealing advantage that psychographic segments, which are developed for markets in one geographic location, are generalizable to market in other geographic locations (Heath, Piirto, 1995). Psychographics are essential for discovering both the explicit and the hidden psychosocial motives that so often spell the difference between acceptance or rejection of the brand.

But psychographics has limitations, researchers have found reliability problems: first there are no standardized methods to evaluate the stability of results of psychographic techniques and incertitude in this area weakens predictive power. Therefore, it will throw doubts in whether the segment and market targeted are reliable or not.

The main problem is that psychographics attempt to measure intangible and diffuse concepts, values and attitudes are not easy to measure as every single person has a different personality and consequently have different opinions and interests. It has also been pointed out by (Fenwick et al., 1983) that there is little cross-study evidence on reliability so findings cannot be compared and improved.

The car industry in the United Kingdom is very large but is resumed by two monopolies: the first one is a monopoly in favour of Ford, which owns most of the leading brands. The second is another monopoly which is described as a “complex monopoly situation arising from the selective and exclusive distribution system used by most car suppliers in the United Kingdom.” by the United Kingdom Parliament (1998)

The UK has the biggest used car market in Europe: of the 26 million cars on the British road only 2 million have been bought new in the past twelve months (United Kingdom Parliament (1998). Since the market is so large, and that there is a word limitation, this essay will only concentrate on two different brands both owned by ford but with different legal entities and different target market.

***Psychographic Segmentation in Marketing Project***

Jaguar creates cars for customers that are seeking distinctive saloons and sports cars which deliver “stimulating performance and captivating style”. They have built an image for their cars which correspond to what their potential buyers want to identify themselves as. The company is seeking to reflect the individuality of its consumers. Its image is one of luxury, sport and freedom to inspire people. Jaguar uses psychographics since a big part of the customer’s purchase decision process is based on values, self-concept and attitudes. Jaguar need to know its customers, their personality and their self-concept to create a car up to their expectation and reflect the lifestyle they have.

Volvo is another brand of car that has a very different target market. Volvo uses psychographics to segment their market. They create cars aiming mainly at “modern families”. They analyse what are the attitude and values of families towards cars, what are the lifestyle of today’s families: research showed that families were going away for holidays and needed big cars that are able to be reliable and provide comfort for the whole family.

It has been found that today, families go to the beach but also to the mountain. So, Volvo created cars that allowed families to purchase car to suit their lifestyle. They also had to analyse the personality and the self-concept of those families. A family that wants freedom, that is adventurous. And this is reflected in Volvo’s advertising campaign. So, when people watch those advertisements, they can rely to it and identify themselves with the image they are giving out.

Other methods of segmentation are used in the UK car industry such as demographics or geographic. But often those methods, particularly in the car industry, need to be supplemented with other data, even if some researchers such as Ziff (1971) affirmed that “as demographic is based on the ground that demographic groups are relatively homogenous, it does not need psychographics to distinct customer’s behaviour” (Heath, Piirto, 1995, p 16).

Demographics can turn up objective facts such as tell that the target customer owns a car but it will not be able to tell why the person bought the car; this “why” is told by psychographics. In order to be successful, the car industry must know its consumers: their age, their sex, their marital status, their income, their purchase behaviour such as if they are brand loyal or if they are innovators. Jaguar keep record of every single client and follow them for up to four years to know everything about their satisfaction, their complaint, so they are able to measure the number of clients that are brand loyal.

Both Volvo and Jaguar saw a new target market in women and develop design to satisfy their wants. In order to serve this new and growing market, identified through demographics, those firms will need to use psychographics because women have different attitudes, values, personalities and lifestyle than men. They will also need to know what their expectations are and what issues they think are most important when they buy a car. For example, women may be more focused on safety and design while men may be more careful about their image and the performance of the car.

Therefore, psychographics can be a useful tool for the car industry in segmenting their market. This technique helps them understand their customers better and deliver more appropriate products and services. But as psychographics have proven not to be reliable on different situations, it would be more effective if used with other segmentation techniques such as demographics or behavioural segmentation. It will allow marketers to have more data in order to select the most appropriate market for their product and avoid making errors in their decision process.

References

Lesser, A.J., Hughes, M.A., (January 1986) The generalizability of psychographic market segments across geographic locations, Journal of Marketing [online], Vol.50 pp18-27.

