This volume explores the interconnection of social, political, technological and economic challenges that impact consumer relationships, new product launches and consumer interests. Featuring contributions presented at the 2019 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) World Marketing Congress (WMC) held in Edinburgh, Scotland, the theme of this proceedings draws from the Scottish Enlightenment movement of the mid-Eighteenth Century, which centered on ideas of liberty, progress and the scientific method. The core values of this movement are being challenged by the rapidly changing, globally shifting and digitally connected world. The contributions presented in this volume reflect and reframe the roles of marketers and marketing in incorporating and advancing the ideas of the Scottish Enlightenment within contemporary marketing theory and practice. Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses, and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. The series deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complementing the Academy's flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review (AMSR). Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science.

The second volume of this research monograph describes a number of applications of Artificial Intelligence in the field of Customer Relationship Management with the focus of solving customer problems. We design a system that tries to understand the customer complaint, his mood, and what can be done to resolve an issue with the product or service. To solve a customer problem efficiently, we maintain a dialogue with the customer so that the problem can be clarified and multiple ways to fix it can be sought. We introduce dialogue management based on discourse analysis: a systematic linguistic way to handle the thought process of the author of the content to be delivered. We analyze user sentiments and personal traits to tailor dialogue management to individual customers. We also design a number of dialogue scenarios for CRM with replies following certain patterns and propose virtual and social dialogues for various modalities of communication with a customer. After we learn to detect fake content, deception and hypocrisy, we examine the domain of customer complaints. We simulate mental states, attitudes and emotions of a complainant and try to predict his behavior. Having suggested graph-based formal representations of complaint scenarios, we machine-learn them to identify the best action the customer support organization can chose to retain the complainant as a customer.

Relationship management (RM) is an essential part of business, but its success as a business model can be hard to measure, with some firms embracing a model that is truly relationship-orientated, while others claim to be relationship-orientated but in fact prefer transactional short-term gain. This open access book aims to develop a mid-range theory of relationship management, examining truly relationship-orientated firms to discover not only what qualities these firms have that make them successful at the RM model, but also what benefits this model has for the firm. It addresses questions like how RM-mature companies achieve and sustain competitive advantage, and what determines the scale and scope of these firms, illustrating with case studies. This book will be of interest to scholars studying leadership and strategy, especially those interested in relationship management, business ethics and corporate social responsibility. It will also be of interest to professionals looking to develop their understanding of relationship management.

Customer-orientation, customer-centricity, and customer relationship management (CRM) are not new concepts or practices. But information technology has unleashed tremendous opportunities in dealing with a customer and in creating value to the customer. And yet the majority of CRM investments and initiatives fail because firms do not have the appropriate orientation to serving the customer. The principal aim of this book is to get the reader to think about th firm and the way it conducts its business in a certain way--with a customer focus.

It is now becoming clearly evident that all firms compete on service. Providing superior service becomes a prerequisite for any differentiation strategy to succeed. To provide superior service for a competitive advantage requires a concrete understanding of what service-orientation means. This orientation, in the form of frame of mind, is essential for the firm to take advantage of opportunities and to address the challenges so as to gain a competitive advantage. For excellent service firms, the challenges and opportunities in providing services are a constant endeavor. For others, these challenges and opportunities are not that obvious. A complementary aim of this book, therefore, is to instill into the reader the principles of managing services.

This proceedings volume highlights the latest research presented at the 8th International Conference on Research on National Brand & Private Label Marketing (NB&PL2021). The topics covered include: retailing, private label portfolio and assortment management, marketing of premium store brands, using national brands to exclude (delist) and include, optimal assortment size, consumer store patronage, etc. Several contributions also focus on private label pricing and promotion, especially on the relative pricing of standard and premium private labels, and with regard to the national brands in the assortment.

This book presents latest research on the evolution of consumer services, as these services continue to become a larger part of the economy in the world. Four core focal points lead the central message of the book: first, theconvergence of back and front offices; second, placing the client as a fundamental input of services production and delivery process, and 'industrializing'thecustomers'roletocombineefficiencyand experience; third, the constitution and role of inputs necessary for the configuration, production and delivery of the service, with the crucial roleof 'operationalizing' thecustomers' experience; and fourth, the adoption of new technologies and the appropriate transfer of manufacturing managerial practices through service industrialization.

