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on Marketing |
| By: | Quack, Helmut (Department of Economics of the Duesseldorf University of Applied Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Part I focuses on achieving a practical and comprehensible depiction of the multivariate method ‘multidimensional scaling (MDS)’. These methods play a significant role in professional marketing. The article begins with some examples and classifies the relevant multivariate methods. It then describes the different forms of multidimensional scaling as well as the empirical gathering of ‘similarities’ and ‘preferences’. Subsequently the mathematical approach for developing a multidimensional configuration is explained in which similar objects (e.g. products, consumers) are close together and dissimilar are farther away in the MDS configuration. Next specific questions including the selection and number of objects, choice of dimensionality, and the occurrence of degenerated solutions are discussed. Then the configuration is interpreted based on feature vectors. Finally some suitable computer programmes are presented and possible applications for MDS in marketing are identified. Overall the article clarifies some advantages of MDS, in particular that the method takes global decisions about similarities and preferences without prior instructions. Afterwards these judgements are then interpreted. Consequently a key advantage of this method is that it provides better insight into the heart of the consumer than simple direct methods. Part II addresses the different applications of MDS in marketing. In particular it focuses on the following aspects: image, positioning, market segmentation, identification of salient features, and the resulting marketing actions. In addition the international marketing context is also presented. |
| Keywords: | multidimensionale Skalierung, mehrdimensionale Skalierung, multidimensionale Messung, multivariate Verfahren, Marketing, multidimensional scaling, multidimensional unfolding, multivariate methods, marketing |
| JEL: | M21 |
| Date: | 2008–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ddf:wpaper:fobe04&r=mkt |
| By: | Menon, Sudha Venu |
| Abstract: | The article presents a broad overview of the concept of political marketing and its significance in the contemporary era of information revolution and democratic resurgence. The article provides meaning, definition and various dimensions of political marketing as a concept and method and differentiates it from mainstream marketing practices. The article also attempts to analyze the origin and development of the concept in different political and social contexts and its usage as a powerful instrument in election campaigning and policy making. The article explains the eight main functions of political marketing including product function, distribution function, cost function, communication function, new management function, fund raising function, parallel campaign management function and internal cohesion management function. The article also explains how the functions of political marketing are effectively applied on the electoral market and government markets. The article finally examines the success and failure of political marketing in creating public opinion in favor of the party. Here examples are taken from different countries including both democratic and non-democratic countries. |
| Keywords: | Political marketing;political;election;campaign;political communication |
| JEL: | M31 |
| Date: | 2008–12–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12547&r=mkt |
| By: | Zhou, Jidong |
| Abstract: | This paper extends Armstrong, Vickers, and Zhou (2007) to the case with multiple prominent firms. All consumers first search among prominent firms, and if their products are not satisfactory, they continue to search among non-prominent ones. Prominent firms will charge a lower price than their non-prominent rivals as in the case with a single prominent firm, but relative to the situation without any prominent firm, the presence of more than one prominent firm can induce all firms to raise their prices. We also characterize how market prices and welfare vary with the number of prominent firms. |
| Keywords: | consumer search; marketing; prominence; product differentiation |
| JEL: | L13 D83 D43 |
| Date: | 2009–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12554&r=mkt |
| By: | Nava Ashraf (Harvard Business School and Jameel Poverty Action Lab); Xavier Giné (The World Bank); Dean Karlan (Economic Growth Center, Yale University) |
| Abstract: | In much of the developing world, many farmers grow crops for local or personal consumption despite export options which appear to be more profitable. Thus many conjecture that one or several markets are missing. We report here on a randomized controlled trial conducted by DrumNet in Kenya that attempts to help farmers adopt and market export crops. DrumNet provides smallholder farmers with information about how to switch to export crops, makes in-kind loans for the purchase of the agricultural inputs, and provides marketing services by facilitating the transaction with exporters. The experimental evaluation design randomly assigns pre-existing farmer self-help groups to one of three groups: (1) a treatment group that receives all DrumNet services, (2) a treatment group that receives all DrumNet services except credit, or (3) a control group. After one year, DrumNet services led to an increase in production of export oriented crops and lower marketing costs; this translated into household income gains for new adopters. However, one year after the study ended, the exporter refused to continue buying the cash crops from the farmers because the conditions of the farms did not satisfy European export requirements. DrumNet collapsed in this region as farmers were forced to sell to middlemen and defaulted on their loans. The risk of such events may explain, at least partly, why many seemingly more profitable export crops are not adopted. |
| Keywords: | Field Experiment, Export Crop, Food Safety Standards |
| JEL: | O12 Q17 F13 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egc:wpaper:967&r=mkt |
| By: | Fausti, Scott; Qasmi, Bashir; Li, Jing |