Jobber, D., (1995) Principles and practice of marketing, 3^rd Ed McGraw Hill Book company, England.

Heath, Piirto, R., (Nov./Dec.1995) Psychographics, Marketing tools [online], Vol.2, issue 8, pp 12-25.

Fenwick, I., Schellinck, D.A., Kendall, K.W., (1983) Assessing the reliability of psychographic analysis, Journal of marketing science, Vol.2, No.1.

The United Kingdom Parliament, (1998) The structure of the UK car market, Committee on Trade and Industry, Second report.

Morgan, S.J., (2003) Lecture 3: Segmentation, targeting and positioning, Lecture Notes, [online], Birkbeck university of London.

Ziff, R., (1971) Psychographics for market segmentation, Journal of advertising Research, Vol. 11, No. 2. Available from: EBSCO host.

Morgan, C.M., Levy, D.J., (2002-2003) Psychographic segmentation, Communication World.

Demby, E.H., (1989) Psychographic revisited: the birth of a technique, Marketing research, Vol.6, No.2, pp 26-29.

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What is meant by the term Integrated Marketing Communications and how is it strategically implemented, and what are the perceived benefits to having a centralised, synthesised company message?

Integrated marketing communications has been defined as a management philosophy, an educational movement and a unifying business practice, among others. Cornelisson and Lock state that IMC is nothing but a management fad. This ambiguity in defining and measuring IMC has prevented the development of a cohesive research stream in this area. In order to build on and extend previous research, I have chosen to adopt the original definition of Duncan and Everett, who define IMC as “the strategic coordination of all messages and media used by an organization to influence its perceived brand value” (Beard, 1996).

While approaching this topic area, I came across several surveys that were conducted for IMC. In order to attain a greater understanding of IMC and to construct validity, I then decided to conduct my own survey. I contacted and interviewed 14 senior marketing managers, and asked them to give me their definition of integrated marketing communications These managers were employed by a representative mix of large and small companies, ranging from 15 to 90 employees, competing in industries including telecommunications, food and beverage manufacturing, and financial services.

All the managers I interviewed were responsible for planning and implementing marketing communications programs. Illustrative job titles of those interviewed included senior director of marketing, regional team manager of sales and marketing, senior product manager, and owner/general manager (for small businesses). All 14 managers interviewed defined integrated marketing communications as a management practice. The owners of the two smallest businesses, a restaurant and a local sports shop, had no real idea as to the understanding of IMC, however their marketing structure showed evidence of it in use.

Furthermore, the most common element of their responses was the coordination of marketing communications tools. This provided further support for adopting the Duncan and Everett definition of IMC. When I asked them to suggest ways as to create a coordinated marketing strategy, all 14 managers suggested four components that contribute to the coordination of marketing communications activities:

Planning and developing different communications tools such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct mail as one integrated project.
Assigning responsibility for the overall communications effort to a single manager.
Ensuring that the various elements of the communications program have a common strategic objective such as reinforcing a particular positioning strategy or appealing to a key benefit sought by a target segment.
Focusing on a common communications message.

These are similar ideas, yet each captures a slightly different aspect of the way senior managers coordinate diverse communications activities. They also reflect the three prevalent conceptualizations of IMC summarized by Nowak and Phelps -“one voice,” “integrated communications,” and “coordinated campaigns”–further strengthening the construct validity.

I followed the suggestions of Churchill to build and test a multi-item scale to measure IMC as perceived by senior marketing managers, since no such scale exists in the literature. Based on the definition of IMC and the input from senior managers discussed above (to ensure construct validity), I constructed the following four items for the Likert scale. Before I go on, the Likert technique presents a set of attitude statements.

Subjects are asked to express agreement or disagreement of a five-point scale. Each degree of agreement is given a numerical value from one to five. Thus, a total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses. The following statements were posed to the managers and their responses were recorded as a numerical value; a value of 1 was given if they absolutely disagreed and a value of 5 was given if they totally agreed.

When more than one marketing communications tool or activity is used for a product or service, they should be planned and executed as distinct, separate projects.
Different marketing communications tools for a product/service should be planned by the same manager.
The elements of the marketing communications program for a product/service should be strategically consistent.
I would say that the marketing communications tools used for a product/service focus on a common message.