This is a special volume of articlesbased on solid research and analysis, including conceptualization of the important issues, as well as recommendations for managers. It presents case histories and managerial practices in some key sectors, such as financial services, health care, tourism/hospitality, entertainment and media, online services and home and personal services

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Social media has received considerable attention, and many potential benefits, as well as concerns, are now being discussed. This book explores how social media can successfully support business processes in marketing, sales and service in the context of customer relationship management (CRM). It presents the fundamentals of Social CRM and shows how small and large companies alike have implemented it. In turn, the book presents analytic and operational software tools that offer features for enhancing and streamlining interactions with customers. The book concludes with an overview of essential design areas that businesses need to bear in mind when introducing social media into their CRM strategies. In this regard, it also points out key success factors, limitations, and data protection aspects.

The ever-growing influence of the Internet has caused a paradigm shift in relationships between customers and companies. New types of interaction introduced by Web 1.0 have undergone a dramatic change in quantity and quality with the advent of Web 2.0. Web 3.0, better known as the Semantic Web, will also significantly impact how companies understand Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Customer Relationship Management and the Social and Semantic Web: Enabling Cliens Conexus provides an overview of the field of the Semantic Web, social Web, and CRM by uniting various research studies from different subfields. Providing a forum for the exchange of research ideas and practices, this book is a reference convergence point for professionals, managers, and researchers in the CRM field together with IT professionals. It also aims to explore the opportunities and challenges confronting organizations in the light of customers in Web 2.0 by using new technologies, including semantic technologies (Web 3.0).

This book provides stimulating insights into the ways in which the adoption of experience logic can revitalize marketing perspectives and stimulate novel approaches to the creation and delivery of value. The first part of the book, which has a theoretical focus, reviews the international literature and offers conceptual observations on the experiential perspective. Suggestions are made on how experience logic can act as a new driver for the management of marketing processes in firms within the context of the experience economy. In the second part of the book, attention turns to the applications of experience logic in different sectors, including tourism, commerce, culture, and trade shows. Company-specific examples of benefits of the experiential approach are also explored in case studies on gift box providers, marketing of traditional local products, and the cosmetics industry. The book will be of particular interest for marketing specialists, but will additionally be of value for managers in private companies and public bodies who wish to enhance their marketing methods.

Engaging customers has become an effective strategy of marketers for improving customer-brand relationships as customer engagement is a perfect predictor of organic growth. Aggressive sales promotions, advertising campaigns, rewards, discounts, and more may attract a customer, but customer engagement creates an emotional connection with the brands/firms/services, which drives customer loyalty and long-term profitability. This has become much more applicable and effective with the use of social media platforms and the increased access of internet. Moreover, the implementation of customer analytics to measure engagement activities has provided marketers with more insights for improving services. Insights, Innovation, and Analytics for Optimal Customer Engagement is an advanced reference book that covers the latest emerging research in customer engagement and includes underlying theories, innovative methods, a review of existing literature, engagement analytics, and insights for marketers with reference to customer engagement. The book covers various product categories, industries, and sectors that are working to engage customers in inventive and creative ways. This book is a comprehensive reference tool for marketers, brand managers, social media specialists, advertisers, managers, executives, academicians, researchers, practitioners, and students interested in gaining comprehensive knowledge about customer engagement and the latest advancements in the field.

Digital Sales Transformation is about selling in a digitally transformed world. It changes how you sell and engage with your customer. Defining a Digital Sales Transformation blueprint to guide sales organizations to respond to this disruption as they struggle to catch up to their more digitally advanced customers is this book's core theme. Digital Sales Transformation in a Customer First World will be your constant companion as your execute your Digital Sales Transformation strategy. At over 500 pages, it is packed with actionable knowledge as a blueprint for your journey. It guides you to define your Ideal Customer Profile, to Understand the Customer's Business, to Build, Elevate and Expand Relationships, and how to Create and Communicate Value. It includes a framework to build an effective Executive Sponsor Program, to execute Account Based Marketing, and describes the role of Artificial Intelligence in enterprise B2B sales. It sets out Strategy, Sales Execution, and Sales Management methods for Sales Process, Opportunity Management, Account Management and overall Sales Team Performance Management, and it describes the technology to use in each case.

