Editorial

Citation

Wright, G. (2010), "Editorial", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 28 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/mip.2010.02028caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Volume 28, Issue 3

As this issue goes into production, it is with sadness and surprise that we learn of the loss of Professor Michael Thomas. It is through Michael’s vision and commitment that we have had Marketing Intelligence & Planning (MIP) for almost 30 years. Michael was the Founder and Editor of MIP through 20 issues. He established the journal having noted the eclectic nature of the contents and readership of the Harvard Business Review and decided to set up a similar model in the field of marketing. As well as communicating research to the academic community as part of the body of knowledge and as a valuable teaching resource, he believed that marketing academics have a responsibility to speak to the community of professional marketing, giving their work practical value and application. To this day, our readership comprises a mix of practitioners and academics, his insight and instincts have paid off and now MIP is one of the most often downloaded sources of research in the marketing domain. Subsequent editors, Keith Crosier, Ross Brennan and now both of us are humbled by the legacy that he left us and we hope that we do his vision justice. Recently, Professor Thomas and his successors reflected on the development and achievements of MIP: Michael J. Thomas, Keith Crosier, Ross Brennan, Michael Harker, MIP: past, present and future MIP, 26:1, 2008. Michael will be remembered not only for his 23 years as editor of MIP, but also for his long and deep involvement in Poland for which he was recognised with an Honour by the Polish Government and overall as a leading marketing scholar and academic figurehead.

This issue covers papers on the effective practice of marketing and the application of marketing in specific situations. It begins with a viewpoint from Peter Jones, Daphne Comfort and Colin Clarke-Hill of the University of Gloucestershire in the UK and David Hillier of the University of Glamorgan on retail experience stores. Though a relatively new phenomenon, they are a potentially significant in the sector and the authors argue that innovation, supply relationships and contribution to brand image are all significant issues in the effective management of these outlets. Petya Puncheva-Michelotti of ESC Rennes in France and Marco Michelotti of Monash University in Australia follow with a paper on corporate reputation and how this is affected by the decision contexts of stakeholders. They find that corporate reputation is a situation-dependent construct, continuously redefined by stakeholders according to the decision they are considering – buying from an organisation, applying for employment with them, buying their shares or supporting their contribution to a community.

From issues concerning image, we move to the first of three papers in this issue that address marketing management. Veronica Gabrielli and Bernardo Balboni of the University of Modena e Reggio Emilia in Italy explore how small companies manage integrated marketing communications. The paper demonstrates that whilst structural characteristics are important in effective integrated marketing communications, internal dynamism is also very influential. Osman Gök and Gungor Hacioglu of Yasar University, Turkey consider the roles that marketing and marketing managers fulfill. Based on a content analysis of job advertisements, they note that marketing managers are expected to take responsibility for six dimensions in their role: the management of promotion-related activities; communicational and relational; knowledge development; utilising market and marketing knowledge into the value offering; developing and reporting measures of marketing outcomes; performance analysis. The third paper exploring the operationalisation of marketing is by Woon Kian Chong, Mathew Shafaghi, Christopher Woollaston, and Vincent Lui, all from the University of Bolton in the UK. In their paper they propose how this new paradigm in marketing is seen to reshape relationships between marketers and consumers, improve business processes and enhance organisational exposure in new markets.

This issue concludes with a cluster of three papers focusing on specific markets and marketing challenges. Rémi Mencarelli and Mathilde Pulh of the University of Burgundy, France and Séverine Marteaux from CERMAB-LEG, France consider the implications of managing consumers on-site experience of museums. Based on interviews with curators, museum directors, visitor services managers and cultural mediators, the paper presents seven consumption orientations illustrating them with innovative examples that demonstrate how to understand and respond to the contemporary consumers in the cultural sector. Lynn Vos and Ross Brennan of Middlesex University, UK consider the developing and complex professional services market for complementary and alternative medicine. They report that factors beyond core product are critical to satisfaction – specifically particularly the level of personal care that clients perceive. The authors propose a research agenda around the application of relationship marketing principles in this sector given that it is a context in which marketing through relationships, networks and alliances is practised extensively. Thus, the paper identifies potentially appropriate marketing strategies and tactics for therapists and also shapes a research agenda for the exploration of marketing frameworks in this emerging market. Ibrahim Abosag from the Manchester Business School in the UK contributes a paper addressing the challenges that can come from our increasingly consumerist society. The paper reports a case study of Arla foods, faced with a ferocious boycott campaign, charting their come-back strategy which led to almost complete regaining of their previous market share.

Gill Wright Michael HarkerEditor Associate Editor