Integrated marketing communications has been a worthwhile goal of marketing people for the past 30 years. When compared with uncoordinated approaches, IMC offers more relevancy and greater opportunities to achieve client objectives.

The real opportunities to serve clients with significant results, however, lie in areas outside typical demand/creation-driven communications. You cannot really integrate marketing communications without first integrating marketing and recognizing that demand fulfillment (service, delivery, etc.) is just as critical to success. And you cannot truly integrate marketing without first integrating the company (Burnett, 1998).

A recent case study showed banks in many parts of America recently began selling mutual funds. They needed a new profit center because of lower interest rates and the resulting loss of funds. But a focus solely on increased profit is behind the failure in integrated marketing of bank mutual fund products (Burnett, 1998).

For example, in New York, during the first six months of last year, 13 banks and savings and loans in New York spent $6 million advertising mutual funds and other investment products, up more than 500% from the previous year. This relatively high level of funding was spent on demand/creation activities with little consideration for demand fulfillment and how customers would actually come in contact with the bank.

So when prospective customers entered banks inquiring about mutual funds, they often encountered clerks who supplied only partial information, misinformation, or simply had no answers at all and did not even know where to find them. (Burnett, 1998) There is a unifying secret to integrated marketing communications, integrated marketing, and integrated companies. It is a concentrated focus on the customer and a recognition that every point of contact between the company and the customer; product packaging, advertising, or customer service–is an opportunity to create a positive synergy and a happy customer.

The real impetus behind integrated marketing is in realizing that a company’s products and services do not exist to increase profits and maximize shareholder value. They exist to benefit customers better than the competition; that is the way to advance profitability and expand shareholder value. It is a long-term view, and one held by many Japanese companies.

The change that integrated marketing calls for requires that organizations first test the waters by focusing on a particular business or product area, and following an approach. The first step, however, common to both, is an infrastructure, creating cross-functional teams of people who can recognise and represent the needs of the customers at every point of contact with the organisation. This group can include finance, sales, marketing channels, communications, etc. The next step is picking the approach (Burnett, 1998).

One approach may be to take existing products and services, communications, and infrastructure and focus on a particular business area. The cross-functional team redefines the marketing communications and operational aspects of that area. The team develops specific and measurable goals with regard to communications, relevancy, and productivity, and it creates specific plans to measure the achievement of those goals.

Integrated Marketing Communications Agencies

All of this suggests that the future of general advertising and direct marketing agencies is not in integrated communications but in integrated marketing. (Coen, 1998) The challenge before us is to move away from discipline-oriented solutions to integrated marketing solutions that address multiple dimensions of the client’s business situation. This change will require that advertising agencies play a hybrid role as consultants, communication experts, and process facilitators.

Most companies appear to be practicing IMC to some degree, supporting the observations from my previous survey, that IMC is important and is increasingly considered a marketing ‘best practice’. There is a strong relationship found between IMC and performance measures such as market share, sales, and profit further demonstrate the value of efforts to enhance IMC. Although IMC is becoming more popular, a survey showed that 12 percent of respondents implied that their communications programs were fully integrated, suggesting that 88 percent have room for improvement to some extent (Coen, 1998).

Of the three items used to measure IMC, respondents indicated that the area with the most room for improvement is the strategic consistency of the communications elements. This is consistent with Kitchen and Schultz’s notion of the most advanced ‘stage 4’ of IMC development; the financial and strategic integration of IMC synergies (Kitchen and Schultz, 1999). Therefore, managers should focus more on the strategic objectives of their communications programs and increasing the consistency of those objectives across individual program components.

For example, if the overall campaign strategy is to increase new users, this should be the focus of the media advertising, public relations effort, promotional programs, and website design. By focusing on the strategic use of IMC, managers will also be able to measure better the financial returns of communications programs as a whole.

One of the objectives of this study was to learn about factors, which enhance or reduce IMC. Based on the foundation laid here, advertising professionals should be able to make changes that may strengthen IMC in their firms. (Coen, 1998) My findings indicate that assigning managers with significant career experience the responsibility for marketing communications integration can enhance IMC.

