Marketing

The value of a business depends on its future not its past. Nonetheless, some managers base key decisions on backwards-looking metrics or models that have been shown to be inappropriate in many situations.

What metrics and models can provide managers with steering control for maximizing the value of their business? This editorial provides some ideas.

The case describes the launch of a social media platform by the largest container shipping company in the world. Students will have the opportunity to thoroughly evaluate the campaign, which by observable criteria, has done extremely well. The case provides details on the various platforms used, the nature of content provided on each, and the associated budgets (including headcount). The budget figures are particularly interesting because they permit a rich discussion around the social media program's ROI.

We propose an approach for using individual-level data on social interactions (e.g., number of recommendations received by consumers, number of recommendations given by adopters, number of social ties) to improve the aggregate penetration forecasts made by extant diffusion models. We capture social interactions through an individual-level hazard rate in such a way that the resulting aggregate penetration process is available in closed form and nests extant diffusion models.

Marketing variables that are included in consumer discrete choice models are often endogenous. Extant treatments using likelihood-based estimators impose parametric distributional assumptions, such as normality, on the source of endogeneity. These assumptions are restrictive because misspecified distributions have an impact on parameter estimates and associated elasticities. The normality assumption for endogeneity can be inconsistent with some marginal cost specifications given a price-setting process, although they are consistent with other specifications.

Substitution decisions have been examined from a variety of perspectives. The economics literature measures cross-price elasticity, operations research models optimal assortments, the psychology literature studies goals in conflict, and marketing research has examined substitution-in-use, brand switching, stockouts, and self-control. We integrate these perspectives into a common framework for understanding consumer substitution decisions; their specific drivers (availability of new alternatives, internal vs.

Product discussion boards are a rich source of information about consumer sentiment about products, which is being increasingly exploited. Most sentiment analysis has looked at single products in isolation, but users often compare different products, stating which they like better and why. We present a set of techniques for analyzing how consumers view product markets. Specifically, we extracted relative sentiment analysis and comparisons between products, to understand what attributes users compare products on, and which products they prefer on each dimension.

Anthropologists who work in advertising and marketing research often make profound strategic contributions. However, many of them do not take an active part in strategy codification, specifically in the hands-on crafting of strategic documents, unless they are employed by advertising agencies as account planners or in strategy consulting firms that institutionalize the process. A concern throughout this chapter is that when anthropologists are absent throughout the process of strategy formulation, the power and influence of their contributions is curtailed.