The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective on how new interactive media trends affect the creative process in agencies and engage consumers as co‐creators, based on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective on how new interactive media trends affect the creative process in agencies and engage consumers as co‐creators, based on recently published research and observation.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews, participant observation, and secondary analysis of recently published qualitative and quantitative research (1996‐2008) by the author and leading scholars in the field is used in this offering. A review of emerging trends and conceptual thinking in this area prompts the suggested perspective along with an empirical longitudinal global study on what drives creativity in advertising ADCRISP©.
Findings
This contribution illustrates examples of how a passionate approach drives creativity and change for an iconic brand. Ethnographic methods are suggested for reconnecting with changing consumers and environments. This viewpoint recognizes the potential of engaging the consumer and unleashing creativity while pointing out potential pitfalls of misplaced marketing and misdirected creativity.
Originality/value
This paper offers a creative viewpoint and a practical direction on how agencies might be more appropriate in engaging the target consumer. The consumer participates as co‐creator and impacts the agency‐client‐consumer creative development process.
Details
Keywords
Mark Kilgour, Sheila L. Sasser and Roy Larke
Social media is an engaging area of research that is rapidly evolving. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how corporations should effectively utilize this new media as a…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media is an engaging area of research that is rapidly evolving. The purpose of this paper is to focus on how corporations should effectively utilize this new media as a marketing channel. The key to any successful communication strategy is matching the message to the target audience and achieving customer engagement. Two important target audience variables were identified as crucial when determining an organization’s social media communications strategy: the level of brand relationship, and the level of category involvement.
Design/methodology/approach
Depth interviews were initially employed, followed by questionnaires, and then computer assisted content analysis was performed on 723 online media articles relating to social media marketing to identify semantic and conceptual relationships.
Findings
Research from both a customer and corporate perspective led to insights into how organizations can develop their social media strategies in order to transform their brand message from being perceived as a commercial source of information to a social source – the social media transformation process.
Research limitations/implications
This research suggests a finer level of segmentation of social media users that will lead to content strategies adapted to fit the current levels of brand and category involvement. This could be used by organization to develop a model of best practice to achieve their social media objectives.
Practical implications
It is crucial for organizations to understand how different groups of users influence, receive, curate, and interact via social media. The greater the depth of this knowledge, the greater the effectiveness of content marketing strategies developed by the corporation. Organizations that utilize social media marketing must carefully analyse the large amount of consumer information available to them, listen to consumer conversations, and determine the needs and segments that will be most receptive to different approaches. They must also accept that in a social media environment user generated content and interactive communication processes should be at the heart of successful strategy.
Originality/value
To date, there has been limited analysis of how relationship and involvement factors drive social media content (Cho et al., 2014; Malthouse et al., 2013). More research is needed to understand how key user characteristics lead to content that fully utilizes the social interaction and message diffusion potential of this media. This paper introduces a hierarchy of content marketing based upon the type of relationship between the user and the organization, as well as their level of product category involvement.
Details
Keywords
Management education is a booming business in Russia these days,with more than 1,000 business schools and training centres having beenestablished in the past couple of years in…
Abstract
Management education is a booming business in Russia these days, with more than 1,000 business schools and training centres having been established in the past couple of years in Moscow alone. Focuses on the way management education is evolving in Russia. First presents an overview of the management education system that existed during the communist period as background. Follows with a discussion of how political, social and economic changes have influenced management education since 1988. Next presents the latest developments in management education. Topics include the types of business schools which have been created, as well as the characteristics of their faculty, programmes and curricula and teaching methodologies. Concludes with a discussion of the future of management education, and presents a pessimistic and an optimistic scenario of the potential impact of management education on the economy, politics and society in the new Russia.