The other factors associated with IMC may not be as actionable as increasing the experience of the lead manager; however, they may provide valuable insight to managers interested in encouraging IMC in other ways. For example, the results show that company size is negatively related to IMC. It is likely that marketing communications programs in large organizations are managed by a number of employees, departments, and functions, in various divisions.

This diverse responsibility makes coordination difficult and increases the likelihood that communicated messages will not be consistent. In order to enhance IMC in such situations, it may help to coordinate communications programs at the product or service level. A product or brand management structure where responsibilities for individual brands are assigned to one experienced manager may enhance IMC by reducing the “size” of the business as much as possible and encouraging coordination at the product/service level. Management efforts to organize the communications efforts appropriately would help address the apparent hurdles involved in increasing IMC in large companies. (Gonring, 1994)

The results of the study suggest a number of implications relative to client-agency relationships. The most obvious would be to assign a diverse set of communication responsibilities to a single agency to coordinate and implement. This would lower the complexity of large, diverse communications programs.

***Integrated Marketing Communications Project***

One way to achieve this would be to reorganize large agencies into product/service groups, designating account management, creative, media, sales promotion, public relations, and research professionals to integrated client groups (see Gronstedt and Thorson, 1996, for other ways agencies can organize to encourage IMC). Reorganizing in this way would go a long way toward enhancing the coordination of communications activities and toward increasing the strategic consistency of messages and media implemented on behalf of clients (Gonring, 1994).

The strong relationship between IMC and firm performance found in our study suggests that agencies should encourage IMC by their clients. Prior research clearly shows that clients are the drivers of IMC and that strong client-agency partnerships that produce integrated communications plans are critical to the success of IMC efforts. The scale developed in this study could be used by agencies to measure the degree of IMC of potential and current clients to determine the components of IMC that need the most improvement.

A final implication of these results for the client-advertising agency relationship is that the IMC scale developed here can be used to help define the role of the client and agency in developing and implementing integrated communications programs. Prior research has shown that one of the hurdles to IMC is the question of who should coordinate programs, client or agency. Each feels that IMC is their role, leading to problems in implementation.

Expectations may be unclear and, therefore, information not shared. Where does the responsibility for IMC lie? Who should be primarily responsible for it? The results, combined with results from prior research, suggest that clients should be responsible for the strategic direction and planning, which are the foundation of integrated communications programs (Gould, 1999).

Advertising agencies should be responsible for message consistency and coordination of communications programs. IMC should originate with client generally who see the “big picture” and recognise the role of communications efforts in their overall marketing strategies. Agencies, on the other hand, are best suited to coordinate and implement IMC programs across messages, media, products, services, divisions, and countries. The results suggest that clients have more room for IMC improvement in their strategic planning role than do agencies in their tactical implementation role and that advertising agencies are well positioned to be the “lead” communications agency in efforts to improve IMC. (Hutton, 1996)

Managers can cultivate a spirit of IMC in their organizations by creating sales message strategies that could be more carefully coordinated with other forms of communications in the planning and implementation stages in order to avoid the inconsistencies that are more likely to occur later on. Personal selling is a large part of the communications mix. In addition, prior research has found that business-to-business firms tend to rely more heavily on advertising agencies for IMC than do consumer-focused firms. This suggests that advertising agencies have a greater opportunity to help business-to-business firms more closely integrate their marketing communications programs.

Imperial Tobacco Limited is an example of a company, which is Canada’s largest tobacco manufacturer, effectively employed three critical integrated marketing communication (IMC) practices: strategically consistent brand communication, cross-functional planning and monitoring, and data-driven targeting and communication. By utilizing in-depth consumer research and key IMC processes to construct brand and lifestyle imagery for its flagship cigarette trademark, Player’s, ITL achieved greater brand equity and greater shareholder value. (Dewhirst, 2005).

In conclusion, it is evident that having a centralized, synthesized company message is vital in order to bring about success. It is essential that companies realize the potential and the importance of this message. Integrated marketing communication is really about having a coordinated, organized structure in the way information is sent across. Organisation in every part of our lives is the key to building a successful empire. We have to remember that IMC is not a fundamental theory.

It is still very much at the developmental stages. There may be some areas where it may not work, so it is essential to see how IMC develops over longer periods of time, maybe through longitudinal studies. From this study we have also learnt that it is crucial to value the customer and stakeholder, if all we do is concentrate on integrating marketing communications and fitting it into the company structure, then it is possible to lose focus on the real target, the consumer. It may be wiser to start with the consumer and fitting IMC around the company structure in order to obtain the greatest benefit for the company and the consumer.