Lucas' top-selling and award-winning Customer Service 8e has been revised to reflect the demands of customer service today. Chapters are divided into three parts, focused on key aspects of customer service: 1) The Profession 2) Skills for Success, and 3) Building and Maintaining Relationships, and Retaining Customers. Throughout the text, readers discover tips for implementing proven customer service strategies, case scenarios, and activities to help apply concepts to real-world situations. Customer Service 8e addresses many market changes such as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, working in remote teams and greater focus on customers with disabilities with featuring several companies such as Amazon, Target, American Express and Chipotle. Students will practice putting concepts into action through our integration digital learning platform, Connect. Connect provides revised case analyses that challenge students to apply what they've learned to real-world scenarios featuring companies such as Zappos, Ben & Jerry's, and Southwest Airlines. Additionally, Connect has role-playing application-based activities to help students demonstrate understanding of the key elements that will make customer interactions more successful and revised Language Toolkits geared toward helping students develop an understanding of key terms.

Bringing together theoretical and empirical studies from the Journal of Information Technology, this book provides a definitive guide to research discovered on the growing global sourcing phenomenon. Paying particular attention to Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), theoretical chapters explore insightful ways of thinking about the different facets of outsourcing, and provide useful information to practitioners and researchers. Empirical chapters report the findings of 405 major research studies into the risks and successes of relationships between customer and vendor, the development of trust in these relationships, the factors affecting locations for offshoring, and specialized offshoring organizations such as captive centres. In this comprehensive study, the editors present an expert review of the historical development of this field, and offer analysis of emerging findings and practices for the future.

Positive consumerism is the backbone to a strong economy. Examining the relationship between culture and marketing can provide companies with the data they need to expand their reach and increase their profits. Global Observations of the Influence of Culture on Consumer Buying Behavior is an in-depth, scholarly resource that discusses how marketing practices can be influenced by cultural preferences. Featuring an array of relevant topics including societal environments, cultural stereotyping, brand loyalty, and marketing semiotics, this publication is ideal for CEOs, business managers, professionals, and researchers that are interested in studying alternative factors that impact the marketing field.

'CRM Systems in Industrial Companies' contributes new knowledge on customer relationship management (CRM) in the field of industrial marketing. Based on an in-depth case study, this book highlights the complexity and challenges in the development, implementation and use of CRM. The volume proposes an alternative conceptualization of CRM: relying on the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) perspective, CRM becomes a socio-technical 'resource' which needs to be connected to the other resources before it can create effects on customer relationships.

This book presents the Recommender System for Improving Customer Loyalty. New and innovative products have begun appearing from a wide variety of countries, which has increased the need to improve the customer experience. When a customer spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on a piece of equipment, keeping it running efficiently is critical to achieving the desired return on investment. Moreover, managers have discovered that delivering a better customer experience pays off in a number of ways. A study of publicly traded companies conducted by Watermark Consulting found that from 2007 to 2013, companies with a better customer service generated a total return to shareholders that was 26 points higher than the S&P 500. This is only one of many studies that illustrate the measurable value of providing a better service experience. The Recommender System presented here addresses several important issues. (1) It provides a decision framework to help managers determine which actions are likely to have the greatest impact on the Net Promoter Score. (2) The results are based on multiple clients. The data mining techniques employed in the Recommender System allow users to "learn" from the experiences of others, without sharing proprietary information. This dramatically enhances the power of the system. (3) It supplements traditional text mining options. Text mining can be used to identify the frequency with which topics are mentioned, and the sentiment associated with a given topic. The Recommender System allows users to view specific, anonymous comments associated with actual customers. Studying these comments can provide highly accurate insights into the steps that can be taken to improve the customer experience. (4) Lastly, the system provides a sensitivity analysis feature. In some cases, certain actions can be more easily implemented than others. The Recommender System allows managers to "weigh" these actions and determine which ones would have a greater impact.

In today's global economy, social media and technological advances have changed the way businesses interact with their clientele. With new forms of communication and IT practices, companies seek innovative practices for maintaining their consumer loyalty. Customer Relationship Management Strategies in the Digital Era blends the literature from the fields of marketing and information technology in an effort to examine the effect that technological advances have on the interaction between companies and their customers Through chapters and case studies, this publication discusses the importance of achieving competitive advantage through implementing relationship marketing practices and becoming consumer-centric. This publication is an essential reference source for researchers, professionals, managers, and upper level students interested in understanding customer loyalty in a technology-focused society.

Customer focus is the most important challenge of the future. Providing good customer service depends on how well companies know their customers and clearly identify their needs. Availability of customer knowledge, which is knowledge from, for and about the customer, thus becomes crucial in offering customized products or services. This can be gained most efficiently from direct interaction with customers, but requires the use of interpersonal and organizational soft skills. This book presents the interrelationship between customer knowledge management, customer focus and soft skills and also provides concrete advice on how the management of customer knowledge can be optimized.