| Abstract: | The relationship between publically reported weekly grid premiums and discounts for specific carcass characteristics and the percentage of those characteristics reflected in total weekly slaughter volume (i.e., proportional slaughter volume) is investigated. Granger Causality and multi-lag VAR models were used to investigate if grid premiums and discounts were efficiently transmitting market signals to producers with respect to carcass quality attributes. The empirical evidence indicates that there is little evidence to suggest that grid prices are providing efficient price signals to buyers and sellers with respect to market valuation of desirable and undesirable beef carcass characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Grid pricing, Granger Causality, slaughter cattle, beef carcass quality, Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing, Q11, Q13, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saeana:46215&r=mkt |
| By: | Tattara, Giuseppe; Crestanello, Paolo |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the strategy changes of the Benetton Group who have been facing severe intense competition in the international fashion market since the mid nine-ties. New competitors, in particular the European brands Zara, Mango and H&M, have challenged the Benetton position in the Italian and European clothing market, pushing the Group from Ponzano towards adopting politics of cost reduction through globalisation of its suppliers. Benetton has always been considered a vertically integrated producer which controls (in different ways) the whole value chain from textile raw materials to consumer sales. Until 2000, Benetton produced its goods in its own factories and through a vast network of national sub-contractors mainly specialising in the sewing phase. Today, Benetton has drastically changed its strategy, almost completely abandoning Italy with a chain of value organised around a dual supply chain: fast productions are delegated to closer locations (Eastern Europe and Northern Africa) while locations further afield are commissioned for more standardised products and accessories (Asia). This article also discusses the impact these choices of productive de-localisation abroad have made on the Treviso apparel district, where Benetton's traditional subcontractors have been drastically curtailed. Benetton restructuring marks the transition to a new net-work of competences between agents. |
| Keywords: | Global value chains; Benetton; Apparel; Clothing; District |
| JEL: | F16 L67 L23 F14 L22 |
| Date: | 2008–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12553&r=mkt |
| By: | Chen, Xi; Zhong, Funing; Zhou, Bin |
| Abstract: | This paper is Selected for presentation at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, January 31-February 3, 2009. The research is partially funded by ERS/USDA China Project and Social Science Fund of Jiangsu Province in China. The authors are grateful for comments from Dr. William Lin and Dr. Francis Tuan at ERS/USDA, and Prof. Loren Tauer at Cornell University. All errors are those of the authors. |
| Keywords: | biotech labeling, actual sales data, household survey data, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy, International Development, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Risk and Uncertainty, Q13, Q17, Q18, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saeana:46198&r=mkt |
| By: | James McAndrews; Zhu Wang |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a new theory for two-sided payment card markets by positing better microfoundations. Adopting payment cards by consumers and merchants requires a fixed cost, but yields lower marginal costs of making payments. Considering this together with the heterogeneity of consumer income and merchant size, our theory derives card adoption and usage pattern consistent with cross-section and time-series evidence. Our analyses also help explain the observed card pricing pattern, particularly the rising merchant (interchange) fees over time. This is because a private card network, besides internalizing the two-sided market externality, has the incentive to inflate the card transaction value. We show that privately determined card pricing, adoption and usage tend to deviate from the social optimum, and imposing a ceiling on interchange fees may improve consumer welfare. |
| Date: | 2008 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedkrw:rwp08-12&r=mkt |
| By: | Wijk, J.C.A.C. van; Go, F.M.; Govers, R. (Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), RSM Erasmus University) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores whether websites that offer a global audience virtual access to watering holes in game parks afford African nations opportunities to diminish their international isolation as tourism destinations. The present analysis examines a sample of almost 450 tourism websites representing Rwanda, Uganda and Mozambique. Two aspects are studied in particular: the websites’ technical and social infrastructures, including website ownership and networks, and website content, i.e. the projected destination image and opportunities to bridge the main supplier-consumer gaps in the global tourism value chain. The findings indicate that there is substantial foreign involvement in Africa’s online tourism infrastructure; furthermore, that the current projected images tend to reproduce foreign stereotypes. It concludes that the potential for upgrading branding capabilities could be sourced in indigenous African cultural attributes, both high and low culture, and in contexts of the past and the contemporary. |
| Keywords: | tourism industry;global value chain;dynamic image formation;Rwanda;Uganda;Mozambique;upgrading |
| Date: | 2008–12–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureri:1765014002&r=mkt |
| By: | Awad Abdel Hameed, Amna; Mohamed Arshad, Fatimah |
| Abstract: | This paper investigate the long-term relationship between the petroleum and vegetable oils prices represented by palm, soybean, sunflower and rapeseed oils prices. To that end, the bivariate cointegration approach using Engle-Granger two-stage estimation procedure is applied. The study utilises monthly data over the period of January 1983 through March 2008. The results provide a strong evidence of long-run equilibrium relation between the two products prices. The estimates of the error correction models reveal a unidirectional long-run causality flowing from petroleum to each of the vegetable oils prices under study. |
| Keywords: | Vegetable oils prices, petroleum prices, cointegration, causality tests, Agribusiness, Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing, Q11 Agricultural Prices, |
| Date: | 2008–12–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:miscpa:46251&r=mkt |