Bibliography

Beard, F. “Integrated Marketing Communications: New Role Expectations and Performance Issues in the Client-Ad Agency Relationship?” Journal of Business Research 37, 3 (1996): 207-15.

Burnett, J., and S. Moriarty. Introduction to Marketing Communication: An Integrated Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1998.

Coen, R. J. Annual Advertising Spending Report. New York, McCann Erickson, 1998.

Gonring, M P. “Putting Integrated Marketing Communications to Work Today.” Public Relations Quarterly 39, 3 (1994): 45-48.

Gould, S. J., D. B. Lerman, and A. P. Grein. “Agency Perceptions and Practices on Global IMC.” Journal of Advertising Research 39, 1 (1999): 7-20.

E. Thorson. “Five Approaches to Organize an Integrated Marketing Communications Agency.” Journal of Advertising Research 36, 2 (1996): 48-58.

Hutton, J. G. “Integrated Marketing Communications and the Evolution of Marketing Thought.” Journal of Business Research 37, 3 (1996): 155-62.

Kitchen, P. J., and D. E Schultz. “A Multi-Country Comparison of the Drive for IMC.” Journal of Advertising Research 39, 1 (1999): 21-38.

Low, G. S., and J. J. Mohr. “Setting Advertising and Promotion Budgets in Multi-Brand Companies.” Journal of Advertising Research 39, 1 (1999): 67-78.

Mand, A. “No Gamble: P&G Looking to Put More Brands Online.” Brandweek, 1999.

Neff, J., and P. Sloan. “P&G, No. 1 Again, Aims to Reinvent Marketing.” Advertising Age, 1996.

Nowak, G., and J. Phelps. “Conceptualizing the Integrated Marketing Communications Phenomenon: An Examination of Its Impact on Advertising Practices and Its Implications for Advertising Research.” Journal of Current Issue, and Research in Advertising 16, 1(1994):49-66.

Dewhirst and Davis. “Brand strategy and integrated marketing communication.” Journal of advertising 34, 4 (2005): 81-92.

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Netflix Consumer Behavior

Netflix consumer behavior – This assignment focuses on a branded service – Netflix on the basis of co-creating value. Netflix is the leading American brand known for streaming services. In this case, Netflix is the brand and streaming is the service. Therefore, of focus in this assignment is developing a brand-image – various brand associations; brand-congruency by determining the level of congruency between the typical user’s image and brand-image.

The assignment also focuses on explaining the brand attitude of Netflix’s target audience, social-cultural influences, identifying any artefacts and rituals associated with the branded service, and the recommendation of the various ways of creating value for the customer. In general, this assignment is a piece communication, which provides the service brand (Netflix) manager with information about their socio-cultural, brand, and normative influences affecting and co-creating value for the target audience.

Brand Image

To begin with, it is hard to imagine a living room or boardroom where Netflix (branded service) requires an introduction. Currently, the branded service boasts of over 70 million subscribers across over 40 countries worldwide. Netflix has spurred hundreds of cable cancellations every day. This kind of growth for Netflix in recent years is partly attributed to the brand service’s image out there. According to Park & Lee (2005, p. 40), the success of a company stems, partly, from delighting customers in margin-enhancing, customers in hard to replicate ways, which ended up creating the kind of brand-image that is unique.

When it comes to Netflix’s brand-image, what comes to mind is authenticity and sustainability. The brand image has been built with the human spirit, and not necessarily ad campaigns (Pittman & Sheehan, 2015, p. 1). To the management, what comes to the mind of the consumer in reference to Netflix is that it provides streaming services, and the branded service is largely known for its positioning model. Park et al. (1991, p. 186) pointed out that the brand image is the unique story, which consumers recall when they think of a brand (PowerPoint Presentation Week 5, n.d. Slide. 26).

To the management, therefore, Netflix’s brand-image has points of parity, which are also the same as other brands in the same industry or different industry (Pittman & Sheehan, 2015, p. 1). These points of parity include innovation (also associated with the car brand – Tesla), reliability – also the case with Honda, and convenience (similar to Amazon). On the other hand, the points of difference for Netflix include the streaming TV shows, original content, and movies.

Brand Congruency

Brand congruency is made up of product brands and user-image. Brand congruency refers to a scenario where all the elements and touch points of the brand, in this case, Netflix, appears to have been cut from the same cloth. According to Stach (2015, p. 675), the brand congruence between the self-image of the consumers and the attempt of the brand image to explore consumer choices, for example, purchase intentions, preference of the brand, and usage and loyalty.

The degree of congruency between the brand image and typical user’s image is based on the brand evaluation, which relates to promotion message. In this case, Dolich (1969, p.5) pointed out that reminding consumers of their self-images, under the promotion message, there are positive considerations of brand congruencies given by the same consumers.

Accordingly, the degree of congruency between your self-image and the typical brand-user image is based on how the consumer uses the brand as a symbol; in this case, consumers consider brands with images or personalities, which are congruent with their self-image or brand personality (Stach, 2015, p. 674). In summary, the brand-image congruency involves self-schema, and it comprises of brand personality that is measured in terms of brand attitudes.

Brand Attitudes and Consumer Behavior

The brand attitude of the customer comprises of two main components – the strength of positive or negative relation/association, which the experiences of the customer towards a specific brand as well as the conviction of the accuracy of the brand (Gonzalez-Jimenez, 2017, p. 69). In this case, there are various brand attitudes towards the branded service – Netflix. For instance, Netflix consumer behavior has succeeded in creating a positive attitude towards its brand.

Here, the branded service has created the belief that it can either succeed or fail based on its ability to maintain and drive subscriptions (Malcolm-Boulton, 2016, par. 7). When it comes to emotions, Netflix comes with a feeling from the consumer that exhibit dynamism, excitement, and modern enthusiasm of subscriptions other than cable services.

Accordingly, Netflix services also trigger nostalgia as the branded service has managed to revive nostalgic shows such as the Gilmore Girls that is no longer available in cable services (Gonzalez-Jimenez, 2017, p. 68). Therefore, the brand attitudes directed to Netflix comes with excitement, curiosity, nostalgia, and a sense of control of specific shows to subscribe.

The Social-Cultural Influences

Netflix did not focus more on the sociocultural influences their services would have on individuals. In this case, Netflix’s social influences have led to the reduction of jobs; for example, Roettgers (2015, p. 1) observed that Netflix beat competitors operating retail outlets by embracing streaming services. There is the issue of identification influence where consumers have been influenced by Netflix because of its modernity, convenience, unique services, and the confidence it projects to the public (Wang, 2014, par. 16).

Identification influence, in the case of Netflix, is based on what Pittman & Sheehan (2015, p. 1) termed as “binge-watching.” “Binge-watching” is a representation of a radical shift from the 21st-century media consumption. This kind of influence comes with the unique services of the branded service, which means it can also be associated with Netflix’s normative influence.

As a result, because of the continued evolution of various manners of accessing the content of the program and the soaring dependency on various Internet devices, it is evident that Netflix’s normative influence has since been felt, and is evident in the “New Golden Age.” Additionally, Netflix consumer behavior has had a massive impact on the television viewership culture, which can be identified as a normative influence – social influence resulting in conformity (Merikivi et al., 2018, p. 113).

The branded service’s revolutionary recommendation system has also influenced how consumers conform to the norm and, in turn, has seen consumers shift to the company’s streaming services (Sheinin, 1998, p. 138). These influences have, in turn, result in various ethical considerations related to job opportunities and increased levels of unemployment that the branded service had to consider.

Rituals and Artefacts

There are rituals associated with the branded service – Netflix. One of the rituals is getting the Netflix subscription. There are steps to be followed in this ritual. First, it is important to identify the right devices that are compatible or support Netflix. These devices range from Apple TV, PS3, PS4, Android, Kindle, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows, among others. This is followed up by clicking the button – Start Your Free Month, followed up by creating the account which often requires a viable email address.

Once the password is created, it is important to choose your plan identified as Regular, Standard, and Premium plans (Roettgers, 2015, p. 1). These plans vary in quality and are followed up by entering your billing information and, thus, requires a credit card and billing information. It is also important to rate the sample selection, which involves selecting the film titles. This means using the Netflix DVD website for set-ups of specific orders. Once this ritual is done, you can watch the Netflix streaming services.

Netflix Consumer Behavior Essay — ***Fig 1: Part of the Netflix’s subscription stages/rituals***

There are artefacts associated with the branded service. First, there is compression artefact, making up the error code, involves an adverse effect of image degradation where the complexity of the image exceeds the necessary rate of recording. This artefact is associated with the branded service and is known for impacting the asset’s technical quality. In this case, Netflix, Inc. (2018, p. 1) noted that the customer experience is impacted negatively by the degraded image.

As a result, further downstream compression can massively exacerbate artefacts, which are found in the source. Accordingly, there are the artefacts under severity structure, and one of them is the News-Review – a minor blocking or artefact found at the sub-block or back region (Netflix, Inc., 2018, p. 1). Secondly, there is the Needs Fix, which is a macro-blocking or minor artefact, and normally appears as visible parts of the image. Therefore, these artefacts have negatively impacted the customer’s experience and perception of Netflix and are one of the issues the branded service is aware of.

Conclusion

Of focus in this study has been the branded service – Netflix, and is based on co-creating value. In this case, the study has determined the brand image of the streaming services company to be established by the human spirit, and not an ad campaign.

There is also the issue of brand congruency and has been on the basis of the distinct differences between the consumers’ self-image and image of the brand attempt to determine consumer choices namely purchase intentions, brand preference, and usage and loyalty. Accordingly, there are issues of brand attitudes, the socio-cultural differences such as normative influences, as well as the artefacts and rituals. Artefacts include compression artefact, Needs Review, and Needs Fix.

Recommendations

Following the above key elements of value regarding the branded service, Netflix, the manager should co-create value by understanding the various customer attitudes towards the brand. In turn, the manager should work towards modelling the values of the branded services to suit the customer preference and expectations. Secondly, the manager can co-create value by putting in place a team that can reduce the number of artefacts to improve the customers’ perception (Merikivi et al., 2018, p. 114).

Accordingly, the manager can co-create value by establishing a quirky customer service, which will give the branded service an edge; should focus more on being customer-centric, which will allow the company to fix search, browsing, and level of discoverability, and allow DVDs to fix its content gaps (Park & Lee, 2005, p. 44). Lastly, the manager can co-create value by ensuring that it informs its customer beforehand of the upcoming shows and films for better preparation on the side of the customer.

Bibliography

Dolich, I. J. (1969). Congruence Relationships between Self Images and Product Brands. Journal of Marketing Research, 6,1, 80.

Gonzalez-Jimenez, H. (2017). The self-concept life cycle and brand perceptions: An interdisciplinary perspective. Ams Review: Official Publication of the Academy of Marketing Science, 7, 67-84.

Malcolm-Boulton, C. (2016). The good, the bad and the binging: How Netflix has impacted on modern society.

Merikivi, J., Salovaara, A., Mäntymäki, M., & Zhang, L. (2018). On the way to understanding binge watching behavior: the over-estimated role of involvement. Electronic Markets, 28,1, 111-122.

Netflix, Inc. (2018). Compression Artificing.

Park, C.W, Jaworski, B.J. & MacInnis D.J. (1986). Strategic Brand Concept-Image Management. Journal of Marketing, 50, 135-145.

Park, C. W., Milberg, S. & Lawson, R. (1991). Evaluation of Brand Extensions: The Role of Product Feature Similarity and Brand Concept Consistency. Journal of Consumer Research, 18, 185-193.

Park, S. & Lee, E. M. (2005). Congruence between Brand Personality and Self-Image, and the Mediating Roles of Satisfaction and Consumer-Brand Relationship on Brand Loyalty. In AP – Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, eds. Yong-Uon Ha and Youjae Yi, Duluth, MN: Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 39-45.

Pittman, M., & Sheehan, K. (2015). Sprinting a media marathon: Uses and gratifications of binge-watching television through Netflix consumer behavior. First Monday, 20, 10.

Sheinin, D.A (1998). Positioning Brand Extensions: Implications for Beliefs and Attitudes. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 7(2), 137-149.

Stach, J. (2015). A conceptual framework for the assessment of brand congruent sensory modalities. Journal of Brand Management, 22, 8, 673-694.

Wang, U. (2014). How the Netflix model impacts the environment, economy and society.

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